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INTRODUCTION ============ This is the documentation for PMView BETA VERSION 0.86b. You don't have to read this file if you don't want to, though you might miss out on some useful information. PMView 0.86b has several interesting new features. I'll document a few of them quickly in the next section: NEW FEATURES ============ 1) There is a new _Quick view that only loads the name, file size, date, and time. While this view won't let you see thumbnails, it runs much faster than _Normal view, and works much better on CD-ROMs and other slow drives. 2) For those who like thumbnails, a new non-text view will let you view more of them by leaving off the filename text. 3) You can now drag and drop colors and fonts to the File Open and Slideshow containers. PMView will store your fonts and color in the INI file. You can have different fonts for different views. 4) There's a new S_cramble command to randomly reorder images in a slideshow (or the File Open container). 5) There is support for more TIFF variants. 6) Thumbnails look good *while* you're dragging them, even on paletted systems. 7) And a half-dozen or so bug and "feature" fixes. There are probably other additions that have slipped my mind for the moment. * * * Let me introduce myself. I'm Raja Thiagarajan, Official Documenter (tm) of PMView. Peter Nielsen, who wrote PMView, asked me to write the docs. I'd appreciate any comments or questions about these docs, just as Peter would appreciate any comments or questions about PMView itself. Both of our electronic mail addresses are in Appendix 1 at the end of this file; Peter's address can also be found by selecting _Help _About from the PMView menu. If you have a uudecoder and an electronic mailbox that can be reached from the Internet, you can join our beta program by sending me an e-mail message. It doesn't cost anything; we just expect you to fill out an e-mailed survey form and give us bug reports (or other feedback!) on new versions of PMView as they're released. To join our beta program, just drop me a line at sthiagar@nickel.ucs.indiana.edu. All the above provisions are void where prohibited, and subject to change (though that's not likely). Please read the License and Warranty information in LICENSE.DOC. If you've read some of the repressive provisions of other companies' software, you may be in for a pleasant surprise. (I'll just make one short comment here: Since PMView is shareware, you are permitted [even encouraged!] to pass on the PMView ZIP file. You may NOT modify this file, or pass on any of its individual components.) PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS ==================== To use this program, you *must* be running OS/2 2.0 or later. We strongly recommend OS/2 2.1, though 2.0 with the *second* Service Pack may be adequate. PMView is a fully 32-bit program. (This is part of the reason PMView is so fast. The other part is because Peter has spent literally *hundreds* of hours fine-tuning the decoding routines by hand, in Pentium assembly language.) USING THE PROGRAM ================= To use the program, set the PMVIEW_INI environment variable (see the next section), place PMVIEW.EXE somewhere on your path and enter the command PMVIEW [flag(s)] [filename] where "flag(s)" and "filename" are optional. The flags are documented two sections below this one. "Filename" is an optional name of a file you want to view. (If you don't provide a filename, PMView will start up with a black screen.) The filename can include a drive, directory path, or both. If you don't give an extension, PMView will try to "guess" it anyway. (Specifically, if you leave off the extension and PMView can't find a file with that name, it'll try the extensions .BMP, .EPS, .GIF, .JPG, .PIC, .PCD, .SHW, .TIF and .TGA, in that order. You can modify this using the _Extensions page on PMView's options notebook.) ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES ===================== To backtrack a little, there is an OS/2 environment variable that PMView uses: PMVIEW_INI. This variable specifies the filename (including full path) that PMView should use for storing its options. If this environment variable is not set, PMView will create the file PMVIEW.INI in the current directory and store its information there. Thus, if you don't want *lots* of copies of PMVIEW.INI scattered around your hard drive, we recommend that you put the line set PMVIEW_INI=C:\OS2\PMVIEW.INI in your CONFIG.SYS. (Of course, you can use any other path or filename that you want; we find it convenient to keep all our OS/2 INI files in one place.) FLAGS ===== There are 14 optional flags that you can use when invoking PMView. You can specify the flags in any mix of upper and lower case. Only the first three letters are important (which is why they're capitalized below). Here's the complete