last updated 980709 - for lastest info check out: http://www.glunet.se/qpict
Introduction
QPict is a graphics browser/viewer. It helps you organize and find graphics on your harddisk, CD-rom etc. The viewer part can currently display PICT, JPEG, GIF and Startupscreen file formats. All other filetypes are supported by using helper applications. You use QPict to organize your graphics the same way you organize files in the Finder by using drag and drop.
Features
• Extensive drag and drop support, including drop on application in Finder.
• Supports all other filetypes by calling helper applications
• Scans disks and folders that are dropped on QPict for graphic files
• Slide Show
• Robust preview creation for all supported file formats
• Many user selectable settings
• Supports self contained index files, a must for browsing CD:s
• Extensive keyboard navigation
• Simple interface
• Runs native on both 68K and PowerPC
• Mimics the Finder behaviour as much as possible
• Completion sound for time consuming operations
• User selectable textures/patterns
• Supports InternetConfig for easy access to QPict home page.
• Can change/restore resolution* and depth on startup/exit
• Reveal file location lets you quickly find the original file in Finder
• Basic scriptability
• Online shortcuts help
• Balloon help for menus
• Uses the latest technologies like the new translucent drag manager in System 7.5.3
and more...
Shareware notice
This program is distributed as shareware. See the "How to register" document for more information.
Minimum requirements
Color QuickDraw capable Macintosh
4MB of free memory (depends on index size, System version and computer model)
System 7.1 or later
QuickTime 2.0 or later
Recommended
040 Mac or better
8 MB memory or more(depends on index size, System version and computer model)
System 7.5.5 or later
DisplayManager 2.0 or later (required for resolution change)
Support for 16 or 24 bit video
QuickTime 2.5 or later (required for some file formats)
DragManager (included in System 7.5 and later)
Usage examples
The following examples will give you some ideas of what QPict can be used for.
Situation
You have several CD-Roms with graphics (pictures movies etc.). You want to have instant access to them without having mount them one by one.
Solution
To solve the problem, create index files for all items of you CD. Organize the way that suits you, eg. as graphic categories or by folder structure on the CD:s.
Situation
You frequently receive a lots of pictures that you want to sort and trash unwanted ones.
Solution
Drag and drop all the pictures (or the enclosing folder) on the QPict icon in the Finder. Press enter/space or return to view the first picture. If you want to delete the picture press backspace, otherwise press the right arrow to display next picture. When finished with all pictures, create preview for them. Open up a folder in Finder where you have your folder structure for your different picture categories. Align the window in a way that it's visible from within QPict. Drag and drop pictures from the index to the folders in Finder. Press and hold command-key during the drag to have the item in the index removed (that way you know which items are left to be sorted).
Situation
You are working on a project that involves several pictures/movies etc. You have problems with telling which is which by simply reading their filenames.
Solution
Create index files for your graphics and make sure they have previews. Now you can see which file is which. When you found the file you wanted you can simply drag and drop it on the program in Finder which you will use to edit the file with.
Situation
You have CD-rom discs with graphics which you want to sort in a way that suits you. This is normally a problem because the CD is a read-only media.
Solution
Create index files for the graphics from your CD:s and make sure they have previews. Now you can sort the graphics by draging and dropping items from one index file to several others. Press and hold the command-key during the drag to move the item to the destination index. Since the index files is stored on your harddisk you also have much faster access to the contents of your CD.s than you would if you where working in the Finder.
Usage
How you use QPict depends on how you work. If you mainly use graphics from CD-rom discs in your work you begin with creating index files for the contents of your CD:s. Once this is done you just have to open the index files when you need to find a picture/graphic etc. You don't have to have the CD mounted until you need access to the actual file. It's very easy to use QPict since it behaves like the Finder. You drag and drop between index documents and the Finder, double click on a picture to view it etc.
Textures
You can change the texture used in both the index window and the background when displaying a picture.
<To change texture in index window>
Select preferences from the File menu
Check the "Use desk accessory pattern".
Quit QPict.
Open "Desktop Patterns" from the Control Panel Folder.
Find the pattern you want to use.
Hold down the option key while klicking on the "Set Desktop Pattern" button.
Start QPict.
<To change texture in display window>
Select preferences from the File menu
Check the "Use desktop pattern".
Quit QPict.
QPict now uses the same pattern as the one shown in the Finder.
Shortcuts
<Index window>
Select Shortcuts from the Window menu to display shortcuts available.
Other shortcuts:
Delete selected file Command-backspace
<Display window>
Select preferences from the File menu. Letters in light blue are shortcuts for the display window.
Other shortcuts:
View Next Picture Right arrow
View Previous Picture Left arrow
Return to Browser Escape key or Mouse Button
Delete Picture BackSpace
Preferences
<Display window>
In this group you can select some aesthetical parameters that affect how the picture will be presented in view mode.
• Show draft picture
If this checkbox i selected a draft version of the picture will be displayed during picture processing.
• Use custom palette
If this checkbox i selected and your machine is running in 256 colours or less QPict will attempt to load a colour palette from the picture file. This greatly enhances the display quality because JPEG compressed pictures contains 16 millions of colours and if you are carefully about which 256 of these 16 millions of colours you choose you will optimize display quality. This option does not do anything if you are running in thousands or millions of colours. QPict currently does not support creation of colour palettes but future versions will. One program that supports creation of colour palettes is GIFConverter by Kevin A. Mitchell.
• Use custom crop
If a crop resource is available in the picture file the picture is trimmed against it before is is shown.
• Scale to fit screen
If this checkbox i selected pictures larger than the screen will be scaled down to fit. This greatly slows down the speed of display.
• Dither Picture
If this checkbox i selected and your machine is running in 256 colours or less QPict will dither the picture. This greatly enhances the display quality.
