GIF Construction Set UltraLight is a reduced version of Alchemy Mindworks' popular GIF Construction Set Professional software. It's a powerful tool for creating web page animations, as well as transparent and interlaced GIF files.

Note that the full version of GIF Construction Set Professional can do a lot that the UltraLight edition cannot. We invite you to visit our web page at http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/gifcon.html to download the full version. See http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/gcsdemo.html for an extensive interactive demonstration of what GIF Construction Set Professional can do.

The GIF Construction Set UltraLight application is part of the Graphic Workshop Professional bundle. Registering Graphic Workshop Professional also registers GIF Construction Set UltraLight. Please note that this registration does not extend to the full version of GIF Construction Set Professional.

Quick Start

Even if you really hate to read extensive documentation, read this first section. It will get you up and running with GIF Construction Set UltraLight for the most commonly performed tasks.

This section will show you how to use GIF Construction Set to:

• Create a transparent GIF file
• Create an animated GIF file
• Create an animated GIF file with transparency
• Create an interlaced GIF file

This is a very cursory tutorial which discusses the most commonly used functions of GIF Construction Set. For complete information about all the features of GIF Construction Set, please see the latter portion of this document.

Create a Transparent GIF File

This section will discuss adding transparency to an existing single-image GIF file. A transparent GIF file is one in which one of the palette colours of the file is defined as transparent – everywhere the transparent colour would normally appear, the background will appear instead. Only one colour can be declared as transparent for each image in a GIF file. If the background area of your GIF file actually consists of more than one colour, such as a dither pattern, the whole area will not appear transparent. Some image editing might be called for – see the Paint function of Graphic Workshop.

1. Select Open from the File menu of GIF Construction Set.

2. Select the GIF file you with to make transparent.

3. When your file is open, click once on the block immediately before the Image block – this will usually be the Header block.

4. Select Insert from the button bar of GIF Construction Set.

5. Select Control from the Insert dialog. A new Control block will appear immediately before the Image block in your GIF file.

6. Double click on the Control block. A Control block editor will appear.

7. Enable the Transparent Colour option.

8. Click on the Eyedropper tool. The image in your GIF file will appear.

9. Click somewhere in the area you wish to make transparent. The image will vanish and you'll be returned to the Control Block editor.

10. Click on OK and save your GIF file.

You can preview your GIF file to make sure the transparency is behaving as you wish by selecting View from the File menu. In some cases, it may be difficult to see transparent areas in a GIF file you've created – if the background colour of your GIF file is white, for example, and the area you made transparent was also originally white, not much will appear to have changed. You can get around this as follows:

1. Double click on the Header block of your GIF file. A Header block editor will appear.

2. Click on the Background button. A colour selector will appear.

3. Select a fairly obvious colour, one which is unlike the original background colour of your GIF file before you made it transparent.

4. Click on OK and select View from the File menu to preview your image. The background colour should show through the transparent areas.

Note that the Background colour in the Header block of a GIF file is ignored by web browsers, which use the background of your page as the image background. As such, you can leave the Header block Background colour set to anything you like.

Create an Animated GIF File

This section will discuss the simplest way to create an animated GIF file with GIF Construction Set. There are others – this approach assumes that all the cells of your animation exist as individual GIF files, and that they have more or less similar content and colour palettes. If either of these assumptions is not the case – or if your resulting GIF file doesn't look like you think it should – you probably need to get more deeply into GIF Construction Set's features.

Having said this, most animated GIF files can be successfully created this way.

1. Select Animation Wizard from the File menu of GIF Construction Set.

2. Click on Next to accept each of the defaults until you reach the file selection screen.

3. Select the individual source GIF files which will comprise your animation. You can do this one at a time, or all at once by holding down the Crtl key and clicking on each file name in sequence. Click on Open when you're done. Note that you must select at least two images to create an animation.

4. When you have finished selecting files, click on the Cancel button in the Open dialog, which will return you to the Animation Wizard window. Click on Next.

5. Click on Done. Animation Wizard will build your animation and open it in the main GIF Construction Set window when it's done.

6. You can preview your animation by clicking selecting View from the File menu. Save your animation to a new GIF file by selecting Save As from the File menu.

Create an Animated GIF File with Transparency

An animated GIF file with transparent elements is identical to the a non-transparent GIF file, save that transparency is enabled in one or more of its Control blocks. Note that Animation Wizard only imports images – it does not import transparency information.