list of command-line switches: /INIfile=filepath: This overrides the value of the PMVIEW_INI environment variable and specifies the path and name of the file where PMView should read and store its options. This could be useful if you wanted different PMView sessions to use different settings. /LOGfile=filepath: This specfies the path and name of the "log file" where PMView should store debugging information in case it crashes. If you contact us with a bug report, we may want to know what your log file says. /IDLeload: This specifies that PMView should use idle-time loading (with priority boost). This is the default /NOIdleload: This specifies that PMView should *not* use idle-time loading but should use ordinary (higher) priority instead. This will tend to speed up the PMView session, but slow down everything else that is running in OS/2 at the same time. /PALettemanager: This specifies that PMView should use Palette Manager if it is available. (Palette Manager is available on most 256-color displays and improves their picture quality greatly.) /NOPalettemanager: This specifies that PMView should *not* use Palette Manager, even if it is available. /RED=num: This specifies a level for RED balance. The number can be from -100 (no red) to 100 (maximum red). /GREen=num: This specifies a level for GREEN balance. The number can be from -100 (no green) to 100 (maximum green). /BLUe=num: This specifies a level for BLUE balance. The number can be from -100 (no blue) to 100 (maximum blue). /BRIghtness=num: This specifies a level of brightness. The number can be from -100 (minimum brightness) to 100 (maximum brightness). /CONtrast=num: This specifies a level of contrast. The number can be from -100 (minimum contrast) to 100 (maximum contrast). /COLor=num: This specifies a level of color. The number can be from -100 (minimum color) to 100 (maximum color). /GRAyscale: If this flag is specified, PMView will start in grayscale mode. /NEGative: If this flag is specified, PMView will start in negative mode. Here's an example. Suppose you want to use e:\inis\pmview.ini for your INI file, you want to have maximum contrast, you want to be in negative mode, and you want PMView to start by loading the file CUBE.GIF. You could do all this by entering pmview /ini=e:\inis\pmview.ini /con=100 /neg cube.gif at an OS/2 command prompt. PMVIEW COMMANDS =============== Here's a list of the menu commands and a comment on what each one does: _File _New: By default, this selects _File _New _Slideshow and puts you into slideshow mode. However, you can select _File _New _Image and go back into image mode. _File _Open: This starts a dialog box that lets you open (i.e., load and look at) a new file. The large white area in the lower left is the File Open Container (FOC). For more information on the FOC, we urge you to read FOCNOTES.DOC. Initially, PMView will list all the *.BMP, *.EPS, *.GIF, *.JPG, *.PIC, *.PCD, *.SHW, *.TIF, and *.TGA files in the current directory. To change this, type the filename filter you want in the "Open Filename:" area and then press ENTER or click the "Open" button. For instance, to get a list of GIF files that start with "ray", enter RAY*.GIF and click "Open". You can put several of these together, separated by semicolons (";"). So, for instance, "RAY*.GIF;*.BMP" will list all the files that either start with "RAY" and have the extension "GIF" *or* have the extension "BMP." A shortcut for selecting one of these extensions is to pick it off the "Type of file:" list. Check it out. You can use the Ctrl+O shortcut key to display the File Open dialog at any time, as long as a slideshow isn't running. Ctrl+O will work even if PMView is in Full Screen mode (e.g., after hitting F3) or iconified. If you have the "Override system colors in Full Screen mode" option set, this dialog will appear, but it will *not* necessarily be readable. That's *why* overriding system colors isn't the default. _File _Revert: This reloads your current image from disk, which means any changes you had made to it (or your view of it) are lost. PMView will ask you to confirm before it reloads the image. _File _Save: This feature doesn't work in the unregistered version. In the registered version of 0.86, this will save your current slideshow (if you're in slideshow mode) or it will let you do a "quick BMP dump" of your current image. In version 0.87, you should be able to write files in (almost) every format that PMView can read. (Right now, it doesn't look like we'll be able to support PhotoCD writes.) (Note that while PMView currently only saves as BMP, we also offer a freeware program, BMPGIF/2, that quickly converts BMP files to GIF format [except for 24-bit BMP files, since GIFs only handle up to 256 colors]. You should be able to find BMPGIF/2 where you found PMView.) _File Save _as: This doesn't work in the unregistered version. In