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Text File | 1994-06-05 | 25.5 KB | 632 lines

Thumbnail © copyright, Ian Palmer 1994 ========= IMPORTANT ========= Thumbnail is SHAREWARE, it is NOT free software. Continued use requires registration, see the end of this file for details of the user licence. Introduction ------------ Thumbnail provides you with a convenient way of searching for a picture from a library of pictures by providing 'Thumbnail' versions of the pictures that can be viewed quickly and easily. Thumbnail requires Acorn's ChangeFSI application as it uses this for converting different file formats to a convenient format. Thumbnail also provides support for producing thumbnails of Draw and Artworks files. Thus it can provide a very convenient way of looking at clipart for the Draw/Artworks files you want without having to load all the draw files into !Draw, !ArtWorks or !AWViewer. Thumbnail maintains thumbnail versions of pictures and draw files within a directory structure, complete with descriptions and details of where the original file is located, so you can easily access the original file directly from thumbnail. All Thumbnail pictures are stored at 16bpp (or 32 bpp) and dithered to either 256 colour or 16 colour when needed for display. Thumbnail can be run from either hard disc or floppy, although hard disc is better speedwise. Because Thumbnail allows you to store the original pictures separately from the thumbnails you could easily create one (or two) index discs (containing thumbnails), each index disc indexing many discs of pictures. Alternatively you could have one central index on hard disc and have all the original pictures on floppies, allowing you to get an idea of what pictures you want (from the thumbnails) without having to use the floppies until you actually want to load the picture. Running Thumbnail for the first time ------------------------------------ The first time you run Thumbnail it is important to configure it to run correctly. The most important thing to do is 'teach' it where to find ChangeFSI (so that in future ChangeFSI does not have to be 'seen' by the filer). To do this simply drag the ChangeFSI application to Thumbnail's icon on the iconbar. Next you need to set up a few preferences, to do this select 'Config' from Thumbnail's main menu. Configuration ------------- The Configure window contains several options, these are divided into two sections, those options that are saved in the configuration file (and thus can remain for future running of the application) and those that are instant and only last as long as the current run of the application. The saved options are : Max Size - defines the maximum size for the thumbnail pictures. This can be anything from 15x15 to 80x80 pixels. Max Display Width - This defines the number of thumbnail pictures that will be placed across a row of a display window. Open Root - When set the root directory is opened as soon as you run the application, otherwise you will need to click SELECT on the icon bar icon to see the root directory. New ChangeFSI- Versions of ChangeFSI 0.95 and later can handle output to 32bpp sprites. Using these makes the process of producing thumbnails faster. Thus if you have a new version (0.95 or later) set this option. However using this option can require a lot of disc space (in !Scrap) for a temporary file during processing. Not setting this option reduces disc space needed to approx. 1/4. Slides - There are two different display types available within directory viewers. The default is a display similar to the standard RISC OS filer. Setting this option changes the display to appear like a collection of photograph slides. Full Scroll - By default display windows only have a vertical scroll bar but setting this option marked them have both scroll bars. Auto Display - This option makes Thumbnail automatically set the display option (see below) according to the current mode. This means that in modes of 16 or less colours a 16 colour sprite will be created for display, in 256 colour modes a 256 colour sprite will be created, and in 16bpp and 32bpp modes a 32K colour sprite will be created. Auto Update - Automatic update of scan file (see below). Display - You can set the display to be either 16, 256 or 32K colour. This defines what type of sprite thumbnail should create when displaying a thumbnail picture. 256 colour produces the best results (even when viewed in a 16 colour mode), but 16 colour will take up less memory. The 32K colour option is only available on Risc PC machines and will produce the best results in 16bpp and 32bpp modes. Storage - This sets whether Thumbnail should store thumbnails (on disc) as 16 bpp or 32 bpp data. The default is 16 bpp, and there isn't any real reason to change this as setting 32 bpp will make little difference to image display quality, but will make the files twice as large. Under this you can also elect for thumbnails to be compressed when stored, providing a good level of compression at little extra cost (see below). Compression requires RISC OS 3. Please note that compression can only be used when you have selected 16 bpp storage. The Instant options are : Processing Options, these are passed to ChangeFSI. See ChangeFSI's documentation for details. The options are 'Equalise', 'Range' and 'Gamma correction'. Update Path. Normally when you drag a picture file to a thumbnail viewer where a thumbnail already exists with the same name, it will update the thumbnail completely, including creating the thumbnail again. If you select this option then only the details are updated (not the thumbnail picture). This speeds up updating information if all you have done is moved the original file's position or changed its file type. When the settings are to your liking 'Save' the options to save the configuration so that the options take effect on future runs of Thumbnail, or select 'OK' to make the changes temporary. Note: These settings can be changed at any time. However, changing the 'Max Size' setting only alters