GIF ("Graphic Interchange Format"; a trademark of Compuserve Information Service) is a machine-independent standard for storing and transmitting graphics files. There are some excellent GIF utilities available for the Apple IIgs which can display GIF files and translate them into standard IIgs graphics files. The best of these (Jonah Stitch's GIF.3200, for example) can transform 256 color GIF files into dazzling 3200 color IIgs graphics. There are also GIF viewer/translators available for 8 bit Apple II's.
Online Macintosh libraries often have an excellent selection of GIF files. When you download one of these Mac GIFs to your Apple II, however, the file will have a "header" -- a block of data attached to the front of the file intended for use by Mac telecommunications software. Before an Apple II GIF utility can recognize a file as being a GIF, it may be necessary to strip off this header. This is the job that GIF.Beheader does.
GIF.Beheader is simple and friendly to use. Just launch it, and highlight the GIF file you want to "behead" in the file-selection window. Only TXT, BIN, type $F7 and folder files will be displayed. (Files downloaded from the Mac libraries of America Online with the Apple II AOL software will be type $F7.) Press return, and GIF.Beheader will prompt you for a "destination folder". You can either have the new, beheaded, file copied to a different disk and folder, or save it to the same location. The GIF file will then be saved to disk with the header removed, as a type TXT file. As an added bonus, GIF.Beheader will show you the size and number of colors of the graphic. That's all there is to it.
The file SF.GET must be in the same folder as GIF.Beheader when the latter is launched. SF.GET is a machine language utility which provides the friendly point-and-click file selector in GIF.Beheader. SF.GET is freeware, and available in the libraries of the major online services.
