Copyright: Andreas Kyriacou


What Is Imagine
What Is Imagine!

Imagine! is a 32 bit  image browser/manager and image editor for Windows 95/98/NT.

Imagine! Main Form

For colors in the image above to appear natural  your display needs to be set to at least 256 color mode.

Important Information

The complete help system for Imagine! can be accessed through the image above. Click on the Image where you see a hand cursor. Context related help can be obtained while Imagine! is running by pressing the F1 key on the keyboard. The " Home"  button at the top of this help file brings you back this main page after you have finished reading a particular topic. The links below provide a short introduction to Imagine!.

How to Register

Overview

External Viewers

Opening Documents and Executables

Viewing Modes

Image Formats and Conversions

Loading Image Files

Thumbnail Gallery

Drag and Drop

Magnifications and Scalings

Resizing images

Rotations and Reflections

Image Editor

Picture Index Maker

Screen Capture

Copy and Paste

Automatic Slideshow

Windows Wallpapers

File and Folder Management

Use of Multiple Program Copies

Popup Menus

Copying and Moving Images

Printing

Multiple File Selection

Switch Folders

Color

The Paint Box

Credits


Overview

Imagine! is an image browser with powerful file management features for those formats which are commonly used by Windows and  the Internet. It produces high quality images in 256 color as well as 16 bit and 24 bit display modes. Although the displayed images are as good as the best photo shop type programs, the purpose of Imagine! is quite different.  It's primary function is in  locating and organizing images and the emphasis is on the viewing experience, and convenience of use. From version 1.3 onward Imagine! is also capable of editing images allowing you to accurately draw on

photographs, achieve special effects, and save images in it's supported formats.


External Viewers

Imagine! can act  as a common launch pad for all the image processing programs on your computer. Images visible in Imagine! can quickly and easily be opened  in other programs capable of displaying or manipulating them. Imagine! launches the external program and transfers the image file to it at the same time. If the external program is capable of accepting the image,  the image will be immediately available to work on. The external programs (or viewers) are user defined and are set up via the options menu. Additions to the list of external viewers can also be made using drag and drop. In use, the list of viewers  can be recalled from both the File Menu and from the popup menu of the File List Box. Program entries in the 'External Viewers List' are not restricted to image manipulation programs. Any program can be launched from here.


Opening Documents and Executables

Imagine! is capable of opening documents and launching executable programs. When you select View All Files, the File List Box shows all the files in the selected folder (not just the image files). You can open a document or launch an executable  by double clicking on it in the File List box. Also when you need to invoke Windows Explorer,  you can use the Open Container or Explore Folder functions of Imagine! to get an Explorer window located at the current folder in Imagine!.


Viewing Modes

In normal windowed mode, Imagine! provides three different viewing modes - Normal, Fit to Image, and Fit to Window . There is also  a full screen display mode where nearly all of the program's standard facilities can still be used. Viewed images can be continuously re-sized between 16x, 8x, 4x, 2x ,1x, 1/2x ,1/4x, or 1/8x  size  by clicking on the image with the left or right mouse button.  The magnifications (ie those whose scale is grater than 1) are new to version 1.3. They are view only modes because only a fraction  of the image is projected onto the display. The reductions are (as in previous versions) high quality actual full size images which can be saved. You can also make other sizes to these using the built in re-sampler.

Viewing Modes are selected using View|Picture Style from the main menu.

View|Picture Style|Fit To Window adjusts the image scale so that (while maintaining correct aspect ratio) it fits wholly inside the Viewing Frame.

View|Picture Style|Fit To Image re sizes the Viewing Frame so as to fit perfectly round the image.

View|Picture Style|Normal  resets the picture style to normal.

The display modes can also be changed using the second and third buttons of the Fileview.


Image Formats and Conversions

All images visible in Imagine! can be saved in all of the other formats, except the metafile formats (.wmf and .emf). Windows metafiles  can be converted to the other formats but the reverse is not practical. You can however save emf as wmf and vice versa. Bitmaps can be 4,8 or 24 bit. Windows Icons are saved as 16 color. For Jpeg, Png, and Tiff  formats, you are asked to specify the image compression level and bits per pixel before saving. The Bitmap format allows you to set the image palette and color reduction options if you are down converting to 8 bits or less. Here is a list of formats:

•	Jpeg (.jpg,jpe,jpeg),

•	Bitmap (.bmp), 4, 8, and 24 bits/pixel  selectable palettes

•	Icon (.ico) , 32x32 16 color transparent

•	Gif (.gif)*

•	Portable Network Graphics (.png) 4,8 and 24 bits/pixel, Low Med,High compression

•	Tagged Image File Format (.tif,.tiff)  - non LZW formats

•	Truevision Targa(.tga)

•	TrueVision Vista(.vst)

•	Truevision Targa(.aif)

•	Paintbrush PCX (.pcx)

•	Paintbrush PCC (.pcc)

•	DCX Format (.dcx)

•	Windows Metafile (.wmf)

•	Enhanced Metafile (.emf)

*Gif not enabled in version 1.3 due to Unisys LZW licensing requirements


Loading Image Files

Imagine! offers full drag and drop facilities as well as it's own built in instant click image navigator (the Fileview) for rapid access to your image files. There are several ways to open image files with Imagine!:

•	You can Drag the image file (or a shortcut to the image file) from Windows Explorer onto an icon of Imagine!.

•	Drag the image file from Windows Explorer onto Imagine!'s main window once it is open.

•	You can drag folders as well as images. Dragging a folder onto Imagine! causes it to switch the Fileview to that particular folder.

•	By right clicking on the image file's icon in Windows Explorer and selecting Send To Imagine! from the menu which pops up.

•	You can make Imagine! the default viewer for a particular image file extension. This can be done using the Options|Setup|Install item on the main menu.

•	By navigating to the directory and drive containing the image file using the  Fileview.


Drag and Drop

You can drag and drop files, folders, (or links to files and folders) from Windows Explorer onto the open window of Imagine!. You can also do this with any link or icon of Imagine!.If you drop an Image file which is viewable in Imagine!, then Imagine! will display it, and at the same time Imagine! will adjust the directory of the Fileview so that other images in the same folder can be picked from the File List Box. If you drop a folder, the Fileview is adjusted so that the contents of the folder become available in the file list box. If you drop executable files, Imagine! asks you if you want to add these to the External Viewers List, otherwise they are ignored.


Thumbnail Gallery

The thumbnail gallery (see File|Thumbnails for full details) is a facility which quickly generates and displays  click-able miniatures of images in a folder allowing you to select images for viewing by content rather than by filename. As a file management feature it is offered on  the File menu as well as the two popup menus of the Fileview. The gallery normally makes thumbnails of a whole folder. However if you select  two or more files in the File List Box, thumbnails are then restricted to the files selected.  If you open the gallery from the Folder List Popup Menu or the File List Popup Menu you need to select files before you launch the gallery because it starts automatically from these menus. Thumbnails made using the gallery can be saved all at once or individually. You can set the sizes of thumbnails made from 32 pixels to 200 pixels per side.


Magnifications and Scalings

When you first load an image into Imagine!, you are able to change it's size by clicking on the image with the left and right mouse buttons to make it larger or smaller. Two fundamentally different approaches have been used to resize the image, depending on whether the image size needs to increase above it's normal size, or whether it needs to be made smaller.

When the image is magnified, only the fraction of the image which needs to appear on the display is actually enlarged.

When the image is scaled (reduced below full size) the whole of the image is reduced.

This means that whereas reduced images can be saved at their scaled sizes, the magnified images cannot be saved at their magnified sizes.

To help you keep track of what you are looking at, the title bar of Imagine! displays two numbers ahead of the file path:

(Magn:8:1, Scale:1:2)

"Magn" is short for magnification. In the above example the magnification is 8:1 or 8 x. but the image being looked at is actually a half size replica of the  original image.

In normal viewing mode the combination of magnification and scale shown above is not allowed to happen. When the Magnification is above unity the Scale is always 1:1 and when the scale is less than 1:1 the magnification is held at 1:1. You can achieve the combination above when you are using the Editing Tools, because you may actually want to edit a half sized image but magnify it so that it is easier to work on.

The magnifications and scalings have been merged into a single stream in the in the Jpeg Properties tool box, the scalings shown in the Jpeg Toolbox apply to all formats not just Jpeg.


Resizing Images

Imagine! provides three different ways of re-sizing images for saving to disk.

Integer Scalings

The integer scalings are the scalings below full size which are obtained when you click on the image with the mouse or that you set from the Jpeg Properties toolbox. The integer scalings are very accurate miniature replicas of the image and can be used as reference images against which to compare the quality of results obtained by other image reduction methods. These have been combined for convenience  with the magnifications (enlargements) when you left/right click on the image. The image magnifications only project a small area of the image onto the display and are intended for close up viewing only.

The integer scalings (and magnifications) can also be set in the Jpeg Properties toolbox and apply to all scalable formats not just Jpeg.

The Resampler

You can also make intermediate sizes and enlargements using the built in Image Resampler. When resampling Images the image source is not affected, there is no need for undo. Just make your adjustments and click the resample button again. The resampler always runs from the master image source you provided, not from the copy displayed.

With Jpeg Images be careful to resample using  the full size image.  With Jpegs, (and only with Jpegs,) the fractional sizes you see, result from fewer pixels actually being loaded into Imagine! from the disk file. This feature allows you, during normal use, to load from disk, large Jpeg files in reduced size form, so that you can skip  through images in a folder quite quickly.  You will not get good results if you use one of these miniatures as the source image for the resampler, especially if you are making enlargements. From version 1.3 onwards the Image Information Panel gives the dimensions at full size for all formats as this is easier to understand. The true size of the image source is however displayed in the Resample toolbox.

After a session in the Resampler, the image is always 'locked'. You will find you cannot use the left or right mouse buttons to resize the image, but you can save it, copy it to the clipboard  and do most other things including rotations, reflections etc. You can even open the Editing Tools and edit it. To return to the 'normal' mode click on the name of the image in the Fileview to reload it.

Fit To window

In Fit to Window display mode, the image (while maintaining it's aspect ratio) is adjusted to best fill  the image frame as you resize Imagine!. This mode works best for wmf and emf image formats.

Although as a general rule, you can save anything you see in Imagine's image frame, magnified images will not save at their enlarged sizes. The magnified images are new to version 1.3 and are obtained by left or right clicking with the mouse on the image. See Viewing Modes  They were introduced to allow accurate drawing  on images.


Rotations and Reflections

Imagine provides a complete set of rotations and reflections including rotation through arbitrary angles with a resolution of 1 degree. The fixed rotations and reflections can be applied cumulatively. Arbitrary rotation works differently in that it always rotates the source image through the specified angle. This allows you to try out different amounts of rotation using the same image as a reference. When using the Editing Tools, you can replace the source image with the image being edited.


Screen Capture

In version 1.3 there are two new functions in the Options Menu. Screen Capture and Window Capture. You can use these for making screenshots of individual windows or the desktop. These functions capture images directly into Imagine! and are as a consequence quicker and more convenient to use than method described in the Copy and Paste topic.


Copy and Paste

Copy and Paste allow you to exchange images between programs.The paste function by itself  can also be used to make screen shots of windows currently on the display, or screen shots of the whole display.

To copy the whole screen, to the clipboard, press the PrintScrn key on the keyboard. Alternatively to take a screen shot of the active window, ( this can be an application window or dialog) click on it's title bar to make it the active window, Hold down the Alt key and press PrintScrn as before. To view the image in Imagine! select  Paste Image from Imagine's Edit menu. (From version 1.3 onwards Imagine provides onboard capture facilities for screen and window capture. See Screen Capture for more details.)

You can also use copy and/or paste to transfer images from one function in Imagine to another. This has been automated in the Picture Index Maker, and you can use images from any program as backgrounds just by copying them to the clipboard.

The above description applies to the copy and paste functions of the  main menu. The Editing Tools toolbox has it's own pair of Copy/Paste functions. These are used to copy sections of the image and paste them back into different areas. The pasted image can be stretched, inverted, or mirrored before being fixed into the main image. You can also copy and paste between different images if you are working in 16 bit display mode or higher. (To do this you need to

use two copies of Imagine! because each image loaded will overwrite the previous one).  In 8 bit display mode you can only copy and paste image sections if  both images have the same palette.


Automatic Slideshow

The timed slideshow facility in Imagine! can be run in all viewing modes, and the ability to step through images in a folder using the keyboard arrow keys is present in all modes. The display is fully double buffered in version 1.3 so images do not flicker as the window is resized or when images are changed. Imagine! holds on to the current image until the next image is ready for display. This ability to 'overlay' images makes A-B quality comparisons between equal sized images extremely easy, and very small differences in the two images can be seen. This is used to good effect when the slideshow is running and photographs of the same subject in slightly different positions will appear to animate if the interval timer is suitably set. (Note: this works best in 24 bit display mode).


Windows Wallpapers

Imagine! makes, installs and activates windows wallpapers (256 color bitmaps). These may be centered or tiled and are enabled onto both the 'normal' and active desktops when Windows Explorer's Active Desktop is enabled.


File and Folder Management

Imagine! moves and copies single or multiple files, creates folders, removes empty folders, renames and re-numbers image files, locates files and duplicate images and sends deleted images to the recycle bin. In addition, the Fileview provides two different ways of filtering filenames in it's file list, to enable the rapid location of files.


Use of Multiple Program Copies

Multiple copies of Imagine! allow you to display several images together on the screen. If you collapse the frame(s) (with Fit to Image) and dismiss the Fileview(s) you can compare images side by side.

Multiple copies of Imagine! communicate folder and file paths via the Windows clipboard. You can paste the clipboard paths as text into any other program. This can be useful when designing  web pages,  because by pasting image paths into your html you avoid spelling errors.

You can use  multiple copies of Imagine! to monitor both the source and destination folders in a copy or move operation.  The File List Box in Imagine! automatically updates as files are added removed or renamed in  the folder currently being viewed. This lets you monitor news reader  download or browser cache folders 'live' while the image files are coming in.

Multiple copies of Imagine! use a shared set of Recent Folders . This allows a new copy of Imagine! to 'know' where existing copies have been, and often allows you to position a new viewer in the file system quite quickly.


Popup Menus

Most of the functions in Imagine!'s main menu are duplicated on popup menus. The popup menus are context related. If you click with the right mouse button on Imagine!'s Folder List Box you get a menu which relates to things you can do with Folders. If you do the same thing with the File List Box the popup menu contains things you can do with Files. There is also a popup menu  associated with the file list of the Find In Files toolbox.


Copying and Moving Images

Copy and Move operations normally go from the File List Box of the Fileview - located on the front of Imagine! (the source) to the folder specified by the dedicated Move/Copy dialog (the destination). Single or Multiple Files can be moved or copied.  The Move/Copy dialog always remembers the folder  it was last set to (even between sessions).  The Move/Copy  folder can be pre-set before the dialog is used by copying a path to it from either the clipboard or from the Folder List box. This saves having to navigate the dialog to the required directory in about 90% of cases. If the folder you want to save to is visible in Imagine!'s Folder List Box,  there is a shortcut for setting the destination folder: just hold down the ctrl key and click on the folder you want in the Folder List Box.


Printing

From version 1.2 onwards Imagine allows you to print images. The print function allows you to scale the image to fit the paper and provides several alternative positions for the location of the image in both portrait and landscape paper orientations.


Multiple File Selection

In Copy, Move  Delete and some other operations. you can select more than one file at a time in the File List Box.

The simplest method when selecting consecutive files, is to click with the left mouse button on a filename and keeping the button pressed down, drag  the mouse cursor over the files you wish to select. If you have not changed Imagine!'s default colors, the selected area will be highlighted in blue. When you release the mouse, the selected area remains highlighted. If you right click with the mouse on the File List Box, (or choose  File  from the main menu) you can then select Copy, Move or Delete from the menu that appears.

To select non-consecutive files and have them operated on all at once, you need to hold down the ctrl key as you click on the files. You can still drag over adjacent files but remember to keep the ctrl key held down.

You can also use the shift key in the File List Box. Select one file. Now press the shift key and select another file separated from the first by several files . As soon as you click on the second file, the files in between all become selected.


Switch folders

The Switch Folders facility exchanges the folder which Imagine! is 'looking at' with that of the Move/Copy dialog. The main use of this facility is when a file has been moved accidentally. You simply switch folders, pick up the file in the new folder and send it back where it came from. You may then of course switch back if you wish.