new thumbnails created after the setting has been changed; but the display setting makes no difference to the stored thumbnails, only the display versions. Thumbnails created at 32 bpp can be later 'compressed' to 16 bpp using the 'Picture Information' window. Thumbnail directories --------------------- Thumbnail stores its thumbnail pictures within a directory structure within its own application directory. To view the top level directory (called 'Thumbnail:$') simply click SELECT on the Thumbnail icon on the iconbar. This directory viewer (which is NOT a filer viewer, although it is similar in some respects) is initially empty. In this directory you can place either further directories and/or thumbnail pictures. Creating a directory -------------------- To create a directory simply press MENU over the Thumbnail directory viewer you want to create the directory in. A menu will pop up containing a 'New Directory' submenu entry (among others) which works just like in the standard filer. Moving between directory viewers -------------------------------- This is performed in a similar way to the standard filer. Opening a viewer containing a large number of thumbnails can take a little while, as the thumbnail pictures will need to be read and dithered to the correct display type. When you close a thumbnail viewer the memory taken up by the display sprites will be freed, thus reopening the directory will require the thumbnails to be read again. Creating a thumbnail picture ---------------------------- To create a thumbnail picture simply drag the picture file you want to use to any of the Thumbnail directory viewers. Thumbnail will then produce a thumbnail version of that picture and place it within that viewer. The thumbnail will be given the same file name as the original picture file (although you can change this later). The conversion process is done in two stages, each producing an hourglass, the first converting the picture from the original file format (GIF, JPEG, etc.) (using ChangeFSI) to a 32bpp sprite, and then the second is the rescaling of the 32bpp sprite to a 16bpp thumbnail version. Is that it? ----------- Nope. Thumbnail provides a great deal more than simply providing a system for viewing thumbnail pictures within a directory structure. It also provides access to the original file, and the ability to add descriptions of the pictures and also search the pictures for those whose descriptions contain certain words. The Picture Information Window ------------------------------ If you double click on any thumbnail picture you will be shown an information window about that picture. This window contains many things : Top left - The thumbnail and thumbnail name (as in the directory viewer). Top centre - The size of the original picture in pixels, and an icon (see below). Top Right - 6 radio icons for selecting output type (see below). Centre - The full path name of the original file. Below - A writable icon marked 'Description' and information about the thumbnail (size in pixels and bytes, and storage); plus an icon marked 'Update'. Bottom - Contains information about the thumbnail (size, number of bites and whether it is 16 or 32 bpp). The 'Update' icon updates the description stored with the thumbnail to match the description in the 'Description' icon. The icon in the top centre allows you to easily drag the original file to another application without having to locate it in the directory structure. Also by setting the radio icons (top right) you can also get the file converted to a convenient format as well : As stored - Transfers the file as is, in original GIF, JPEG or whatever. 256 Sprite - Converts to a standard 256 colour sprite (dithered) 32 bpp - Converts to 32bpp sprite. 16 bpp - Converts to 16bpp sprite 16 colour - Converts to a dithered 16 colour sprite (you need to be in a 16 colour mode). 256 grey - Converts to a 256 grey scale sprite. Note: You can also transfer the original file in the 'As stored' state by simply dragging the directory viewer thumbnail picture to the relevant application. Note: You can not drag either of the above to a filer window, it must be an application. The icon marked 'Compress', which will be greyed out for 16 bpp thumbnails, will convert a 32 bpp thumbnail to a 16 bpp thumbnail. Renaming and Deleting --------------------- Pressing MENU over a directory viewer thumbnail will cause a menu top pop up where one of the entries is a submenu with the name of the thumbnail (or directory). This contains options for getting the information window (same as double clicking), renaming and deleting the item. Moving or copying an item ------------------------- You can move or copy an item (either a thumbnail or a directory) by simply dragging it from one viewer window to another in the same way as the filer. Thus plain dragging from one Thumbnail viewer to another will copy that item, while dragging while holding down SHIFT will move an item. If you 'copy' a directory to a standard filer window then a slave Thumbnail application will be created in that directory (if one is not already present) and the directory (and contents) will be coppied to the root directory of that slave application. Performing a Scan ----------------- Both the main menu and the directory viewer menus contain entries called 'Scan'. This builds up a special file (used in searches) which contains information about all the thumbnails. After the scan you are presented with a window detailing how many files and directories you have and the total size of all the thumbnails stored. Automatic Update of Scan file ----------------------------- If you set the 'Auto Update' icon in the configuration then the scan file will be automatically updated by Thumbnail each time you perform any operation which would otherwise have made the scan file out of date. The only disadvantage of setting this option is that with a large scan file on a slow device updating may take time, thus the option is not set by default. With automatic updating you should, if starting with an