the registered version, it currently does exactly the same thing as _File _Save. _File _Delete: This deletes the file that you're viewing. See BUGS.DOC for a note about a "feature" of WPS that affects this. You can use Ctrl+D as a shortcut. _File R_un: In Slideshow mode, this starts the current slideshow. Check SLIDESHW.DOC for details. _File E_xit: This quits PMView and returns you to OS/2. Ctrl+X is the shortcut key. _Edit: These commands handle undo/redo, or copying images to and from the OS/2 clipboard. _Edit _Undo: This will (usually) undo the last change you made. You can use Alt+Backspace as a shortcut key for this command. _Edit _Redo: This "undoes the undo". Alt+Enter is the shortcut. The other three _Edit commands copy images to or from the OS/2 clipboard. By default, PMView will ask if you want to copy palette information to the clipboard for 256-color images. Copying palette information will improve the display in the program where you paste -- but only if that program understands palettes. If you aren't sure, try copying twice -- one with the palette and once without -- and use whichever looks better. _Edit _Cut: This removes the current image from PMView (giving you an empty window) and puts it on the clipboard. _Edit _Copy: This puts a copy of the current image on the clipboard (without removing it from PMView). _Edit _Paste: This pastes the image that is currently on the clipboard into PMView. _Transform: These commands change the image that you have loaded in PMView. (The original copy on your disk is unaffected, of course.) _Transform _Mirror: This has three options: Horizontal, Vertical, and Diagonal. Horizontal: This reverses left and right on the image. If you had an image of a left parenthesis, it would look like a right parenthesis. Vertical: This turns the image upside down. If you had an image of a big "M", it would look like the image of a big "W". Diagonal: This transforms left to right and up to down simultaneously. The effect is identical to a 180 degree rotation. If you had an image of an arrow pointing northeast, it would now point southwest. _Transform _Rotate: This has four options: 90 deg _Clockwise, 90 deg Counterclock_wise, 180 deg _Upside down, and _Arbitrary angle. 90 deg _Clockwise: This rotates the image clockwise by 90 degrees. An arrow that pointed up would now point right. 90 deg Counter CounterClock_Wise: This rotates the image counterclockwise by 90 degrees. An arrow that pointed up would now point left. 180 deg _Upside down: This rotates the image 180 degrees. It is the same as "Mirror Diagonal"; that is, an image of a northwest arrow would now point southeast. _Arbitrary angle: This opens a control that lets you rotate the image by an arbitrary clockwise angle. For example, if you enter "27," your image will be rotated 27 degrees clockwise. _Transform _Size: This opens a control that changes the actual size of the image. You can specify the new size of the image in pixels or percentage (%). If Keep Proportional is checked (the default), the new image will have the same proportions as the original (eg, a circle would still be a circle). _Transform _Quick Dither: This does a quick job of reducing an image to OS/2's default palette. If you want to save an image to use as a background for your desktop or a folder, doing a quick dither on it first may improve its appearance. If you plan to also size the image, do quick dithering *last*. You CANNOT undo a quick dither! _Color: These commands change the colors in your image. (Your pixel data will also change to go along with the changing colors.) _Color _Brightness/Contrast: This opens a control that lets you adjust the brightness, contrast, and color ("chroma") of your image. Brightness and contrast work pretty much the way they do on most TV sets. Color lets you adjust how much color appears in the image (some TV sets have this control). If you turn the color all the way down, you'll get a black-and-white image. Peter notes that if you're handling 24-bit images and don't use the Palette Manager, you should adjust color *last*. This is because the other adjustments take *twice* as long when color has been moved away from 0%. To reiterate: If you're running OS/2 in 24-bit (or 15- or 16-bit) mode, or if you've loaded a 24-bit image (i.e., a Targa, JPEG, or 24-bit BMP image) and have disabled Palette Manager, change color *last*. If you change your mind later, you can come back to this control and press the Reset button. This will return you to your original settings for brightness, contrast, and color. _Color _RGB Balance: This opens a control that lets you adjust the relative strengths of red, green, and blue in your image. As with _Brightness/Contrast, you can use Reset if you change your mind later. _Color _Negative: If you turn this on, you will see a "negative" of your image; for example, black pixels will become