Picture Index Maker

The Picture Index Maker allows you to make index files containing miniaturized versions (thumbnails ) of all  the images in a particular folder.  You can make single or multiple index pages for each folder.  The picture index maker in Imagine! gives you  a lot of control over the appearance of the index page. Fonts, colors, and line widths, are all individually settable, as is the page size. You can use graphic or plain backgrounds. Graphic backgrounds can be centered or tiled. It may seem a bit too much at first but don't worry. The Picture Index Maker is preset with default  settings to help get you started. All you need to do to make your first picture index is to maximize Imagine!, select some files in Imagine!s Fileview, and click on the start button of the Picture Index Maker panel.


Image Editor

The Image Editor is invoked automatically and transparently when you select a tool from the Editing Tools toolbox and click on the image for the first time. The Editing Tools toolbox is self contained and provides everything you need for editing images. You can eliminate all the clutter from your desktop and edit your images in Imagine!'s full screen display mode where you can concentrate on your work.

The image editor gives you crop, copy and paste of image sections, surface fill and border fill, pen, line, rectangle and ellipse. Pasted image sections can be stretched, mirrored, and inverted. The line, rectangle and ellipse can be adjusted after they are drawn. You can change their color, line thickness, placement and dimensions after you have drawn them. You can change the placement and dimensions of crop rectangles and you can also clone the line, rectangle, and ellipse. By combining cloning with adjustment you can draw some objects in minutes which otherwise would take a long time. The set of "Olympic" rings below is an example

This took about 4 minutes to draw in Imagine! I have tried and given up several times trying to draw the same thing using Windows paintbrush. To produce the rings you need to clone the circle and change it's color after each duplication.The image editor is particularly useful for removing blemishes on photographs. The color sampling tool is designed so that you never need to move the mouse cursor away from the spot where you are working. Using this in combination with the pen tool, you can quickly cover over warts, pimples, scratches, and small stains on clothing or other parts of the image by randomly selecting color from pixels adjacent to the blemish. For larger areas if you can find a suitable adjacent background you can cut and paste over the offending area. This method can sometimes be quite effective at eliminating text printed on the image, because it retains the texture of the background and so is less obvious than just coloring over in a similar shade.

The Image Editor is particularly effective at working with small graphics even though it was not designed for the purpose. The last third of the button images of the Editing Tools toolbox were drawn using Imagine!  (They would all have been drawn with Imagine!, if the magnification facility had been added earlier). On 16 x 16 pixel icons, the placement of shapes is particularly critical since there is very little tolerance for incorrect placement. The ability to pick up and move the whole of an incorrectly placed image using Imagine! saves a lot of work.


Color

Imagine! allows the use of different colors for image backgrounds and the Fileview. You can save time by testing how images will look against different backgrounds before you load them into your applications. A very large range of colors is available from the main menu. 18 colors can be obtained by holding down the ctrl-key and left or right clicking on the area surrounding  the image. Similarly you can also change the color of the Fileview by shift-clicking in the Folder List box.


The PaintBox

Version 1.3 does away with the standard windows color dialogs and introduces the Paint Box for setting the colors of Imagine!'s display areas and also for coloring images. The Paint Box is a floating toolbox which does not close after you have applied a color, so you can pick and try out colors as many times as you like.  It contains 22 digitally generated palettes containing mixed as well as  shades of color. For example palette 2 is the mixed color Nescape Web Palette  whereas palette 24  gives you  512 shades of orange.

The paint box also contains two non generated palettes. These are the Windows 20 color system palette and  the palette of the image being displayed. The Windows palette is for drawing graphics so that they will display correctly at all screen resolutions in Windows . The image palette allows you to see the color palette of the image currently being displayed. You can choose colors from the image palette for drawing on the image or coloring parts of Imagine!. Colors from the image palette complement the colors in the graphic with pleasing results. You can also edit the colors in the image palette.

The paint box also provides a small custom area which holds up to 38 colors which are remembered between sessions, and the Paint Box can be shrunk to just this area when you want to minimize the area it occupies on the screen. For full  details see View|Paint Box.


Image Palettes

Palettes are used when saving images in 8 bit and 4 bit formats. 24 bit images (truecolor) do not need palettes. The Save Image As function for Windows BMP (and also for  PNG) will let you save images  in 4 bit as well as 8 bit and 24 bit formats. When Saving in Windows BMP format you can select from a range of palettes with which to save the image. This facility is only available for the BMP format. If you need a special palette for one of the other formats, you should save the file as BMP first  and then load and save it in the other format. Palettes are also available when saving 24 bit BMP files. Some programs (including Imagine!) can read 24 bit files in 8 bit display mode and use the supplied palette to get the right colors for the image. Some other programs however, cannot handle 24 bit files which contain a palette  so if you are sending a 24 bit file to someone and you do not know what program will be used to read it, then it is best to set the palette to zero. If you are unfamiliar with image palettes the topic What are Image Palettes? provides a fuller explanation.


Credits

Here are some of those who have contributed (knowingly or not) to the making of Imagine!. Imagine! is written using Inprise Delphi 3. The Jeg portion of Imagine! uses code by The Independent Jpeg Group. The Gif portion of Imagine!, resample code in the Picture Index Maker, and code in some other places is by Anders Melander. The Disk Search Algorithm is due to James L Allison". Most of my questions were answered by contributors to alt.comp.lang.borland-delphi  and comp.lang.pascal.delphi.misc. This help file was written using Help Scribble by Jan Goyvaerts. An estimated 30,000 hours of work on my part have gone into the project so far.


How to Register
How to Register Imagine!

License Fee

The price of a single user License for Imagine! is US $25.50. This allows Imagine! to be installed on one computer or workstation to be used by a single user at a time. If you install Imagine! on a server or other system which allows concurrent use of Imagine! by more than one user, then a license is required for each user. Multiple User/ Site Licenses are available please contact me.

Payment

You can purchase Imagine! on-line using your Credit Card from either Regsoft (www.regsoft.com) or Shareit!(www.shareit.com). You can also order from either company by phone or fax. If you want to order by phone or fax you will need the product ID.

Ordering From Regsoft

The product ID for Imagine! is 30495

The URL for the Regsoft Secure Server is

http://www.regsoft.net/purchase.php3?productid=30495

If you have difficulty connecting to the above link then this URL takes you to the non secure server

http://www.regsoft.net/purchase_nonsecure.php3?productid=30495

Ordering from Shareit!

The product ID for Imagine! is 130805

The URL for the Shareit Secure Server is

https://secure.element5.com/register.html?productid=130805

You can place your order with Shareit! in a number of languages apart from English, you can select the language you want to use once you get to their site .

Registration Codes

I will dispatch your registration code by email as soon as I am informed by the appropriate order processing company of your order with them. You should expect to receive your registration code within 36 hours. If there are any problems do not hesitate to email


Anatomy of the Fileview

The Fileview is composed of five parts, the Speedbuttons, the Drive List Box, the Folder List Box, the File List Box, and the File Information Panel.

Click on the picture below to learn more.

Fileview

This picture identifies the main parts  of the fileview. Detailed descriptions are given in the popup labels of the picture of the main topic What is Imagine!


What Are Image Palettes?

This topic is an instant primer color palettes. Some minimal knowledge of bits, bytes and binary numbers helps to properly follow the discussion. Like all explanations some background helps first. Each section is headed so you can skip those parts you already know.

The Display

The computer generated part of a display screen is made up of a large number of tiny square dots called pixels (picture cells). The screen resolution is the total number of these dots on the screen. It is usually given as the product of the number of pixels in each of the horizontal and vertical directions (for example 1024 x 768). A pixel is the smallest element of the display  that can be controlled by the computer. The brightness and color of a pixel can be changed from black through intermediate colors to white. The computer controls the color of each pixel by mixing  the red, green, and blue components of white light together in varying amounts.

Bitmaps

Bitmaps are two dimensional arrays of numbers in computer memory which describe an image. The individual numbers represent the pixels in the image. The position of a pixel in the bitmap is found by counting how many pixels along it is from the left hand edge of the bitmap (X coordinate), and how many pixels down it is from the top of the bitmap (Y coordinate). The color of a pixel located at the coordinate (X,Y) depends on the value of the number in the bitmap at that pixel location.

24 bit Format (Truecolor)

Pixels in 24 bit images consist of 3 bytes laid side by side at each point of the  bitmap array. One byte for each of the red, green, and blue components of white light. Each byte can have one of 256 different  values, so each color component can take on separately one of 256 possible intensity levels. All possible intensities taken together give

256 x 256 x 256 = 16.777216 million possible colors

For 24 bit graphics all the information needed to describe the image is present in the bitmap array. This makes  24 bit bitmaps complete and self contained. The image can be displayed directly from the bitmap

Paletted Graphics

Unlike 24 bit graphics, paletted graphics use an indirect method to obtain the displayed image. This  method results in considerable saving in memory at the cost of reduced color information in the image. Natural scenes however, contain a lot of redundant color information, and with the 8 bit format (also known as the 256 color format), it is possible to achieve  good photographic results.

8 bit Format

In 8 bit format, only one byte is used to represent each pixel. One byte has only 256 values. if you tried to split this three ways (to mimic the 24 bit case) you can represent each of the red, green and blue components of white light with two bits and there will be  two bits left over (a byte has 8 bits).  Two bits will only give you 4 levels for each color or 4 x 4 x 4 = 64 colors.

This is not very good and it would be hopeless for holding photographic images. The solution is to use a palette.  A palette is a separate memory from the bitmap. It contains the colors that the bitmap uses. Each position in the palette is numbered. This number is called the palette index.  The main bitmap does not hold a color value at each point. It holds the  value of the palette index of the color which belongs at that point in the bitmap.

In other words it is a color by numbers scheme. The colors are kept separate from the picture and the color which belongs at each point in the picture is called up by a number which says where to find it in the palette.

The palette itself contains 3 bytes for each color just like 24 bit format, but the bitmap array contains  8 bit numbers and these can  only have 256 possible values. This means that no more than  256 palette indices are needed  so the palette memory is fairly small.

You can look at real image palettes when you select palette 1 in the Paint Box . In the case of palette 1 the color numbers displayed are the actual palette indices.

4 bit Format

Four bit format takes the memory compression further than 8 bit format by using one byte in the bitmap array to represent two pixels in the graphic. Each half of the 8 bit number being a  4 bit number can only take on 16 possible values. These values are used to address a palette which now only has 16 color entries. With 16 colors, photographic reproduction is not possible. However you can draw quite a lot of things with only a handful of colors, so 4 bit format is extremely common particularly in small graphics and icons, and is used throughout the Windows operating system.


Realizing a Palette

All images displayed in 8 bit display mode share a single

palette - the Windows system palette. Switching the colors

from the image palette into the system palette is called

realizing the image palette. A foreground palette transfers

colors from the image palette overwriting any colors that

were there before. A background palette can only transfer

colors to unused space in the system palette.


Dithering

Dithering is a process applied to 8 bit images to try and make up

for the lack of available colors. Essentially the colors are moved

about a bit in position so that the eye is fooled into seeing the

average of the colors.


Synthesized Palette

This is a quick but temporary palette applied in 8 bit display mode to 24 bit images

which do not have a palette. The palette is derived from colors in the graphic and

gives good but not terrific results. The image remains a 24 bit graphic and no

dithering is applied. When you save such an image as an 8 bit graphic the

temporary palette is re-synthesized and dithered to produce optimum results.

(This applies to all  formats except BMP format where the choice is left up to you.)

The palette used is the WinOctree palette. You can examine the colors generated

by this palette with different images using the Paint Box.


Move/Copy Dialog

The Move/Copy Dialog is a standard Windows Save Dialog Used in File Move and Copy operations.

Here is a picture of the Move/Copy dialog. Sorry, there is nothing to click on this image.

The main purpose of this dialog is to give you the opportunity to browse for or create a destination folder. When you move or copy single files, you can optionally rename the file shown in the Filename Box. When you move or copy multiple files, the name of the first selected file is shown but you cannot rename.


anatomy|Speedbuttons
SpeedButtons


anatomy|Drive List Box
Drive List Box


anatomy|Folder List Box
Folder List Box


anatomy|File List Box
File List Box


anatomy|Image Information
Image Information Panel


anatomy|Folder Selector
Folder Selector


anatomy|File Selector
File Selector


anatomy|Drive Selector Tab
Drive Selector Tab


File Menu

Click on the links below to find out

more about items in the File Menu

File|New Viewer

File|External Viewer

File|Recent Folders

File|Thumbnails

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File|Copy Path

File|Paste Path To

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File|Find

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File|Copy

File|Move

File|Delete

File|Rename

File|New Folder

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File|Save Image As

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File|Switch Folders

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File|Exit


File|New Viewer

This menu item launches a new copy of Imagine!.

The new viewer starts in the same folder as the copy of Imagine! which launched it. If an image was selected in the first viewer, that image will be displayed in the second viewer.

If you select a file which Imagine! cannot display (View|All Files mode), the new copy of Imagine! opens on the containing folder of the file. You will not see the file listed in the File List Box of the new viewer because the setting of View|All files is unchecked (ie off) when a new viewer is launched.


File|External Viewer

This feature integrates all the different image viewers and image manipulation programs you have into a single sub-menu giving you the ability to operate on the same image using several different tools

Note: This  menu item must be  set up before it can be used. Use Options|Setup|External Viewer or drag and drop to install external viewers.

When you select this item a side menu pops out listing the external viewers which are available. When you choose a viewer, the currently selected image is normally opened in the external viewer ready to be worked on.

The external viewer list always contains the default item 'open container'.This may be changed in later program versions.

This function  is also available from the popup menu when you right click on the name of the image file in the File List Box.


File|Recent Folders

Allows you to position Imagine! in the file system by selecting from a list of recently visited folder paths.

When you select this item a side menu pops out showing folders you have recently visited. You can switch Imagine! to any of these folders by clicking on the one you wish to go to.


File|Thumbnails

This option creates a click-able gallery of thumbnails from images in a folder  allowing you to preview  image files before loading them at full size.

The image below is live click on the image where you see a hand cursor.

Thumbnail  Gallery

This option starts automatically when invoked from the popup menu of the folder or file list box. When invoked from the main menu you must start it manually. You can make thumbnails of an entire folder or you can select a range of files in the file list box. If one file or none is highlighted in the file list box (the usual situation) clicking on the start button will process all image files in the folder. If you highlight two or more files then only the highlighted files will be turned into thumbnails.

This facility produces thumbnails very quickly. Thumbnail quality at 16 and 24 bit displays settings is good, and (when the Hi-Fi thumbnails option is selected) can equal  that of Imagine!'s Picture Index Maker. Some formats are faster than others, but JPEG is about the best. In 24 bit display mode a run on 170  JPEG's of 130KB average size on disk, using thumbnails of size 100, produced over 220 thumbnails per minute using the following (quite old) system:-

Cyrix PR 200MMX  CPU /  Seagate 4.3GB 12ms HDD / 32 MB RAM / S3 Virge 4MB Video card.

You can run these tests on your own system using the timer functions of the thumbnail statistics indicator (click on the black box labelled "Memory" in the picture for more details). How fast it all works depends on whether you run the test a first time or a subsequent time because Windows caches files from a previous run so a subsequent run is usually quicker.

Note: Making changes while the thumbnail making is in progress is allowed, however changes will not come into effect until you start the thumbnail maker again.

8 bit Display mode

The large number of small images all of differing color composition which are created when making thumbnails means that a palette optimised to all the images is unlikely to work well for any individual image. Making an optimised palette would also take a long time if there are many thumbnails and the speed of operation would suffer. Since this function is for identification purposes, speed of operation has been placed above other factors. A fixed color palette containing a spread of colors is used for all  thumbnails. The color palette currently used is the 216 color Netscape Web palette*. Results using fixed greyscale palettes are much better than for color. With greyscale palettes the speed of thumbnail delivery drops as the number of shades of grey goes up. Consequently a selection of greyscale plettes from 16 shades to 236 shades has been provided for you to experiment with.

Realizing the thumbnails image palette as a foreground palette gives better color (and greyscale) rendering of the thumbnails, but it does so at the cost of color quality in the image displayed in Imagine!'s main window. This is particularly striking when the greyscale palette is used. The recommended setting of this option is to leave it unchecked. If you save thumbnails, a foreground palette is automatically realised during the save to ensure you get the best possible image comitted to disk.

*You can view the colors of this palette. It is palette number 2 in Imagine!'s Paint Box.

Memory

Although Winows will shufle thumbnails out to the swap file, once the need to do this is reached, things start to move very slowly indeed. On the system mentioned above, the limit arrives at about 800 thumbnails of size 80. Because the area of the thumbnail (and hence the memory consumed) increases as the square of its sides you will only get 1/4 of the mumber of thumbnails if you go to size 160. There are three solutions to this problem:-

1)Buy more memory

2)Make smaller thumbnails

3)Keep the number of images in each folder to a sensible number.