upto date scan file, not need to perform future scans unless you make alterations to the thumbnail data file from outside Thumbnail (see below). Performing a Search ------------------- The 'Search' window is reached by selecting the 'Search' option on the menus. This window contains a writable icon for entering the search string, an option for making the search ignore case and also a message stating how upto date the 'Scan' file is. If it is out of date you really need to perform a scan before doing a search, as an out of date scan file will not produce a completely correct search. When you perform a search the scan file will be scanned and a special directory viewer will be displayed containing thumbnails of those that match the search. The search viewer is similar to the standard directory viewer but limited in that you can't bring up a menu on that window, nor drag files to it; however you can bring up the information window on any of the thumbnails. You can not perform a null search, and also the search viewer is limited to 77 items (same as a directory). Entering a special search string of '¤' will search out all the thumbnails which have a null description (according to the Scan file). There are also options for including the filename of the thumbnail in the search (ie. treat the filename as part of the description) and also an option for splitting the search string into words and searching for the words separately in the description. With this last option you can also specify (in the icon marked 'Match') how many of the words need to be located for the search to work. The default is '1', thus if any words match then the thumbnail will be placed in the result window, with '2' two words must be in the description, etc. Draw Files ---------- As an added bonus Thumbnail is able to produce thumbnail pictures for many draw files as well as all the formats handled by ChangeFSI. There are a few limitations however. First the size information (in the picture information window) is fairly meaningless. Also when transfering the draw file (using the information window) with anything other than 'As stored' selected it will be converted to the relevant sprite but scaled to a maximum of 400x400 pixels (it is this size that appears in the size icon in the information window). Please note that draw files saved under !Draw in RISC OS 2 will not work in Thumbnail (as the file will not contain the information needed to work out how to scale the picture). To solve this problem load the draw file into !Draw under RISC OS 3 (or later) and resave the file. Artworks Files -------------- thumbnail handles Artworks files in a similar way to Draw files, and again the 'size' information is meaningless. Also with Artworks files a little care needs to be taken when creating the thumbnails due to the Artworks renderer. You can only create Artworks thumbnails when you are in any mode. Ideally, however, you should be in a 256 colour mode as this will usually produce better thumbnails. If you do create thumbnails of Artworks files in a 16 (or less) colour mode you may notice the screen colours change for a short while during the rendering of the Artworks file, this is quite normal (and is needed to fool the renderer). It is not advised to create thumbnails of Artworks files in a mode with fewer then 16 colours. Compression ----------- The compression of thumbnails for storage is provided by the Squash module within RISC OS 3, and can give between 50 and 75% saving on disc storage (but does require a more memory when loading thumbnails). The icon marked 'Compress' on the picture information window will compress a thumbnail (storage) by making sure it is at 16 bpp (as opposed to 32 bpp) and also compress the thumbnail, but only if the 'Compress' option is selected in the configuration. Thumbnail Slave Applications ---------------------------- With a very large collection of pictures and clip art, it may be that you wish to store thumbnail viewers in separate locations (some on floppy discs, some on hard discs, etc.). Rather than duplicate the complete !Thumbnail application for each copy (which would take up about 300k) you can create a 'Thumbnail Slave Application' which takes up just over 1k of space. Then, as long as the main Thumbnail application is either running or has been 'seen' you can use this slave version as if it was a full version. To create a slave application, simply select the 'Slave' option from the main menu. A window will pop up containing an icon which you should drag to the directory in which you wish to install the slave application, and the slave will be created. Note: All slave applications must be called '!Thumbnail', and only one thumbnail application (either real or slave) can be active at one time. If you double click on an application another is running then the one you are looking at will be closed down, and the new one will be used. General Notes & Tips -------------------- Note that when adding items to a directory they will initially be placed at the end of the directory viewer (at the bottom). However in future viewings the directory will be in alphabetical order. When you delete an item from a directory its icons will be greyed out whilst that directory viewer is on screen. As to what size you should make thumbnail pictures, this is something that needs some consideration. The bigger the thumbnails the more detail of the original picture they can contain, but they also take more storage space, and more memory to store whilst being displayed. To give an indication of likely storage costs, consider the following examples of two example files converted to thumbnails of differing sizes using 16bpp compressed storage : Size set Picture1 Picture2 80 x 80 4179 2742 64 x 64 3036 2009 48 x 48 1814 1426 32 x 32 1033 819 The 'Size set' shows the size configured as the maximum size, and the file sizes are in bytes. Picture1 is a GIF file, Picture2 a draw file. As can be seen a jump from 32x32 to 80x80 (a 6.25 times jump in area) results in just a 4 times jump for