Copyright: ® 1988-1992 Apple Computer, Inc.


Contents

The following Help Topics are available:

Picture Viewer basics

Viewing a picture

Viewing more than one picture

Copying a picture to the clipboard

The keyboard interface

Glossary

For Help on Help, Press F1


Glossary of terms

Color

Compression

Compression ratio

Image

JPEG

PICT

Picture file

Pixel

Quality

Resolution

Slider

Uncompressed


Compression

Compression reorganizes the way a picture or file is stored in computer memory and on disk so that the file uses less space.

The computer can work more efficiently with the compressed file, and display images faster on screen.


Uncompressed

The state of a picture when it is displayed (whether or not the picture has been previously compressed).

A picture's uncompressed size refers to the amount of memory it occupies.  It is not necessarily the same as the size of the original picture from which the picture was compressed.


Color

The level of color at which a picture is stored.  For example, millions of colors (24-bit), 256 colors (8-bit), or black and white (1-bit).

Every picture is stored at a specific color setting, determined when the picture was first created or compressed.


Compression ratio

The comparison of a pictures's compressed size on disk to its uncompressed size in memory.


JPEG

Joint Photographic Experts Group, an international standard-setting committee that developed a standard for image compression used by many computers and programs.

QuickTime for Window's image display software supports the JPEG standard.


Quality

A setting which controls the degree of compression applied by a QuickTime compressor.

A higher quality setting causes less image compression to be applied.  This results in better image quality but also limits the saving in storage size.


Picture Viewer basics

About Picture Viewer

Quick Start: Viewing a picture

Glossary


About Picture Viewer

Picture Viewer allows you to view a picture file in a window.  It includes the ability to zoom in and out, print the picture, capture the picture into the clipboard, and view information about the picture.  Picture Viewer will automatically uncompress the picture if it is compressed in the picture file.

Picture viewer can maintain excellent image quality and color while displaying an image that may have been compressed by 90 percent or more.

Glossary


Quick start: Viewing a picture
Viewing a picture

Opening a picture

Printing a picture

Changing the display size of a picture

Copying a picture to the clipboard

Closing a picture

Getting information about a picture

Glossary


Picture file

A DOS file containing a QuickTime for Windows picture.  These files are characterized by the DOS suffix .PIC.

For example: HOME.PIC might be the name of a file that contains a QuickTime picture of your house.

The picture in the .PIC file may be compressed in one of several different QuickTime compression formats or the picture may be not compressed in the file.  The pictures are stored in the PICT format inside the picture files.


Opening a picture

To open a picture file :

1. Choose Open from the File menu.

Only .PIC files are listed in the Open dialog box.

2. Select the file you want.

3. Click OK.

The image will appear in a Picture Viewer window.

Only .PIC files that use the PICT file format can be viewed by Picture Viewer.

Glossary


Printing a picture

Choose Print from the File menu to print the image in the active window.

Choose Print Setup from the File menu to change the settings for page orientations, size and printing options.

The picture will be printed at its "actual size" provided it will fit on a single page.  If the picture will not fit on the page it will be reduced until it does.

Glossary


Image

The QuickTime picture displayed on the screen.


Getting information about a picture

Choose Get Image Info under the Image menu to see information about a picture.

You will see information about the picture file, the size (in pixels) of the image, the colors, the compression, the quality of the image and the uncompressed size of the picture.

Glossary


Changing the display size of a picture

The display size is the percentage of the picture magnification as you are viewing it on the screen.  Changing the display size doesn't affect the size of the original picture, just the way you see it on the screen.  As you change the percentage magnification of the picture you will see more or less of the picture depending upon the capabilities of your video hardware and the resolution at which the picture was stored in the file .

To change the display size:

Drag the slider in the bottom left section of the window.

The slider

The slider moves in preset increments, that are 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, and 400 percent.  This is the magnification of the picture. 100% means that you are seeing an optimum pixel for pixel display of the picture.  Any values less than 100% mean that the image has a lower resolution than the picture stored in the picture file.  Any values greater than 100% mean that one pixel from the picture takes multiple pixels on the screen - in essence zooming in to the picture.

Example: A picture is stored in the QuickTime for Windows file at 1024 x 768 pixels and 256 colors.  Your screen can only show 640 x 480 pixels at 256 colors.  When the image first appears the value will be 100% and you will only see a portion of the picture (the upper left part).  You can see the entire picture by setting the slider to a value less than 100% but you will see a loss of resolution in the image.

Glossary


Copying a picture to the clipboard

You may copy an image from the active window by selecting Copy from the Edit menu.  You may use the Control + C keys to perform the copy, or the Control + Insert keys.  The image will be copied to the clipboard as a device dependent bitmap, the palette will be copied to the clipboard if the video hardware supports pallets and the image will be copied as a device independent bitmap (DIB) as well.

Glossary


Closing a picture

Choose Close from the File menu,

or

Double click the System menu button at the top left corner of the Picture window.

Glossary


Viewing more than one picture

The Picture Viewer uses the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) convention.  This means that you may open and view more than one picture image at a time.  You may choose to view the same picture or different pictures.  You may iconize images or arrange them on the screen.

Choose the Window menu option to switch between multiple pictures or arrange pictures on the screen.

Opening a picture

Glossary


Slider

The mechanism that controls the size of the image in the Picture Viewer.


The keyboard interface

The following keys operate the Picture Viewer:

Key	Action
F1	Brings up the Help subsystem at the highest level
Number Pad Plus key "+"	Step image resolution up (zoom in)
Number Pad Minus key "-"	Step image resolution down (zoom out)
Up Arrow	Scroll up in the image
Down Arrow	Scroll down in the image
Page Up	Scroll up the amount of image visible (same as Control + Up Arrow)
Page Down	Scroll down the amount of image visible (same as Control + Down Arrow)
Home	Scroll to the top left of the image
End	Scroll to the bottom right of the image
Right Arrow	Scroll right in the image
Left Arrow	Scroll left in the image
Control + Page Up	Scroll left the amount of the image that is visible (same as Control + Left Arrow)
Control + Page Down	Scroll right the amount of the image that is visible (same as Control + Right Arrow)
Control + Up Arrow	Scroll up the amount of image visible (same as Page Up)
Control + Down Arrow	Scroll down the amount of image visible (same as Page Down)
Control + Right Arrow	Scroll right the amount of the image that is visible (same as Control + Page Down)
Control + Left Arrow	Scroll left the amount of the image that is visible (same as Control + Page Up)
Control + C	Copy image to the clipboard
Control + Insert	Same as Control + C (image to clipboard)

Glossary


PICT

A standard file format in which many Apple Macintosh programs store graphic images.

PICT is the file format used by QuickTime for Windows to store pictures in DOS .PIC files.


Pixel

A dot on the screen.  Pictures and images are often discussed in terms of their height and width in pixels.


Resolution

How faithfully the picture has been represented when its image is displayed on the screen. Low resolution means the image is not optimum.