Copyright: Copyright (c) 1994 Edward B. Hamrick


Help Index
VuePrint Help

Topics	Menus

Introduction	File

Registering 	Edit

Screen Saver 	Image

File Formats 	Sound

File Manager 	Slideshow

Program Manager 	Options

Interrupting 	JPEG

Options 	Utilities

Mouse 	Help

Keyboard

Internet Graphics

Hints

Limitations

Upgrading

Acknowledgements

Copyright © 1994 Edward B. Hamrick


Introduction

VuePrint is a program that lets you display, manipulate, print, and save graphics files, while at the same time playing sound files.  VuePrint supports graphics displays and printers that operate with the Microsoft Windows 3.1 operating environment, using at least a 386 microprocessor.

Some of the main features of VuePrint are:

Reads and writes 5 different types of graphics files (GIF, BMP, PCX, TGA, JPG)
Reads and writes internet graphics files in the uuencode format
Has a built-in screen saver (formerly a separate program - VueSav)
Includes a slide show feature with more than a dozen options
Displays multiple images (frames) in a window (contact sheets)
Can display any type of graphics file on any type of graphics display or printer (dithers)
Supports copying to the clipboard, and pasting from the clipboard
Uses 12 different effects for repainting the screen
Has menu options to install and remove VuePrint

The two main design goals of VuePrint are speed and ease of use. VuePrint is significantly faster and easier to use than most other JPEG viewers. VuePrint can scale images to fill a window automatically, without distorting the image shape. It has a cropping feature to remove borders from around images, full support for playing sounds and controlling multimedia devices such as CD players and videodisks. While VuePrint has many features, all are integrated in an easy to use menu system.

VuePrint lets you display, print, and play files you select while running the File Manager. It also supports dragging a file from the File Manager and dropping it into the VuePrint window. VuePrint is fully integrated with the Windows Program Manager, giving full control over all options from the command line. It can also be used as a viewer subsystem for other programs such as the Internet Mosaic program.

VuePrint automatically detects the display type, and uses a pattern of dots in a dither pattern on the display when there are fewer colors available than the image requires. If Options|Auto Dither is selected, dithering is used when the image uses colors that are not available. Otherwise, dithering is used when the display has fewer colors than the image.  This lets you use VuePrint on all laptop computers, as well as run multiple copies of VuePrint at the same time.  Even when multiple pictures require more colors than are available, VuePrint will make a best effort to display the images.

Just as VuePrint tries to accommodate displays that have too few colors, it also tries to run on systems with limited memory.  If an image will not fit in memory, VuePrint still makes a best effort to display the image by dropping alternate pixels until the image fits in memory.

To use VuePrint, you will need a personal computer that is running Microsoft Windows version 3.1 or higher. You will also need at least a 386 microprocessor. VuePrint will work with any Windows printer and display, including Hercules, EGA, 16-color, 256-color, 16-bit color, and 24-bit color displays.


Registering

VuePrint may be used and evaluated during a 15 day free trial period.  If you decide to register your copy of VuePrint, you will get:

o	free upgrades (if you download them yourself).  I released a new version of VuePrint every few months in 1994, all of which were free upgrades to registered users.  My competitors do not do this, and neither do vendors of other commercial programs.

o	three programs in one - a viewer, a screen saver, and a program to read and write internet graphics files that are in the <uuencode> format.  Normally you would have to buy each of these three programs separately.

o	the right to install VuePrint on three other computers that you use.  Since many people use multiple computers, this is more convenient and economical than registering multiple copies.

o	free support for VuePrint directly from the author via electronic mail (e-mail).

o	a serial number that disables the registration reminder.

The $40 registration fee can be paid three different ways:

1)	If you want to pay the $40 registration fee by credit card, please send your credit card number, expiration date, and full name (as it appears on the card) via electronic mail (e-mail) to either 71470,3236 on CompuServe or EdHamrick@aol.com on America Online. When I receive this information, I will send you your permanent VuePrint serial number by e-mail. There is no additional charge for registering by credit card.

2)	If you have a CompuServe account, you can use the on-line software registration service. This service will charge your account $40, and will automatically send me an e-mail message notifying me that you have registered. To use this service, go to the SWREG forum on CompuServe, and use Registration ID 1883. I will respond by e-mail with your permanent VuePrint serial number (usually within 24-hours).  There is no additional charge for using the SWREG service.

3)	If you would prefer to register by surface mail, please send the $40 registration fee to:

Hamrick Software
4171 E. Rockledge Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85044-6771

Please include either a check or a credit card number/expiration date/signature.  If you include your e-mail address with your payment, I will send you your permanent VuePrint serial number by e-mail.  Otherwise, I will send it by surface mail.  Checks (or cash) in equivalent amounts of other currencies are accepted.

If you need a temporary serial number immediately, I have set up a 24-hour answering machine that you can call to get a temporary serial number. Call (602) 759-3966 to get a temporary serial number that will disable the registration reminder for an additional 15 days. Note that this temporary serial number can only be entered once, and additional temporary serial numbers obtained by phone can not be entered into VuePrint.

