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VESAVIEW.EXE v 3.4 Keywords: VESA GIF PCX BMP TGA IMG TIF HPGL PRINT CATALOG VIEWER PAN DESKJET LASERJET PAINTJET Brief Desc: View and print GIF, PCX, BMP, TGA, TIF & IMG/GEM images & HPGL plotter files. Arrays of up to 81 images/screen can be generated and saved for easy cataloging. HPGL plot files can be saved as IMG files. Mouse support. Requires a VESA driver for your graphics card and enough extended memory to hold entire image. Supports VESA modes thru 1280x1024x256. Size of image is limited only by the amount of extended memory. Quick panning of images larger than your screen resolution. Color/brightness/contrast adjustments, scaling & cropping of color images. 24 bit color reduction for BMP, TGA & PCX. Excellent Black & White printing to HP DeskJet or LaserJet. Superb Color printing to HP PaintJet, PaintJet XL, PaintJet XL300 and DeskJet 500C/550C. VESAVIEW.EXE Copyright (c) William M. White 1992. Compuserve ID: 71770,2340 This product is Shareware. If you find it useful, please register your copy and tell your friends about it. This product may not be sold or packaged, either individually, or as part of any other product without the express written consent of the author. This product may not be changed or altered and then distributed without the express written consent of the author. The VESAVIEW.DOC file must accompany VESAVIEW.EXE whenever the non-registered version is distributed. REGISTRATION: Please send your $30.00 registration fee to: William M. White P. O. Box 2273 Glen Allen, VA. 23058-2273 By Registering your copy, you will receive an unhindered copy of the latest version of VESAVIEW and help support the continued development of the product. Current shareware versions of the product will always be available on Compuserve in the GRAPHSUPPORT forum (GO PICS). Updates for registered users are available for $5.00 to cover handling. Your registered copy of the program should never be distributed since it will be encoded with your name. DISCLAIMER: VESAVIEW is offered to you on an as-is-basis without any guarantee as to the correct functioning or fitness for a specific purpose. The author believes this program to work as described but you use the program entirely at your own risk. The author will not be responsible for any hardware or software damage, loss of data, or incidental or consequential damage that may result from its use, whether or not such use is in accordance with the instructions. REVISION HISTORY: v1.0 - v1.9 Developmental versions v2.0 (4/03/92) First release to the Public as Shareware v2.1 (4/10/92) Changed algorithm used for arrays color palette. Now uses color dithering for much more accurate color reproduction. v2.2 (4/21/92) Added new option to Automatically generate multiple pages of array images and save them to GIF files without user intervention. Also added a Scaling option. v2.3 (4/27/92) Fixed a minor bug while displaying multiple pages of arrays. v2.4 (6/05/92) Changed GIF decoder so that files which do not follow the standard of setting byte 13 of header as a zero are decoded anyway. v2.5 (7/06/92) Added saving as PCX files (both 2 & 256 color). Added cmd line qualifiers /FN, /FB & /FW so that scaling of B&W images could retain more info of the original. Can now read in Windows 3.X .BMP files (256 color). Added ability to select files for display with a search string. Added AA (absolute arc) & CI (circle) cmds to HPGL module & fixed minor bug in display size. v2.6 (7/16/92) Added decoding of TIF (2 color) files and fixed bug with Filename Search option. Only decodes non-compressed and run-length encoded TIFs. v2.7 (10/9/92) Added decoding of 24 bit PCX & BMP files and decoding of 16, 24 & 32 bit TGA (Targa) files. Added ability to change command line options from within the program from a menu. v2.8(11/20/92) Added qualifier to disable beep after displaying images. Added print enhancements: Color printing to HP PaintJet, PaintJet XL, PaintJet XL300, DeskJet 500C & DeskJet 550C. REGISTERED VERSION ONLY: Added ability to select plot size, rotation angle, resolution, gamma correction and page placement. Data can now be compressed before sending to printer to reduce size and speedup printing. V2.9 (12/9/92) Added qualifier (/COD) to optimize color palette and dither the image when 16, 24 or 32 bit bit images are read in. Fixed a bug which wouldn't allow an array of images to be saved as a GIF file if no GIF file was displayed in the array. V3.0(12/14/92) Added new B & W Scatter print style and Color Halftone print style. Also added qualifiers for these styles (/PSBH, /PSBS, /PSCH & /PSCS). Added /FTMn (fixed top margin). V3.1 (1/11/93) Changed halftone printing pixels from 4 bits to 5 bits to allow more shades. Added saving as a Windows BMP (256c). Arrays can now be saved as either GIF, BMP or PCX files. The screen is now erased around a cropped area before saving for easier viewing. V3.2 (1/22/93) Added support for 16 color PCX, BMP & GIF files. Added support for 256 color (8 bit) TGA files. Saving of images or arrays is now 3-4 times faster. V3.3 (2/2/93) Added support for 16 and 256 color TIF files. Added ability to use 320x200x256 & 640x480x2 modes