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VGA2EGA (c) Copr. 1988-89 Lawrence Gozum & Marvin Gozum ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Version 3.0 User Manual DISCLAIMER This product is distributed AS IS. The authors specifically disclaim all warranties ,expressed or implied, including ,but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to defects in the diskette and documentation, and program license granted herein, in particular, and without limiting operation of the program license with respect to any particular application use or purpose. In no event shall the authors be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages. LICENSING AGREEMENT You may use this program on a TRIAL BASIS only; this means that you may freely evaluate the usefulness of this program for 10 DAY TRIAL PERIOD. Should you find this program useful, you must register it (see last section of this manual). You will then be provided with the latest releases of applications that will run on your system. You may freely distribute copies of this program in its UNMODIFIED state provided you do not include it in other software packages, with the exception of distributing it as part of a bundle of Public Domain or shareware programs on a single diskette. You may not charge more that $3.50 for copying and/or distributing this program in the absence of recognized Users Group guidelines (e.g., Association of Shareware Professionals or New York Amateur Computer Club) WHAT IS VGA2EGA ? VGA2EGA is a utility that converts colored GIF pictures and any of the following listed below to error-distributed, dithered, 16-Color EGA pictures. You can optionally save 4 planes for each red, green, blue, and white(grey) plane to .PCX (ZSoft) files as a Desktop Color Seperator (DCS), where Cyan=Grn+Blu, Magenta=Red+Blu, Yellow=Red+Grn. You can view pictures in low-res EGA 320x200x16 mode (32KB EGA cards) or as high as 800x600x16 in EEGA modes. 1) ANY colored GIF picture (32 colors and up recommended), with any size (up to 2048 x 2048 x 256). 2) ANY VIEWABLE VGA/MCGA 320x200x256 picture captured with VGACAP; 3) VGACAD pictures; 4) 16-color pictures converted to 320x200x256 with EGA2VGA. VGA2EGA requires, at the minimum, a 32KB EGA card (320x200x16 mode). For viewing, VGA2EGA supports video modes in EGA 320x200x16, EGA 640x200x16, EGA 640x350x16, EEGA/VGA 640x480x16, and hi-res EEGA/SVGA modes up to 800x600x16. VGA2EGA converts your colored pictures to 4-plane colored dithers using a unique error-distribution algorithm; it uses a Floyd-Steinberg matrix with Stucki filter values (8,4,2,2). Users can individually adjust the CMY and/or RGBI color levels and RGBI contrast levels, dither density, and image size to suit their tastes. WHAT IS VGACAP ? VGACAP is a terminate-stay-resident (TSR) utility that allows you to capture the 256 color palette and screen in the 320x200x256 color mode and save both the palette and screen in "Bloadable" formats. VGACAP's main purpose is to capture and "Bsave" the pictures of commercial and Shareware viewing/painting/graphics/CAD programs. VGACAD (one of the first 256 color paint/CAD shareware programs distributed in the Public domain) will load the captured pictures for extensive image processing and editing. REQUIREMENTS EGA 32KB (minimum). We are stating that about 512KB of memory is required, although it uses about 2/3 of that. You MUST have a VGA or MCGA adaptor (at least BIOS compatible) present and an analog monitor to use VGACAP. VGACAP uses less than 2K of your available memory ! HOW TO USE VGACAP Run VGACAP before entering your painting/CAD or digitized picture viewer. Press <ALT-F10>, while viewing your picture in any drawing/paint/CAD program. Your current screen and palette will be saved in your default drive and directory in the standard Bsave format for all BASIC programs. The first time you run the program it will save your screen and palette to SCREEN00.BLD and SCREEN00.PLT respectively. If there is an existing SCREENxx.BLD or SCREENxx.PLT file, then it will increment to the next higher number. You can use your favorite memory managers to remove this TSR or reboot to release it from memory. Note: When in DOS or using a picture viewer (e.g., PICEM, VPIC, VGAGIF) or application which requires a keypress to continue, it is necessary to hit another key after hitting the 