Amiga Format 72/af072a.adf/pegger.LZX/PEGGER_Demo_Doc

Text File | 1995-01-04 | 13KB | 285 lines

                  PEGGER 2.0 Demo Documentation

    PEGGER is Copyright © 1993,1994, Express-Way Software, Inc.

    Published by:  DKB Software, Inc.


1.  What is PEGGER?

   Welcome to the PEGGER 2.0 Demo.  PEGGER is a utility to help save
Amiga graphic animators and artists hard disk space and to give all
your graphic programs the ability to load and save JPEG files
automatically.

   JPEG is a method of image compression that can reduce the size of
a 24-bit image file by 15 to 1 with no noticeable loss in the quality
of the image.  A 24-bit image file normally takes up to 1MB of disk
space but JPEG'd it only takes 50 to 70K!

   PEGGER supports a number of popular Amiga file formats including:

   color JPEG
   grayscale JPEG
   IFF24
   HAM8
   color IFF8
   grayscale IFF8 (often used for Alpha channel data)
   DCTV 3 and 4 bit
   Video Toaster FrameStore and CG Pages
   Impulse RGB8
   Targa

   PEGGER is fast, on an Amiga 4000 it only adds 5 seconds to the
time it takes to load a 752 by 480 JPEG file as an IFF 24-bit file.
Network support has been added and tested with Parnet, Enlan DFS,
and Novell.


2.  Ordering information.

   PEGGER has a list price of $99.95 US and is available from many
Amiga dealers and mail order companies.  PEGGER 2.0 started
shipping in August 1994.  DKB Software is offering a
limited introductory price of only $59.95 US plus S&H for PEGGER 2.0.
Registered PEGGER owners can purchase the 2.0 upgraded for $15 US
plus S&H.

   For more information or to order please contact:

                   DKB Software, Inc.
                   PO Box 438
                   Wixom, MI 48393
                   USA
                   [phone] (voice) [phone] (fax)


   Internet: [e-mail]

3.  About the PEGGER demo.

   The PEGGER demo is a fully functioning version of PEGGER with the
following exceptions.  Any image PEGGER converts will have the PEGGER
logo stamped into the center of the image.  Due to this, PEGGER will
not allow you to use PEGGER to REPLACE any images that PEGGER converts.
Also, the PEGGER "About window" has additional information in it about
the demo and ordering PEGGER.  We will not try to provide complete
documentation on how to use PEGGER.  Instead, we have included the
text of several tutorials from the PEGGER manual.  These tutorials
should help you become familiar with how PEGGER works.  The tutorials
will use the JPEG files found in the TutorialFiles sub-directory
of the PEGGER_Demo directory.


4.  Installing the PEGGER demo

   PEGGER requires an Amiga with AmigaDOS 2.0 or greater, a hard
disk, and a minimum of 2 megabytes of RAM.

   PEGGER uses the standard Installer program provided by Commodore.
PEGGER must be installed on your hard drive to run properly.  An
Installer script is included in the PEGGER_Demo directory and its icon
is named "Install PEGGER".  The installation is started by clicking
on the "Install PEGGER" icon.  Three libraries will be installed
in your LIBS: directory; pegger.library, peggersnoop.library, and
the dctv.library.  And the installer will create some PEGGER data
files in the PEGGER_Demo directory.


5.  Starting PEGGER

   Once PEGGER has been installed, you can start PEGGER by double-
clicking on its icon.  PEGGER will open an "About window" with the
PEGGER logo animation and information about PEGGER.  Just click
on the close button of the "About Window" to continue.  Now PEGGER
will open up all its windows; CJPEG, DJPEG, and SNOOP.  The CJPEG
window is used for setting up image files to be JPEG compressed,
the DJPEG window is used for setting up image files to be JPEG
decompressed, and the SNOOP window is used to setup PEGGER to
automatically JPEG compress or decompress files for other Amiga
software running in the background.  These windows can be opened
up by selecting their respective Menu Item from the Workbench
Tools Menu or double clicking on their respective App Icons on
your Workbench.