Because of the way Windows fakes memory there is no sensible way of knowing when the user friendly limit is reached and you can find yourself in a situation where the hard drive is spinning continuously and you appear to be locked out of the application. A little patience is normally rewarded however, and if you click on the stop button and wait, it will eventually register. To help avoid this situation, Imagine! has a limit built in . You can change this limit to better suit you system. The upper limit will vary from system to system but a good starting point would be about 1/3 of the total RAM on your computer.


File|Copy Path

Copies the path of the currently selected file to the Clipboard

If no file is selected in the File List Box, then the path copied will be the path to the containing folder. This command works in conjunction with the Paste command. It is used to communicate paths  when multiple copies of Imagine! are being used. It can also be used to copy a file or folder path as text to any other program.


File|Paste Path To

This menu item groups together the following four sub-items : Move/Copy Dialog, SaveAs Dialog, Imagine! and Picture Index Browse Dialog.

Paste Path To Move/Copy Dialog

Copies a valid path from the clipboard into the standard Windows save dialog used to copy or move files. This prepares the Move/Copy dialog so that when a file or files is subsequently moved it is already positioned at the destination folder for the copy or move. This saves having to navigate the dialog to the destination directory.

Paste Path To Save As Dialog

Copies a valid path from the clipboard into the standard Windows save dialog used for saving image files which are currently visible in Imagine!. This prepares the Save As dialog so that when a file is subsequently saved it is already positioned at the destination folder. This saves having to navigate the dialog to the destination directory.

Paste Path To Imagine!

Copies a valid path from the clipboard into Imagine!s Fileview. This causes Imagine! to switch to the directory path and load the file (if one is present) which was specified in the clipboard.

Paste Path To Picture Index Browse Dialog

Copies a valid path from the clipboard to the dialog used by the Picture Index Maker for selecting background images. This prepares the background selection dialog so that when it is subsequently opened, it is positioned at the selected folder.  A related function is Folder List|Copy Path To Picture Index Browse Dialog


File|Find

This menu item groups together the following sub-menu items:

 Find In Files, Find File and Find Selector.

To Find Out About each item follow these links

Find In Files

Find Selector

Find File


File|Copy

This menu item allows you to copy the currently selected image files to a different folder.

You can select several files from the File List Box at once by selecting them with the mouse in conjunction with  the Shift and Ctrl keys. When copying a single file you can optionally rename the file during the move. This function opens the Move/Copy Dialog which is used to set the destination folder for the copy.


File|Move

This menu item allows you to move the Image files currently selected in then File List Box to a different folder

You can select several files from the File List Box at once by selecting them with the mouse in conjunction with  the Shift and Ctrl keys. When copying a single file you can optionally rename the file during the move. This function opens the Move/Copy Dialog which is used to set the destination folder for the copy.


File|Delete

This menu item allows you to delete the currently selected image file or remove the currently selected folder if it is empty.

Whether a file or folder is to be deleted depends on whether the File List Box or the Folder List Box has focus. To be certain, it is best to click on the item you wish to delete just before invoking this function. Deleted files go to the recycle bin. You may send  multiple files to the recycle bin with the aid of the shift and control keys.

This function is also available when you right click on the File List Box or the Folder List Box. you may also invoke Delete by pressing the delete key on the keyboard.


File|Rename

This menu item allows you to rename the currently selected file or folder.

This image is 'live' click on the picture where you see a hand cursor to learn more about the controls of the Rename Toolbox .

Rename Toolbox

Normal  Mode

If Alt Filename is not checked and the Rename toolbox is open , any file (or folder)  you select in Imagine!'s Fileview  is offered for editing in the box labeled New File. The changes are committed  by clicking on the Rename button or by pressing the Enter key on the keyboard.  The rename toolbox stays open. You can select a new file (or folder)  in Imagine!'s Fileview and rename as many files as you like. You dismiss the toolbox by clicking on the cross in the top right hand corner.

Renumber Mode

If Alt File Name is checked , the grayed-out boxes labeled Alt File Name, Plus Number and Extension become active. These boxes always copy the file name when Alt File Name is not checked. When you check Alt File Name the boxes stop copying the filename. You can edit the text in the boxes but it does not change as you click on a new file in the Fileview.

The boxes split the filename into three parts:

Alt File Name is the part of the name before the period (full stop)  less any trailing numeric digits it may have.

Plus Number holds any trailing numeric digits from the filename.

Extension holds the file extension and is read only.

This mode allows you to apply a filename having constant text at the front but with a differing numeric part (ahead of the period and extension) to any number of files. If you check the Auto-increment box, the numeric part of the name will automatically step on as you rename each file.

•	You can also use this mode with folders.

•	You can use this mode if you do not want the filename to automatically update as you select new files in the Fileview.

This function is also available from  the popup menu  when you right click on the File List Box or the Folder List Box.


File|New Folder

This item allows you to create a new folder anywhere along the path visible in the Folder List Box

This function tries to create the folder New Folder. If New Folder already exists then it creates a folder of the form New Folder(N). N is a whole number greater than zero chosen to make the folder name unique. (This part is just the same as making new folders in Windows Explorer). The function then opens the Rename Toolbox  to allow you to assign a name to the newly created folder.

Folder List Box

Folders are always created as sub-folders of the folder currently selected by the Folder Selector bar (the blue bar in the picture).

Example

Suppose the folder path

C:\BigImages\MyImages

already exists. You want to create a folder called YourImages on the same level as MyImages in the folder BigImages. Here is what you do:

Click on BigImages to move the Folder Selector bar to the right place, and select New Folder from the File menu.  This will create a new folder in BigImages. If there are no folders in Bigimages already called New Folder, you will get the following path:

C:\BigImages\New Folder.

At the same time the Rename Toolbox will open and will offer you the opportunity to assign New Folder a different name. This name of course will be YourImages.

This function is also available from the popup menu obtained when you right click on the Folder List Box.


File|Save Image As

This menu item allows you to save the image currently displayed in the Image Frame either in it's existing or a different format.

When you select this item a Windows Save Dialog pops up allowing you to choose the folder where the image is to be saved. The box labeled File Name near the bottom of the dialog contains the original name of the file less it's file extension. Click the tab to the right of the box labeled save as type and choose the Image type you require from the drop down list. Click on Save to complete the operation. The Save Image As dialog is independent of the Move/Copy dialog to which it looks similar.

For PNG, TIFF and BMP, and JPEG formats an additional dialog pops up offering further options.

PNG Additional Dialog

TIFF Additional Dialog

BMP Additional Dialog

JPEG Additional Dialog

Notes On file Formats:

1) When 24 bit truecolor bitmap files which do not contain an 8 bit palette are shown in 8 bit display mode, Imagine! synthesizes an optimized color palette for these images. This palette is derived from the colors in the image and is superior to the Windows halftone palette which is often used. The creation of a palette is non-destructive so all of the information in the 24 bit image is retained. This preserves the image so that it can be accurately re-sampled (re-sized), and also saved as a true 24 bit jpeg or bitmap when using 8 bit display mode. Color reduction and Floyd Steinberg dithering of the image are only applied when it is saved in an 8 bit format.

1a)Windows NT on 8 bit displays automatically dithers 24 bit images to an internal palette of it's own giving inferior results. The high quality palette synthesized by Imagine! is ignored.

2)Although you can save Windows Metafile or Enhanced Metafile formats  as Png, Jpeg or Bitmap the reverse is not possible. Metafiles consist of lists of lines, points, colors, etc. which describe how the image is to be drawn. One advantage they have is that they are almost infinitely scalable. Use Fit to Window mode to Resize them. You can enlarge them without loss of resolution.


File|Switch Folders

This menu item switches the Folder in the Fileview with the destination folder of the most recent copy or move operation.

This function has two uses. If you make a mistake in a move operation and send a file you did not intend to another folder. You can switch to that folder and simply move it back. The other use is that you can launch a second copy of Imagine! and by simply "switching" you can have it monitor the destination folder while the first copy is monitoring the source folder.


File|Exit

This menu item closes Imagine!.

On exit some settings which are required next time Imagine! is used are saved. In particular the folder in which Imagine! will start next time is saved. When Multiple copies of Imagine! are in use, it is the last copy closed which determines the start up conditions for the next session.


Thumbs|Title
Title

Shows number of thumbnails made so far and the number

 of thumbnail rows and columns in the image list box. (The

rows and columns change as you resize the image list box).


Thumbs|Statistics
Statistics

This indicator displays the following functions.

•	Accumulated Memory usage as thumbnails are made.

•	Time taken since the start of thumbnail production.

•	Thumbnails delivered per minute.

The Memory usage is shown by default. You can cycle

through all three modes by clicking on the indicator.


Thumbs|Options
Thumbnail Gallery Options

click on these links to find

out about items in this menu

Thumbnail Palette

Foreground palette

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Find Selector

Watch As Added

HiFi Thumbnails

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Limit Memory Use


Thumbs|Maximize
Maximize

Maximize enlarges the whole toolbox in the vertical

direction to it's greatest height. Clicking this button

again restores the toolbox to it's former height. It does

not affect the horizontal size. You can resize the height

and width of the maximized toolbox but the width is

limited to 75 percent of the screen width.


Thumbs|Close
Close

Close Puts away the Thumbnail Gallery .

If thumbnails were being made it will automatically

go into pause mode . Close does not clear any

thumbnails made, because you may want to view

them again. It is advisable to clear them when no

longer needed to conserve memory.


Thumbs|Clear
Clear

Clear Stops making thumbnails and

clears the image list box.


Thumbs|Start
Start

Start clears the image list box

and starts making thumbnails


Thumbs|Watch Status
Watch Status/Watch As Added Option

The watch indicator shows whether the Watch as Added Option is selected.

You can click on the indicator to turn the Watch as Added feature on or

off or you can set the status of the feature in the Thumbnails Options menu.

Watch as Added ensures that the vertical scroll bar is always pushed to

the bottom of the Image List Box so that as each row of thumbnails completes,

thumbnails are scrolled upwards and you can always see thumbnails as they

are created. This option interferes if you are trying to scroll the Image List Box

during the time that thumbnails are being added, but it has no effect once all

thumbnails have been made. You can gain complete control of the vertical

scroll bar if you turn the option off.


Thumbs|Pause
Pause

Pause stops thumbnail creation but does not

clear the image list box. You can resume making

thumbnails by clicking on pause again.


Thumbs|HiFi Status
Hi-Fi Status/Hi-Fi Thumbnails Option

The HiFi status indicator shows whether the Hi-Fi Thumbnails Option is selected. You can click on the indicator to turn the Hi-Fi Thumbnails feature on or off or you can set the status of the feature in the Thumbnails Options menu.

In normal mode thumbnails are made using the high speed stretching routines provided by Windows. The thumbnails are delivered quickly but they are unfiltered and sometimes appear jagged. Enabling the Hi-Fi option uses a resampling method to obtain very high quality thumbnails but the extra processing involved inevitably slows down thumbnail delivery.


Thumbs|Size
Size

This sets the size of a thumbnail in pixels.

Thumbnails are square so the size is the

width of one side.


Thumbs|FindSelector
Find Selector

Brings the selection rectangle into

view if it has scrolled out of the box.


Thumbs|ThumbnailPalette
Thumbnail Palette

Applies to 8 bit display mode only.

This option provides a selection of palettes to use with the thumbnails.

The way color operates in Winows 8 bit mode makes high quality color

reproduction for the thumbnails impractical. However you can get

good greyscale images with as few as 32 shades of grey. The number

of shades in the palette has  considerable effect on the speed at which

thumbnails are delivered.  For identification purposes the  16 shade

greyscale palette is more than adequate. For saving  thumbnails you

may want to use one of the better palettes which provides more shades

of grey. A fixed 236 color palette is also provided. This palette works best

with graphical images where the exact color shade is not very critical.

Note: If you change palttes while thumbnails are being made, existing

thumbnails look spoiled because they are drawn using the old palette.

You need to start the run again to see the thumbnails at the new settings.


Thumbs|Foreground Palette
Foreground Palette

Applies to 8 bit display mode only. The recommended setting for this option

is unchecked. When this option is not enabled the palette used by

the thumbnails is a background palette. A background palette inserts its colors

in the space left over in the Windows 8 bit system palette after  a foreground

palette has been realized.  Imagine!'s main window always realizes a foreground

palette for it's image. Selecting the foreground palette option for the thumbnails

gives better colors in the thumbnails but drains color away from the main image.

The other effect you will see is "palette flashing" as you click between the main

image and the thumbnais. This happens because it take time for Windows to

remap the image onto the new colors in the system palette.


Thumbs|Image List Box
Image List Box

This is the scrollable area where the

thumbnails are displayed. There is a

popup menu associated with this list box


Thumbs|Selection Rectangle
Selection Rectangle

The rectangle picked out in white, identifies the last selected thumbnail.

Images load at the first click on the thumbnail. The file selector in Imagine!'s

file list box moves to the position of the image loaded. You can move the

selection rectangle around using the arrow keys. You can load the selected

file using the Enter key. The delete key will send the selected thumbnail to

the recycle bin.


Thumbs|Limit Memory Use
Limit Memory Use

Thumbails are made fastest when they are stored in RAM. When the RAM is used up, the Windows swap file comes into operation and things can get very slow. This option allows you to set a limit on how much RAM is available for storing thumbnails. When this limit is reached, thumbnail making stops. This keeps thumbnail making inside it's optimum area of operation  and reduces the impact on other applications which may be running.

The "Limit"  figure on the status bar at the bottom of the Thumbnail Gallery window tells you how many  thumbnails can be made given the present thumbnail size, memory limit, and display setting*.

The default memory limit is about 12.5MB and is based empirically on a system with 32MB total system RAM with some margin thrown in.  If your system has  the same memory you will probably find you can allocate more memory than this. If you have  more or less memory on you computer you may want to adjust the Memory Limit to better suit your system.

*You will get more thumbnails in 16 bit and 8 bit modes than in 24 bit mode.


Thumbs|Limit
Limit

The number of thumbnails made cannot exceed this number.

This number increases if you reduce the thumbnail size.

Limit is dependent on how much RAM memory you have

allowed the Thumbnail Gallery to use. The default is 12.5MB.

This is based on 32MB total RAM. You may want to reduce this

if your computer has less memory. The memory limit can be

altered from the thumbnails options menu.


Thumbs|Count
Count

Shows the number of thumbnails made sor far.


Thumbs|Rows
Rows

Tells you how many rows of thumbnails there are.


Thumbs|Columns
Columns

Tells you the number of thumbnail columns.


Thumbs|Scrollbar
Scrollbar

This allows you to bring thumbnails from outside of the

visible area of the Image list box into view. There is also

a horizontal scrollbar, however this will rarely appear

because the thumbnails give preference to increasing in the

vertical direction.


Thumbs|Popup Menu

This popup menu is associated with the Thumbnail Gallery's image list box.

The following sub items are present:-

Move File

Copy File

Delete file

Find

Save Thumbnail As

Save all Thumbnails

Move File, Copy File, Delete File

These three items operate on the image file represented by the thumbnail not on the thumbnail itself. They operate similarly to the Move, Copy, Delete functions in the File menu except that they are limited to a single file.

Find

This item is a container for the following sub-functions

Find Name duplicate

Find size duplicate

These functions operate identically to the functions Find Name Duplicate, Find Size Duplicate on the File List Popup menu

Save Thumbnail As

This function opens up the  Save As Dialog allowing you to save the currently selected thumbnail in any of  Imagine's supported formats (except emf and wmf)

Save all Thumbnails

This function initially opens up the  Save As Dialog allowing you to select the save format, and folder for the thumbnails. Thereafter it automatically saves all thumbnails in the chosen folder using the name of the corresponding image file  preceded with a lower case t (for thumbnail).


Options Menu

Click on the links below to find out

more about items in the Options Menu

Options|Slideshow

Options|Picture Index Maker

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Options|Window Capture

Options|Screen Capture

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Options|Print

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Options|Set as wallpaper

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Options|Stay On top

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Options|Stop Picture Update

Options|Stop Fileview Update

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Options|Setup

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Options|Open Web


Options|Slideshow

This menu item is used to start/stop the automatic slideshow or set the length of time for which an image is displayed before the next image is shown.

This item pops out a side menu containing the following two sub-items:

•	Start ( Stop )

•	Timer

Selecting 'Start' will start the slide show. The next time this subitem is selected, it will show 'Stop' . If  'Stop' is selected the slideshow will stop. This subitem performs the same action as the Slideshow button (fourth button along the top) of the Fileview.

Slideshow Timer Toolbox

Selecting 'Timer' causes a toolbox with a slider control to pop up. Move the slider to the left to speed up the slideshow. Move the slider to the right to slow down the slideshow.