Note that you will not receive a diskette or a manual in the mail when you register, since you already have the complete VuePrint program, including the available documentation (this help file).  This allows me to not charge anything for upgrades, since you can download them at your convenience.

Once the 15 day evaluation period ends, VuePrint displays a reminder that the evaluation period has ended, and a request to register the program. This reminder was carefully designed to not interfere with further evaluation of the program past the 15 day period - all functionality is still enabled after the evaluation period.

I really appreciate getting e-mail containing suggestions for improving VuePrint, since this is the main way I prioritize the features that get added to each new version. Most of the new features in VuePrint have been requested by a few customers, and some features had been requested by dozens of people.  If you are one of the people who suggested some of the new features in VuePrint, thanks.


Screen Saver

VuePrint can be installed as both a viewer and as a screen saver.  When installed as a screen saver, it displays graphics files on the screen when there is no activity for more than 5 minutes.  The default setup causes it to search out all graphics files on the same drive as Windows, and to display these graphics files sequentially every 15 seconds.  Any keypress, mouse click, or mouse movement of more than 16 pixels will cause the program to exit.  Each time the screen saver exits, it remembers the last file that was displayed, and starts over again after 5 minutes of inactivity displaying this same file.

The screen saver can by installed by choosing Utilities|Install Screen Saver.  The screen saver is just a copy of VUEPRINT.EXE that is copied into the Windows directory (normally c:\windows) and named VUESAVER.SCR.  This help file is also copied into VUESAVER.HLP.

All the options for the screen saver are stored in the Windows directory in the file VUESAVER.INI.  Any VuePrint option can be set up in this file.  For example, to disable the mouse during the screen saver, set the option <IgnoreMouse=1>.

To configure the screen saver, you can either choose the Utilities|Configure Screen Saver menu item, or choose the <Setup> button from the <Desktop> Control Panel.

All the options that can be set on the screen saver setup screen are the same as the options in the VuePrint menus.  All these options do is set up the VUESAVER.INI configuration file.


File Formats

VuePrint reads four types of files:

Image files (.GIF, .BMP, .DIB, .PCX, .TGA, .JPG)

Sound files (.WAV, .MID, .MCI)

Slide Show files (.SLI)

Uuencoded files

A file that has an image file extension or an unrecognized extension is automatically recognized by the first few bytes in the file. If the first few bytes of the file are not recognized, the software checks to see if the file is a Macintosh GIF or JPEG/PICT file.  If it is a Macintosh GIF or JPEG/PICT file, the header information is skipped and the file is read normally.

Sound and Slide Show files are recognized by their extensions.

GIF Files (.GIF)

VuePrint will read both GIF 87a files and GIF 89a files.  GIF files that have Macintosh headers are also recognized.  The only GIF 89a attribute that is used is transparency, the other GIF 89a extensions (such as text overlays) are ignored. Multiple Image GIF files are supported, and the image that is displayed is the composite of all the multiple image segments.  Comments that are contained in the GIF file are stored in the Comments window, and are saved when a GIF or JPEG file is written.

Bitmap Files (.BMP, .DIB)

All BMP and DIB bitmap formats are supported, including compressed and OS/2 bitmaps.

PC Paintbrush Files (.PCX)

PCX files that are version 3.0 or less are supported, including reading the 24-bit format.  The CGA color palette information is ignored.  The <File|Save as...> option creates 8-bit PCX files.

Targa Files (.TGA)

All Targa file formats are supported.

JPEG Files (.JPG)

VuePrint reads JPEG files that use either the JFIF format (.JPG extension) or the Macintosh JPEG/PICT format.  Comments that are contained in the JPEG file are stored in the Comments window, and are saved when a GIF or JPEG file is written.

Sound Files (.WAV, .MID)

Standard WAV and MIDI files are supported.  If you only have the PC Speaker sound driver, you will need to select the Sound|Synchronous option.  MIDI files can not be played with the PC Speaker sound driver.

Multimedia Command Interface Files (.MCI)

MCI files contain MCI commands. Refer to various Microsoft descriptions of MCI command strings for more details. In order for MCI files to interact properly with the slide show feature, one MCI command should use the <notify> parameter. When the command completes, VuePrint will automatically issue the <close all> MCI command. For example, the following MCI file will play track two of an audio CD player, and will continue a slide show after the track completes:

# This script plays track two on an audio cd

open cdaudio alias cd

set cd time format tmsf

play cd from 2 to 3 notify

This MCI file will play an AVI animation file, and continue the slide show after it completes:

# This script plays an AVI file

open \dir\file.avi type avivideo alias avi

play avi notify

This MCI file will play an MMM animation file, and continue the slide show after it completes:

# This script plays an MMM file

open \dir\file.mmm type mmmovie alias mmm

play mmm notify

Slide Show Files (.SLI)

Slide Show files (.SLI) contain a list of files. This list can contain other .SLI files, which can refer to other .SLI files, and so on (up to eight times). A slide show list is also automatically created with you use the File|Open menu to select a single file.  A slide show list is also created when you choose the Slideshow|File spec menu.