6.  JPEG Decompression of a single file.

   Open the DJPEG window.  Make sure the cycle gadgets in the
upper center of the window say {Files} and {Create}.  In the area
labeled "JPEG File to Decompress", click the {From} button to open
a file requester, then select the Tutorial_1.JPG file from the
TutorialFiles sub-directory.

   In the area labeled "Directory where Image Files go", select the
type of image file you want to create using the cycle gadget on
the far right.  Now click on the {To} button to open a directory
requester and select the Images sub-directory as the directory
where you want PEGGER to put the decompressed file.  PEGGER can
rename files it creates for you.  Using rename you can give files
a file name extension to indicate what type of file it is.  If
you are creating a 24-bit IFF image you could use the extension
.24, for HAM8 it could be .HAM8, for DCTV it could be .DCTV, etc.
Now click on the {Rename} check box so that it is checked.  In the
text gadget to the left of the Rename check box enter
<all>.{your ext}, such as <all>.HAM8.

   You are now ready to begin decompressing the file.  Click on
the {Decompress} button.  If there is a problem with your settings
a requester will notify you of the problem and the decompression
won't start.  Check your settings and try {Decompress} again.
Once JPEG decompression of the file has started you will notice
that a status box at the top of the window will say "Decompressing"
and a small indicator box next to it will flash.  PEGGER does
all of its JPEG processing in the background.  So, while this file
is being decompressed you could set up additional files to be
decompressed or compressed.  PEGGER keeps track of all the files
you want it to decompress.  To view the status of file decompression
click on the {Status} button to switch to the DJPEG Status window.
To return back to the DJPEG setup window click on the {Setup} button
on the DJPEG Status window.

   Switch back to the DJPEG Setup window and wait for the status
to change from "Decompressing" to "Idle."


7.  JPEG Decompression of a batch of files in a directory.

   Open the DJPEG Setup window.  Make sure the cycle gadgets in the
upper center of the window say {Batch Dir} and {Create}.  In the area
labeled "JPEG File to Decompress", click the {From} button to open a
directory requester, then select the TutorialFiles sub-directory.

   In the area labeled "Directory" where Image Files go, select the
type of image file you want to create using the cycle gadget on
the far right.  Now click on the {To} button to open a directory
requester and select the Images sub-directory as the directory
where you want PEGGER to put the decompressed files.  It is important
to note that the directory requester will not show any filenames; only
the directories available.  PEGGER can rename files it creates for you.
Using rename you can give files a file name extension to indicate what
type of file it is.  If you are creating a 24-bit IFF image you could
use the extension .24, for HAM8 it could be .HAM8, for DCTV it could
be .DCTV, etc. Now click on the {Rename} check box so that it is checked.
In the text gadget to the left of the {Rename} check box enter
<all>.{your ext}, such as <all>.HAM8.

   Click on the {Decompress} button.  This will bring up the Decompression
Batch Directory window.  You will see a display of your selections for
decompressing JPEG files in this directory.  The directory will be
scanned and information about all the JPEG files found will be listed
in the window.  Once PEGGER has found all the JPEG files, click on {OK}
to start the decompression and return to the DJPEG Setup window.  You
may want to use the {Status} button to switch to the DJPEG Status window
to follow PEGGERs progress while it decompresses the files.  Or close
the DJPEG Window and go on to the next tutorial.

8.  JPEG Compression of a single file.

NOTE:  This tutorial requires that the Image files created from
the previous tutorial be present in the Images sub-directory of
the PEGGER_Demo directory.

   For this tutorial we'll start by demonstrating the AppIcon feature
of PEGGER.  Open up the Images drawer in the PEGGER_Demo directory.
You'll find icons there for the image files you created in the
DJPEG tutorials.  Since the original JPEG files you decompressed
earlier had icons, PEGGER made a copy of those icons when it
created the image files.  Drag one of the image icons out of the
drawer and drop it on PEGGER's CJPEG icon.  This will open the
CJPEG Setup window automatically.  If the CJPEG Setup window were
already open, you could just drop the icon for the image right on the
CJPEG window. Or select the icon and then select CJPEG from the
Workbench Tools Menu.