The slideshow timer setting is remembered between sessions.


Slide|TimerTab
Slideshow Timer Adjust

Move the tab to the left to reduce the time

for which an image is shown on the screen.

Move it to the right to increase the time for

which an image is displayed.


Slide|Exit
Close Slideshow Timer

Click here to close the Timer toolbox


Options|Picture Index Maker

This option is used to make thumbnail indexes of image files on your computer.

Picture Index Maker Page Settings

Click on the Image above to find out about the various parts of the Picture Index Maker. The image is 'live'. Click where you see a hand cursor.

About The Picture Index Maker

The Picture Index Maker is a toolbox. It is used to make thumbnail indexes of image files which are currently visible in the File List Box of Imagine!'s Fileview. Image files to be included in the Index are selected directly in the File List Box. You do this  the same way as for other operations such as Copy, Move, Delete etc. You can select files before, or after you have opened the Picture Index Maker toolbox.

Making your First Index.

When you first install Imagine!, a default index page is already set up. Before you start it is a good idea to maximize Imagine!. This will allow you to see the index page more clearly as it is being made.

Follow these steps:

•	Navigate Imagine! to a folder containing some images using the Fileview.

•	Select some images to include in the index by highlighting them in the File List Box of the Fileview.

•	Click on Picture index Maker from the Options menu.

•	Click on the Start button (this has a green collar and is located at the bottom right of the Picture index Maker toolbox.)

When you click on the Start button, the Picture Index Maker disappears. This is so that you can see the index clearly while it is being made. It will re-appear when the index is complete. If you want to interrupt the process, you can recall the Picture Index Maker by clicking with the mouse, on Imagine!'s  Picture Window, or you can re-select the Picture Index Maker from the Options Menu. The original 'Start' button will now say 'Stop' and will have a red collar. Click on this button to  stop the index maker. Note: to prevent accidental disturbance, while the index is being made, the File List Box is disabled while an index is being made.

Once you have seen the default index you will know which things you want to change. The two pages of the Picture Index maker are there to allow you to do just that!

The Picture index Maker in 8 bit Display mode

Irrespective of the display mode you are using, picture indexes in Imagine! are made as 24 bit images because this retains the full color information in the thumbnails which make up the index. In 8 bit display mode, Windows converts 24 bit images 'on the fly' into 8 bit images for display provided it is supplied with a suitable image palette to work from. The picture index maker makes this palette from the completed index page. While the index is being made, a fixed palette (the WinWeb palette) containing a broad selection of colors is used temporarily. Once the index is complete, a  palette is synthesized using the whole index. This is why you get the sudden jump in color quality just as the index finishes. The second palette is also a temporary palette. It is  for viewing  the 24 bit index in 8 bit display mode. You will only see the full quality of the index in 8 bit mode after you save it in an 8 bit format or as a Jpeg.


Options|Print

This item opens the Print Setup Toolbox which allows you to print the currently displayed image

Click on the image below to find out about the Print Setup Toolbox

Print Setup dialog

The Print Setup Toolbox is an interface between Imagine! and your printer software. When you click on Print a further dialog appears . This further dialog is a standard one provided by Windows and  customized by the printer manufacturer to reflect the capabilities of the particular make and model of printer that you have. Information on this additional dialog should be in your printer documentation.


Options|Window Capture

This item captures the image of a selected window directly into Imagine!

When you select Window Capture from the Options menu nothing much seems  to have happened. What you have actually done is to prime the picture taking mechanism so it is  ready to capture a window. This mode captures the image of the active window. The active window is the one which has a highlighted title bar (the title bar is blue in the Windows default color scheme). If the window you want to capture is not active, then click on it's title bar or use  the tab key to make it active. When you are ready, you need to press the Ctrl-key on the keyboard to capture the image of your chosen window.

Imagine! stays on the screen in this mode just in case you want to take a picture of any of it's windows. If you minimize imagine so there are no other windows on the screen, the Windows taskbar is captured.

When you first install Imagine! A dialog pops up  with instructions each time you select  this mode.  Once you are happy with it and understand how to use the mode you should check the box marked "don't show me this again". This will permanently disable the dialog so it will not appear in the future.


Options|Screen Capture

This item captures an image of the desktop directly into Imagine!

When you invoke this mode, Imagine! completely vanishes. This gets Imagine! off the screen so that it is not in the way. This pause also gives you an opportunity to organize any other windows which may or may not need to be in the screen shot. When you are ready to shoot just press the Ctrl-key on the keyboard. Imagine will reappear with an image of the desktop in its display area which you can further edit or save to disk. If you absolutely must include Imagine! in the screen shot, you can use File|New Viewer to start a second copy of Imagine!.

When you first install Imagine! A dialog pops up  with instructions each time you select  this mode.  Once you are happy with it and understand how to use the mode you should check the box marked "don't show me this again". This will permanently disable the dialog so it will not appear in the future.


Options|Set as Wallpaper

This function converts a selected image to a 256 color bitmap and saves it in the Windows folder. It then sets the image as the current wallpaper and causes it to appear on the desktop.

This menu Item contains the following two subitems

Centered

Centered Installs the wallpaper in the center of the Windows desktop.

Tiled

Tiled repeats the image until  it covers the whole Windows desktop.

Stretched

Stretched distorts the image aspect ratio and size to fit the desktop

None

Clears the current wallpaper from the dektop


Options|Stay On Top

Places Imagine!'s main window in front of all other windows.

This function only works reliably when no other stay on top windows are present on the screen. If another stay on top  window (e.g the resample toolbox) is present, Windows cannot determine which of them should be topmost, consequently they get equal topmost status. Whichever one you click on is brought to the front. However both windows will remain on top of  windows belonging to any other applications. If you loose one of the toolboxes behind imagines main form while in this mode, un-checking the Stay on top Option for Imagine! will automatically bring the toolbox to the front.


Options|Stop Picture Update

This option stops image files being loaded automatically as you select files in the File List Box.

Sometimes you are not interested in the images because you are working with filenames only. By not loading image files, you remove the delay which occurs as each file is being loaded.This can be useful if you are dealing with very large images.

The Image Information Panel turns yellow to remind you of this situation. If both Fileview Update and Picture Update are suppressed the Image Information panel shows the color magenta.


Options|Stop Fileview Update

This option stops automatic updating of the File List and Folder List boxes of Imagine!'s Fileview.

This option is useful when moving or copying multiple files from a download folder while another application (e.g a newsreader) is writing files into that folder.

When this option is not selected and a new file is added to the folder, the File List Box  will be alphabetically re-sorted to place the new file in the correct place. If you are in the middle of choosing multiple files for a Move/Copy operation, but have not yet opened the Move/Copy dialog, the new file entering the download folder will cause multiple file selection  to cancel and you will have to start over again. Checking this option will prevent this from happening.

Automatic Fileview Update is also suppressed as soon as you start editing an image. In this case you need to select a new file in Imagine's File List Box to re-enable it.

The Image Information Panel turns to the color cyan to alert you of this situation.


Options|Setup

This menu item groups together the following two sub-items:

External Viewer and Installation.Follow these links to find out

about each of these

Options|Setup|External Viewer

Options|Setup|Installation


Options|Open Web

This Menu Item launches Internet Explorer

This menu item launches Internet Explorer using the URL

 http://www.andrikkos.co.uk


Options|Setup|External Viewer

This menu item opens the External Viewer Maintenance Toolbox.

External Viewer Setup

Adding External Viewers

You can add your favorite image viewers to the list above in various ways.

•	With the  External Viewers Toolbox above,  just click on the 'Browse' button. Use the standard Windows 'Open Dialog' which appears, to navigate to the directory containing the  viewer's executable (.exe) file, select the file and click 'Open'.

•	Search for the viewer's executable  with Find In Files. Use Set As External Viewer to install the viewer. This method is probably the fastest.

•	You can use drag and drop from Windows Explorer.

•	If you can see the viewer in the File List Box you can copy it's path to the clipboard and then use Paste Path To|Imagine!.

Other Executables as External Viewers

Since the external image viewer is an executable file (.exe), it is possible to add other programs to the external viewers list. Programs which do not display images will normally ignore the image file name passed to them by Imagine!, and just open normally. (In the picture above I have added Windows Media Player 2 as an example).

You can open documents (ie. non executable files such as .wav,.mpg,doc,zip, etc) in Imagine!'s File List Box by selecting View|All Files from the View menu. You can double click on the document in the File List Box to view it using the program associated with it. Alternatively  you can select a viewer from the External Viewers List.

Removing External Viewers

To remove a viewer: Click on the name of the viewer (or select it with the arrow keys). The blue selector strip will move to the line of the list containing the viewer. Click on 'Delete'. When the Delete Confirmation dialog appears click on 'Yes'.

Closing External Viewer Setup

Simply click on the button with the cross in the top right hand corner.


ExtViewer|Delete
Delete

removes the selected program

from the External Viewers List.


ExtViewer|Bowse
Browse

Opens a dialog allowing you to locate a

program to add to the External Viewers List


ExtViewer|Dismiss
Dismiss

Closes the External Viewers

Maintenance Toolbox.


Option|Setup|Installation

This item bring up the Install Toolbox. It allows you to change any settings you made during initial installation of Imagine! and also to un-install Imagine! if you wish to.

Click on this image where you see a hand cursor to find out more about items in the Install Toolbox.

Imagine! Installation Toolbox

The install toolbox appears when you start Imagine! for the first time. The main feature of the install toolbox is a tabbed notebook. Each tab of the notebook lets you set up different options in Imagine!. The install toolbox can un-install Imagine! once it has been installed. Imagine! can also be uninstalled using the Add/Remove Programs function in Windows Control Panel.


Setup|Hello
Hello

This Introductory page disappears when

you invoke setup from within the program.


Setup|Icons
Icons

Allows you to optionally create an icon

on the Desktop, in the Start menu and

in the Send To folder.


Setup|Startup Folder
Startup Folder

This sets the folder to which the Fileview will be positioned each time

you start Imagine!. There are 3 options. Last visited, Current Folder, and Custom.

Last Visited means Imagine! will always start in the folder you last used.

Custom lets you set a fixed folder which Imagine! will open when it starts.

Current Folder  is a special case of Custom folder. It sets the fixed startup folder to

be the one currently displayed in Imagine!'s Fileview.


Setup|Extensions
Extensions

This tab lets you set the file associations for Imagine!.

It is not necessary to set any associations for the file types

you see listed in order for them to be viewable in Imagine!

Associating a file with Imagine! makes Imagine the default

viewer in Windows for that file type. Such files will display

the Imagine! icon in Windows Explorer and you will be able

to open them in Imagine! by double clicking on their icon.


Setup|Misc
Misc

This tab is for miscellaneous items.

It is not recommended that you change these settings until you have used Imagine! for a while and are familiar with it's normal operation.

Single Instance Application stops more than one copy of Imagine! from being started. It is mainly to prevent other applications (e.g a newsreader) from starting multiple copies of Imagine! when you do not want them to.

Start Minimized puts a button on the task bar for each instance of Imagine! which is started but it does not show the main window until you click on the button.

Match Image to Display Resolution   makes the resolution (bits per pixel) of the image in Imagine! the same as the current setting of the display adapter. If you do not check this setting the image resolution in Imagine! stays the same as the bits per pixel of the file on disk. You can get a significant speed improvement when editing images by converting the image to the native screen resolution on load. However this mode is not recommended for general use. It is intended as a last resort for slow computers. In converting between pixel formats the image is always processed, and this, on average,  tends to reduce the amount of available information in the image. However you may find some situations where this mode will be useful to you so you should check it out just to see how it operates.

Restore "Don't Show Again" dialogs. These dialogs appear once per session  on those functions where a first time user might need a little help. They have a checkbox marked "Don't show me this again". Once checked, that particular dialog disappears for good. You can bring back all of these little reminders by checking this box. Note: This function takes effect next time you start Imagine!.


Setup|Close
Close

Closes The Setup dialog without making any changes


Setup|Unistall
Unistall/Cancel

This button is labelled cancel during installation.

Either this button or the Close Button can be used

to abandon installation without making any changes.

Once Imagine! is installed the label changes to Uninstall.

Click the uninstall button to remove Imagine! from your

computer.


Setup|Done
Done

Done closes the Installation dialog and

applies any options which were chosen.


Resample|Title

Title of Toolbox


Resample|Original Size

Shows the size (in pixels) of the image

source with which Resample is working.


Resample|Height

This is the desired height of the image (in pixels).

You type this directly into the box.


Resample|Width

This is the desired width of the image (in pixels).

You type this directly into the box.


Resample|Size

This allows you to set the desired size as a

percentage of the original. you can type into

the box or use the thumbswitches.


Resample|Fit to Client

When checked this adjusts the width and

height of the image to best fit the image frame.

You can use this in full screen mode as well.


Resample|Speed/Quality

The Speed radio button gives very good images

at most scaling factors and is recommended.

The Quality radio button produces slightly better

pictures but is slower.


Resample|More

Reveals The drop down panel

below it containing the X and Y

sample rate selectors


Resample|Resample Button

Starts or Stops the resampler.


Resample|X Sample Rate

This box displays the number of times

each pixel is sampled in the horizontal

direction. (You can alter this if you have

Manual checked)


Resample|Y Sample Rate

This box displays the number of times

each pixel is sampled in the vertical

direction. (You can alter this if you have

Manual checked)


Resample|Manual

Advanced Users only

In manual mode you have control of the X and Y

sample rates. The maximum you can set for the

X direction is 10 samples/pixel. The maximum for

the Y direction is 30 samples/pixel. Note: At these

extreme rates the program may appear to have

stopped.


Resample|Progress
Resample|Progress Strip

Shows you how far the resample

process has got


Resample|Exit

Click here to put the Resample

toolbox away


View Menu

Click on the links below to find out

more about items in the View Menu

View|Fileview

View|Full Screen

View|All Files

View|Paint Box

---------------------------

View|Transparent Bitmap

----------------------------

View|Picture Style

----------------------------

View|Refresh Fileview


View|Fileview

This menu item is used to hide or show the Fileview

The Fileview is the whole of the panel at the left hand side of Imagine!'s main window. It consists of the five buttons at the top, the Drive Selection  Box immediately below the buttons  the Folder list box, and the File list box.

Hiding the Fileview expands the space available for displaying images. When the Fileview is hidden you can still change the files to be displayed by using the up/down arrow keys on the keyboard. If the Slideshow is enabled it will continue running. Additionally you can still right click or left click on the image to change it's size.


View|All Files

This menu item lets you see all the files that are in the folder selected in the Fileview .

The File List Box of the Fileview normally only shows files whose graphic format is supported by Imagine!. When this menu item  is checked the File List box displays all the files that are present. They are not just visible, they can also be run or opened when you double click on them. When you select this mode the status panel at the bottom of the Fileview is replaced with a file name filter box which allows you to select the files you want to view. You can alternately switch between the filter box and the status panel by double clicking on them while in this mode.

File Name Filter box

The box shows *.* when you first select View|All files. Actually a clear box will still display all files. Each time you type in a character of the file name you are looking for,  files not containing the sequence of characters you typed are eliminated from  the File List Box. You can home in on a file or file type very quickly after about 3 to 4 characters. Note: To home in on file extensions you should always enter the period ('.') which precedes them.

WildCards

You can also embed '*' and '?' into the string you type in and these have the same effect as they do in DOS or Windows. Namely '?' can stand for any single character, and '*' can replace any group of letters.


View|Full Screen

This menu item changes the display mode to Full Screen.

In Full Screen mode the image is capable of occupying  the entire screen.

Title Strip

Full Screen mode does away with the window borders and the Windows task bar but leaves a narrow black strip along the top edge.  This is the title strip. On the title strip, the filename is displayed centrally. At the left end of the title strip, there is a white cross. Clicking on this cross will restore the normal windowed display mode. If the title strip interferes with the height of the image, clicking on it will send it to the right hand edge of the screen, clicking on it again will send it back to the top.

Popup Menu

If you hold down the Ctrl key and click anywhere on the image or it's background, a popup menu appears with the following three choices on it

Hide Title

File Selector

Exit

Click on Hide Title to completely lose the title bar.

Click on File Selector to bring up  Imagine!'s Fileview.

Click on Exit to leave full screen mode and return to normal windowed mode.

Additional Notes

1. You can also make the Fileview visible by pressing the Enter key or by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on the white cross in the title bar.

2. If you dismiss the Title Bar you can exit full screen mode via the popup menu, or by using the Esc key.

3. Most functions which work in windowed mode will also work in full screen mode. Any  functions from the main menu which use floating toolboxes such as Resample and the Slideshow Timer can be started before entering full screen mode. With the Fileview visible, you have access to all the functions from it's two popup menus, as well as the buttons along the top of the Fileview.