'HOTKEY'. LOADING PICTURES INTO VGA2EGA Two formats are accepted by VGA2EGA: GIF and BLD/PLT files; At the start of the program, you will be prompted to select [G]IF or [B]LD files to to selected or [Q]uit to exit. When loading GIF pictures, if you have a VGA/MCGA card, VGA2EGA will display the picture as it decodes it and show its conversion to a 256 grey scale picture. All other cards will load in memory; GIFPUB automatically senses if you have a VGA/MCGA or SuperVGA card. All pictures are interpolated to a 320x200 size. As such, LARGE SuperVGA GIF files (e.g., 640x480x256, 800x600x256 and 1024x768x256) are interpolated to 320x200x256; succeeding updates will take advantage of the rich color information in LARGE GIFs by creating virtual disk buffers. SQZGIF is recommended for LARGE GIF pictures to retain more color information for better color rendition. 16-color EGA/EEGA/VGA pictures will also be interpolated; it is highly recommended that you use EGA2VGA to process such pictures before loading into VGA2EGA. You can select any filename by moving a highlighted bar (with the arrow keys) and pressing the <return> key. Pressing <Spc> allows you to select a different PATH, while <Esc> exits. When selecting a *.BLD file, be sure it has a corresponding *.PLT file or a error message will result. PATHs MUST end with a backslash character "\" or your specified PATH will be rejected (an error beep will result). The following are legal PATH examples: "A:\" "B:\" "C:\GIF\" "D:\GIF\VGA\LARGE\" Every captured picture, VGACAD picture, converted EGA2VGA or SSQZGIF or MAC2GIF picture will have two files: the screen and palette. The extension .BLD stands for BLoaD and .PLT for PaLetTe. THE MAIN MENU After successful loading of your picture you will see these options: (1) 32 KB RAM STD EGA 320x200x16 (2) 64 KB RAM STD EGA 640x200x16 (3) 128 KB RAM STD EGA 640x350x16 (4) 256 KB RAM STD EGA 640x480x16 (L)aboratory STD EGA 640x350x16 (F)ine Tuning (N)ew Picture (Q)uit Select the letter or the number to initiate that function or option. RESIZING OPTIONS Whenever you select a video mode to be created you will see these options (this screen shows blanks filled with examples). Video Mode/Aspect Ratio: EGA 640x350 Image Width (pixels) : 640 Image Height (pixels) : 350 Resizing Factor (1-100): 100% Pathname : C:\GIF\ Filename : NONAME.GIF Image Width and Height are set by the video mode you have chosen and cannot be changed except when e[X]tended EGA User Mode is selected. In this example, the Image Width and Height matches the full screen since Resizing Factor is 100%; if it were 50% then each number will be cut in half. To maintain your aspect ratios in EEGA modes, always start with a Resizing Factor of 100% then reduce it later. When a standard EGA video mode or preset EEGA mode is selected, the Image Height and Width will always follow what is stated in the Video Mode/Aspect ratio line; only the Resizing Factor can be altered. To retain an old setting, press return and the setting will remain. VIEWING & SAVING While viewing the picture in EGA 640x350x16 mode or any supported EEGA mode (up to 800x600x16), you can change the palette to alter the tone of the picture. Users with 32KB and 64 KB EGA cards cannot change the palette since it is limited to 16 colors and optimized for 8 colors. All other users have 9 EGA palettes to choose from. Simply press the number from 1 to 9 to see the effect of a different palette on your picture. If you are happy with the results, you can press return and the image will be saved with the proper screen and image data in a GIF file. If you intend to use VGA2EGA as a Desktop Color Separator, press [P] to save 4 .PCX files; each file will correspond to the Red, Green, Blue and White(Grey) plane of the picture and are labelled accordingly. Since different color printers (particularly thermal) have different CMY mixtures, saving to RGBI files allows the user the flexibility to determine if one component of CMY is higher than the other. CMY or Cyan-Magenta-Yellow can be interpreted as (Cyan-Blue, Magenta-Red, and Yellow-Orange) or (Cyan-Green, Magenta-Blue or Yellow-Green) or any combination thereof; as such, you decide which combination of RGBI is appropriate for your CMY separation; there are 8 possible combinations for CMY. Remember, CMY is made by combining Grn+Blue, Red+Blu, and Red+Grn primary colors respectively. FINE TUNING To get the BEST color dithering, we suggest that you experiment with a small image (e.g., EGA at 50%) while interactively adjusting the color levels, contrast levels and dither density levels. When satisfied with the results, you can progress to larger sizes up to EEGA 800x600x16. When you select (F)ine Tuning, you can adjust the global amounts of Red, Green, Blue and White(grey) in you picture. At default it is 100%; this can be increased up to 200%. 