Uuencoded files (.UU?)

Uuencoded files are commonly used on the Internet to convert image files into a text file that can be sent over the Internet as e-mail.  Please refer to the section on Internet Graphics for more details.


File Manager

VuePrint can be integrated with the Windows File Manager by choosing the Utilities|Install VuePrint to associate VuePrint with the Image, Sound, and Slide Show file types.  You can use Utilities|Remove VuePrint to disassociate VuePrint and restore the previous associations. When VuePrint is installed, you can use the File Manager to double-click on any Image, Sound, or Slide Show file, and VuePrint will be automatically started to display (or play) the file. VuePrint will also print images chosen in the File Manager.


Program Manager

VuePrint provides a complete command line argument processing system that gives you the capability to install different VuePrint icons to do different things. Because the command line processing is also performed when VuePrint is started from another program, you can use VuePrint as a viewing subsystem for other applications. The command line can contain two types of arguments - options and file names. File names have complete wildcard support, and the additional feature that filenames ending in <...> will recursively descend a directory tree looking for additional files.

The command line is processed from left to right.  Valid command line options can have the following forms:

-name

/name

-name=value

/name=value

If there is no value specified, the value 1 is used.

The names of the options are the same as those in the VUEPRINT.INI option file, and override the settings in that file. Command line options can be abbreviated, are not case sensitive, and the first one matching the command line option is used. There are two additional command line options that are not used by the .INI file:

/directory=name

/print

/install

The /directory=name option changes the current drive and directory to <name>. This is useful when VuePrint is used as a subsystem of another program.

The /print option causes every file on the command line to be displayed and then printed.  Only the first file sets up the printer options, the remainder use the same printer options.  This lets you do unattended printing of large numbers of image files.

The /install option invokes the Utilities|Install VuePrint menu item when VuePrint starts up.


Interrupting

VuePrint has been designed to let you interrupt loading files, since this operation can sometimes take some time.  Any menu choices that need to read or change the current image will interrupt the currently loading file.  Other options that interrupt loading the current image include those that save and restore option settings, change the number of frames, install or remove VuePrint or the Screen Saver, invoke Help, or display any dialog box.

For example, pressing the <X> key while a file is being loaded will execute the File|Exit command, causing VuePrint to immediately exit.


Options

There are about 75 different options that can be used for VuePrint.  These options are stored in a file in the Windows directory, usually C:\WINDOWS\VUEPRINT.INI.  The name of the .INI file matches the name of the program.  For instance, if you copy VUEPRINT.EXE to VUETEST.EXE and then run VUETEST.EXE, the file C:\WINDOWS\VUETEST.INI is used to hold the options for this program.  This lets you install multiple copies of VuePrint, each with different options.

Each option has a default value, a minimum value, and a maximum value.  In addition, there are different default values when the program is run as a viewer and as a screen saver.

The following options can be used in the .INI file and on the command line. Their names, default values, default screen saver values, minimum values, and maximum values are:

Options from File menu

Option Name	Default	Saver	Min	Max
OpenIndex	9	6	1	10
SaveAsIndex	1	1	1	5
DeleteIndex	9	9	1	11
UudecodeIndex	1	1	1	2
UuencodeIndex	9	9	1	10
UuencodeLines	400	400	1	none
TopMargin	0	0	0	none
LeftMargin	0	0	0	none
RightMargin	0	0	0	none
BottomMargin	0	0	0	none
ShowComments	0	0	0	1
ShowHistory	0	0	0	1

Options from Image menu

Option Name	Default	Saver	Min	Max
Rotate	0	0	0	7
Brightness	5	5	1	9
Contrast	5	5	1	9

Options from Sound menu

Option Name	Default	Saver	Min	Max
SoundEnable	1	1	0	1
SoundSynchronous	0	0	0	1

Options from Slideshow menu

Option Name	Default	Saver	Min	Max
RunSlideshow	0	1	0	1
ExitOnKey	0	1	0	1
ExitOnMouse	0	1	0	1
ExitOnLastFrame	0	0	0	1
ExitWhenDone	0	0	0	1
StopOnKey	0	0	0	1
StopOnMouse	0	0	0	1
StopOnLastFrame	0	0	0	1
StopWhenDone	0	0	0	1
IgnoreKey	0	0	0	1
IgnoreMouse	0	0	0	1
EnablePassword	0	0	0	1
RandomOrder	0	0	0	1
ImageDelay	5	15	0	none
SoundDelay	0	0	0	none