4. If you use the Resample toolbox in full screen mode and check the Fit to Client box, you can make images to fit the screen.

5. Left and right clicking on the image will change the image size in the same way as in  windowed mode.

6. You can alter both the color of the Fileview and the Image Background by holding down the shift key and right or left clicking on them to step through 18 different colors.

7. If you have any other application windows open, you can bring these to the front by  using the Alt-Tab key combination on the keyboard. In particular you can bring Windows Explorer to the front and drag-drop files from Explorer onto Imagine!s  full screen window.


View|Paint Box

This menu item is used to select colors when drawing and also for the Image background and the Fileview background.

Click where you see a hand cursor on the image below for more information

Paint Box

About The Paint box

The Paint Box is a floating toolbox. It contains 22 digitally generated color palettes, the Windows Default Palette and also a palette derived from the image being displayed. Either the left or right mouse button can be used to select a color from the main palette area of the Paint Box. When the Paint Box is visible, left-clicking in the area surrounding the image, or left-clicking in the folder list box will transfer the last selected color to the appropriate area. When the Editing Tools toolbox is also present on the screen, you need to hold down the alt key to color in the Fileview. This modification prevents the Fileview color from changing accidentally when you try to change folders during Edit mode.

The Custom Area

Along the bottom of the Paint Box is a custom area  where you can store colors selected from the various palettes. You program colors into this area by clicking on a color from the main palette and then clicking the appropriate square in the custom area with the right mouse button. Since the custom area is programmed using the right mouse button, you must use the left mouse button to pick up colors from this area.

Editing the Image Palette

The Paint Box allows you to change colors in the palette of the displayed Image. You can only do this when you have the Image Palette (palette 0)  of the PaintBox selected. Ordinarily with palette 0 (as with the other palettes, you  select a color for drawing by clicking on a square in the main palette area of the Paint box. If you hold down the  Ctrl-key when you do this, the color moves the other way. It goes from the mouse pointer into the image palette and the palette square is programmed with the color which you last selected.

Click here for a list of the palettes in the Paint Box:

Additional Notes

When you are drawing on a graphic whose format is 8 bits per pixel or less. You are ordinarily restricted to colors which are present in the palette of the graphic. If you try to draw with a color which is not in the palette, Windows will automatically replace  it by the color from the graphic palette which gives the closest match. Placing a color into the palette before using that color for drawing ensures that it will not be altered.

For photographic images replacing a color  will inevitably lead to some degradation in image quality.You should substitute a color of which there are  many similar examples in the palette. All that will happen then, is that the missing color will be matched by Windows to one of the remaining examples making the alteration in the image very slight.

The maximum palette you can have is 256 colors. Some formats use palettes with fewer than 256 colors. In this version of Imagine! you cannot edit unused space past the end of the palette. The title bar of the Paint Box tells you the size of the palette. Remember also if you plan on saving the image as a 4 bit image only the first 16 colors are allowed.

 When the paint box is not visible you can set up to 18 colors for the Fileview and Image backgrounds by holding down the  Shift key and clicking with the right and left mouse buttons in the Fileview or on the image background. You will see a brush shaped mouse cursor in those places where you can change the color. (You cannot Shift-click inside the File List Box to change colors because the Shift key is used in selecting multiple files.Shift-click in the Folder List box instead)


List of Paint Box Palettes

Many of the palettes are doubled up so you get 256 colors at a time. In these cases a checkbox marked 'Alt' appears which gives access to the other half. Palettes 17-23 are a family of color palettes which are generated in a similar way to the Netscape palette. In fact the Netscape palette comes between palettes 21 and 22. I have put it near the top of the list to make it easier to find.

0	Image Palette

1	Windows Palette - 20 color System palette

2	Web Palette - 212 color Netscape palette

3	Greyscale - All 256 possible shades of grey in 24 bit mode

4	Red - 512 shades (uses Alt)

5	Green - 512 shades (uses Alt)

6	Blue- 512 shades of blue (uses Alt)

7	Yellow - 512 shades (uses Alt)

8	Magenta-512 shades (uses Alt)

9	Cyan-512 shades (uses Alt)

10	Red-Yellow/Magenta (uses Alt)

11	Red-Cyan/Blue (uses Alt)

12	Green-Cyan/Yellow (uses Alt)

13	Green-Red/Magenta (uses Alt)

14	Blue-Magenta/Cyan (uses Alt)

15	Blue-Yellow/Green (uses Alt)

16	27 Color Low Dither

17	8  mixed color

18	22 mixed color

19	44 mixed color

20	64 mixed color

21	274 mixed color

22	344 mixed color

23	820 mixed color

24	Orange 512 shades (uses Alt)


View|Transparent Bitmap.
View|Transparent Bitmap

Displays ordinary windows bitmaps as transparent bitmaps. This mode also provides a convenient means of making transparent Gif or Icon format files from Windows bitmaps.

The color of the bottom-leftmost pixel of the bitmap defines the transparent color. All pixels of this color are replaced by the color of the background. This is a view only mode for bitmaps because Windows bitmap (.bmp) files do not include transparency information.

If you save the  bitmap as a Gif or Icon while Transparent Bitmap is enabled, the resulting Gif or Icon will be transparent just like the original bitmap in Imagine!.

Although transparent graphics display transparently, they are only saved transparently if  View|Transparent Bitmap is checked. For saving transparent graphics, it is the color of the image background which defines the transparent color in the image.


View|Picture Style

This menu item is used to select one of three different viewing modes

The subitem View|Fit To Window causes the image to resize to fit the viewing window.

The subitem View|Fit To Image causes the viewing window to resize to fit the image.

The subitem View|Normal leaves both the image and the viewing window at their current sizes. If the image is too large to fit the window scroll bars appear to allow the image to be scrolled around inside the window.

Fileview Picture Style Buttons

The Picture Style may also be controlled using the second and third buttons along the top of the Fileview on Imagine!'s main window. These buttons stay down when you click on them. Clicking a button when it is already down causes it to release. To obtain normal mode you must click on the button which is down (only one button can be down at a time) so that both buttons are out.

Resizing of Images and Fit to Window

With the exception of .wmf and .emf formats, fit to window is not recommended for resizing images you wish to keep. Fit to Window is fast but does not produce high quality images. The fixed scale  (half,quarter and eighth size) bitmap and Jpeg images obtained by left/right clicking on the image with the mouse are theoretically accurate and may be  regarded as reference images. The Resampler matches these quite closely at equivalent scale factors and should be used to make any high quality images that you wish to save.


View|Refresh Fileview

This menu item forces the contents of the Folder and File list boxes of the Fileview to update.

You shouldn't normally need to use this because Imagine! is set up to monitor file additions and deletions in the current folder and update the file list. If you are able to pinpoint a set of conditions where you need to use this function, please let me know.


Image Load Options

The following items are concerned with Image Load Properties:

•	Scale Factor

•	Bits Per Pixel (24/8)

•	RGB/Monochrome

•	Speed/Quality

•	progressive

Additional Notes

Scale Factor

The scale factor shown in this box applies to all scalable graphics not just  jpegs. In normal use the scale factor would be altered by right clicking or left clicking on the image. Reducing the size of the image will make most images  load faster.

Bits per Pixel

This setting determines the bits per pixel of the Jpeg source. Imagine! automatically sets this to 24 when you are in 24 bit display mode and 8 when you are in 8 bit display mode. Jpegs are 24 bit graphics and will save in 24 bit format irrespective of this setting.

RGB/Monochrome

Converts color Jpegs to greyscale.

Speed/Quality

The Speed/Quality setting determines what kind of dithering is applied to Jpegs when they are loaded as  8 bit images. The default is Quality. This setting has no effect on images when Bits Per Pixel is set to 24.

Progressive

This indicator appears if a progressively encoded Jpeg has been selected. See Image Save Options for a fuller explanation.

Note:

The Jpeg format stored on disk is always a 24 bit format. When the Jpeg is loaded into the computer it can be loaded as an 8 bit or a 24 bit image. This internal image is the Jpeg source.


Image Save Options

The following options apply to images saved in Jpeg format:

•	Quality (1-100%)

•	Progressive (checkbox)

Additional Notes for Save Options

Quality

Jpeg is a lossy compression system. The least compressed ie. highest quality images are obtained with a setting of 100%. The most compressed ie poorest quality images are obtained with a setting of 1%. Results are pretty poor below 50%. 75 % is generally considered to give good results (I prefer 85%). Imagine! defaults to 85% so you will need to adjust this to your preferences when saving in jpg format. This setting is remembered between sessions.

Progressive

Progressive jpegs are not very common. Instead of decompressing  the image in a linear fashion from top to bottom, a progressive Jpeg decompresses the image gradually all over at once. When you receive the image in your internet browser you see a blurred image which gradually comes into focus as the image decompression progresses. The idea is that you can decide early on whether or not you want to download it completely. If you check  progressive, you will be encoding this kind of image - note some programs cannot recognize progressively encoded jpegs.


Help Menu

Click on the links below to find out

more about items in the Help Menu

Help|Help

Help|About

Help|Contact Andrikkos

Help|Register Imagine!

-----------------------------

Help|System Information


Help|Help

This menu item Invokes the Help File

The Help File (often referred to as On Line Help) is the electronic document you are reading. It is the equivalent of a user manual but in digital form. The Help File is organized into single pages called topics.

Each topic is concerned with one particular aspect of the program. The page you are reading now is a topic. You find a topic in the help file by clicking on links. Links can be embedded in pictures, or  icons, or may be short phrases which are underlined. Links which are colored green are jumps to topics within this help file. Links which are colored blue are jumps to email addresses and internet pages. Blue links invoke your default email program or web browser as appropriate.

This help file provides context sensitive help while the program is running.  To activate help for a particular program item, first click on the item  and then press the F1 key on the keyboard. The help file wiIl open at the topic concerned with the selected item. For help on a toolbox or window, you should click on it's title bar before pressing the F1 key.


Help|About

This item invokes the About Dialog

Contrary to it's name an about dialog very rarely tells you anything about the function of the program. It is more concerned with possession. Who wrote the program, copyright notices, and who the program is registered to. In the case of Imagine! I have included a one line sentence to say what the program does. I am not going to say here, just click on Help|About and find out!


Help|Contact Andrikkos

This menu item launches your default e-mail program

and sets it up ready to send the Author a message

I have only tested this with Outlook Express so if you have a different email program it may not work. Just in case it doesn't work here is my email address:

andrikkos@andrikkos.co.uk

If you need to contact me by mail for any reason here is my full snail mail address:

Andreas Kyriacou MSc

17 Parkhurst Road

London N22 8JQ

United Kingdom.


Help|Register Imagine
Help|Register Imagine!

This menu item allows you to convert Imagine! from a 30 day trial version to a fully registered version.

This menu item is only present on  the 30 day evaluation version of Imagine!. It disappears from the menu once Imagine! is registered. The registration dialog has two parts. The top part allows you to enter the registration details.The lower part contains a single button which opens the help topic How to Register Imagine. This provides full information as well as links to the registration sites for Imagine!.

Imagine! Registration dialog (Upper Part)

When you register Imagine! the details you supply will be confirmed, and you will be sent a registration code to enter into the form shown above. Enter the details exactly as confirmed even if you think something has been miss-spelled.


Help|System Information

This item provides some useful statistics about the computer on which it is running.

•	Shows the free disk space on all your local hard drives at the same time so that you can easily find the one with most space.

•	Tells you the Display Color Mode you are currently using.

•	Tells you the Screen Resolution you are using.

•	Shows how much Random Access Memory (RAM) is on your computer

•	Shows how much RAM is free at any given time

The RAM figures are reported by Windows but do not have much relationship to the maximum image size that can be displayed or edited. This is because memory is considered to be in use even if it is only temporarily being held by Windows. For example consecutive loaded images are cached so that access to them is faster next time, however if you load an image that needs more memory than is available, Windows will dump enough cached images to make the necessary space.  The best time to find out approximately how much real free memory you have is when you first boot up Windows.

•	Tells you percentage of  RAM in use.

Irrespective of how much RAM you have, around half of it is nearly always in use by Windows. Things start to get interesting when your RAM use moves up to 100 per cent. This is when the swap file (virtual memory) comes into play and Windows starts swapping RAM data out to disk to make more space. If you find yourself permanently in this position when trying to view large images (or large images do not load at all) - you need more memory.

•	Displays the version of the Windows Common Control Library (comctl32.dll) present in your computer.

On Windows 95 and Windows NT, older versions of Comctl32.dll have been reported to cause problems with some of the controls in Imagine!. Windows 98 already ships with the updated version. If you have either Internet Explorer 4 or IE5 installed then these also install an updated version. If you need the latest version of comctl32.dll  then you can download it here

http://mssjus.www.conxion.com/msdownload/ie401/patch/comcontrol/en/401comupd.exe

.


Register|How To Register
How To Register

This button opens the help topic

"How To Register Imagine!"  which

provides details and internet links

to the registration sites for Imagine!


register|Name
Name

Enter your Forename and Surname

in this box


register|EmailAddress
Email Address

Enter your email address in this box.


register|RegistrationCode
Registration Code

Enter the registration number you were sent.


register|RegisterButton
Register Button

Once you have entered your name, email address

and registration code, click on this button.


register|Close
Close

Click here to close the Registration form.


ImagineMain|Folder List Box
Folder List Box

Use this to select a folder

•	Left click to select a folder

•	Double click to open the folder

•	Right click to get a  Popup Menu

•	Hold down the Shift key and left or right click to

change the color of the whole Fileview

•	Hold Down the Ctrl Key and Click on a folder

to set it as the target folder for a Copy/Move Operation


ImagineMain|File List Box
File List Box

Use this to chose the file to open.

•	Left click to open the selected file.

•	Right click to see the popup menu.

•	Use  Shift and Control keys while selecting

 multiple files with  the mouse.

•	You can also scroll through files using the

 up/down arrow keys of the keyboard


ImagineMain|Title
Title

•	Shows the path of the file currently visible in the Image Frame.

•	Press the space bar to see palette information and the bits per

pixel of the displayed image.


ImagineMain|Drive List Box
Drive List Box

Displays the current drive

To select a new drive use the tab

with the downward pointing arrow

on the right  (Drive Selector Tab)


ImagineMain|Drive Selector Tab
Drive Selector Tab

Left click to select a drive

from the drop-down list.


ImagineMain|Locate Selector
Locate Selector

Brings the File Selector (blue horizontal

bar in File List Box) into view .


ImagineMain|Fit To Window
Fit To Window

Scales the displayed image to fit the

image frame. Once enabled, the image

continuously resizes as the image window is

resized. This mode is fast but produces

ragged images. For high quality you should

use Resample from the Edit menu.


ImagineMain|Fit to Image
Fit to Image

This button adjusts the Image Frame to fit around

 the image. If the image size changes so does the frame.

This mode is handy when images need to be compared

side by side.


ImagineMain|Slideshow
Automatic Slideshow

Starts and stops the Slideshow. To

adjust the Slide Timer interval, select

Options|Slideshow|Timer from the

main menu. The Slideshow repeatedly

cycles through any image files in the File

List Box which are compatible with Imagine!.


ImagineMain|Dismiss Fileview
Dismiss Fileview

This button hides the entire file selection system.

This allows wide images to better fit the form.

You can restore the Fileview by selecting View|Fileview

from the main menu, or by pressing  the Enter key on

 the keyboard .


ImagineMain|Image Information
Shows information about the Source Image and

the total number of files in the File List Box.

•	Width and height of the image source in pixels.

•	Number of Bits per pixel in the image source.

•	File Size on disk (move the vertical splitter right a bit to see this)

For Jpeg the size of the image source depends on the Jpeg scale factor. The scale

factor can be altered by right/left clicking on the image or by selecting Jpeg Properties

 from the Edit menu.  Small images load much quicker than full size images.

When you select View|All Files this panel is replaced by a file name filter box.

You can alternately select between this panel and the file filter box by double clicking on them.

This panel changes color to indicate the following conditions

       cyan       if automatic file list update is disabled.

       yellow     if picture update is disabled.

       magenta  if both picture update and auto file update are disabled.


ImagineMain|Image
The Displayed Image

•	Right click to reduce the image size

•	Left click to enlarge the image

•	Shift click to save the image


ImagineMain|ImageBackground
Image Background

Holding down the Ctrl Key while left or right

clicking in this area lets you cycle through

18 different background colors. For a much

bigger range of really cool colors choose

View|Paint box from the main menu.


ImagineMain|File Selector
File Selector

Shows the currently selected file.

You can select more than one file

in Delete, Copy and Move operations.