1. Begin by creating an animated GIF file as discussed in the previous section of this document.

2. When your new GIF file has been opened in GIF Construction Set, double click on the first Control block.

3. Enable the Transparent Colour option.

4. Click on the Eyedropper tool. The first image in your GIF file will appear.

5. Click somewhere in the area you wish to make transparent. The image will vanish and you'll be returned to the Control Block editor.

6. Open the Remove By combo box near the bottom of the Control Block editor and select Background.

7. Click on OK and save your GIF file.

8. Repeat this procedure for each of the Control blocks in your GIF file.

See the discussion of transparency in the section of this document dealing with single-image transparent GIF files.

Create an Interlaced GIF File

An interlaced GIF file displays in coarse pixels in a web browser when it begins to download, and becomes more clearly defined as the download proceeds. It displays in single lines in GIF Construction Set, which are ordered to ultimately display the entire image. Interlaced GIF files offer no performance improvements – they're wholly cosmetic.

Note that while you can create interlaced animated GIF files with GIF Construction Set, web browsers will not display them as such – they'll de-interlace the downloaded image frames before they're displayed. There's no worthwhile reason for creating such a GIF file.

1. Select Open from the File menu of GIF Construction Set.

2. Select the GIF file you with to make interlaced.

3. When your file is open, double click on the Image block. An Image block editor will appear.

4. Enable the Interlaced option.

5. Click on OK and save your GIF file.

Select View from the File menu to see your GIF file displayed in an interlaced pattern. Note that this differs visually from the way some web browsers display interlaced images.

GIF Construction Set UltraLight

A single-image GIF file usually consists of two blocks, to wit, a Header and an Image. However, the structure defined by the GIF 89a specification allows for GIF files which contain multiple images, and several additional optional block types. These types are:

Every GIF file begins with a Header block, which defines the size of the screen the GIF files should be displayed on if possible, and an optional global palette.

It's important to understand how palettes work in GIF files. A palette defines the colours to be used by any images in a GIF file. A global palette, defined by the header block of a GIF file, pertains to all the images in the file. Alternately, individual image blocks are permitted to have palettes of their own, called local palettes.

Because many display devices are colour mapped, and can only work with one palette at a time, attempting to display multiple GIF images, each with its own local palette, will usually leave you with something that looks like bad abstract art or the aftermath of an all you can eat spaghetti dinner. As such, multiple image GIF files should have all their images referenced to the global palette of the.

GIF Construction Set will let you open existing GIF files to modify their block parameters or create new GIF files and add blocks, modify the various data fields of blocks and delete blocks.

When you open a GIF file, the main application window of GIF Construction will list each of the blocks in the GIF file, beginning with the header. Click once on an image block to select it. Double click on any block that GIF Construction Set recognizes will call up a dialog to edit it. GIF Construction Set for Windows does not allow application blocks or blocks of unknown types to be edited.

Editing the Header Block

You can modify the following fields of the header block of a GIF file:

When you create a new GIF file, a header block will be created automatically. The colour depth is set to 256 colours, and a default palette is applied to the header.

Editing Image Blocks

The Edit Image dialog includes the following fields:

Editing Comment Blocks

A comment block consists entirely of text. The Edit Comment Block dialog is a text editing window in which you can add, modify and delete the text of a comment block. Under GIF Construction Set, a comment block can include up to 32,767 characters.

Editing Plain Text Blocks

Plain text blocks consist of text and some information about how to display it. The text can be edited the same way comment block text is handled. The following fields define how plain text blocks will be displayed:

Editing Control Blocks

A control block includes the following fields:

Editing Loop Blocks

A loop block includes one field, to define the number of times the images in the GIF file in question will repeat. Note that a Loop block will always appear as the second block in a GIF file, no matter where you insert it. Only one Loop block can appear in a GIF file.

Inserting Blocks

You can add blocks to a GIF file by selecting Insert from the File menu of GIF Construction Set. A dialog will appear to allow you to select the type of block you wish to insert. Inserted blocks are always inserted immediately after the currently selected block.

If you attempt to insert an image block into an existing GIF file, a dialog will appear prompting you for the file to insert from. Source images for GIF Construction Set UltraLight must be in the GIF format.

