The Graphics Loaders are another significant step towards making Acorn machines a credible 24-bit colour platform, by making it much easier to load your favourite 24-bit graphics files into the Archimedes.

JPEG is the industry standard method of compressing 24-bit pictures, achieving compression ratios of up to 10:1. The JPEG loader will allow owners of Impression Style, Impression Publisher and ArtWorks 1.5 to drop these files directly into their documents, loading the image as a 24-bit sprite. This is now an ideal way of transferring files from other computers, bulletin boards and the like, where JPEG compression is commonly used.

The PhotoCD loader works in the same way, allowing 24-bit PhotoCD files to be directly loaded into Impression Style, Publisher or ArtWorks. It is suitable for use with any PhotoCD compatible CD-ROM drive, which opens up the huge resources of the photo libraries to Acorn owners. For those Archimedes users whose own holiday snaps are up to scratch this is the most economic way to get high resolution versions of those photos on screen, with high street stores charging about 50p per photo put on CD.

The third element of the package is a enhanced version of the TIFF loaders which are supplied as standard with ArtWorks 1.5, Impression Publisher and Style (the difference is that they can load 8-bit as well as 24-bit pictures). TIFF is another commonly used graphics format.

Includes a 24-bit Clear file loader, with source code and technical details for those interested in developing additional loader modules.

The package

• A disc with the loader software
• Sample JPEG files
• A manual describing installation and use of the software.

Pricing

Price: £39 + VAT (£45.82 incl.)

System requirements

2MByte recommended. RISC OS 3.1, a hard disc and CDFS 2.2 required for PhotoCD.

Suitable for all models of the Acorn RISC computer, for loading into Impression Style, Publisher and ArtWorks 1.5.