ImagineMain|Folder selector
Folder Selector

Shows the currently selected folder


ImagineMain|Image Frame
Image Frame

This is the part of the window which

surrounds the image.When the image

is larger than the frame, scroll bars

appear to allow you to move the image

around inside the Frame.


ImagineMain|Vertical Splitter
Vertical Splitter

Drag this to the left or right to

change the proportion of area

occupied by the Fileview and

the Image Area.


ImagineMain|Horizontal Splitter
Horizontal Splitter

Drag this up or down to change

the areas occupied by the File List

Box and the Folder List Box


ImagineMain|Minimize
Minimize

Click this to reduce Imagine!

to a button on the task bar.


ImagineMain|Maximize
Maximize

Check this to enlarge Imagine! to

Fill the screen. Click it again to

restore Imagine!.


ImagineMain|Close
Close

This button closes Imagine!

It has the same function as

File|Exit in the main menu.


Folder List Popup
Folder List Popup Menu

This popup menu appears when you click with the right hand mouse button on the Folder List Box.

Note:Some of the following items are either only available on this menu or exhibit slightly different behavior when invoked from this menu:

Folder List|Explore Folder

Folder List|Rename Folder

Folder List|Delete Folder

--------------------------------------

Folder List|Thumbnails

---------------------------------------

Folder List|Find in Files

Folder List|Find in Subtree

----------------------------------------

Folder List|New Folder

Folder List|Open In New Viewer

Folder List|Copy Path To

----------------------------------------

Folder List|Folder Size


Folder List|Explore Folder

This menu item opens the currently selected folder in 'Explore' mode using Windows Explorer.

Explorer provides a more comprehensive view of the file system which it is sometimes more advantageous to use.  You can 'explore' any folder visible in the Folder List Box not just the one which is currently open. You can open Windows Explorers positioned anywhere along the path visible in the Folder List Box.

This item is not available on any other menus.


Folder List|Rename Folder

This menu item lets you rename the currently selected folder.

This function can also be obtained by using File|Rename from the main menu.


Folder List|Delete Folder

This menu item removes the folder selected in the Folder List Box only if it is empty.

This function can also be obtained by using File|Delete from the main menu.


Folder List|Thumbnails

This menu item automaticlly opens and  starts the thumbnail maker using the contents of the folder shown as open in the folder list box.

This item is for convenience see File|Thumbnails for more details


Folder List|Find in Files

This menu item opens the Find In Files Window with the name of the selected folder already entered into the file search box.

You could use File|Find| Find in Files from the main menu to do this, but you would have to type the folder name into the file search box yourself.


Folder List|Find in Subtree

This menu item opens the Find In Files Window with the path of the selected folder already set as the root folder for the search .

You could use File|Find| Find in Files from the main menu to do this, but you would have to use the browse button to locate the folder.


Folder List|New Folder

This popup menu item creates a new folder under the folder selected in the file list box.

See File|New Folder for a full description


Folder List|Open in New Viewer

This popup menu item opens the currently selected folder in a new copy of Imagine!.

This item is the same as File|New Viewer in the main menu except that the currently displayed image is not transferred to the new copy of Imagine!.


Folder List|Copy Path To

This popup menu item groups together the following sub-items: Move/Copy Dialog,  As DOS path,  As Unix Path, Picture Index Browse dialog.

Copy Path To Move/Copy Dialog

This copies the folder path currently selected in the Folder List Box directly to the Move/Copy Dialog so that when it is subsequently opened, the dialog is positioned on the target folder ready for the copy or move to take place. A related function is: File|Paste Path To Move/Copy Dialog available from the main menu.

Copy Path To Save As Dialog

This copies the folder path currently selected in the Folder List Box directly to the Save Image As Dialog so that when it is subsequently opened, the dialog is positioned on the target folder ready for the Image showing in Imagine! to be saved.

Copy Path To Clipboard As DOS path

This copies the path selected in the Folder List box as to the Windows clipboard. The path

 copied uses the normal backslash separators.

Copy Path To Clipboard As UNIX path

This copies the path selected in the Folder List box as to the Windows clipboard. The path

copied uses forward slash separators.

Copy Path To Picture Index Browse Dialog

This copies the folder path currently selected in the Folder List Box directly to the Browse For Background Dialog in the Picture Index Maker  so that files located in Imagine! can be used as backgrounds.


Folder List|Folder Size

This item shows the disk space taken up by files in the selected folder

This item sums the sizes of all files in the selected folder not just those visible in the file list box. It does not include sub-folders in the sum. If this item shows the message: 'No Files In Folder' it does not mean that the folder is empty. The folder could contain another folder. This item is not available on any other menus.


File List Popup
File List Popup Menu

This popup menu appears when you click with the right

hand mouse button on the File List Box.

Note: Some of the following items are either only available on this menu or exhibit slightly different behavior when invoked from this menu:

File List|Move File

File List|Copy File

File List|Delete File

File List|Rename File

File List|Thumbnails

-------------------------------------

File List|Find

--------------------------------------

File List|Save Image As

--------------------------------------

File List|Copy Path To

--------------------------------------

File List|External Viewer

File List|Open...

--------------------------------------

File List|Stop Fileview Update

-------------------------------------

File List|File Size


File List|Move File

This popup menu item allows you to move the Image files currently selected in the File List Box to a different folder

This item invokes the same function as File|Move in the main menu.


File List|Copy File

This popup menu item allows you to copy  the Image files currently selected in the File List Box to a different folder

This item invokes the same function as File|Copy in the main menu.


File List|Delete File

This popup menu item allows you to send the currently selected image files to the recycle bin.

This item invokes  the same function as File|Delete in the main menu.


File List|Rename File

This menu item allows you to rename the currently selected file.

This item invokes  the same function as File|Rename in the main menu.


File List|Thumbnails

This menu item automaticlly opens and  starts the thumbnail maker using the contents of the file list box.

This item is for convenience see File|Thumbnails for more details


File List|Find

This popup menu item groups together the following three items

File List|Find File

File List|Find Name Duplicate

File List|Find Size Duplicate


FL|Find|Find  File
File List|Find|Find File

This item is for convenience and is the same as File|Find|Find File in the main menu


FL|Find|Find Name Duplicate
File List|Find|Find Name Duplicate

This item launches the Find In Files window pre-configured for finding files whose name is the same as the file selected in the File List Box.

This item does not start the search because you may still want to make some parameter adjustments when the Find in Files window appears. Once the find in files window is open, you can transfer a new filename to the Find In Files search box  by double clicking on the image file in the File List Box. Note this only applies to image files viewable in Imagine!. For other files (see View All Files mode)  double clicking will open the file using it's associated program or launch it if it is a program file.

 Find Name Duplicate is not available on any other menus.


FL|Find|Find Size Duplicate
File List|Find|Find Size Duplicate

This item launches the Find In Files window pre-configured for finding files whose size is the same as  the file selected in the File List Box.

This item does not start the search because you may still want to make some parameter adjustments when the Find in Files window appears.  Once the Find in Files window is open, size information automatically transfers as you single click on each file in the File List box.

Find Size Duplicate is not available on any other menus.


File List|Save Image As

This item lets you to save the currently displayed image.

This item is for convenience and is the same as File|Save Image As on the main menu.


File List|Stop File view Update

This item stops automatic updating of the Fileview

This item is for convenience and is identical to Options|Stop Fileview Update on the main menu.


File List|Copy Path To

This popup menu item groups together the following three items

Copy Path To ClipBoard As DOS path

This item copies the path of the currently selected file to the Windows Clipboard as a normal Windows/DOS path.

Copy Path To ClipBoard As UNIX path

This item copies the path of the currently selected file to the Windows Clipboard but replaces the backslashes with forward slashes for use in HTML web pages. When you paste paths back into Imagine!. Imagine! automatically converts forward slashes into back slashes so you do not need to worry about what kind of path is in the clipboard

File List|Copy Path To|Picture Index Background

This item copies the path of the currently selected file to the Picture Index Makers 'Browse For Background' dialog. The path is copied directly to the Picture Index Maker's 'Browse For Background' dialog. It does not go via the clipboard. A Yes/No dialog pops up asking you to confirm the change being made to the 'Browse For Background' dialog. The current background image path is also updated so you will get the new background image straight away when you run the Picture Index Maker. This function is not available on any other menus.


File List|External Viewer

This item allows you to open the currently selected image

in a program other than Imagine!

This item is for convenience. See FileIExternal Viewer for more details.


File List|Open
File List|Open...

This popup menu item groups together the following two items

File List|Open In New Viewer

File List|Open Containing Folder


FL|Open in New Viewer
Open in New Viewer

This item opens the selected image file in a new copy of Imagine!

This item operates identically to File|New Viewer in the main menu.


FL|Open Container
Open Containing Folder

This item opens the folder containing the selected file in Windows Explorer.

The view Explorer gives you depends on the view that you last set in explorer for the particular folder. Usually it is the 'Large Icons' view. A similar function to this is Explore Folder available from the popup menu of the Folder List Box.


File List|File Size

This item shows the size on disk of the currently selected file.

This item shows the message: 'file is empty' if no  file is selected or the size of the file is zero. File size is also shown on the Image Information Panel at the bottom of the Fileview.


File|Find|Find In Files

This menu item opens up the Find In Files Toolbox.

The image below is 'live' click where you see a hand cursor for more information.

Find In Files Window

Find in Files will search for files in any drive or any part of a directory tree. All local hard drives (and optionally CD drives) can be searched in one go. Find in Files always searches sub-folders. Find in Files does not restrict itself to image files and any kind of file can be found. When the Find in Files toolbox is open,image file names can be transferred to the search box by double clicking on them in the File List Box.


File|Find|Find File

Finds a file in the File List Box when you enter part of it's name

Find File Toolbox

The Find File function will only search for files in the File List Box. If you want to perform  a system wide search you should use the Find In Files function.  Find File is useful for locating files in a folder which contain a lot of images when it is easier to type in part of the name than to scroll through the list of files. The View All Files mode set up with the appropriate file filter is a possible alternative of this function.

Find File does not accept wildcard characters. it will locate the first match to the group of characters entered. The group of characters can be anywhere in the name. Having found the first match it will look for the next match when you click  the find button again.

Find File maintains a history of the most recent files found during the current viewing session. The history may be recalled by clicking the down arrow at the right of the text entry box.


File|Find|Find Selector

This item brings the file selector back into the File List Box.

If there is a very long list of files in the File List Box, the File Selector can move outside the box and it is then not clear in which direction it should be searched for. You can locate the file selector using this function. The first speed button (magnifying glass icon) at the top left of the Fileview also performs this function.


FIF|Popup Menu
Find In Files Popup Menu

This menu pops up when you right click on the File List

of the Find In Files Toolbox. It contains the following items

Move File

Copy file

Delete File

--------------------------

Set As External Viewer

Copy Path To

--------------------------

Open In New Viewer

Explore


FIFPopup|Move/Copy/Delete File
Find In Files: Move, Copy, Delete File

These three functions operate almost identically. You first select one or more files in the File List of the Find In Files Toolbox using the mouse and dragging to highlight the files you want. (You can also use shift an control keys to pick out files.)

Delete

The Delete function is the simplest. When you select delete from the popup menu you are prompted to confirm deletion. If you confirm, files are sent to the recycle bin.

Copy and Move

These differ from the Copy and Move functions of File List Box and Main menu. The target folder for these functions is alway the folder whose contents are showing in the File List Box. There is no confirmation prompt. Files are moved or copied when you highlight them and select the function from the popup menu.

Note: For Move and Delete operations the file list is updated to reflect the current change.


FIFPopup|Set As External Viewer
File In Files: Set As External Viewer

This popup menu item places the selected executable into the External Viewers List.

This menu option is only present  when you select an executable (.exe) file from the Find In Files File List. Click on this option to make the selected executable appear in the External Viewers List.


FIFPopup|Copy Path To
Find In Files: Copy Path To

This item pops out a sub-menu offering a choice of places where the currently selected path may be copied to

Copy Path To|Imagine!

This function lets you set the path of the Fileview to be the same as the path of the currently selected line of the File List of the Find In Files toolbox. For Image files displayable in Imagine!, you can perform this function  by double clicking on the currently selected line in the File List. For non-image files double clicking will open the selected file.

Copy Path To|Move/Copy Dialog

This function lets you set the path of the Move/Copy dialog to be the same as the path of the currently selected line of the File List of the Find In Files toolbox.

Copy Path To|ClipBoard

This function copies the currently selected path to the Windows clipboard.

Copy Path To|Thumbs Background Dialog

This function sets the Picture Index Maker's Browse for Background dialog so that it opens at the path currently selected in the File List of the Find In Files Toolbox.


FIFPopup|Open In New Viewer
Find In Files: Open In New Viewer

This item open the currently selected path in a new copy of Imagine!

If the path selected in the Find in Files File List represents an Image viewable in Imagine! then the Image is displayed in the new copy of Imagine!. If it is a path to a folder, the Fileview of the new copy is positioned to display the contents of the folder. If it is a document, the Fileview is positioned to the containing folder of the document.  If it is an executable file, the new copy will open and ask if you want to add the file to the external viewers list.


FIFPopup|Explore
Find in Files: Explore

This item open the currently selected path in Windows Explorer

Explorer opens on the path shown in the second column ("Where Located") of the Find in Files file list.


FIF|Title
Title

Shows the Folder Path when a file

is selected in the file list.


FIF|Location
Location

This is the only tab showing if  Include Size

Details is not checked. It indicates the page

where file name search criteria are entered.


FIF|Include size Details
Include Size Details

Reveals the Size Information page

and displays it  when first checked.


FIF|Files
Files

This radio button indicates that the

search will be for all files and folders

meeting the name search criteria

in the Search Box


FIF|Folders
Folders

This radio button indicates that the

search will be only for folders meeting

the name search criteria in the Search Box.


FIF|Folders Containing
Folders Containing

This radio button indicates that the

search will be for folders containing files

which meet the name search criteria

in the Search Box.


FIF|Search Box
Search Box

Enter the name of the file or folder

to search for. The search box accepts

the standard wildcard characters "*" and "?"


FIF|Search History
Search History

This tab reveals a drop-down

list allowing you to recall recent

entries made in the Search Box.


FIF|Find
Find

Starts/Stops  the search. The green

collar round the button changes to red

while the search is in progress and the

button label changes from Find to Stop.


FIF|Browse
Browse

Changes the folder from which the search

starts (search root) on the current drive.


FIF|Root Selector
Root Indicator

This shows the drive and folder where the search will start from.

You can change the drive  with the Change Drive tab on the right.

You can change the folder where the search starts with the browse

button. Imagine! always searches sub-folders.


FIF|Change Drive
Change Drive

Reveals a drop down list allowing you to change the drive

used for the search.The list contains one entry for each drive

on your computer. This is the root folder for each drive when

the program starts and can be changed with the browse button.

There is also an entry to allow all local hard drives to be searched.

Imagine! always searches sub-folders.


FIF|File List
File List

This is where the search results are displayed. Single

click to load images. Double click to move the Fileview

to the folder of the image. If the file is not displayable. Imagine! will use

Windows to open it when you double click. There is also a right click

pop-up menu associated with this list.


FIF|Drive Status
Drive Status

During a search this changes

each time a drive changes.


FIF|Search Status
Search Status

This indicates either 'Searching...' or 'Done.'

to tell you if a search is in progress.


FIF|Number Found
Number Found

Shows how many files matching your

search criteria have been found so far.


FIF|Size Details Tab
Size Details

The image below is 'live' click where you see a hand cursor for more information.

Size Details Tab

Size details is visible only if the Include Size Details checkbox is checked. When it is disabled the Size tab disappears as well and you cannot access it. Size details tightens up the search specification already set up on the Location page. It forms an AND with the specification on the Location page. The size details remain set if you uncheck the box but are then not included in the search criteria.

In practice finding all files called myfile.jpg which match a certain size specification is not all that useful. A more useful search specification would find all files of a certain type meeting certain size criteria. In other words you would have *.jpg in the file search box on the Location page and search for jpg files meeting some size criteria using the *.jpg  on the Location page to narrow down the search to just jpeg files.


FIF|LoacationTab
Location

Takes you to the Location details page.

You can freely switch between the Location

and Size pages as long as Include Size Details

is checked.


FIF|Search Alt Drive
Search Alt Drive

This button allows you to search a different drive while

remembering the drive you were last on. When you first

press the button the root selector goes to the " Local

Hard Drives" position, because this is the most common

requirement after a failed search on the current drive.

However you can then chose any of the remaining drive

settings from the root selector and you original "go back to"

drive is still remembered. Pressing the button again cancels

the mode and brings you back to your original drive.