without requiring a VESA driver. These modes do not allow array generation. Added panning with window icon for B&W display modes. Added qualifiers /PXSn & /PYSn to allow slight adjustment of X & Y scales when plotting HPGL & 2-color files. Fixed bug where multiple image GIFs would hang. Now, only the 1st image of these multi-image GIFs is displayed. V3.4 (2/9/93) Added support for GIF89A files by completely rewriting the GIF decoder module. Multiple files can now be selected for automated plotting (in registered version only). File directory is now sorted vertically instead of horizontally for easier viewing. REQUIREMENTS: IBM compatible 286 or better Extended memory (and driver such as HIMEM). For 256 (& higher) color files, you'll need 1 byte/pixel in your image. For 2 color files, you'll need 1 byte per 8 pixels in your image. This program conforms to XMS 2.0 specification. Will use a math coprocessor if available A graphics card that supports the VESA BIOS EXTENSIONS for the 'Super VGA modes' either through hardware or a software driver. NOTE: If no VESA driver is found, you will be limited to 320x200x256 or 640x480x2 non-VESA modes which won't allow arrays to be generated. FEATURES: Will read in any size up to 1280 x 1024: GIF (Compuserve 87a) - 16 & 256 color PCX (Zsoft) - 2, 16, 256 color & 24 bit (16 million colors) BMP (Windows) - 16, 256 color & 24 bit (16 million colors) TGA (Targa) - 8,16, 24 & 32 bit (non-compressed RGB & Run length encoded RGB) IMG (GEM/Digital Research Inc) - B & W TIF - B & W, 16c & 256c (non-compressed & run length encoded) HPG - (Hewlett Packard) HPGL plot files (.HPG or .PLT) If the file is larger than the screen mode you selected, you can quickly pan around the image. Size of image is limited only by the amount of extended memory you have. NOTE: The entire image is read into Extended memory to allow for quick panning of large images. Black & White images are stored in memory with 1 byte per 8 pixels. 16 (4 bit) and 256 color (8 bit) images are stored in memory with 1 byte per pixel. 24 & 32 bit images are stored in memory as 256 color images so only 1 byte per pixel is required. Black & White printing (color images will be halftoned) and Color printing are supported. Prints can be sized, rotated and positioned on paper. Red/Blue/Green/Contrast/Brightness values may be changed while viewing a color image. Color screen images can be saved as a 256 color GIF, BMP or PCX file. These images may be cropped & scaled before saving. Black & White images can be saved as an IMG or 2 color PCX file. This is useful to save a HPGL file that is displayed on screen out to a quicker retrieving raster file. If these images are displayed in a color VESA mode they can also be saved &/or cropped as 256 color GIF, BMP or PCX files. Arrays of up to 81 images can be displayed on a single screen at once. This screen can then be saved as a single GIF, BMP or PCX file for cataloging or printing. Supports VESA modes (assuming your graphics card can handle): 100 - 640 x 400 x 256 101 - 640 x 480 x 256 103 - 800 x 600 x 256 105 - 1024 x 768 x 256 107 - 1280 x 1024 x 256 Will support a 800 x 600 x 2 color B&W mode if your card has one. (See /SVn option below) Supports the use of a MicroSoft compatible 2-button mouse. NOTE: The annoying beeps and NON-Registered notices will be removed from registered copies. Also, the NON-Registered version does not support the new printing options (sizing, rotating and positioning), nor the Compressing of printer data. RUNNING: Make sure you have enough extended memory available and that a driver (such as HIMEM) is loaded. Make sure your graphics card has VESA BIOS EXTENSIONS (VBE) either built-in or that you have installed a VESA software driver. Keyin: VESAVIEW [/P1 or /P2] [/AB or /AW] [/LOmode] [/AMmode] [/WN, /WH or /WF] [/Dn] [/SVn] [/FN, /FB or /BW] [/CS, /CO or /COD] [PTDJ, /PTLJ, /PTPJ, /PTPJXL, /PTPJXL3, /PTDJC or /PTDJ5C] [/PWn] [/PAn] [/PRn] [/PTMn] [/PLMn] [/PC] [/PGn] [/NB] [/PSBH, /PSBS, /PSCH or /PSCS] [FLn] where items in brackets are optional. NOTE: Underlined (or *) qualifiers are only available in the REGISTERED VERSION. The optional qualifiers can be changed while in the program by pressing <O> (or pointing to OPTS with the mouse). These changes are only for the current session and will not be saved. If you wish to use the same qualifiers each time you evoke the program, write a BAT file like: CD \GIF rem Assumes your graphics files are here \VV\VESAVIEW /P1 /NW /CO rem Assumes program in VV dir The /AB forces the array mode to use a black background and white text for the filenames. The /AW forces the array mode to use a white background and black text (saves black ink when printing). The /AMmode (where mode is 100, 101, 103, 105 or 107) will let you default to a specific mode when displaying arrays. The program will default to mode 101 if this switch is not used. Only use a mode number that your card can support! The /CO (color-optimized) will force 16, 24 & 32 bit images to be processed using an optimized 256 color palette. The process reads in all the colors in your image, creates a histogram of the most used colors, and then creates an optimized palette of the results. The processing