BigPicture 3.3

BigPicture Copyright © 1994, 1996 by John Montbriand.  All Rights Reserved.

An image viewing software program.

File formats made visible:

GIF, PICT, MacPaint, BMP, JPG, StartupScreen, and QuickTime Movies

System Software Versions:

System 6 (with QuickTime)

System 7 (QuickTime preferred)

If QuickTime is not installed, the following features are not available:
  -Save As…
  -Save Contact Sheet(s)…
  -jpg format files,
  -QuickTime movies,
  -the JPEG button in the Copy As window.

Opening files:

• Use the open command in the File menu,
• System 7: drag and drop files, folders, or disks* into the BigPicture file icon,
• System 7.5: drag and drop files, folders, or disks* into the BigPicture window,
• Double clicking on portfolio files or files created by BigPicture.
• Clicking on a thumbnail in a contact sheet image.

* Be careful when dropping folders and disks into BigPicture.  The program will attempt to load every single file it finds in the disk or folder--which may take a very long time if the disk contains hundreds of files.  The program will only open up to 16000 files.

When you open a file in BigPicture it does not check to see if the file can be displayed until you actually try to display it.

Using the Mouse:
 • Controls for working with images are accessible by mouse at the bottom of the window.  See the ‘Visual Help’ command in the file menu for more information about these controls,

• Clicking on the image number indicator opens the goto window,

• The scroll bar lets you switch between images,

• If the image is scaled beyond the window’s boundary, you can click and drag on the image to uncover unseen parts of the image.

• contact sheets include hot rectangles over each thumbnail connected to aliases that refer to the original file.  Clicking on a thumbnail in a contact sheet opens the image file.

Using the Keyboard:

The key control allows you to assign a key equivalent to an image.  When an image has a keyboard equivalent, typing that key automatically scrolls the display to that image.  If more than one image is assigned the same key equivalent, typing the key will switch between those images.

Several keys on the keyboard duplicate commands you would normally click the mouse to use:

• Go To Next Image: down arrow key, right arrow key, page down key, return key.

• Go To Previous Image:  up arrow key, left arrow key, page up key.

• Go To First Image: home key.

• Go To Last Image: end key.

• Go Back: tab key.

• Forget Image:  delete key, del key, clear key.
Note: holding the command and option keys down while forgetting an image deletes the image file.

• Original View:  the star key ‘*’

• Zoom Out: the minus key ‘-’

• Zoom In: the plus key ‘+’

• Cancel Full Screen: any key other than those listed above that is not a letter or a number.

• Letters and numbers can be assigned as keyboard equivalents for different images.  Once a key has been assigned, typing it will automatically scroll to that image.

Using the Menus:

The File Menu:

• Open…
Allows you to open files or folders.  When you open a folder, all files contained inside of the folder are loaded into the program.

• Close
Closes the front most window.  Closing the BigPicture window quits the program,

• Save As…
Saves the current image in a jpg format file.  The image is saved to the file as it is displayed on the screen.

• Save Contact Sheet(s)…
Systematically generates contact sheet files for every image loaded into the program.  Contact sheets are saved in jpg format files.  Files that cannot be imaged are not included. Contact sheets contain four rows of images.  Each thumbnail in a contact sheet has an alias record associated with it so you can quickly access the file by clicking on the thumbnail.

• Save Portfolio…
Saves aliases to all of the images loaded into BigPicture into a Portfolio file.  Portfolio files remember key equivalents, scaling, orientation, thumbnail icons, et cetera.

• Page Setup…
For configuring the printer paper settings.

• Print…
Prints the currently displayed image as it is seen on the screen.  If the image is scaled larger than one page, it is printed on multiple pages.

• Print Order Form…
Prints the order form for BigPicture.

• Help Text…
Displays this text in a window.

• Visual Help…
Displays a picture of the control bar with names for the corresponding controls.

• Purchasing…
Displays information about how you can purchase a copy of this program.

• Quit
Exits BigPicture.

The Edit Menu:

Only the Copy, Paste, and Copy As commands are available.

• Copy
Copies the current image to the clipboard using the standard 256 colours.  If the image contains less than 256 colours, then the image’s original colours are used.  If the image is a black and white image and it is scaled down, then it is copied using 16 shades of gray.

• Paste
Pasting an image into the BigPicture allows you to save images from the clipboard into picture files.  When you paste an image in to the BigPicture window, you are prompted for a file name.  If the image is successfully saved into a file, then it is loaded into the display.  Images saved in this way are saved in PICT format files that can be read by many other programs.

• Copy As
Allows you to copy the image to the clipboard in a number of different formats.

