ImageViewer allows you to set many options that affect its behavior and display. Use the Preferences popup menu to choose a particular panel. Of special importance are the settings for preview/icon creation and image display.
*Factory Settings: Sets all values, for all panels, to defaults.
*Cancel: Exits with no changes affected.
*OK: Applies new preference settings to current settings, some changes won't take effect until you run ImageViewer again.
To view or set preferences, choose the Preferences command from the Edit menu.
Note: ImageViewer writes current settings to preference file whenever you Quit the application.
Display Panel
At StartUp:
*View: Set this to your preferred view, the first window opened will always use this view.
Colors:
*Messages Text: Color selected is used as text color in messages box.
*Messages Background: Color selected is used as text background color in messages box.
*Progress Bar: Color selected is used as progress color.
Auto Browse:
*Pause Seconds: Number of seconds to pause before moving on to another image.
*Wraps Around: If checked, displays first file after the last file. If unchecked, stops when it reaches the last file.
*Skip Error Messages: If checked, ignores error messages. If unchecked, displays error messages and stops Auto-Browsing when they are encountered.
*Dither Display Image: If checked, dithers image when displaying to screen, which usually makes the image look better. If unchecked, doesn't dither image when displaying to screen.
*Build Custom Color Palette When Opening Files: If checked, the image is scanned and a color palette is made based on the most prevelant colors. This will improve display on 256 color monitors dramatically, though it can take a few seconds. If unchecked, no palette is built. Should be unchecked for monitors above 256 colors.
Limitations: The algorithm for making the palette could be improved as occasionally images will display with "blotches", areas where the colors aren't smoothly rendered.
*Translucent Dragging: If checked, whenever possible, translucent Dragging will occur. If unchecked, only the drag frame region will be outlined when Dragging.
Image Display Panel
Image:
For single image view.
*Border: Choose options from popup menu. Border surrounds the image when its displayed.
*Color: Choose color for background.
*Pattern: Choose pattern for background.
*Use Color, Use Pattern: Uses specified color or pattern, one or the other.
List:
For non-text list views.
*XBorder: Choose options from popup menu. Border is drawn at intersection frame between list items.
*Border: Choose options from popup menu. Border surrounds each image of list(preview or icon) when its displayed.
*Color: Choose color for background.
*Pattern: Choose pattern for background.
*Use Color, Use Pattern: Uses specified color or pattern, one or the other.
Hint: If you'd like to add your own patterns(resources of type 'ppat'), you can add them to the file "Patterns" in the ImageViewer folder, using your favorite resource editor. ImageViewer will make available all 'ppat' resources in this file, starting with resource ID 200 and ending when a resource can't be found(i.e. they must be contiguous starting with ID 200).
File Panel
Transfer:
*To: Shows the current application to be transferred to with the Transfer To command.
*Specify Application: Clicking here, brings up a dialog box that allows you to specify the Transfer To application.
Limitations: Currently, only one application can be specified to Transfer To.
Plug-ins Folder:
*Is: Shows the current folder to be searched at startup for PS Plug-ins.
*Specify Folder: Clicking here, brings up a dialog box that allows you to specify the "Plug-ins folder.
*Don't Load Plug-ins: If checked, plug-ins are not loaded at startup.
*Search sub folders when forming file lists: If checked, when Open Folder is selected from Open dialog, all folders within the base folder(i.e the folder selected, or folder containing the file selected), are scanned for files to be added to the file list. If unchecked, only the files in the base folder are scanned.
Hint: If you are viewing files one folder at a time(i.e there are no sub folders), this will have no real affect. If you are viewing folders--or a volume--that contain many sub folders, this can add quite a bit of time to the build process(See General, File Lists).
*Auto Save changes to keywords and comments: If checked, changes to keywords and comments will be saved automatically, whenever you move to another current file, or Quit. This can be useful if you are primarily changing keyword or comment data and don't want the Save Changes... dialog appearing. If unchecked, you will be prompted to Save changes, whenever you move to another current file or Quit.
*Enable Undo: If checked, Undo is enabled. This will slow down operations slightly and use some temporary disk space. If unchecked, Undo will not be available.
*Delete Files(Don't Move To Trash): If checked, files will be deleted, rather than moved to the trash. If unchecked, files are moved to trash(See File, Move File To Trash/Delete Files).
**Warning: If you choose to delete files, rather than move to the trash, you do so at your own risk. There is no way to recover a file once it is deleted.**
*Sort File Lists: If checked, the file list is sorted alphabetically. This only pertains to multi-folder lists.
**Warning: It is important to have this unchecked if you Save List As HTML Pages With Images.**
General Panel
When an image is copied to the clipboard.
Save To Clipboard Quality:
*Direct Pixels: Image data is copied directly, when making PICT for clipboard.
*Dithered Pixels: Image data is dithered, when making PICT for clipboard.