You can insert multiple images into a GIF file at once – each one will appear as a separate Image block. Select multiple images in the Open dialog by holding down the Ctrl key and clicking on each image you want to insert. Hold down the Shift key and click to select a range of images.

Note that if you import an image from a GIF file using the Insert function, the first image in the file will be read, even if the file actually contains multiple images.

If you attempt to insert an image which has a different palette from the current global palette of your GIF file, a dialog will appear asking how you'd like to handle the new image's palette. These are the available options:

If you insert other types of blocks – specifically control, comment or plain text blocks – default blocks will be created which you can subsequently edit, as has been discussed.

The Use This Selection for Subsequent Images option will save time if you're importing multiple images into a GIF file in one pass. It will apply the current selection in the dialog to the remainder of the images to be imported. Note that this item will not be enabled if you have selected Use This Image as the Global Palette, as a GIF file can only have one global palette.

Deleting Blocks

You can delete any block save for the header by selecting it and then selecting Delete from the File menu. Note that once a block is deleted, it's gone for good.

Viewing GIF Files

Select View from the File menu of GIF Construction Set to display a complete GIF file in real time. You can terminate the display any time you like by clicking the right button of your mouse or hitting the Esc key.

Creating New GIF Files

To create a blank GIF file, select New from the File menu. A blank GIF file always includes a header block. You can add blocks to a new GIF file with the Insert and Merge functions.

Opening and Saving GIF Files

Any GIF 87a or 89a file can be opened into GIF Construction Set. Files created with GIF 87a headers will be converted internally to GIF 89a files.

The Save and Save As functions of the File menu will save your current GIF file to disk. All GIF files written by GIF Construction Set will have GIF 89a headers.

Unregistered copies of GIF Construction Set will add a comment block to any GIF file you save. This comment block will not appear once you register Graphic Workshop Professional.

Using Animation Wizard

The Animation Wizard feature of GIF Construction Set will walk you through creating an animated GIF file. It offers fewer options than you'd have if you were to create an animated GIF file from scratch, but it's dead easy to use. It will prompt you for information about the animation you want to create, assemble all the necessary blocks and finally open the file in GIF Construction Set's main window. You can edit it further, or just save it to disk.

To create a GIF file with Animation Wizard, simply select this feature from the File menu of GIF Construction Set and follow the prompts. You can fine tune your GIF file after it has been created by Animation Wizard. The most important questions are:

• Do you want to create an animated GIF file for use in World Wide Web Page?

  If you answer Yes to this question, Animation Wizard will choose a palette for your GIF file which is optimally compatible with Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

• Are the images for your GIF file photorealistic or drawn?

  Photorealistic images are scanned graphics and computer generated art which has gradients. Anything that looks as if it might have started life as a photograph should be regarded as photorealistic. Drawn images are graphics with hard lines, such as text and line art. Draw images with sixteen colours are text and line art which are constrained to use the default Windows palette, that is, graphics with very few colours.

  The Match to Superpalette option of Animation Wizard will create a new optimized palette for your animation based on the palettes of all the source images you have selected. This will usually produce the best looking animations.

  The Match to First Palette option of Animation Wizard will match all the colours in all the images you select to the palette of the first image. This will eliminate dithering problems when you assemble an animation from source GIF files as long as you choose the first image appropriately

  Especially if you're new to using animated GIF files in a web page, it's a really good idea to start with Animation Wizard.

  
  

  IMPORTANT: GIF Construction Set UltraLight makes calls to the main executable file of Graphic Workshop Professional. It will not run if it's moved to a directory other than that of GWSPRO.EXE, or if it's distributed without the rest of Graphic Workshop. If you register Graphic Workshop Professional by entering your registration code and name in the Graphic Workshop Setup dialog, GIF Construction Set UltraLight will not recognize the code until you have exited Graphic Workshop once. Registered users of Graphic Workshop Professional will not see GIF Construction Set UltraLight's beg notice when it runs.

  
  

  

  This document and all the other documentation included with Graphic Workshop Professional is copyright © 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2002 Alchemy Mindworks. It may not be reproduced in whole or in part or transmitted in any form save as a component part of the Graphic Workshop Professional software without the explicit written permission of the copyright holder. Unauthorized use of this document or any portion thereof may result in severe criminal and civil penalties. Alchemy Mindworks accepts no responsibility for any loss, damage or expense caused by your use of the information in this document, however it occurs. This product is marketed under license from Alchemy Mindworks Corporation.