16KB and 32KB EGA users need not adjust the White(grey) level since only 3 planes or 8 colors are used. While "fine tuning", you can adjust the contrast levels for each of the RGBI planes. Increasing the contrast will increase the amount of "black" in the picture by making a sharp cutoff (i.e., no color will be plotted). Dither Density is how closely packed neighboring pixel will be; at default this is set to 1 - the highest density possible. If you want to "spread the dots" in a less packed manner, you can increase this level up to 200. LABORATORY Selecting (L)aboratory will put you in EGA 640x350x16 mode and will show your picture with 70% of the size; you can reduce the size but cannot exceed 70%. While in the Lab, you can alter the red, green, blue, grey, cyan, magenta and yellow color levels and RGBI contrast levels as you would with the "fine tuning" option. However, here you can interactively see the change. To select a plane for modification press A,R,G,B,C,M,Y,W; each letter refers to ALL, red, gren, blue, cyan, magenta, yellow, and white respectively. Once a plane has been selected, pressing the "plus"(+) key or the "minus"(-) key will increase or decrease, the color level or the color contrast of selected plane(s). The <spacebar> toggles between contrast and color level modification modes. A MODE indicator will tell you what your current plane selection is and what modification mode is active. "A Color" will mean that ALL color levels of all 4 planes will be affected. "R Contrast" will mean that only the RED color level will be affected. An [U]ndo function is provided to reset all color and contrast values; so, feel free to experiment ! Below the displayed image are bargraphs showing the corresponding RGBWCMY color levels and RGBI contrast levels. While in the (L)aboratory you can select from 9 EGA palettes and save the finished image. If you picture looks good in the Lab; it will look infinitely better when expanded to large sizes or in EEGA modes. PRESET AND USER EXTENDED EGA (EEGA) MODES Press the [H]elp screen option when using Present or E(x)tended EGA User Modes for more information of various EEGA cards supported. We have built-in 8 Preset EEGA modes. You can set any Extended EGA mode that your video card supports up to 800x600x16 IF YOUR EEGA CARD SUPPORTS THE STANDARD BIOS CALLING CONVENTION FOR SETTING VIDEO MODES. The Video7 Vega and Everex EVA480 cards are among the few that require their own method for setting the EEGA mode; use the (E)verex and (V)ideo7 preset modes instead. In general, all Chips & Technologies (C&T) chip based cards use the standard BIOS convention for calling EEGA modes. SVGA modes (e.g., 1024x768x16) do not follow the EGA memory mapping since the number of bytes exceed 256KB and require memory banking; thus, 800x600x16 IS THE LIMIT (until we upgrade VGA2EGA to support SVGA 16 color modes for specific SVGA cards). WARNING: PRESET AND USER EXTENDED EGA MODES ARE NOT DETECTED NOR ERROR-CHECKED ! IF YOUR CARD DOES NOT SUPPORT IT, DON'T USE IT; UNPREDICTABLE RESULTS WILL OCCUR. CHECK YOUR VIDEO CARD'S USER MANUAL FOR VIDEO MODE AVAILABILITY, MODE NUMBERS AND SCREEN DIMENSIONS TO BE USED. REGISTRATION BONUS: Registered users of VGACAD v1.4-1.5, VGA2EGA v1.0, SQZGIF v1.0-v1.3, GIFDOT v1.0-1.3, MAC2GIF v1-2 and/or EGA2VGA v1-3 and/or GIFPUB v1.0-v1.4 are considered registered. Copy your REGISTER.OVL file into the directory of VGA2EGA and it will operate as a registered version. IF YOU HAVE NOT REGISTERED ANY OF THESE PROGRAMS, DO SO NOW; when VGACAD v1.60 is released, all new releases will require REGISTER.V16 to operate as a non-shareware version. For 19.95 (outside of U.S.A. add USD $15.00) you will be entitled to the latest update of VGA2EGA and REGISTER.V16 file (when released). The following programs listed below are provided (latest copy or update) to registered users. As