white. Select it again to turn it off. _Color _Grayscale: If you turn this on, you will not see any color in your image, only shades of gray. (You can get the same effect by turning the color setting all the way down.) Select it again to turn it off. _View: The first four of these commands change how you see the image, but don't actually change the image itself. The other two change your PMView options. _View _Zoom: This opens a secondary menu that lets you zoom in or out on your image or jump directly to certain zoom factors. For instance, to zoom in so that your image is twice normal size, type Ctrl+2. In general, the Control key zooms you in, and the Alt key zooms you out. _View _Full Screen: Choosing this command (or pressing F3) erases your WHOLE screen (and not just the PMView window) and draws the image on it. F3 acts like a toggle; pressing it again redraws the screen and puts the image "back" in the PMView window. (Why would you want to do this? If you have an image that's as large as the whole screen, you won't be able to see it while you have PMView's window border, menu bar, title bar, etc. on the screen. For instance, if you installed the optional bitmaps with OS/2, try loading OS2LOGO.BMP. You won't be able to see the whole image because it's too big. Now press F3. The whole image will be visible. Press F3 again to go back to having the image in the PMView window.) In addition to pressing F3, you can also double-click on your image to switch to Fullscreen mode and back. PMView's options notebook has a _Fullscreen page that has three settings to handle centering or scaling the image when you press F3. See below under _View _Options for more information. _View Fit _Image: Choosing this command (or pressing F4) will shrink or grow the window so that you can see the whole image and nothing but. Unless: 1) The image is too big (in which case you should try F3 instead), OR 2) The image isn't wide enough (PM will NOT let the window become too narrow for the menu bar), OR 3) You have "Never" selected as your option in "Automatically Adjust Window Position" (on the _Window page of PMView's options notebook) and the only way to show the whole image would be to move the window. (This might happen if your window is positioned too close to the right or bottom edge of the screen.) In this case, you can change the option to "When required"; see the _View S_ettings documentation below. _View _Refresh: Choosing this (or pressing F5) will redraw the image in the window. You may want to do this if (for whatever reason) the image gets corrupted. (Under OS/2 2.0, there was a screen driver bug that would corrupt the image when a menu dropped down on it; that bug has been thankfully fixed in OS/2 2.1.) _View Menu _Bar: If you're a fan of CUA '91, you can turn off PMView's menu bar by selecting this command (or pressing Ctrl+B). You can turn the menu bar back on by pressing Ctrl+B again. When the menu bar is gone, how do you select commands? By moving to the middle of PMView's window and clicking the right mouse button. You can select *any* PMView command from the resulting popup menu. _View _Options: This opens a notebook that lets you control PMView's many options. Taking one page at a time: _View: -- _Center image if it is smaller than window: If set, PMView will draw an image that's smaller than its window in the center of the window. If not set, PMView will draw the image in the upper left corner. -- Zoom image to _fit window: If set, then whenever you load an image or resize PMView's window, PMView will zoom the image so that it fits perfectly either horizontally or vertically in the window. Otherwise, the image will always be drawn at "actual size" until you use a Zoom command. All zooming in PMView is proportional; circles will *always* stay circles. _Full Screen: -- _Center image if it is smaller than screen: If set, PMView will center the image when drawing in Full Screen Mode. Othewise, the image will be drawn in the upper left corner of the screen. -- Zoom image if it is _larger than screen: If set, PMView will zoom out so that your image will fit onscreen, if necessary. As mentioned above, zooming is done proportionally. -- Zoom image if it is _smaller than screen: If set, PMView will zoom in so that your image will reach completely across the screen either vertically or horizontally. Again, zooming is proportional. -- _Hide mouse pointer: If set, PMView will initially hide the mouse pointer when you enter Fullscreen mode. See below under "Special Keys in PMView" for more information on turning the mouse pointer off and on. As is noted on the page, two other options that modify Full Screen mode can be found elsewhere. _Window: Automatically adjust window size and position: -- When _loading a new image: If set, PMView will automatically adjust the window's size and position to display newly-loaded