GIFConverter Copyright ⌐1988-1991 Kevin A. Mitchell
All Rights reserved.
This program was written with MacApp¿: ⌐1985-1988 Apple Computer, Inc.
APPLE COMPUTER, INC. MAKES NO WARRANTIES WHATSOEVER, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING THIS PRODUCT, INCLUDING WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO ITS MERCHANTABILITY OR ITS FITNESS FOR ANY PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
The MacApp software is proprietary to Apple Computer, Inc. and is licensed to Kevin A. Mitchell for distribution only with the GIFConverter program.
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This file contains information about GIFConverter 2.2.
Please report bugs or suggestions to Kevin Mitchell at the address below, on Compuserve EasyPlex at 74017,2573, America Online at KevinM17, or through Internet at 74017.2573@compuserve.com. Support is also available online in the Graphics Support Forum of CompuServe.
GIFConverter may be used for 15 days without charge. After 15 days, you must order GIFConverter or destroy your copy. To order, print the order from found in the program, and send with $40 plus shipping and handling ($5 US, $10 international) to:
Kevin A. Mitchell
P.O. Box 803066
Chicago, IL 60680-3066
DUE TO NEW SALES TAX LAW, ILLINOIS RESIDENTS MUST INCLUDE 8% TAX. This offer is limited, and may be withdrawn at any time.
You will receive a package containing:
o The latest version 2 release.
o Printed documentation.
o A software key that will remove the shareware notice seen when starting GIFConverter.
Official releases and upgrades may be downloaded from Compuserve at the Graphics Support Forum (GO GRAPHSUPPORT), library 3, or from America Online in the Direct Connect folder of the Macintosh Graphics and CAD forum (keyword: mgr).
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Distribution
GIFConverter is a ╥shareware╙ program. Shareware offers the opportunity to try out a fully-functional copy of a program before purchase. Although GIFConverter is freely available, it is a copyrighted program, and use or distribution in violation of the License Agreement and Distribution guidelines is against the law.
You may give copies of GIFConverter to your friends for evaluation. GIFConverter may be placed on BBSes and online service providers (such as Compuserve, GEnie and America Online) provided that the GIFConverter package is downloadable without charge beyond normal connect charges. GIFConverter may be placed onto diskettes distributed by user groups at nominal fee.
When distributing GIFConverter, please give the complete contents of the disk, or the two stuffed files (GIFConverter 2.SIT and GIFConverter 2 Doc.SIT), making sure that all note files are transferred as well.
Vendors desiring to place GIFConverter into their catalogs must contact the author at the address on the cover requesting permission to distribute this program, and outlining their fees and shareware policies.
Whenever GIFConverter appears on a catalog, diskette, BBS, or online service, it must be identified as shareware. Vendors and operators must make it clear that online charges or disk fees have not paid for the use of this shareware product, and that additional payment is due the author.
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Version 2.2.9 (08/26/91)
o Corrected system crashes or hangs when reducing number of colors (either by menu, or as a consequence of opening a 24-bit TIFF file or a PICT file). Also fixed some other miscellaneous crashes.
o Finder printing now works. It will work best when the default screen mode matches your printer type. When dithering, it will use the last used dither setting. For best results with non-color non-PostScript printers, set the display to 2 colors before Finder printing.
o LZW decompression is now faster.
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Version 2.2.8 (06/30/91)
o Fixed one more TIFF reader bug. Now TIFF files that specify 2^32-1 for rowsPerStrip work. This includes at least one MS-DOS screen dumper.
o 2.2.7 couldn't open the config file ("The application couldn't start up due to a disk error.") on pre-System 7 machines. Worked around compiler bug.
o Fixed crash-on-quit when running pre-System 7 unifinder.
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Version 2.2.7 (06/25/91)
o GIFConverter is System 7 compatible, and a little System 7 savvy. It has new color icons, uses System 7 folders (see below), and has hooks for a GIFConverter Help file containing help balloons when I get done writing it. It's been running fine under 24-bit VM so far.
o GIFConverter now uses System 7 folders, even when under System 6. It will find its preferences file in a Preferences folder in the System Folder, as well as in the System Folder itself. It will create the Preferences folder if necessary. It will always put its temporary files in the Temporary files folder, which is automatically moved to the trash under System 7.
o GIFConverter no longer has trouble identifying which printer its using, and will properly respond to the presence of a LaserWriter driver that can handle color output. It now understands what a System 7/TrueType capable LaserWriter driver looks like. It also does not exhibit unwanted black and white areas when printing to the LaserWriter or copying to some other applications.
o GIFConverter defaults to 768K of memory now. If you run short of memory, it will suggest that you use the Get Info box in the Finder to increase its allocation.
o GIFConverter has a new dialog box that lets you set the print margins. The default is 1 inch all around.
o The startup screen problem is solved! If you want to make a picture into a startup screen, click on the image first (to select it), then choose the new Change Color Palette command. There are several palettes to choose from; pick one that will work with your monitor (such as "Standard 256 Colors"). The image will become a bit grainy, but it will have the right colors at startup time.
o There is a similar command that will reduce the number of colors that an image contains. Click on the image or images (in the same document) you want to change (to select them), and pick Reduce Number Of Colors... from the Image menu. You can select how many colors or grays you want, and GIFConverter will work things out so those colors are shared among all the images you pick.
o GIFConverter can now read LZW-compressed TIFF files, and does a better job with RGB TIFF files.
o GIFConverter silently ignores any extra image data in GIF files, so some poorly-encoded GIFs can now be read.
o GIFConverter does a better job with 24/32 bit PICT files. It dithers these to the 8-bit color palette. Some PICT files that use strange methods to deliver 32-bit images don't look all that wonderful, but there's nothing I can do about that.
o Changing the dither mode affects the current window only, and causes the window to be recalculated, automatically or manually as you have selected.
o GIFConverter defaults to one-bit display on Color QuickDraw machines where the main monitor is only one bit deep. This prevents problems on SE/30's where GIFConverter assumed there was color present just because Color QD was.