much as possible, we are reprogramming all utilities to work with ANY video card; programs that, at present, work with ANY video card are: GIFPUB, GIFDOT, EGA2VGA (v2-3), MAC2GIF and SQZGIF. We intend to modify all utilities to have device-independent graphics capabilities (with the obvious exception of VGACAD, VGACAP, VGA2EGA, and CGA2VGA). If you upgrade to VGA, please inform us as soon as possible so that we may send you VGA-dependent releases too. * Device-independent utilities GIFPUB - converts 256 color GIFs to B&W images of varying sizes for desktop publishing/printing as .PCX (ZSoft format for Ventura Desk Top Publisher, First Publisher, Publisher's Paintbrush, PC Paintbrush+) or rename files to .PCC for importing in Aldus Pagemaker. GIFDOT - converts 256 color GIFs to B&W images of varying sizes for printing on IBM and Epson compatible printers (separate drivers). Several print sizes with perfect aspect ratios. Variable Brightness and Contrast Stretching. Single or Double pass printing. Histogram Analysis SQZGIF - converts LARGE GIF pictures (up to 2048x2048x256) to 320x200x256 using interpolation and "color averaging" techniques to blend/smooth "jaggies" inherent in reducing LARGE GIFS while retaining a maximum of color information. Version 1.3 is now 300% FASTER and features the same user interface. MAC2GIF - converts .MAC ("readmac") pictures to 5-16 grey shades or color and saves results as .GIF or BLD/PLT file, and other formats; graphics are viewable in VGA, MCGA or EGA - no video card is required for direct Black & White conversion to GIF. EGA2VGA (v2.0) - converts GIFs (16 colors and below) or ANY VIEWABLE 2-16 color EGA/EEGA/VGA picture to 320x200x256; creates 256 new colors; outputs load directly to GIFPUB, GIFDOT, and VGACAD. If you load converted MAC2GIF pics you can smooth and convert Black & White images to grey shades; B&W GIFs and captured pics will also be "smoothed" into grey shades. * Device-dependent utilities/applications VGACAD - extensive paint/image processing program for VGA/MCGA users; v1.50 features extensive paintingcapabilities, an integrated GIF interface, Airbrushes, color and grey image processing functions (smoothing, noise removal, shading, contrast stertching, edge detection, high frequency-boosting, ... more), Bezier/spline curves, multi-featured Cut&Paste, variable sizing, multi-directiona 256-color gradient fills, 256 color 16x16 pattern fills, and a LOT of other 256-color capabilities. Whats next ? SYNPCX is utility to convert dithered, monochrome .PCX (Zsoft) files to smooth grey shades. This utility is primarily designed to convert scanned (e.g., Logitech & DFI hand scanners) Black & White images, saved to a .PCX file, for use and image processing with VGACAD, redithering/resizing with GIFPUB, printing with GIFDOT, or EGA conversion with VGA2EGA. SYNPCX will be graphics device independent (No Video Required). On the longer term, you can expect radical changes in VGACAD and VGA2EGA. VGA2EGA updates will include color optimization and maximization to take full advantage of its 16 out of 64 color with color dithering. We are also, developing VGASHW (a 256-color presentation system), VGACBT (the PROGRAMMABLE Computer-Based Training counterpart of VGASHW) AND MANNEQUIN (what "Weird Science" tried to do in the movie it will do on the computer screen with potential applications for Advertising and Fashion Design, aside from creating your own artistic nudes). If you support maverick authors like us, we will continue to develop innovative products like nothing seen commercially - otherwise they will, as many (sigh!) good Shareware programs, simply "DIE" from lack of support ! Compare the cost/benefit ratio of any of our products with commercial products; we want to continue supporting and developing these products. Please support the User-Supported (Shareware) concept; you, and you alone, determine whether it will be worthwhile to continue developing. To register, send in the registration form and check payable to Dr. Marvin Gozum 2 Independence Place Apt. 303-2 6th & Locust Street Philadelphia, PA 19106 NEW! 3.5" disk users: We are now supporting this format. If you want your updates in this format, add $10.00. ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Graphics Interchange Format and GIF are trademarks (tm) of CompuServe Inc. an H&R Block Company.