   Click on the {Next} button if the image file you chose to compress
is not displayed in the text gadget in the "Image File to Compress"
area of the window.

   Make sure the cycle gadgets in the upper center of the window say
{Files} and {Create}.   Normally you would want to replace the image file
with the JPEG file PEGGER creates to save hard disk space.  Since this
demo is disabled by stamping every image it processes with the PEGGER
logo, this feature is disabled for the demo.

   Click the {To} button to open a directory requester and select the
JPEGs sub-directory.  Now we want to rename the file to have the
extension of .JPG like it did before.  Click on the {Rename} check box
and type <all>.JPG into the text gadget.

   Another option you will need to consider is the Quality setting
you want to use when you compress a file.  It can be set from 0 to
100%.  With 100% producing the highest quality JPEG image file with
the least compression, and 0% producing a poor quality JPEG image
file with the most compression.  PEGGER defaults to using a Quality
setting of 85% which produces JPEG images which rarely have any
noticeable loss in quality, but offer significant compression.

   Click on the {Compress} button to start the JPEG Compression.


9.  JPEG Compression of a batch of files in a directory.

NOTE:  This tutorial requires that the Image files created from
the previous tutorial be present in the Images sub-directory of
the PEGGER_Demo directory.

   Batch compression of a directory of image files works just like
batch decompression of JPEG files except for using the Quality
setting instead of selecting the type of image to create.


10. SNOOP JPEG Decompression

   PEGGER's Snoop function is its most valuable feature and it couldn't
be much easier.  Now that you've learned the other basic features of
PEGGER you can now use Snoop to put them to work for you automatically.
For purposes of the demo we will show you how to use SNOOP by Program.
PEGGER was installed with SNOOP by Program settings for a number of
graphic programs.  Scroll through the list of Programs and select one
that you use.  If you don't see one that you use, start the program
that you would like to test PEGGER with, then click the New button on
the PEGGER Snoop Window and double click on the name of the program
you want to use with PEGGER.  The program you setup for SNOOP could
be the Toaster Switcher, ToasterPaint, DPaint, DCTV, Brilliance, or
any other program you use that loads image files.

   The name of the program will be displayed underneath the list and
the gadgets for setting up SNOOP will be enabled.  For this demo we
want to show how PEGGER can allow other programs to load JPEG files.

   Now make sure the {Image Compression} check box is not checked and
that the {JPEG Decompression} check box is checked.  Make sure the
{Enable/Disable} cycle gadget is set to Enable.  Finally, select what
type of image file you want PEGGER to create for this program when it
decompresses a JPEG file.  The {Save} button should now be unghosted.
Click the {Save} button to save the SNOOP settings for the selected
program.

   To test SNOOP by Program you will need to start the program for
which you setup SNOOP.  In that program try to load one of the
JPEG files in the PEGGER_Demo/TutorialFiles directory.  When your
program tries to load the JPEG file, PEGGER will popup a requester
informing you that it is JPEG decompressing the file for you.  Once
PEGGER is done the requester will go away and your program can load
the JPEG file as the type of image you selected for the SNOOP JPEG
Decompression.  Since this is a demo the JPEG file you load will
have the PEGGER logo stamped in the center of the image.  Please note
that the NewTek Video Toaster Switcher software as well as ToasterPaint
only allow loading images as Framestores which have an exact resolution
of 752 x 480.  ANY IMAGE WHICH DOES NOT HAVE THAT EXACT X AND Y PIXEL
RESOLUTION WILL NOT LOAD INTO EITHER THE SWITCHER OR TOASTERPAINT'S
"LOAD FRAME" MENU OPTION VIA PEGGER'S SNOOP FEATURE!

SNOOP by Directory works very similar to SNOOP by Program.

11. SNOOP JPEG Compression

   PEGGER can automatically JPEG compress image files saved by
graphic programs.  This feature is of great benefit to animators
who need to create thousands of 24-bit frames for an animation.
A 1000 frame animation saved as 24-bit IFF files would take up
almost a gigabyte of hard disk space, but JPEG'd would only take
up 50-100 megabytes.