images at actual size. -- When _editing or zooming: If set, PMView will adjust the window's size and position if it's appropriate during an edit or zoom operation. For instance, if you take a tall, narrow image and rotate it, it will become a short, wide image. If this option is set, PMView's window will resize (and possibly move) accordingly. Otherwise, you might get a horizontal scroll bar and some blank space in your window. Automatically adjust window position: o _Never o When _required o _Always move to upper left corner If you pick the first option, the upper left corner of PMView's window will never budge. If you pick the second option, PMView will leave the upper left corner in place *unless* moving it a short distance will let you see your whole image. Then it will move. Finally, "Always move to upper left corner" means that your window will move to the upper left corner of your screen every time you hit F4 (or load a new image, if the first option on this page is checked). _Loading: Loading/Startup options: o Startup _minimized (iconized) o N_ormal o _Full Screen each loaded image automatically If you pick the first option, PMView will start up minimized when you *first* load it. The second option will make it start up with the size of the image you specify on the command line (or the size it was when it last closed). (To make it do this *every* time it loads an image, select "When loading a new image" on the window page.) The last option will make PMView go into Full Screen mode *every* time it loads an image. (Why would you want to start up PMView iconified? Suppose you have associations set in OS/2 so that whenever you double-click on the name of a GIF file, it starts up PMView automatically. It's quite convenient to be able to double-click on *several* GIF files and have each one appear as an icon at the bottom of your screen, so you can pick which ones to look at *after* they're done loading. One of our beta testers wanted this feature, so here it is.) Progress indicator options: o _Never show progress indicator o _Hide when PMView is started with a filename o _Always show progress indicator These options decide the visibility of the progress indicator, that sliding bar that some people love and some people hate. Select the first option if you hate seeing it, select the last if you like seeing it. If you select the second option, PMView will display the progress indicator *except* when you first start up with a filename on the command line. _Directory: On this page you can type the paths for the default load directory (where PMView will initially go the first time you do a _File _Open) and the default save directory (where PMView will save files by default). File saves are *not* enabled in the unregistered version of PMView. _Extensions: This page is allows you to change the ordering, lettering, or comments on the extensions that PMView loads. For instance, if you're running HPFS and use the extension .JPEG for your JPEG files, you can type "JPEG" in the Extension field, type "My JPEGs" in the description field, and click "Ok >>". Then whenever you do a _File _Open, PMView will *also* display files with the extension of *.JPEG. What's more "My JPEGs" will appear in the Type of File list. *And* if you enter PMVIEW filename at an OS/2 prompt, PMView will be able to add the .JPEG extension automatically. Way to go, Peter! _Palette: -- Use _palette manager: If on, PMView will use the palette manager to display images. (Of course, if you don't have palette manager support, this option won't be available. Systems with fewer or more than 256 colors do not have Palette Manager support.) -- _Smooth palette change in adjustment dialogs: If on, PMView will use palette animation to show brightness/contrast/saturation or color adjustment changes *in real time*. Pretty nifty! -- _Blank window before changing the palette: If on, PMView will blank the window (or screen) before it displays an image with a different palette. Otherwise, it will display the image before changing the palette. If you are running a slideshow and want to view several images in a row that use the same palette, you might want to turn this option off. -- Copy palette to _Clipboard: This is a three-state box. If it's checked, PMView will *always* copy the palette to the clipboard without asking for your permission. If it's unchecked, PMView will *never* copy the palette to the clipboard. And if it's gray, PMView will ask you whenever it copies an image to the clipboard. -- _Override system colors in Full Screen mode: If on, PMView will use all 256 colors in Full Screen mode, rather than letting OS/2 reserve 20 for the user interface. Of course, if you chose this option and then type Ctrl+O, you may not be able to read the resulting dialog box.... -- Dither colors if palette manager is disabled: If on, PMView will try to dither colors