Options from Options menu

Option Name	Default	Saver	Min	Max
DisplayInColor	1	1	0	1
PrintInColor	1	1	0	1
PrintDithered	0	0	0	1
BackgroundRed	192	0	0	255
BackgroundGreen	192	0	0	255
BackgroundBlue	192	0	0	255
ForegroundRed	0	192	0	255
ForegroundGreen	0	192	0	255
ForegroundBlue	0	192	0	255
DitherQuality	2	2	1	3
Effect	1	12	1	12
AutoScale	0	0	0	1
AutoFit	1	1	0	1
AutoCrop	0	0	0	1
AutoDither	0	0	0	1
AutoComments	0	0	0	1
AutoSearch	0	1	0	1
AutoResume	1	1	0	1
RememberOptions	0	0	0	1
FramesAcross	1	1	1	999
FramesDown	1	1	1	999
FramesRandom	0	1	0	1
FramesAnnotate	1	0	0	1
FillWindow	0	1	0	1

Options from JPEG menu

Option Name	Default	Saver	Min	Max
JPEGTwoPass	0	0	0	1
JPEGUseDithering	1	1	0	1
JPEGUseMonochrome	0	0	0	1
JPEGBlockSmoothing	0	0	0	1
JPEGPixelSmoothing	0	0	0	1
JPEGWriteGIF	0	0	0	1
JPEGOutputMonochrome	0	0	0	1
JPEGOutputOptimize	1	1	0	1
JPEGOutputQuality	75	75	0	100
JPEGOutputSmoothing	0	0	0	100

Window position settings

Option Name	Default	Saver	Min	Max
XImage	0	0	0	999
YImage	0	0	0	999
WImage	1000	1000	1	1000
HImage	1000	1000	1	1000
MImage	0	0	-1	1

XComments	0	0	0	999
YComments	667	667	0	999
WComments	1000	1000	1	1000
HComments	333	333	1	1000
MComments	0	0	-1	1

XHistory	0	0	0	999
YHistory	667	667	0	999
WHistory	1000	1000	1	1000
HHistory	333	333	1	1000
MHistory	0	0	-1	1

Miscellaneous options

Option Name	Default	Saver	Min	Max
EnableCtl3d	1	1	0	1
EnableLargeDialogs	1	1	0	1

The options for controlling window positions are designed to be independent of the display resolution.  These values range from 0 to 1000, where 1000 is the full width (or height) of the display.  The option beginning with M is -1 for a minimized window, 0 for a normal window, and 1 for a maximized window.

VuePrint uses the 3-D controls library to give 3-D effects to dialog boxes.  It searches for the file CTL3DV2.DLL in the Windows system directory to determine whether to use 3-D controls.  If you have this library, but want to disable the use of 3-D controls in VuePrint, you can change the <EnableCtl3d> option to 0 in the .INI file.  Some older display drivers cause General Protection Faults by causing stack overflow errors when this option is enabled.

If you want to use the standard Windows File Open/Save dialogs instead of the larger Open/Save dialogs used by VuePrint, set the <EnableLargeDialogs> option to 0.  Some display drivers use an incorrect font size when displaying the VuePrint dialogs, causing them to be larger than a 640x480 screen.

If you want to produce uuencoded files that have more than 400 lines each, you can set the <UuencodeLines> option to a number larger than 400.  Note that the number of lines in a file may be larger than this if the total number of files would otherwise be larger than 36.  The default value of 400 is set so these files can be sent in pieces via e-mail on America Online.

Note that all options are stored as a 16-bit signed number, so the maximum value for any option is 32767.


Mouse

The left mouse button can be used to select a rectangular subset of an image.  This subset of the image is used when displaying, printing, or saving an image.  The right mouse button is used to move a zoomed-in image within the window (you will see a hand icon when moving).  A double-click of the right button will select the whole image.

When the left mouse button is clicked, and less than 16 pixels are selected, the image is zoomed by a factor of two, centered on the position of the mouse.  If the control key is pressed while the left mouse button is clicked, the image will be zoomed out by a factor of two.  If the shift key is pressed with the left mouse button, the image is cropped, and if the control and shift keys are both pressed, the image is rotated.

If the display has multiple frames and the left mouse button is clicked outside the current frame, the current image is painted in the clicked-upon frame.

If both mouse buttons are pressed at once, the program will exit.


Keyboard

Most menu items have a keyboard equivalent.  The key that corresponds to the menu item is displayed along with the menu.

The arrow keys on the keyboard will move a zoomed image.  If the shift key is pressed along with an arrow key, the zoomed image will move in window-sized jumps.  If the control key is pressed along with an arrow key, the zoomed image will move in single-pixel jumps.  If the Alt key is pressed with an arrow key, the size of the zoomed area will be adjusted in single-pixel jumps.

Long-running MCI commands can be aborted by pressing Control-Break.


Hints

If you get a display that seems fuzzy (made up of lots of small dots), you probably have your Windows display adapter configured for 16 colors.  To configure your display adapter for 256 (or more) colors, go to the Program Manager and open the <Main> window.  Then open the <Setup> window, and choose the <Options|Change System Settings> menu.  Choose a display mode that has 256 (or more) colors, and then press <OK>.  If you can not find a display mode for 256 (or more) colors for your display type, select the last item in the list <Other display (requires disk from OEM)...>.  You will have to insert the diskette containing the display driver for your computer.  This diskette probably came with your computer, or came with your display adapter if you bought it separately.