FIF|Include CD drives
Include CD drives

This checkbox is enabled only when you

opt to search All local Hard Drives. When

checked, any CD drives on your computer

will be included in the search.


FIF|Header Bar
Header Bar

Click on any segment of the header

bar to alpha sort the file name column.


Size Tab|Size
Size

This tab appears only when the Include Size

Details box is checked.You can freely switch

between the Location and Size pages as long

as Include Size Details is checked.


Size Tab|Include Size Details
Include Size Details

Causes the Size details page to appear

when checked.


Size Tab|At Least
At Least

Enter here the lowest size value

in KB of the files you want to find.

This box is disabled if Exact Size is

checked.


Size Tab|Size Similar to File
Size Similar to File

This sets up the page so that files similar

in size to that named in the box can be found.

When checked, At Least adjusts to contain the size

in KB of the file  rounded down, while At Most adjusts

to contain the size in KB of the file rounded up to


Size Tab|At Most
At Most

Enter here the highest size value

in KB of the files you want to find.

This box is disabled if exact size is

checked.


Size Tab|File Name
File Name

This box is always updated to contain the

file currently selected in Imagine!s File List box.

This box updates regardless of whether you are

currently looking at the Location page or the Size

page. It is only used if you have Size Similar to File

selected.


SizeTab|Exact size
Exact size

When checked the values in the At Most and At Least boxes

are ignored instead the exact size of the file in the File Name

box is used.


PIM|Start
Start Button

This button is used to Start and Stop the Thumbnail Index maker.

When the index maker is ready to run the button shows the word

'Start' and is surrounded by a green collar. when the Index maker

is running the button shows the word 'Stop' and is surrounded by

a red collar.


PIM|Files Selected
Files Selected

This indicator shows how many files (and hence how many

thumbnails) have been chosen to be included in the index page.


PIM|Files Available
Files Available

This indicator shows the total number of files that are currently

listed in Imagine!'s File List Box. It represents the number of files

from which thumbnails can be made when View|All Files is not

selected in the main menu.


PIM|Save As
Save As

Evokes a Save Dialog allowing you to save a completed Picture Index.

You can still save the index by shift clicking on the image if you want.

Use of this button is better because it creates a unique name based

on the directory of the folder being indexed.


PIM|TBColor
Thumbnail Border Color

Opens a color selection dialog box,

allowing you to set the color of the

border around each thumbnail.


PIM|TBThickness
Thumbnail Border Thickness

This sets the thickness (in pixels) of the thumbnail

border. The border thickness is positive when the

border is drawn outside the edge of the thumbnail.

Setting a negative border thickness causes the border

to overlay the edge of the thumbnail, so part of the

thumbnail image is removed. This can be useful for

images with uneven edges.


PIM|PBColor
Page Border Color

Opens a color selection dialog box,

allowing you to set the color of the

border around the whole index page.


PIM|PBThickness
Page Border Thickness

This sets the thickness (in pixels) of the

border around the whole index page.


PIM|QuickThumbnails
Quick Thumbnails

For those in a hurry, Quick Thumbnails delivers

images at a slightly faster rate than the standard

setting at a slightly lower image quality.


PIM|ManualLayout
Manual Layout

Check this if you want to set the number of

rows and images per row yourself. You may

be able to do better than the computer if you

have a lot of images which have similar

aspect ratios.


PIM|Spacing
Spacing

This sets a minimum value (in pixels) for the separation

of thumbnail images. Increase this value to move thumbnails

further apart. Reduce this to bring them closer together.


PIM|Images/Row
Images/Row

This shows the number of images there will be

in each image row of the page. This is calculated

automatically by the computer. To set this yourself

you need to check Manual Layout.


PIM|Rows
Rows

This shows the number of image rows  there will be

on  the page. This is calculated automatically by

the computer. To set this yourself you need to

check Manual Layout.


PIM|Browse
Browse For Background Image

This button invokes a dialog allowing

you to choose a background image.


PIM|LoadGraphicfromClipboard
Load Graphic from Clipboard

When you check this option, a background

graphic placed in the Windows clipboard

will be loaded automatically each time you

run the Thumbnail Maker. When this option

is not checked the graphic located using

the browse button is loaded from disk.


PIM|TileBackground
Tile Background

Check this to enable the background image to be

tiled in both the vertical and horizontal directions

so that the pattern covers the thumbnail page.

If you do not check this option the background

image is drawn centered.


PIM|BGGraphic
Background Graphic

To enable graphics to be used as backgrounds

you need to check this box. If you do not check

this box, the background is filled with the color

currently set as the background color.


PIM|GPSColor
Background Color

Opens a color selection dialog box

allowing you to set the background

color of the thumbnail index page.


PIM|ColorChosen
Color Chosen

This is an indicator showing you

the current background color


PIM|Memory
Memory

This box shows the memory size of the bitmap used to

make the page. It is a minimum guideline, actual memory

used during the construction of the page will exceed this.


PIM|Height
Height

Change this to set the height

(in pixels) of the index page.


PIM|Width
Width

Change this to set the width

(in pixels) of the index page.


PIM|IndexMakerHeadingsTab
Index Maker Headings Tab

This tab is used to alter fonts, sizes,colors and other properties of text in the Index Maker.

Picture Index Maker Headings Tab

Click on the Image above to find out about the various parts of the Picture Index Maker. The image is 'live'. Click where you see a hand cursor.


PIM|OneColorForAllFonts
One Color For All Fonts

Check this to set the font of the Title,

Footer, and thumbnail caption to the

same color. The setting takes effect

when you select a Font button.


PIM|OneFontForAllText
One Font For All Text

Check this to allow a single font style

to be applied to the Title Footer and

thumbnail caption. The setting takes

effect when you select a Font button.


PIM|TransparentText
Transparent Text.

Allows text to appear transparent on graphic backgrounds.

If you uncheck this, the text will appear in a box filled with

the background color.


PIM|FontDescription
Font Description

Tells you some properties of the

currently selected font for this text label


PIM|FooterTextBox
Footer Text Box

Type the text for the page footer in this box.


PIM|Font
Font

Allows you to choose a font for

this particular text label.


PIM|ThubnailSampleFont
Thumbnail Sample Font

Shows how the text under

each thumbnail image will look.


PIM|TitleTextBox
Title Text Box

Type the text for the page title in this box.


PIM|LeftJustify
Left Justify

Causes the text for the page title and

page footer to be left justified on the page.

The thumbnail caption is always placed

centrally below the thumbnail.


PIM|Centre
Center

Causes the text for the page title and

page footer to be centered on the page.


PIM|Dismiss Index Maker

Click here to put the Picture

Index Maker toolbox away.


Edit Menu

Click on the links below to find out

more about items in the Edit Menu

Edit|Undo

----------------------------

Edit|Resample

----------------------------

Edit|Editing Tools

----------------------------

Edit|Invert Rotate Mirror

----------------------------

Edit|Copy Image

Edit|Paste Image

----------------------------

Edit|Jpeg Properties


Edit|Undo

This option restores the previous image after some functions from Imagine's menus are used.

This undo function is different from the undo in the Editing Tools. The  Editing Tools undo applies to functions which are on that panel only.

A number of functions in  Imagine's menus use the image editor memory to deliver their output.  These functions will back up the editor memory before running, only if the image was previously modified by the Editing Tools. This is because the main menu functions generally do not operate cumulatively on the image, and those that do, such as the fixed rotatations can be undone by appying their inverse operation (e.g. rotate right will undo rotate left). This means that a backed up image from the editor will survive much longer without being overwritten, should you need to recover it. This also means that it may not always be the most recently used function which caused the backup. For this reason the Undo menu item always displays the name of the function which made the backup next to it.


Edit|Resample

This option is used to re-size images.

Resample is a floating toolbox. It sits in front of Imagine!'s main form but does not block use of the controls on the form. Click on the picture below to find out more.

Resample Toolbox

Notes:

1)The resampler is designed to produce high quality reduced size images. By a fluke of mathematics it is also capable of enlarging images. The maximum enlargement has been deliberately limited to 1000% (ie 10x) . Enlarging a very large image (say 1024 x 768) by 10x needs a lot of memory. It will also appear to take forever even on a 500MHz Pentium. If you do not have enough RAM, Windows can spend a very very long time trying to make memory by writing things out to the swap file.

2)In manual mode you can control the X (horizontal)  and Y(vertical)  sample rates independently. The maximum X sample rate you can apply is 12 x. The maximum Y sample rate you can apply is 36 x.

3) When making enlargements in manual  mode, the sample rate you need to apply to get a solid picture is the same as the amount by which you want to enlarge the image, rounded up to the next whole number. That is for a 5.3 times enlargement you would need to apply a sample rate of 6 for each of the X and Y directions. You can of course apply sample rates higher than the minimum with no ill effect.

.


Edit|Invert Rotate Mirror...

This option lets you invert the image, reflect it vertically or horizontally or rotate it.

When you select this option a sub menu drops down containing the following six options.

•	Invert

•	Mirror Vertical

•	Mirror Horizontal

•	Rotate Clockwise

•	Rotate Anti-clockwise

•	Arbitrary Angle

Invert turns the image upside down. This is the normal kind of inversion obtained by physically turning an object upside down. Any writing on the image will be upside down but will not be laterally inverted (i.e upside down normal writing).

Mirror Vertical

Produces an image which is upside down. The image is a reflection of the original image. This is the kind of image you see in a pool of water located in front of a building.Any writing on the image will be upside down and will be laterally inverted (i.e upside down mirror writing).

Mirror Horizontal

Produces an image which is the same way up as the original image. The image is a reflection of the original image. This is the kind of image you see when you look in a mirror. Any writing on the image will be The right way up and laterally inverted (i.e mirror writing).

Rotate Clockwise

Rotates the image through 90 degrees in a clockwise direction.

Rotate Anti-clockwise

Rotates the image through 90 degrees in an anti-clockwise direction.

Note that all the above operations can be applied cumulatively. When you use these operations you enter a slightly different display mode to the normal one. you will find you can no longer resize the image using the Left/Right mouse buttons although everything else appears normal. To return to the normal display mode you will need to click on the filename of the image in the Fileview to reload the file, or click on another file.

Arbitrary Angle

This option is covered in the topic  Arbitrary Rotation


Edit|Copy Image

This option copies an image from Imagine! to the Windows Clipboard

This option allows you to send images to the clipboard so they can be pasted into other programs or back into Imagine!. For example images made in Imagine!s resampler can be copied to the clipboard to be used as backgrounds in Imagine!'s Picture Index Maker.


Edit|Paste Image

This option loads an image from the Widows Clipboard into Imagine!.

This option allows images from other programs (e.g. paintbrush) to be copied into Imagine!. One use of this option is to capture the image of a window and save it as a file. Here is how to do it. Click on the title bar of the window you wish to capture to bring it to the foreground. Hold down the "alt" key and then press the "print screen" key. Then select 'Paste Image' in Imagine!.The image of the window should appear in Imagine!'s Picture Window and can be saved to disk or further manipulated.


Edit|Jpeg Properties

This menu item causes the Jpeg Properties Toolbox  to appear.

The Jpeg Toolbox allows you to change image properties and watch their effects on the image. Click on the image for more information

Jpeg Properties Toolbox

Click on the image above to find out more about the Jpeg Properties Toolbox.


Arbitrary Rotation

This menu subitem allow rotation of the image through any angle.

When you select this subitem the Arbitrary Rotation toolbox pops up. Click on the image to find out more about the controls.

Arbitrary Rotation Toolbox

This toolbox work similarly to a pushbutton radio. Instead of radio frequency think angle. The pointer at the top can be dragged along the radio scale to the required angular position. As you move it the number in the fine tuning box changes to show the precise angle. The pushbuttons give you a number of commonly used fixed angles, and the negate button doubles the number of available fixed angles by allowing you to rotate the other way. All the controls are linked so setting the angle by typing into the fine tuning box will cause the pointer of the radio scale to go to the selected angle.


Dismiss Rotation Toolbox
Dismiss Toolbox

Click this button to put away the

Arbitrary Rotation toolbox


Coarse Adjust

Drag the pointer left or right to set

the approximate angle you need


Fine Adjust

Click on the arrows to nudge the angle

to the precise position. You can also

set the angle by typing into the box.


Calibrations

The scale is calibrated from

-180 to +180 degrees.


Preset Buttons

These give you some commonly

used fixed angles.


Negate Button

Use this to make the angles on the

preset buttons negative. This has the

effect of reversing the rotation.


Apply

Click this button to rotate the

image through the selected angle.


Dismiss Printer Setup

Closes the Print Setup

ToolBox


Image Position

Lets you position the image on the paper.

The default position is 'Centered'.


Paper Orientation

Lets you set the paper orientation.

Note: Some printers do not allow you

to change paper orientation.


Scale Adjustment

This changes the ratio of paper pixels to image

pixels causing  the image on the paper to re-size.


Fine Scale Adjust

Sets  the  ratio of printer pixels to image pixels

as a percentage of the image size. This control

updates as you adjust the coarse scale.


Coarse Scale Adjust

Lets you set the scaling ratio quickly but

approximately. You  can then use the fine

adjust to do it more precisely if you want.


Paper Representation

This rectangle represents the printable area of the

paper. It automatically changes size if different

paper is used. Its orientation changes depending

on whether portrait or landscape printing is chosen.


Image Representation

This rectangle represents the image. It's size

and location relative to the white background

give an indication of the size and location

of the final image on the paper.


Print Button

Click on this when you are

ready to print the Image.


Rename|Title
Title

This shows 'Rename Image File' or 'Rename

Directory' depending on whether a file or folder

has been selected to be renamed.


Rename|Dismiss
Dismiss

Use this to close the

Rename Toolbox.


Rename|Name Description
Description

This shows 'New File' or 'New

Directory' depending on whether

a file or folder is to be renamed.


Rename|Filename
Filename

This box is automatically updated when

you click on a file or folder, Change this

to the new name you want to use.


Rename|Alt FileName
Alt FileName

Check this to enable the renumbering mode.


Rename|Plus Number
Plus Number

This box holds any trailing numerics which

were in the filename. You can set the numbers

to what you like but non-numeric text is not allowed.


Rename|Plus Extension
Plus Extension

This box holds the file name

extension and is read only.


Rename|AutoIncrement
Autoincrement

When checked, the number in the

'plus number' box automatically increments

as you rename each file.


Rename|Remame
Rename

Click this to perform the rename on

the file you have selected.


Rename|Text Part
Text Part

This box holds the part of the file name before

the extension, less any trailing numerics. You

can change the text in this box if you want.


Edit|Editing Tools

This toolbox provides cropping, coloring and, drawing, copy and paste of image sections and other image editing facilities.

Click on the image where you see a hand cursor to find out more about the Editing Tools.

Editing Toolbox

The editing tools allow you to  crop images (ie remove unwanted portions) and also to draw on images. The New button lets you create a new drawing surface (or canvas) from scratch or enlarge/reduce an existing one. There are also magnifications up to 16 x for accurate work.

There are many features which are unique to Imagine! such as the ability to clone the basic shapes, color them and alter line widths after the shape has been drawn, and repeat pasting, stretching and inverting of image sections. Each of these is explained in  the popup help items for the relevant button.

Important

Although there are thousands of colors in the Paint Box, you can only  use all of them on 24 bit images. For 8 bit and 4 bit images, you are restricted to colors which are present in the palette of the image. If you try to draw with a color not present in the image palette, your selected color is automatically replaced by the color from the image palette which matches it most closely. For 4 bit images, this can lead to startling results because the nearest color to a pink, (for example,)  could turn out to be light grey. You can deal with this by inserting the color you want into the image palette. See View|Paint Box for more details.


Edit Tools|Title
Title

Shows the currently selected tool


Edit Tools|Dismiss
Dismiss

Closes the Editing Tools toolbox.


Edit Tools|Pen Width
Pen Width

Clicking with the left or right mouse button on this panel

changes the width of the line drawn by the pen, line, rectangle

and ellipse functions. Each click steps up/down through the width

values of 1, 2, 4, 8,12 and 16 pixels.


Edit Tools|Pen Color
Pen Color

This panel indicates the color of the current pen.

When a tool is selected to which this color applies

the text 'Pen Color' is displayed in the box.


Edit Tools|Pen
Pen

This is the freehand drawing tool. It is useful on small bitmaps

and icons. It can also be used with the aid of the Sniffer tool to

successfully remove blemishes on photographs. By using the

Sniffer to select matching colors from the local area of a blemish

you can remove pimples and warts from faces such that the

surgery is undetectable! Scratches on photos also yield to the

same treatment.


Edit Tools|Ellipse
Ellipse

Use this tool to draw open ellipses and circles.

You can use adjust mode with this item.