• Show file name
If this checkbox i selected the name of the picture displayed will be shown in the bottom left corner of the picture.
• Show frame
If this checkbox i selected a border will be drawn around the picture.
• Fade between items
If this checkbox i selected QPict fades to black before next item is shown.
• Backgound pattern
If this checkbox i selected background pattern is shown behind the picture.
<Index window>
-- To be continued...
Apple menu
< About QPict >
Displays a nice about box with information about the program. My e-mail adress is found here to and it's possible to copy it to the clipboard.
< Register... >
Once you have sent in the registration fee you will receive a registration number that you use in the dialog you see when you select this menu command.
File menu
This is a normal file menu. Note that this menu only handles index documents, not graphic files. Graphic files are opened by either dropping them (or the enclosed folder/disk) on QPict icon in the Finder or by dragging them into an open index document.
< New >
Creates a new empty index document.
< Open >
Open a index document from disk.
< Close >
Closes the frontmost index document. Asks the user to save changes if the document is midified.
< Save, Save As... >
Saves the frontmost document.
< Revert >
Reverts to the last saved version of the index document.
< Reveal Original >
Shows the file location of selected items in the index.
< Get Item Info >
Opens a info window for selected items. This window contains info about the picture file and you can change the name of the item in the index. Comments can also be added here. The comments are currently only saved in the item file, not in the index. Because of this it's not possible to add comments for files that are located on write protected media such as CD-ROM. This will likely change in future versions of QPict.
< Preferences >
Displays the preferences dialog. Many aspects of QPict can be customized here.
< Page Setup..., Print..., Print One >
Prints the frontmost index document.
< Quit >
Terminates the program.
Edit menu
These menu commands works on selected items in the frontmost index document except "Create Previews".
< Undo >
Not implemented in current version.
< Cut, Copy, Paste >
Not implemented in current version.
< Clear >
Removes the selected items from the index. Doesn't remove the actual files from the disk. Shortcut for this command is backspace.
< Select All >
Selects all items in the frontmost index.
< Create Previews... >
Creates preview pictures for files in the index. If no files are selected QPict creates previews for all files that don't already have one. If items are selected previews are created for those if they don't already have previews. If the option key is down QPict works as above but replaces already existing previews with new ones.
View menu
< Half Size, Normal Size, Double Size >
Size of item in the index.
< by Name, by Size, by Type, by Date >
Sort the items in the index.
< Show Kind >
Displays the file kind in the upper left corner of every item in the index.
Scripts menu
< Slide Show >
If no items are selected a slideshow is started with all the items in the index. Only files that are directly supported by QPict are shown (eg. PICT, JPEG and startup screen and GIF etc.).
< "Scripts" >
Scripts or aliases to scripts that are located in the Scripts folder in the QPict directory is shown here. The selected script is applied to selected items in the index. Not implemented in current version.
Windows menu
< Shortcuts >
Shows a list of key and mouse commands in QPict. Look through this list, it will make your life a lot easier. QPict was desgined to be a simple to use as possible with an uncluttered interface. Therefore many commands are not visible to the user directly.
< Stack >
Stacks all open document windows in nice piles.
< "Document list" >
All open documents are listed here for convinient access. The first documents have key commands 1 thru 9.
Important info about memory management
Because of the large memory usage of QPict and the quite limited memory management in the current Mac OS there are some things to be aware of when dealing with QPict. Current memory management in QPict is far from perfect but it will improve in future versions. When a application is started the Mac OS allocates a memory area for its use called application heap. The size of that area is user selectable in the info window for the application in the Finder. Normally all memory usage is within that area. The problem is that the size of the memory area is fixed once the program is started so the user must make sure that it is large enough for the document he/she wants to work with. When working with QPict you migt normally only use 3-4 MB but sometimes a whopping 10-12MB. In that case you would have to allocate 12MB for QPict all the time just in case you would open that large index files, that's not good. Instead QPict gives the user an option to use memory from the system instead for many memory requirements. That means that you can have 1.5-2.5MB allocated for QPict and still be able to open large index files. Another advantage with this is that memory allocation is much faster when using system memory on some machines. Using system memory is the default setting and the recommended one for most cases.
Known conflicts
• Resolution change doesn't work if Radius Dynamic Desktop is installed. Use either or.
Known problems
• Scrambles order of items when dragging several items within the index. Use sort by to clean up
• Slow memory allocation on some machines. If it's slow, select "Use temp memory" in preferences
• Memory problem in 8 bit video (uses more memory in 8 bit than in 16/24 bit!).
• Finder sometimes reports error -1708 when dragging a file from QPict to Finder. This is a bug in the current System software. This is still not fixed in System Update 2.0.
Limitations
• Doesn't hide Control Strip on PowerMac unless QuickTime 2.1 is installed.
• Supports a maximum of 600 items in one index document. Normally this is not a problem since you shouldn't work with larger index files anyway.
Future attractions
The following is just ideas of what could be incorporated in future versions of QPict. If you have any suggestions please let me know!. I would also like to know which features you think are important.
• Support for Copy/Paste/Undo
• Support for QuickTime movies (display and create previews)
• Constrained window resizing
• Watch Folder - QPict updates index when folder contents changes
• Help window
• Fully configurable filetype/applications list
• Custom icons creation
• Workaround Finder bug (Error -1708)
• Index update when original file has changed
• Online help
Credits
Malte Lewan for beta testing. <http://www.df.lth.se/~cml/>
Bo Lindbergh for his DragLib.
Glunet Communications AB for providing me free internet access. <http://www.glunet.se>
Greg Landweber for helping me out with a DragManager problem. <http://glandweb.student.harvard.edu/>
Registered users of QPict for their comments and for supporting shareware.