If you have several hard drives, you can set up an environment variable (TMP or TEMP) to tell VuePrint where to write temporary files when processing very large JPEG files.

You can use the JPEG|Two Pass option, but it is faster to not use it.  Since 24-bit images are fully supported on all display types, there is no real reason to use the second pass to convert to 8-bits on input.

If you have a JPEG file that you suspect is bad, you can still view whatever is present in the file by turning off the JPEG|Two Pass option.

You do not have to wait till the screen repaints before starting another command.  The screen repaint will be postponed if you press a key or use the mouse.


Internet Graphics

There are two sources of graphics files on the Internet, ftp (File Transfer Protocol) and usenet (Internet news groups).

To use ftp to retrieve graphics files from an Internet site, make sure you have enabled binary transfers (type BIN at the ftp> prompt).  If you are using the America Online ftp software, this is done for you automatically.

You can also find many different kinds of graphics files in the Internet usenet news groups.  For instance, the alt.binaries.pictures... hierarchy contains the majority of the Internet traffic in graphics files.

The graphics files in the usenet news groups are usually in a <uuencoded> format (it stands for Unix-to-Unix-Encoded).  These files are often broken up into several pieces, because there is a limit on the size of a file that can be sent by e-mail to some Internet systems.  A uuencoded file begins with a line that looks like <begin 660 file.gif>.  It is then followed by multiple lines that begin with <M> and are 61 characters long.  The last three lines are usually a line that is shorter than 61 characters long, a line with the single character <`>, and a line that contains <end> by itself.

A uuencoded file can also contain a few dozen lines of extraneous information at the top and bottom of the file.  You do not have to edit these lines out by hand, since the VuePrint program automatically discards this information when processing a uuencoded file.

The first step to decoding these images is to download the uuencoded files to your hard drive on your computer.  If you are using America Online to access the usenet news groups, you can download these files by:

1) Double-click on the uuencoded article.

2) Repeatedly click the <More> button (to retrieve additional segments of the file)

3) When the <More> button is grayed out, choose File|Save As...

4) Choose a name like <file1.uu1>, <file1.uu2>, ... to hold the pieces of the file

Once you have downloaded the uuencoded files to your hard drive, use VuePrint to decode these files.  To decode these files, put the pieces of the file in order in files named something like <file1.uu1>, <file1.uu2>, ... <file1.uuN>.  (The ordering goes 1,2,...8,9,a,b,c...).  Then choose File|Uudecode and use control-click (or shift-click) to select the file1.uu? pieces of the file.  When you press OK, the pieces will be put together, and the original image file will be put in the same directory as the uuencoded files.  You can then use <File|Open...> to view these files.


Limitations

VuePrint reads GIF, DIB, BMP, PCX,  and TGA files that have a maximum width of 4096.  JPEG files can have a maximum width of 2048.  All image files can have a maximum height of 6000.  An image can take up to 50% of the free memory.  If an image can not fit into the available memory, every other pixel and line is dropped until it fits.

If you are using the JPEG|Two Pass option, VuePrint will use up to 75% of the available memory for temporary storage of data for the second pass.  If you want to override this, set up the environment variable TEMPMEM.  For instance, if you put <SET TEMPMEM=6m> in AUTOEXEC.BAT, VuePrint will use 6 million bytes of memory for temporary storage.  (You can also use k, K, or M as a suffix.)

The maximum number of files that can be selected in the File|Open is limited by a 16384 character buffer for holding the file names.

MCI commands can be a maximum of 249 characters long.  The MCI command result can also be a maximum of 249 characters long.

If you set wallpaper to a bitmap that has 24 bits per pixel, Windows will refuse to start up if you restart your system with 8 (or fewer) bits per pixel.  If this happens, edit the file WIN.INI in the

Windows directory and delete the line <wallpaper=vueprint.bmp> in the section beginning with <[desktop]>.

If your system is running with a resolution of 640x480 and is using a system font than the standard MS Sans Serif font, the file selection dialogs will not fit on the screen.  To fix this, edit the file c:\windows\vueprint.ini and add the line <EnableLargeDialogs=0>.  If you use the file selection dialog without adding this option, press Escape to exit the dialog and try again.


Upgrading

You can obtain the latest version of VuePrint from America Online, CompuServe, and the Internet.  It is also available from other on-line services and several CD-ROM distributors.

America Online:	Choose the <Go To|Keyword...> option and enter <Graphics>.  Then select <Recommended Utilities>.

CompuServe:	Go to the GRAPHSUPPORT Forum, Library 3 (GIF Viewers), and download VUEPRI.ZIP.

Internet: 	anonymous ftp to ftp.cica.indiana.edu, pub/pc/win3/desktop, vueprixx.zip (where xx is the version number)


Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my children David, Bobby, and Monica for testing VuePrint, and providing helpful suggestions for improving the usability of VuePrint.  Bobby also helped design the VuePrint <eye-con>.  I would especially like to thank my wife Margaret, whose support and encouragement made VuePrint possible.