if Palette Manager is disabled or unavailable. If off, it won't. Try turning this *on* for systems with 256 colors or fewer, or *off* if you have more than 256 colors. _Color: This page has three options that apply to 24-bit images. If you change one of these options, it won't affect the current image unless you do a _File _Revert. -- _Count colors for 24-bit images: If this is on and you load a 24-bit image, PMView will start a background thread to count how many colors actually were in the image. Beware! Turning this on can eat a *lot* of memory (theoretically speaking, an optimal 24-bit color counter could need up to 2MB of RAM to run). -- Use _Floyd-Steinberg Dither when Quantizing: If this is on, PMView will use Floyd-Steinberg dithering when converting an image from 24-bit to 256 (or fewer) colors. Floyd-Steinberg dithering usually makes "real-life" images (e.g., pictures of people) look better, but it can sometimes make computer-generated graphics (e.g., stark ray-traced pictures) look worse. -- _Dither colors if palette manager is disabled: If on, PMView will dither colors when Palette Manager is disabled (or unavailable). You may want to turn this off on high-color (15- or 16-bit color) systems. P_hoto CD: These options are for use with Photo CD images. Note that Photo CD images can take a *lot* of memory (see Appendix 4). Default resolution o 192 x 128 o 384 x 256 o 768 x 512 o 1536 x 1024 o 3072 x 2048 Photo CD images actually store *five* copies of each picture, one for each resolution above. You should select the resolution you want by default (beware! The highest resolution can require 19MB of RAM to decode!) -- _Ask for resolution before loading image: If on, PMView will ask you which resolution you want before you load a Photo CD image. Spec_ial: -- Use PMView's _own scaling routines: If on, PMView will use its own scaling routines rather than using the ones built into the screen driver. This option is less important than it used to be because of the bug fixes built into OS/2 2.1. However, you may still want to try it because it tends to be *faster* than OS/2's built-in routines. (But it will take up more memory.) -- Use _idle time loading and saving: If on, PMView will use the lowest priority in OS/2 when it loads and saves files. In PMView versions before 0.86, this could be a problem because if you were running a "greedy" OS/2 or DOS program that required lots of CPU power to run, PMView could get "stuck" and never finish loading. But one of the major advances in PMView 0.86 is a clever system that will "boost" PMView's priority if PMView hasn't accomplished anything for two seconds. If you are continually running greedy programs and hate waiting the extra two seconds, you may want to disable idle-time loading. Otherwise, we recommend that you leave it on. Whew! We're done with the options notebook! If you think it took a long time to read all that, just imagine how long it took me to *write* it ;-). On to the last menu, which is _Help. PLEASE NOTE THAT WE HAVE NOT YET FINISHED THE ONLINE HELP FOR PMVIEW. COMPLETE ONLINE HELP WILL BE AVAILABLE IN VERSION 0.87. _Help _Image Info: This gives you various statistics about your current image: The name and size of the file it was taken from (0 if it came from the clipboard), that file's image format, the size of the image in pixels, how much RAM the image is currently taking up in your system (this is usually the height times the width [rounded up to the nearest multiple of four] times your screen's color depth), the file's "color space," and how many colors are in the image. To enable the last, go to the _color page in the options notebook, and turn on _Count colors for True Color images (24-bit). Beware! Counting colors can take a *lot* of RAM. _Help _System Info: This gives information on your system's current status: what version of OS/2 PM you're running, what your machine type (model and submodel) are, whether your display is color, how wide and tall your desktop is (in pixels), how many bits and planes per pixel your current screen mode is using, how many colors you have, how many physical colors you have, whether your screen mode supports Palette Manager, how much physical RAM you have, what type of CPU you have, and whether you have a coprocessor. _Help _About PMView: Finally, this displays product information about PMView, as well as information about how to register the program. If you like PMView, please support shareware by registering it. Registered versions of PMView will include working _File _Save (and _File Save _As) commands, a niftier icon, and probably some other extras as well. SPECIAL KEYS IN PMVIEW ====================== In addition to the menu commands given above, we have a few special keys in PMView. You can turn the menu bar on and off by typing Ctrl+B. You can always access the same commands that are in the