The Mark Menu:

The mark menu allows you to add images to the mark menu.  Once an image has been marked, you can quickly go to it by choosing its name from the mark menu.

• Mark/Unmark
Allows you to either mark or unmark the current image.

The Go Menu:

• Next
Go to the next image.

• Previous
Go to the previous image.

• First
Go to the first image.

• Last
Go to the last image.

• Go Back
BigPicture remembers the last 20 images that were displayed.  Go Back returns the display to the previously viewed image.  This option is particularly useful when working with contact sheets: (a) click on the thumbnail in the contact sheet to view the image, (b) choose ‘Go Back’ to return to the contact sheet.

• Go To…
Opens the Go To window.  The Go To window displays a list of all the files loaded into BigPicture (along with thumbnail icons) of all of the images loaded into BigPicture.  Thumbnail icons are only displayed for images you have already viewed.

Note: thumbnail icons displayed in the goto window are saved in Portfolio files.

The Scene Menu:

The scene menu provides menu equivalents for some of the controls in the control bar.

• Rotate Right
Rotates the current image 90 degrees to the right.

• Rotate Left
Rotates the current image 90 degrees to the left.

• Flip Vertical
Flips the image vertically.

• Flip Horizontal
Flips the image horizontally.

• Zoom In
Scales the image so it appears bigger on the screen.

• Zoom Out
Scales the image so it appears smaller on the screen.

• Original View
Returns the image to its original scaling and orientation.

The Options Menu:

• Use Full Screen
Use the entire screen.

Note:  you can cancel full screen mode by either choosing this command again or by typing a space.

• Show/Hide Controls
Allows you to show or hide the control bar at the bottom of the window.

• Auto Shuffle
Turns on automatic image switching.  Images are changed once at 15 second intervals.  QuickTime movies are played once before they are switched out.

• Show Current Time
Displays the time.

About Portfolio Files:

• Saving a portfolio file saves references to all of the images you currently have loaded so you can quickly load the same set of images at a later date--it does not save the actual images in portfolio files.

BigPicture saves some other information inside of portfolio files too:
• How each image is scaled, centered, rotated, and flipped.
• Keyboard equivalents assigned to images.
• Images appearing in the mark menu.
• Thumbnail icons displayed in the goto window.

About Contact Sheet Files:

Contact sheet files store aliases referring to actual files used to generate the contact sheets.  Alias records are created relative to the contact sheet file, so, for best results, store your contact sheets in the same directory as your image files.  Aliases and hot rectangles are stored in the resource fork and are independent of the jpg data stored in the data fork.

As a presentation engine:

Portfolio files are useful for preparing presentations.  

• Preparing your presentation:
1. Select the images you would like to use and load them into BigPicture.
2. Assign keyboard equivalents to each image.  
3. Rotate, flip, center, and scale the images as desired.
4. Choose 'Make Portfolio…' from the File menu and save it.
5. Quit BigPicture

• Do a practice run through your presentation,  with your files set up exactly as they will be at the presentation,  to make sure you have everything set up correctly,

• Doing your presentation:
1. Open your portfolio by double clicking on it, opening it from the file menu, or dropping it into BigPicture.
2. set the program on full screen mode and hide the controls.
3. Type the keyboard equivalents for different images as you go through your presentation to bring those images onto the screen (be careful to type only the keys you assigned to images, as typing an unassigned key will cancel full screen mode).

• After your presentation:
You may want to turn on the Auto Shuffle option (Type command-A).  The program turns into a changing backdrop for discussion and questions, and may provide memory cues for questions people thought about during your presentation.

A way cool set of wall paper:

The Auto Shuffle command allows you to randomly shuffle through a set of images.  Individual images are not displayed again until all the other images have been seen.

Memory usage:

If BigPicture runs low on memory and cannot pre-load an entire file for display, then it will draw the file directly to the screen.  When this happens, the flip and rotate controls are disabled.

QuickTime movies generally require more memory for display.  If there is not enough memory to load the movie, it will be drawn directly on the screen and the flip and rotate controls will be unavailable.

You can run BigPicture with as little as 1 megabyte, however as the program caches images and does more interesting things with larger memory partitions, 2 megabytes or more is recommended.

Special Note:

BigPicture is sold at Twenty dollars per copy.  See the text in the Purchasing Information window for further details.

Customers who have purchased a copy of a previous version will receive an updated copy in the mail for free.  As well, if you have already purchased a copy, you may replace it with a copy of the latest version at no charge.

Comments/Questions:

If you have any comments or questions regarding BigPicture you can contact me at the following Internet address tinyjohn@sasknet.sk.ca.  Suggestions for new features are always welcome.  I advertise a finder’s fee of $10 for bug reports in any of my products.