I would also like to thank Phillip Crews for his helpful programming and marketing advice.

VuePrint is based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.

GIF, Graphics Interchange Format, and CompuServe are trademarks of CompuServe, Inc., an H&R Block Company.

Microsoft is a registered trademark and Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.


File Menu

The File menu provides commands to open files, save files in five different formats, copy and delete files, process uuencoded files, advance the slide show list, print images, control the comments and history informational windows, and exit the program.

Open...	opens an image or sound file. You can select multiple files by using control-click to add single files, or shift-click to select a range of files. If only a single file is opened, the other image and sound files in the same directory are added to the slide show list.  Only files of the type specified in the File Types control are added to the slide show list.

Close	closes the currently open files and clears the screen.  This can be used even while a file is being loaded.

Save as...	saves the currently selected image in a file.  The file format is determined by the file extension.  If the file extension is not recognized, then the file format is determined by the File Type control in the dialog.  The image is saved in its rotated and cropped format, but at the original resolution of the image and with the original palette.  The contents of the comments window will also be saved to GIF and JPEG files.

Save wallpaper...	saves the currently selected image (rotated, clipped, and dithered) to the Windows directory.  The image is scaled up to the size of the screen if the AutoScale option is enabled, and is always scaled down to the size of the screen if larger than the screen.  This command then sets this file as the desktop wallpaper.

Copy image to...	lets you make a copy of the current image file.

Copy sound to...	lets you make a copy of the current sound file.

Delete image...	lets you delete the current image file.

Delete sound...	lets you delete the current sound file.

Delete files...	lets you delete a number of files at once.

Uudecode...	lets you decode files that have been encoded using uuencode.  These files are commonly used for transmitting Internet Graphics in Internet news groups.  The files may contain extra header and footer lines, and files may contain parts of a uuencoded files, entire uuencoded files, or multiple uuencoded files.  The only restriction is that the files will be processed in alphabetical order.  The most convenient naming scheme is file.uu1, file.uu2, ... file.uu9, file.uua, file.uub, etc., but any naming scheme may be used as long as the files are in alphabetical order.

Uuencode...	lets you encode files in the uuencode format.  Files are written using the same file name as the input file, but with extensions .uu1, .uu2, ... .uu9, .uua, .uub, etc.  The maximum number of lines per file can be changed by changing the option UuencodeLines.  This option is used to compute the number of files that must be written, and then the actual number of lines per file is computed to try to make each file roughly equal size.  Very large input files may have more lines than expected, since at most 35 output files are created per input file.

Next	loads the next file in the Slide Show list.

Previous	loads the previous file in the Slide Show list.

Random	loads a random file from the Slide Show list.

Print...	prints the current image.

Print setup...	displays a printer setup dialog box.

Print margins...	lets you specify the size of the margins (in millimeters)  Note that these are not always margins to the edge of the paper, only margins relative to the print area.  If you want to be precise about the margins, your printer manual will probably give you information about the positioning of the print area on the paper.  There are 25.4 millimeters per inch, but an integral number of millimeters must be entered.  Note that often one dimension of the printed image will not extend all the way to the margin, since the aspect ratio of the image does not always match the aspect ratio of the print area.

Show comments	displays a window containing comments contained within the currently displayed image (up to 100 lines).

Show history	displays a window containing a log of the last 100 VuePrint events since the program was started.

Exit	exits VuePrint.


Edit Menu

The Edit menu provides commands to exchange data with the clipboard.  It lets you copy and paste the current image, copy and paste the comment text associated with an image, and copy the picture in the window to the clipboard.  Note that the clipboard can hold either an image or comments, but not both at the same time.  When an image is pasted from the clipboard the comments window is cleared.

Copy image	copies the current image to the clipboard.  If the image has 24 bits per pixel, it is converted to 8 bits per pixel before copying to the clipboard.  The image is copied in its rotated and cropped format, but at the original resolution of the image and with the original palette.  If the image is dithered on the display, it will not be dithered after copying to the clipboard.

Paste image	copies an image from the clipboard to the current image.  The clipboard must contain a bitmap, a metafile, or a device-independent bitmap.

Copy comments	copies the text in the comments window to the clipboard.

Paste comments	copies text from the clipboard to the comments window.

Copy window	copies the current window to the clipboard.  The window is copied at the resolution of the window and with the same palette as the window.


Image Menu

The Image menu provides commands to manipulate the current image.  Note that images are saved with the zooming, cropping, rotating, mirroring, and flipping applied, but are not saved with the brightness or contrast modified.  The brightness and contrast settings for the image are also used for adjusting the brightness and contrast on the printouts.

Zoom in	zooms the image by a factor of two.  If the Options|Auto scale is selected, images smaller than the window will be scaled up to fill the window.

Crop	crops borders off the edges of the image.  A border is detected by searching for borders that contain significantly fewer colors than the image as a whole.