Edit Tools|Erase
Erase

Erase is used to remove parts of the last drawn object.

It does not erase back to the original image. The size

of the eraser can be set by adjusting the Pen Width.

You can get interesting visual effects if you use border

fill to flood the whole image and then use Erase to remove

parts of the flooded area revealing the image underneath.


Edit Tools|Border Fill
Border Fill

Border Fill  paints an area with the selected fill color. It stops

painting when it meets a specified boundary color. In Imagine!

the boundary color is defined to be the color of the current Pen.

To use border fill you must make sure that the area to be filled is

completely enclosed by a perimeter having the same color as the

current pen. Border fill is the only fill method that can properly color

in areas on photographs. However it can be awkward to use. It is very

easy to either not have the right boundary color or to have a break in

the boundary, and it is possible to accidentally flood the entire image.

Fortunately you can use Undo.


Edit Tools|Fill Color
Fill Color

This panel indicates the color used by the two fill functions

(Border Fill and Surface fill). It is the color with which the area

will be filled. When one of the two fill functions is selected the

text Fill Color is also displayed in the panel.


Edit Tools|Save
Save

This is the standard Save Image As facility.

It is placed here for convenience.


Edit Tools|Text
Text On Graphic

To write on the image you must first define the area where the text will go, using the crop tool. The Text button is enabled automatically once a crop rectangle exists.  An area for writing text appears inside the crop rectangle when you click on the Text button. The area is multi-line and has the features of a text editor, it automatically linewraps and it scrolls but there are no scrollbars. If text you have written disappears, you need to enlarge the area to see it again. You can resize the area while the text button is down but you need to release the text button in order to move it. Here are some of the other things you can do.

•	 You can change the Text Font by double clicking inside the text area.

Hold down the Ctrl-Key while clicking in the text area to select between

transparent and solid text backgrounds. The  icon on the Text button

turns white (with a black border) to indicate  transparent backgrounds.

•	You can Set the color of solid text backgrounds by selecting colors

from Paint Box while the text button is down.

•	You can apply the text to the image using the Doit! button. If you do not like

 the result use the Undo button to remove the text.


Edit Tools|Input
Input

This function replaces the graphic which is normally used as the reference input

for many of the functions accessible when Imagine is used as a viewer. It causes the

edited image to behave as if it had just been loaded from disk using the Fileview.

This allows you to edit an image and then apply Resample,  Arbitrary rotation and some

other functions without first having to save the editor contents to disk. These functions

normally overwrite the editor contents.  If you forget to click on input, use undo from

the Edit Menu to recover your work.


Edit Tools|Sniffer Color
Sniffer Color

Indicates the Color Sample

Obtained by the Sniffer Tool.


Edit Tools|Sniff
Sniff

This is just a decorative label for the Sniffer Color panel on it's left.

The sniff function reads the color of the pixel in the image which  is

under the mouse cursor.

The Sniff function is actually performed by the Ctrl-key on the

keyboard. The cursor shape changes to a bulb pipette (or eye

dropper) when the Ctrl-Key is held down, You can see the

Sniffer panel change color  as the mouse moves. The sampled

color  is applied directly to the current drawing tool when the

Ctrl-key is released in all cases except for Border Fill.

For Border Fill, the decision as to whether the color should be applied

to the Pen or the Fill Area is left up to you. The color is transferred to the

Sniffer Color panel only. You must click with the  left/right mouse buttons

on the Sniffer Color panel to set the  border/fill colors respectively.


Edit Tools|New
New Canvas

Opens the New Canvas Toolbox.

This allows you to define a new drawing

surface when you need to draw images

from scratch.


Edit Tools|Paste
Paste

Pastes an image from the clipboard into the current crop rectangle.

On paste, the initial size of the crop rectangle is adjusted to the

true size of the pasted image so that the image  will not be stretched.

Adjust mode is entered automatically after pasting. You can invert

stretch mirror and reposition the image in the crop rectangle before

committing it to the main image with the Do It! button.

You can release the adjust button to remove the red and white bounding line

of the crop rectangle. This lets you see exactly how the pasted image will appear

once it has been finalized.

When there is no crop rectangle this function is disabled. To enable it,

select crop and click on the image in the place where you want the

image to be located.

To clear the crop rectangle so it can be used for cropping, click on the Undo button.

This function must be finalized explicitly using the DoIt! button.

This function is different from the Paste Image function of the main edit menu.

The main menu paste function replaces the whole image. This function

pastes into a portion of an existing image.


Edit Tools|Copy
Copy

This function copies the area bounded by a crop rectangle

to the clipboard. If there is no crop rectangle this function

is disabled. If you create a zero size crop rectangle by

clicking on the image the whole image is copied.


Edit Tools|Adjust
Adjust

This button establishes adjust mode. Adjust mode allows you to modify

the parameters of the last drawn object. For lines, rectangles, and ellipses,

you can change their dimensions, color, position, and pen thickness. You

can also do this for crop rectangles and the bitmaps pasted  into them.

Need four same sized wheels ? You can duplicate ellipses, lines, rectangles,

and pasted bitmaps by fixing then with the do it! button followed immediately

by the adjust button. You can also invert and mirror pasted bitmaps in this

mode. Adjust also lets you change flood fill colors. See Border Fill and Surface Fill.


Edit Tools|Crop
Crop

This button lets you select an area for cropping images

and also for  the Copy, Paste and Text functions.

The area is selected by holding down the left mouse button and

dragging the cursor over the image. When the mouse

is released, adjust mode is entered automatically.


Edit Tools|Surface Fill
Surface Fill

Surface fill floods an area as long as that area has a constant color.

This fill is the standard fill found on most drawing programs. It is

completely useless on photographs, particularly 24bit truecolor images

because the probability of the pixel next to the current one having the

same identical color is of the order of 1 in 16 million. Surface fill is

useful  (and safer) for filling in areas that have already been Border Filled

and for graphical images where the colors are fairly constant.


Edit Tools|Rectangle
Rectangle

Use this tool to draw open rectangles and squares

You can use adjust mode with this item.


Edit Tools|Line
Line

Use this tool to draw lines

You can use adjust mode with this item.


Edit Tools|Color
Color

This button invokes the Paint Box, allowing

you to select colors for drawing.


Edit Tools|Files
Files

This button restores the Fileview if it has been dismissed.

This button is normally disabled. It becomes enabled if the

Fileview is not visible.


Edit Tools|X2
Zoom

Use these buttons to change the image magnification

for close up work. When all buttons are released the

magnification is X1. X16 magnification is ideal for

working on icons and small bitmaps.


Edit Tools|Undo
Undo

The last object placed on the image whether it is a line,

color fill or bitmap is applied temporarily and can be removed

using the undo button. This button will also undo Crop and the

Text function. This undo function applies only to items in the Editing

Tools toolbox it will not undo functions from other menus.

See Edit|Undo for these.


Edit Tools|Do It!
Do It!

The do it! button finalizes the last operation so that it can

no longer be undone. When drawing on the image, the

previous coloring object is automatically finalized when you

apply the next object. The exceptions,  to this are the crop,

and text on graphic functions. Crop and Text  must be explicitly

executed with the Do it! button but you can undo them with the

undo button.


Edit Tools|Cursor Location
Drawing Coordinates

The origin (0, 0) of coordinates is  at the top left hand corner of the image.

The coordinates displayed change to give the most appropriate information at different

times while drawing. The (X,Y) coordinate measures the position of the cursor. All the

other coordinates measure properties of the bounding rectangle (ie the rectangle which

defines the perimiter) of the graphical object being applied to the drawing canvas.

X:012	Y:456	Coordinate ( X,Y ) of Cursor

W:012	H:456	Width and Height of boundary rectangle

L:012	T:456	Coordinate (Left,Top) of top left hand corner of boundary rectangle

R:012	B:456	Coordinate (Right,Bottom) of bottom right hand corner of rectangle


Save Image Additional Dialogs

click on the link to select the appropriate dialog

PNG Dialog

TIFF Dialog

BMP Dialog


Image Save|PNG Dialog

Click on the image below for more information

PNG additional Dialog


PNGSaveDialog|OK
OK

Click this when you are

ready to save the image


PNGSaveDialog|Compression
PNG Compression

Select Low,Medium or High Compression


PNGSaveDialog| Bits Per Pixel
Bits Per Pixel

Choose either 4,8 or 24 bits per pixel


PNGSaveDialog|Abort
Abort

Use this button to cancel the Save operation


Image Save|TIFF Dialog

Click on the image below for more information

Tiff Compression Dialog


TiffSaveDialog|Compression

Choose between None, Zlib,

Packbits, or Jpeg compression


Image Save|BMP dialog

Click on the image below for more information

BMP Format Palette Dialog

For an instant primer on color palettes see the topic What are Image Palettes? For a less technical description see the topic Image Palettes You can look at and also modify image palettes using the Paint Box

Palettes available when saving as  8 bit file

1	'Optimized/Floyd Steinberg Dither'

2	'Image Own Palette'

3	'WinOctree Palette - no dither'

4	'Windows Default palette'

5	'WinWeb Palette'

6	'Octree with F/S dither'

Palettes available when saving as 24 bit file.

7	'No Palette'

8	'Image Own Palette'

9	'WinOctree Palette - no dither'

10	'Windows Default palette'

11	'WinWeb Palette'

Palettes available when saving as  4 bit file

12	'Image Own Palette'

13	'Octree Palette - no dither'

14	'Windows Default palette'

15	'WinWeb Palette'

Notes:

Palette 1 This is the best palette for strictly photographic images.

Palette 2 should be used when saving as 8bit to 8bit.

You are unlikely to improve on the palette supplied in the image because color information has already been removed in making the image palette. Imagine uses palette 3 as a quick and dirty fix for 24 bit images seen in 8 bit display mode. This gives good but not terrific results because the bitmap is not dithered. You should save these images using Palette 1( not the "own palette"). Images having this kind of  temporary palette are described as having a "synthesized" palette.

Palette 3 can only be applied when the image to be saved is 24 bit or 16 bit because it creates a palette using colors in the image.

Palette 4 is not suitable for photographs. It is for creating icons and bitmaps which display correctly in Windows at all screen resolutions.

Palette 5 combines the Web Palette with palette 4 giving a much wider color range for graphics in 8 bit mode. It is suitable for subsequently making Gif (not supported in V1.3)  and  PNG graphics for use on the Web.

Palette 6 gives good photographic results (but not as good as palette 1) It preserves the sharpness of graphical lines better than palette1. Also it is less memory hungry than palette 1 and you may need to use it for very large graphics (or buy more memory).

Palette 7 You should use this for 24 bit images. The presence of a palette in the 24 bit image causes some programs to display the image incorrectly. Imagine! and some other programs will use the supplied palette (if present) to display the image in 8 bit mode.

Palette 8  Use this when a 24 bit graphic has a palette you want to preserve.

Palette 9 See notes for palette 3

Palette 10 See notes for palette 4

Palette 11 See notes for palette 5

Palette 12 should be used when saving as 4bit to 4bit.

Palette 13 See notes for palette 2

Palette 14 See notes for palette 2

Palette 15 See notes for palette 2


BMPSaveDialog|Bitmap Save Palette
Bitmap Save Palette

You should set the bits per pixel first as this

determines the precise options you see in

this box.


Existing Image Palette

This is the palette of the image currently displayed

in Imagine! You can look at the colors in this palette

by selecting Palette 0 from the Paint Box.


Image Save|Jpeg Dialog

Click on the image below for more information

Jpeg Save Image Dialog

This is the top half of the Jpeg Properties toolbox, unlike the save dialogs for PNG,BMP and TIFF you are committed to saving the file in Jpeg Format once this box appears.


Jpeg Save Quality

Best quality is 100% but gives largest file size.

Quality of 50% and lower is poor. Good figures

are 75%-85%


Progressive

Check this if you want progressive encoding.

Progressive images appear quickly in web browsers

as a low quality initial image which gradually improves

untill fully received.


Execute

Click this button to complete the save operation.


Paint box|Resize
Resize

Use the left and right arrows

to resize the Paint Box.


Paint box|ColorSelected
Color Selected

This shows the currently selected color. The number shown in

the rectangle is the index of the color in whichever palette you

last used. If you choose colors from the custom area then the

number is the index into the custom palette otherwise it is the

index into the main palette.


Paint box|Options Area
Options Area

This area sometimes shows a checkbox with the word 'Alt' beside it.

In these cases you can get a second palette by checking 'Alt'. For

example palette 24 shows 256 shades of orange which turn pastel

towards white. If you check 'Alt' you get a further 256 shades of orange

heading towards black.

If the image does not have a palette and you are using the image

palette (palette 0) , a button appears in this area marked 'synthesize'.

This allows you to make a synthetic coloring palette which contains

colors which are similar to those found in the image.


Paint box|Current Palette
Current Palette

Shows the name and reference

number of the current palette.


Paint box|MorePalettes
More Palettes

Click this to get a drop down

list of the available palettes.


Paint box|RGB Components
R G B Components

These are the decimal values of the red, green

and blue color components of the selected color.


Paint box|Main Palette
Main Palette

This area displays the colors from the palette you

have chosen. you click on this area to select a color

with either the left or right mouse buttons.


Paint box|Position in Palette
Position in Palette

This white square remembers the place where you

last clicked on the palette. However its position is

meaningless when you first select a palette.


Paint box|Custom Area
Custom Area

You program colors individually into this area by selecting

colors from the main palette area. To program a color into

one of the squares you click on it with the right hand mouse

button. To paint with a color from this area you must click on

the color with the left mouse button to select it. Colors in this

area are remembered between sessions.


Paint box|Tiny
Tiny

When you click on this checkbox the Paint Box reduces

in size so that only the custom area and this checkbox

are left. This reduces the degree to which the image is

obscured by the Paint Box. This state is remembered

between sessions.


Paintbox|Small
Small

When you click on this checkbox the custom area is

removed making the paintbox slightly smaller. This state

is remembered between sessions.


Paint box|Dismiss
Dismiss

Click Here to close

the Paint Box.


New Canvas Toolbox
New Canvas

This toolbox allows you to set the dimensions and properties of a new drawing surface.

Click on the image below to find out more about the New Canvas toolbox.

New Canvas Toolbox

Note: Although you can set a 16 bit drawing canvas in Imagine! There are no supported formats which allow you to save in this mode. This means that the graphic will either be up-converted to 24 bits or down converted to 8 bits depending on how you choose to save it. The purpose of allowing 16 bit canvases is for the benefit of those with slow computers who normally work in 16 bit mode.  For files loaded from disk, the setup option 'match image to display resolution' serves the same purpose.  Many people have their computers permanently set to 16 bit display mode because it is fastest for games. If you have 16 bit display mode set, and you use 16 bit graphics in imagine, there are no delays caused by internal format conversions so everything image related works faster.  The disadvantage of  working with graphics as 16 bit is that the quality of 24 bit images is not retained.


New Canvas|Width
Width

Enter the width (in pixels) of

the new drawing surface


New Canvas|Height
Height

Enter the height (in pixels) of

the new drawing surface


New Canvas|Size To Client
Size To Client

Sets the width and height of the new canvas to

match those of the current viewing area in Imagine!


New Canvas|Resize Existing
Resize Existing

Check this radio button to resize a drawing surface

which is displaying an image. The resized canvas

keeps the existing image and retains the pixel

format and palette of the image.


New Canvas|NewCanvas
New canvas

Check this radio button if you want to discard

any image on the display and create a new

drawing surface from scratch.


New Canvas|Fill Color
Fill Color

This is the color with which a new blank drawing surface

(canvas) will be filled. In the case of a surface containing

a pre-existing image, it is the color of any extra blank area

created when the canvas is resized. To set the fill color,

click on this panel to invoke the paintbox. Any color you

select from the paint box will replace the color shown.


New Canvas|Bits Per Pixel
Bits Per Pixel

You can choose the number of bits per pixel for

your new drawing canvas here. The choices are

24, 16, 8, and 4 bits/pixel. The choice of palettes

available to you and also the memory used by the

new graphic are dependent on this setting.


New Canvas|Palette
Palette

When making a new drawing canvas you can choose a

coloring palette for the canvas. Palettes are optional for 16 bit

and 24 bit images. The palette determines which colors will

appear in the image in 8 bit and 4 bit display modes. You can

see the colors in the palette you have applied by clicking on the

Fill Color panel and selecting palette zero from the Paint Box.


New Canvas|OK
OK

Click this button when you are ready

to apply your new canvas settings.


New Canvas|Dismiss
Dismiss

Click Here to Close the

New Canvas ToolBox.


New Canvas|Memory
Memory

This box displays the RAM memory occupied

by the canvas. For uncompressed images it

is very close to the space occupied on disk.