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Version 2.2.6 (03/24/91)
o GIFConverter has an "87a compatiblity mode". This mode, turned on by default, prevents writing out any GIF files with revisions later than 87a. This prevents trouble with other programs not being able to read GIFConverter files. If you need to put comment text into the files, choose Options... from the Special menu and turn off 87a compatibility mode.
o More problems with using 24-bit PICTs or operating in 32-bit mode should be fixed (an oversight on my part).
o Crashes during dragging have been eliminated.
o GIFConverter would crash if you used the Copy command, and then quit. This no longer occurs.
o Strange coloration on some saved files has been eliminated. This was caused by some mathematical inaccuracies in the code.
o Some 24-bit PICTs will look better when read into GIFConverter now. Not perfect, but better. (Technically, GIFConverter now uses the system default palette if any arithmatic transfer modes are used on pixmaps; some "24-bit" PICT files actually have 3 8-bit images, one for each of red, green, and blue. When GIFConverter pre-scanned the PICT to figure out the colors, only the pure primary colors ended up in the color table)
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Version 2.2d5 (02/20/91)
o Fix bug in Popup Menu that caused the Save... dialog box to fail when used on a Macintosh II with the 8*24 video card in accelerated mode.
o A 7 kbyte updater application is available to create this version from version 2.2d4.
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Version 2.2d4 (02/07/91)
o New segmentation to improve memory use characteristics.
o GIFConverter can now figure out the real file types of some files. This is currently limited to TIFF, RIFF, GIF and RLE files. When you choose Open, the Open box is set to "Trust file type information (fastest)". If the directory contains files that don't have the right types, then clicking on "Look inside some files (slower)" or "Look inside all files (slowest)." In the first case, GIFConverter attempts to read files of TEXT, BINA, or DATA to see if they are really TIFF, RIFF, GIF or RLE files. If so, they are displayed on the screen.
If you click the "Fix file types for shown files" box, then GIFConverter will assign the correct file types to the files.
NOTE: GIFConverter _can_ be fooled. Before opening or changing file types, make sure the files shown are what GIFConverter thinks they are!
o GIFConverter now has an icon for RLE files. To see it, you may have to rebuild your desktop.
o The Pop-Up Menu CDEF in the save box now handles the messages sent when the system is in 32-bit mode. This happens when using an accelerated 8*24 video card. I've had reports that it still doesn't work when acceleration is turned on, but I haven't been able to finish testing this. Thanks to Lofty Becker for his help debugging this. We'll lick this one soon!
o GIFConverter now makes GIF89a files all the time. Before, you could put text (an 89a feature) into the file, and it would still be 87a. The 89a spec says use 87a if no 89a features are used. GIFConverter always puts out an application extension containing the version and date of itself at the end of the file as plain text (an 89a feature).
o GIFConverter now tries a bit harder to make sure it has enough memory to stretch a graphic. This should help with the "infinite out-of-memory" messages. Also the out-of-memory condition when drawing has been changed to favor improper display over infinite errors.
o GIFConverter's palettes are now marked so that they don't change the hardware color tables on greyscale displays.
o GIFConverter should have less trouble reading color PICT files. If a 24-bit image were read, the system sometimes hung or crashed.
o Scan Image files are now compatible with Thunderworks.
o Several TIFF file fixes: The Predictor value is now (properly) 1, so PageMaker should stop complaining (extreme embarassment on my part for getting it wrong). When reading an image with multiple strips, GIFConverter now finds all the strips properly.
o The 53-degree halftone dither should look a bit better now.
o If you close all the windows, the staggering mechanism starts at the top left of the screen again.
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Version 2.2d3 (12/18/90)
o GIFConverter has its own color conversion and doesn't require PACK 12 (or a non-minimized system) any more.
o A possible source of bomb ID=84 or bus error crashes has been fixed.
o The problem with printing using the LaserWriter 6.0 driver is a bug in the printer driver software. I'm looking for workarounds or fixes to the LW driver at this point.
o Miscellaneous internal fixes to support future new features.
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Version 2.2d2 (10/10/90)
o GIFConverter correctly saves settings now.
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Version 2.2d1 (9/16/90)
o GIFConverter upgraded to use latest MacApp. All dialogs rewritten.
o New features: Scale, Set Resolution (PICT/scrap/printing support), two kinds of Halftones that work on DeskWriter and other QuickDraw printers. Now you can get PostScript type halftones without PostScript.
o TIFF output may be set to use RGB instead of palette color.
o Beginning of GIF89a support: Includes comment extension (Show Comments command).
o Newly designed disk-based memory module uses only one file. It should be faster.
o GIFConverter can be configured to NOT allow MultiFinder background tasks. You can run a small bit faster now.
o The PICT resource in EPSF files now has the right ID, so it will show in Illustrator.