Zoom out	zooms out by a factor of two.

Rotate	rotates the image 90 degrees clockwise.

Mirror	mirrors the image horizontally.

Flip	flips the image vertically.

Brighter	increases the overall brightness of the image (and printout).

Dimmer	decreases the overall brightness of the image (and printout).

More contrast	increases the contrast (gamma) of the image (and printout).

Less contrast	decreases the contrast (gamma) of the image (and printout).

Reset	resets the image to the default zoom factor, rotation, brightness, and contrast.


Sound Menu

The Sound menu provides commands to manipulate the currently loaded sound.

Enable	enables playing sounds.

Synchronous	enables playing sounds synchronously.  This is useful if you have a sound driver for the PC speaker, which requires playing sounds synchronously.  MIDI files can not be played using the PC speaker sound driver.

MCI command...	lets you enter an MCI command.

Louder	increases the volume.

Softer	decreases the volume.

Replay	replays the current sound.


Slideshow Menu

The Slideshow menu provides commands to set up a slide show.  When the slide show is running, all other functions in VuePrint can be used.  The only thing that running a slide show does is advance to the next image or sound after the delay between sounds or images completes.  This menu also provides options for controlling what happens when a keyboard or mouse action happens while the slide show is running.

Run slideshow	controls the running of slide shows. The list of files for the slide show can come from two places - multiple files opened with File|Open ,or <File spec...>.  The order of displaying files in a slide show is either the next, previous, or a random file in the list, depending on how the current file was selected. If the <Random order> option is selected, then a random file is always selected as the next image in a slide show sequence.

Go to slide...	lets you enter the file name of a file that is already in the slide show list.  This file, if it is found in the list, will be loaded and displayed, otherwise the current file will be reloaded and displayed.

File spec...	lets you enter the file specification of files for the slide show list.  The first file found is loaded and displayed.  Note that this file spec can be a single file name of a .SLI file (e.g. c:\test\slides.sli), a directory where images are located (e.g. c:\images\), a wildcard specification (e.g. c:\images\*.gif), or a special name indicating that all subdirectories should be searched (e.g. c:\images...).  If a directory name is specified, and the Auto Search option is enabled, all subdirectories will also be searched.  The types of files that are selected are those selected in the File|Open dialog box.

Exit on key	exits the program when any key is pressed while a slide show is running.

Exit on mouse	exits the program when a mouse button is pressed, or when the mouse is moved while a slide show is running.

Exit on last frame	exits the program after the last frame (i.e. lower right hand corner) is displayed.

Exit when done	exits the program after all the files in a slide show are displayed.

Stop on key	stops running the slide show when any key is pressed.

Stop on mouse	stops running the slide show when a mouse button is pressed, or when the mouse is moved.

Stop on last frame	stops running the slide show after the last frame (i.e. lower right hand corner) is displayed.

Stop when done	stops running the slide show after all the files in a slide show are displayed.

Ignore key	ignores all keystrokes while a slide show is running.

Ignore mouse	ignores all mouse buttons and mouse movements while a slide show is running.

Enable password	prompts you for the screen saver password (if it has been set up) before stopping a running slide show.

Random order	displays images in the slide show list in random order while the slide show is running.

Set password...	lets you set up or change the screen saver password.  If it has previously been set up, you need to enter the old password before being able to set up a new password.

Image delay...	lets you enter the minimum delay between successive images in a slide show.

Sound delay...	lets you enter the minimum delay between successive sounds in a slide show.


Options Menu

The Options menu provides commands to manipulate various VuePrint options, and to save and restore all options (including window positions).

Display in color	enables displaying images in color.

Print in color	enables printing images in color.

Print dithered	lets you print images using VuePrint dithering.  You may want to enable this option when working with some types of dot-matrix printers that normally use a coarse pattern to approximate continuous tone images.  If you use this option, set up the printer dialog to use no dithering since it is redundant and will just make the printout take longer.

Background color...	lets you choose the background color for images, which is used for the border around images.

Foreground color...	lets you choose the foreground color, which is used to display text and borders for multiple frames.

Dither quality	lets you trade off between dither quality and speed.  The low quality setting paints the screen the fastest, and the high quality setting looks the best.  The default is the medium quality setting.

Effect	lets you choose how the screen is repainted.  There are 12 different effects you can choose for repainting.

Auto scale	automatically scales images to fill the window.  It maintains the width/height ratio of the image, so one dimension of the image may not extend to the edge of the window.

Auto fit	when the <Auto scale> option is off, automatically reduces large images to fit inside the window.  Also causes the areas of am image selected by the mouse to be fit within the window borders.

Auto crop	automatically crops images after loading.  The borders around an image are cropped if they contain substantially fewer colors than the image as a whole.

Auto dither	automatically dithers images if there is a substantial percentage of the picture that can not be represented accurately with the colors that are available on the display.

Auto comments	automatically displays the comments window after loading an image that contains comments, and removes the comments window if the image contains no comments.  Only GIF and JPEG files can contain comments.