main menu by clicking the right mouse button in PMView's main window. While you are in Fullscreen mode, you can turn the mouse pointer off and on by typing Ctrl+M. This will only work while you're in Fullscreen mode, and only while PMView has the focus. If you have scrollbars visible, you can scroll around via the keyboard. The up, down, right, and left arrows move 8 pixels in the direction you'd expect. Alt and an arrow moves 1 pixel. Ctrl and an arrow moves a screenful. Thus, if your PMView window is 200 pixels tall and you type Ctrl+Up, your viewport will move 200 pixels up. In addition to the arrow keys, PgUp and PgDn are "synonyms" for Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Dn respectively. Ctrl+PgUp and Ctrl+PgDn move all the way up and down. Finally, Home moves your viewport all the way to the left, and End moves it all the way to the right. (To move one screenful left or right, use Ctrl+Left or Ctrl+Right.) The scrolling keys may sound confusing, but they're really what you'd expect. If you want to keep it simple, just stick to the arrows, and remember that Alt moves a smaller amount and Ctrl moves a larger amount (just like Alt zooms to make a smaller image, and Ctrl zooms to make a larger image). * * * If you've made it this far, congratulations. Here's a cute trick for you to try: Create a thumbnail for one of your image files (see the tutorial for information on how to do this). Now open the settings notebook for an icon on your desktop (one whose icon you don't mind changing). Open the settings notebook and go to the general page. Now open an OS/2 drives object and look at your image file (which should have a colorful icon). Finally: Drag that icon onto the "Current icon" area in the settings notebook. Voila, the icon changes automatically! This shows how you can use PMView to make very colorful icons quickly and easily. Thanks to one of our beta testers (whose name I've forgotten, sorry) for discovering and pointing out this trick. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ================ The Graphics Interchange Format (c) is the Copyright property of CompuServe Incorporated. GIF (sm) is a Service Mark property of CompuServe Incorporated. This software is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group. APPENDIX 1: HOW TO CONTACT US ============================== Both Peter and I would love to hear from you. If you have any comments, suggestions, or wishes for new PMView features, please write to us. Peter can be reached on the Internet at pnielsen@finabo.abo.fi or pnielsen@aton.abo.fi. Alternatively, you can send Peter a paper letter at Gertrudsgatan 22 D 73, SF-20520, Turku, Finland. (Take into account the delays of international mail when you do this!) You can reach me, Raja Thiagarajan, on the Internet at sthiagar@nickel.ucs.indiana.edu. Generally speaking, I read my Internet mail almost every day (except for holidays!). If you prefer to support the U.S. Post Office, you can send me paper mail at 4423 East Trailridge Road, Bloomington, IN 47408-9633. However, I recommend that you save a tree (and some time) by sending me e-mail instead. APPENDIX 2: WHERE TO GET NEW VERSIONS OF PMVIEW =============================================== When a new version of PMView comes out, the first thing we will do is send it to registered users. If you give us an e-mail address when you register, we can e-mail new versions of PMView as soon as they become available. After e-mailing PMView to registered users, we post a copy to Hobbes on the Internet. This is the world's best ftp site for finding OS/2 software. Its official designation is ftp.cdrom.com. PMView will be put in the /pub/uploads directory initially; after a while, it will be moved to the /pub/os2/2_x/graphics directory. After we have posted a copy to Hobbes, we post a copy to CompuServe, in Library 4 of the OS2USER forum. So, to find the latest version of PMView, look on Hobbes and CompuServe. NOTE: The above appendix refers to new release versions of PMView. Pre-beta releases are sent to our beta testers, as well as any registered user who wants them. If you want to become a beta tester, send a bug report (or short note) to sthiagar@nickel.ucs.indiana.edu. In order to join the beta program, you *must* be able to receive large (~300K) uuencoded messages at your e-mail address. We reserve the right to limit the number of beta testers. APPENDIX 3: TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS ==================================== Architecture: 32 bit, dynamic number of threads Internal image format: 8 and 24 bit Transformations: All formats Palette Manager support: Yes, 256 colors (if your display driver supports Palette Manager) True Color support: Yes, 24 bit, 16.7 million colors or less (if your display driver supports True Color) APPENDIX 4: DETAILED INFORMATION ON FILE FORMATS SUPPORTED ========================================================== BMP Bitmap file support: ------------------------ The following BMP types are supported: 1. IBM OS/2 1.x bitmaps 2. IBM OS/2 1.x bitmap arrays 3. IBM OS/2 2.x bitmaps 4. IBM OS/2 2.x bitmap arrays 5. Windows 3.x bitmaps Bitcounts: 1, 2, 4, 8 and 24 bit Compressions: 1 bit: HUFFMAN_1D (types: 3,4) 4 bit: RLE_4 (types: 3,4,5) 8 bit: RLE_8 (types: 3,4,5) 24 bit: RLE_24 (types: 3,4) EPS Encapsulated PostScript file support: ----------------------------------------- For now, only EPSF-2.0 conforming files with TIFF-preview are supported. Future PMView versions may support the newer EPSF-3.0 device independent EPS Interchage file format (EPSI). GIF Graphics Interchange Format file support: --------------------------------------------- Versions 87a, 89a Bitcount: 1..8 JPEG File interchage Format support: ------------------------------------ JFIF: Support in accordance with the Independent JPEG Group's revision 4.0a. PCD Kodak Photo-CD support: --------------------------- The following image sizes are supported. (Approximate memory needed for decoding in parentheses.) 192 x 128 (73,728 bytes) 384 x 256 (294,912 bytes) 768 x 512 (1,179,648 bytes) 1536 x 1024 (4,784,128 bytes) 3072 x 2048 (19,070,976 bytes) All image orientations are supported. The images will automatically be rotated (without any extra memory overhead) during decoding. Thumbnails will be loaded from /PHOTO_CD/OVERVIEW.PCD if it is available. For now, no option for automatically loading/showing the startup file /PHOTO_CD/STARTUP.PCD is provided. However, if required, it can be viewed just by changing the directory. PCX ZSoft Paintbrush file support: ---------------------------------- The following PCX revisions are supported: Version 2.5 of PC Paintbrush Version 2.8 with or w/o palette Version 3.0 Version 5.0 including 24-bit PCX Images up to 8-bit color depth [bits*planes <= 8]: 1, 2, 4 or 8 bits 1, 2 or 4 planes Support for 24-bit images (PCX rev 5.0): 3 planes 8 bits PIC PC Paint/Pictor PIC file support: ------------------------------------- Images up to 8-bit color depth [bits*planes <= 8] : 1..8 bits 1..8 planes Extended support for 24-bit images: 3 planes 8 bits TIFF Tagged Interchange File Format support: -------------------------------------------- Full baseline support conforming with the TIFF 6.0 specification: Both Intel and Motorola byte orders are handled. Tiled Images Class B Bilevel images SamplesPerPixel = 1 BitsPerSample = 1 PlanarConfiguration = Single Compression = None, CCITT 1D, PackBits PhotometricInterpretation = Min is White, Min is Black Class G Grayscale images SamplesPerPixel = 1..8 BitsPerSample = 1..8 PlanarConfiguration = Single, Separate Compression = None, LZW PhotometricInterpretation = Min is White, Min is Black Class P Palette color images SamplesPerPixel = 1..8 BitsPerSample = 1..8 PlanarConfiguration = Single, Multiple Compression = None, LZW PhotometricInterpretation = Palette RGB ColorMap = 256 entries or less Class R RGB full color images SamplesPerPixel = 1..3 BitsPerSample = <1..8, 1..8, 1..8> PlanarConfiguration = Single, Multiple Compression = None, LZW PhotometricInterpretation = RGB Class F Facsimile SamplesPerPixel = 1 BitsPerSample = 1 PlanarConfiguration = Single Compression = CCITT Group 3 PhotometricInterpretation = Min is White, Min is Black FillOrder = MSB, LSB Group3Options = None Class S Separated images SamplesPerPixel = 4 BitsPerSample = <1..8, 1..8, 1..8> PlanarConfiguration = Single, Multiple Compression = None, LZW PhotometricInterpretation = Separated InkSet = CMYK Class Y JPEG images SamplesPerPixel = 3 BitsPerSample = <8, 8, 8> PlanarConfiguration = Single, Multiple Compression = None, LZW PhotometricInterpretation = YCbCr TGA Truevision Targa file support: ---------------------------------- Supported Targa formats: 1, 2, 3, 9, 10, and 11. #1 is uncompressed, color-mapped images with 16, 24, or 32-bit palette entries #2 is uncompressed RGB images with 15, 16, and 24 bit support #3 is uncompressed grayscale (256 shades) support #9 is RLE color-mapped images with 16, 24, or 32-bit palette entries #10 is RLE RGB with 15, 16, and 24 bit support #11 is compressed grayscale (256 shades) support These are the most popular versions of the above formats. If PMView fails to load a file that you need, please contact us so we can try to support your file's format in our next release. APPENDIX 5: DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM ============================== If you're curious, Peter Nielsen is developing PMView on the following system: IBM PS/2 model 95 Pentium/60MHz 64 Mb RAM 2400 Mb hardfile XGA-2 + 21" multisync IBM OS/2 2.1 He's using the following tools: IBM C-SET++ IBM OS/2 developers toolkit Microsoft MASM 6.0 Solution System's BRIEF 3.0 for OS/2 Th-th-that's all, folks! Raja Thiagarajan / PMVIEW.DOC / 2-21-94 release