picture1 and a 3.33 jump for picture2. For reference, the uncompressed size for an 80x80 Picture1 is 10662 bytes (for 16 bpp). Because Thumbnail has its own directory structure for storing the thumbnail pictures, the directory structure does not need to map that of your storage of the actual pictures. Indeed thumbnails in the same Thumbnail directory viewer could relate to pictures on different discs. JPEG loading is handled by software from the 'Independent JPEG Group's JPEG software' which has been altered to provide support for Thumbnail's own use. Thumbnail Structure ------------------- The thumbnail directory structure is contained in a standard RISC OS directory structure within the application directory. The directory structure starts in a directory called 'Root'. This means that if you need to perform any operations on any of the stored thumbnails, etc (for example a file exists in a thumbnail directory that crashed the application) you can perform the operation using the standard RISC OS filer. Registration of Thumbnail & User Licence ---------------------------------------- Thumbnail version 1.17, © copyright Ian Palmer 1994. Artworks Rendering Modules © Computer Concepts Ltd. The term 'program' refers to the executable and all associated data (excluding the Artworks Rendering Modules). The author reserves the right to take action against any person, or company, that acts in such a way as to break the terms specified in this user licence. This program is supplied 'as is', without express or implied warranty. No representations are made about the suitability of this software for any purpose. The author can not accept liability for any loss or damage resulting from the use of this program. All rights reserved. NOTE: Registration of 'Image' (the Image progressing package by the same author) covers the registration of Thumbnail. Therefore if you register for Image there is no need to register for Thumbnail. Distribution ------------ This version of the program may be freely distributed, subject to the terms below. This permission to distribute only applies to the version stated above, and may be withdrawn at any time. Terms of distribution : 1. The program must be distributed intact, including this (and all other) copyright message(s). 2. The program may only be distributed in such a way that no commercial gain, or advantage, is made thorough its distribution. Distribution 'costs' may be charged, insofar that these charges are reasonable. 3. The program may NOT be supplied with, or part of, a commercial package without the express permission of the author. 4. The author reserves the right to refuse any individual, or company, permission to distribute this program. Use --- Permission is hereby granted to allow any person, group, body, or company to use this program, subject to the following terms : 1. The program is supplied "as is", without express or implied warranty. No representations are made about the suitability of this software for any purpose. 2. This version of the program is SHAREWARE, as such continued use requires registration (see below). 3. The author reserves the right to refuse any person, or company, permission to use this program. Artworks Rendering Modules -------------------------- The Artworks rendering modules supplied with this program are copyright Computer Concepts Ltd. They must not be incorporated in any other programs without the permission of Computer Concepts Ltd. The modules are distributed with Thumbnail with the kind permission of Computer Concepts Ltd. Registration ------------ This program is SHAREWARE. This means that you can try it out for a period of one month, after which you must register if you wish to continue using the program. Registration not only entitles the user to permission to use the program after the one month period, it also entitles them to upgrades to later versions. Registration costs just £5 (Free to all registered users of 'Image'). All registrations must be in pounds sterling (cash or cheque (made payable to 'I.J. Palmer') drawn on a U.K. bank - other forms of payment only by prior agreement). To register simply send your payment to : Mr. I.J.Palmer, 40 Birch Crescent, Aylesford, Kent. ME20 7QE. England. enquiries can also be sent to the above address, or via E-mail (until end Sept. 1994) to ijp@doc.ic.ac.uk Future versions can be obtained (by registered users) by sending a blank 3.5in disc (formatted) to the address above, with 50p return p&p (Stamps acceptable). Commercial Use -------------- The above registration details ONLY apply for personal use of Thumbnail. If you wish to use Thumbnail for commercial use then you need to register for a separate user licence. An example of when this separate licence needs to be applied for is if you distribute a collection of clipart (or pictures, etc) and wish to use Thumbnail for a catalogue of these pictures. It makes no difference whether the clipart (pictures, etc) are distributed for commercial gain or freely. Public Domain libraries can apply for the separate licence (for catalogues, etc. - no need for licence for plain distribution of Thumbnail as supplied) at a special rate of just £10 so long as use is limited to the distribution of catalogues of freeware/PD clipart/pictures (ie. no commercial items). The full price for commercial use is £20. You MUST apply for the commercial use licence BEFORE you start using Thumbnail for commercial use. With the commercial use licence you will receive a special 'read only' version of Thumbnail which can be distributed with a catalogue contained within it. The 'read only' version is the only version of Thumbnail that can be distributed with a collection of thumbnail pictures. The 'read only' version has the added advantage of being much smaller in size (approx. 80k). To register simply send £20 (or £10 for PD libraries, as above) to the address above with a blank 3.5in disc (formatted) and an extra 50p (for return p&p), and you will receive the latest version AND the 'read only' version which can be distributed.