Auto search	automatically searches all subdirectories (up to 8 levels deep) for image files when a directory is specified in the File spec... option.

Auto resume	automatically saves the current directory and current image on exit. If the slide show is running when the program starts, the slide show starts up where it left off. The current directory is also restored when the program is restarted, unless VuePrint is started from the File Manager (i.e. has file names on the command line).  The current directory can be overridden by the /directory=xxx command line option.

Save options	saves the current setting of all options in VUEPRINT.INI in the Windows directory.

Restore options	restores all options from VUEPRINT.INI in the Windows directory.

Default options	sets all options to their default values.  If you want to save these default settings in VUEPRINT.INI, choose <Save options> after this.

Remember options	saves the current setting of all options when the program exits.

Frames across...	lets you enter the number of images to display in frames in a window in the horizontal direction.

Frames down...	lets you enter the number of images to display in frames in a window in the vertical direction.

Frames random	displays images in frames in random positions on the screen.  The size of these frames is determined by the number of frames across and down.  This option has no effect if both the number of frames across and down are set to 1.

Frames annotate	displays the file name of the image at the bottom of the frame.  This option has no effect if both the number of frames across and down are set to 1, or if the <Frames random> option is selected.

Fill window	removes the border and menu bar from the window.  You can toggle this on and off by pressing the Escape key.


JPEG Menu

The JPEG menu provides commands to control the reading and writing of JPEG files.

Two pass	causes JPEG files to be read in two passes. The first pass analyzes the colors, and the second pass reduces the data from 24-bits to 8-bits per pixel.  If this option is turned off, the full 24-bits per pixel will be stored in memory. Note that only 8-bits per pixel will be kept in memory if the <Use Monochrome> option is selected, or if the JPEG file only has one color component.  Note also that the image will still look quite good on an 8-bit display if this option is not chosen.  If the <Two pass> option is not selected, images will load a bit faster, but will take a bit longer to be painted on the screen on 8-bit displays.  However, very large JPEG files will load much faster with this option turned off because the JPEG code will not need to write a temporary file between passes.

Use dithering	enables using Floyd-Steinberg dithering with the two-pass algorithm.

Use monochrome	enables converting the JPEG file to 8-bits per pixel of monochrome data when loading.

Block smoothing	causes the 8x8 blocks to be smoothed before transforming them from the frequency domain.

Pixel smoothing	causes the 8x8 blocks to be smoothes after transforming them from the frequency domain.

Write GIF	causes a GIF file to be written for every JPEG file that is read.  When this option is selected, the two pass algorithm is always used.

Output monochrome	causes JPEG files to be written in monochrome (black/white).

Output optimize	performs entropy optimization when writing JPEG files, which should improve the quality of the image.

Output quality...	lets you set the quality of the image when writing a JPEG file.  The quality ranges from 0 to 100, with 75 being the normal setting.  The lower the quality, the smaller the size of the JPEG file.

Output smoothing...	lets you set the amount of smoothing done on the image before writing a JPEG file.  The smoothing ranges from 0 to 100, with 0 being the normal setting.  Smoothing is sometimes useful when the image is dithered, or has a lot of noise in it.


Utilities Menu

The Utilities menu provides commands to install and remove VuePrint, and to install, remove, and configure the VuePrint Screen Saver.

Install VuePrint	saves current File Manager associations, sets up associations for VuePrint, copies VUEPRINT.EXE and VUEPRINT.HLP to the Windows directory, deletes VUEPRINT.INI from the Windows directory, and installs the VuePrint icon in the Accessories window.

Remove VuePrint	reverses the above, restoring the system to the original state.  The files VUEPRINT.INI, VUEPRINT.EXE, and VUEPRINT.HLP are not deleted and the icon is not removed if the running program is running from the Windows directory.

Install Screen Saver	installs VuePrint as a screen saver for Windows.  VUEPRINT.EXE is copied to VUESAVER.SCR in the Windows directory, and VUEPRINT.HLP is copied to VUESAVER.HLP.  VUESAVER.INI is deleted.

Remove Screen Saver	reverses the above, disabling the Windows screen saver.  The files VUESAVER.INI, VUESAVER.EXE, and VUESAVER.HLP are deleted from the Windows directory.

Configure Screen Saver	lets you specify the options for the VuePrint screen saver.  These options are stored in VUESAVER.INI in the Windows directory.  Note that any option that can be set up in VUEPRINT.INI can also be put into VUESAVER.INI.  The only difference between the two option files is that the default options for the screen saver are different from the default options for VuePrint.

Test Screen Saver	starts the currently installed screen saver.  If you have installed the VuePrint screen saver, it will be started.  Otherwise, whatever screen saver that is installed will be started.


Help Menu

The Help menu provides commands for getting help and registering VuePrint.

Contents...	displays the table of contents of this Help file.

Using help...	displays help about the Help program.

About...	displays information about registering VuePrint, and lets you enter a VuePrint serial number.