Save To Clipboard Resolution:
*Printed Size: Image dpi is used, when making PICT for clipboard.
*Screen Size: Screen dpi is used(72 dpi), when making PICT for clipboard.
*Sound On: If checked, brief sounds will accompany certain operations, such as Delete. If unchecked, no sounds will occur.
Previews & Icons Panel
You can control, to a great extent, what types of previews are created and if/when previews and icons are created.
Note: No previews or icons will be automatically created, unless at least one of the Create at Open/Save checkboxes are checked. You will need to create previews manually(See File, Create Previews And Icons) if neither of these are checked.
Create Previews:
*Always: Previews are always created.
*If settings differ: A simple test is made to see if some obvious change has occurred, regarding size. For a fully accurate test to occur, a new preview would have to be created, which would not accomplish any time savings.
*If none exists: Previews are created if no preview currently exists in the image file.
*Never: Previews are never created.
Preview Size:
Note: Previews are always made in a manner which retains aspect ratio(i.e they aren't streched to fill the bounds specified), so the bounds specified is really a maximum size the preview can be(i.e if its width and height are equal).
*80 x 80: Bounding size is 80 x 80 pixels.
*120 x 120: Bounding size is 120 x 120 pixels.
*160 x 160: Bounding size is 160 x 160 pixels.
*Other: You can specify any value between 40 and 160.
Preview Compression:
*JPEG: Created previews are JPEG compressed. Resulting preview will take up less space, but be slower to create and display. Depth must be Millions to choose this option.
*None: Created previews are not compressed. Resulting preview will take up more space, but be faster to create and display.
Options:
*Depth: Choose Millions, Thousands, or 256 Colors. Can have a great affect on preview size and quality. Generally, specifying Thousands is a good tradeoff between size and quality.
*Dither: If checked, preview is dithered when scaled down from image. If unchecked, no dithering occurs. In general, dithering automatically occurs as the image is scaled down to preview bounds, however, when the image is small(i.e little or no scaling occurs), this can make a differance in quality.
Create Custom Icon:
*Always: Icons are always created.
*If none exists: Icons are created if no icon currently exists in the image file.
*Never: Icons are never created.
Icon Type:
From left to right, top to bottom.
*Stretched, no dog ears: Icons are stretched to fill the entire 32 x 32 area, no dog ears are added.
*Stretched, with dog ears: Icons are stretched to fill the entire 32 x 32 area, dog ears are added.
*Aspect Ratio maintained, no dog ears: Icons are not stretched to fill the entire 32 x 32 area, no dog ears are added.
*Aspect Ratio maintained, with dog ears: Icons are not stretched to fill the entire 32 x 32 area, dog ears are added.
*Create At File Open: If checked, whenever a file is opened, based on Create options above, previews and icons are created.
*Create At File Save: If checked, whenever a file is saved, based on Create options above, previews and icons are created. Can be useful, if you modify the image and want the preview/icon to reflect the modifications.
Hint: It is more efficient to create icons while creating previews, as the icon can be created using the same scaled image already formed to create the preview.
HTML Contact Sheet Panel
A number of settings allow you to control both how the html pages are created and the contents of these pages.
Link:
Defines the relationship between images, image pages, and index pages.
*Directly To Image: No image pages are created. The index pages link directly to the image.
*To Image Page: An image page is created for each image.
*To Image Page(Table): An image page is created for each image, with a single cell table. This is to draw a border around the image.
Index Page:
Defines the contents of index pages.
*Rows/Colums: Defines how many rows and columns will be included in the table for each index page. When the specified number is reached, a new page is created.
*Border: Sets the size in pixels of the table border.
*Cellpadding: Sets the amount of space, in pixels, between the sides of a cell and its contents.
*Cellspacing: Sets the amount of space, in pixels, between the frame of the table and the cells in the table, as well as the space between the cells themselves.
Image Page:
Defines the contents of image pages.
*Border: Sets the size in pixels of the table border.
*Cellpadding: Sets the amount of space, in pixels, between the sides of a cell and its contents.
*Cellspacing: Sets the amount of space, in pixels, between the frame of the table and the cells in the table, as well as the space between the cells themselves.
*Display Keywords: If checked, file keywords are displayed below the image.
*Display Comments: If checked, file comments are displayed below the image.
Colors:
For all pages, defines the colors for background, text, link, active link, and visited link.
Display:
For all pages, defines information text below the preview or image.
*Set Header Comment: For all pages, defines custom comment to be placed at the top of the page.
*Set Footer Comment: For all pages, defines custom comment to be placed at the bottom of the page.
*Make Previews: If checked, previews(small versions of the original image) are made to view in index pages. If unchecked, no previews are made, the index pages scale the actual image. In all cases, the preview viewing area is determined by the preferences Previews & Icons, preview size.