time is greater than if the /CS option is used, but the results are spectacular. The color reduction method used is much faster than that of other program that I have tested. After the image has been displayed on the screen, you might want to save it as a 256 GIF, BMP or PCX file, so that the next time you want to display it, you can use the quicker 256 color version. The /COD qualifier is similar to /CO above, expect that besides using an optimized palette, the image will also be dithered to smooth out the transition between colors. The /CS (color-standard) will force 16, 24 & 32 bit images to be displayed using a standard palette. The colors will be adequate for previewing, but for more exact colors, use the /CO. The /Dn is for setting the delay in seconds to use between slides. The n is an integer number from 1 to 999 and defaults to 5 seconds. This time is approximate and will vary depending on the size of the image being read in. The /FN, /FB or /FW specify the foreground color (N=none, B=Black and W=White) of your Black & White images. By specified foreground color, the program will be able to save more of your image's original context when scaling down. This qualifier works best if your images are line drawings and not pictures. For example, if your image appears on the screen as black lines on a white background, use the /FB qualifier. If your images don't have a main foreground color such as the case with pictures, use /FN. Note that using either the /FB or /FW qualifiers will increase the processing time for B&W scaling. If you don't need the increased quality, use /FN. The /FTMn (fixed top margin) option will allow you to override the program's default values for that part on the top of a page that your printer can't print on. The defaults are: 0.1" - DeskJet, DeskJet 500, DeskJet 500C 0.05" - DeskJet 550C 0.0" - LaserJet Series, PaintJet XL, PaintJet XL300 0.0" - PaintJet (tractor feed) If your printed margins don't match what you set in the Printer Setup Menu, then use this qualifier to adjust them. The /LO mode (where mode is 100, 101, 103, 105 or 107) will lock out a mode. This is useful if your VESA driver is designed for a graphics card which has been fully populated with memory chips but your card doesn't have all of this memory installed. You may use more than one of these switches on your command line. The /NB option will disable the beeps after images are displayed on screen. The default is to beep. The /P1 or /P2 designates which printer port to use for printing (LPT1 or LPT2). The /PAn (print angle) is used to rotate your print on the printed page. Values for n can be 0, 90, 180 or 270. * The /PC option will force the transfer of data from your computer to the printer to be in a compressed (encoded) format. This will speed up the transfer of data (especially for serial or networked printers). Time savings will vary depending on the type and size of plot. In some cases, you may find no time savings overall since the printer has to decompress the data, but your CPU should be freed up from processing sooner. (default is no compress). The PaintJet and LaserJet II, do not support this type of data compression. If your printouts look garbled, don't use this option. The /PGn (print gamma correction) option will allow you to adjust the gamma of your Black & White or Color print. Simply put, gamma correction will adjust the intensities of red, green & blue values logarithmically since the human eye's perception of color intensity is non-linear. The gamma value is a decimal value between 0.5 and 2.0. If set to 0, no gamma correction will be performed. If this qualifier is not used, gamma defaults to a value best suited for the printer type selected. Using higher values will result in the darker colors in your image being printed lighter and the lighter ones remaining the same. This gives a much more natural looking printout. * The /PRn (printer resolution) is used to specify the resolution in dots per inch (dpi) of your active printer. For the DeskJet series, it can be 75, 150 or 300. For the PaintJet series (except XL300), it can be 90 or 180. Defaults to highest resolution for selected printer. The /PXSn and /PYSn qualifiers can be used to slightly adjust the X-scale and/or Y-scale of your B&W plots. These are useful if your plot needs to be an exact scale and your printer is not scaling the plot the same in the X & Y directions. Increasing the /PXSn parameter will lengthen the plot along the 8 1/2" dimension and increasing the /PYSn parameter will lengthen the plot along the 11" direction. The defaults for n are 1.0 and their ranges are between 0.9500 and 1.0500. For example, on my DeskJet I use /PYS1.005 and /PYS1.015. The /PSx (print style) option allows you to select the style of printing for Black & White or Color prints. It can be one of the following: /PSBH (B&W Halftone), /PSBS (B&W Scatter), /PSCH (Color Halftone) or /PSCS (Color Scatter). The Halftone styles will process much faster than the Scatter dithering types which use an error difusing algorithm, however, the Scatter styles will in most cases have much better detailing and quality. Halftoning is the default. The /PTx (printer type) is used to select your printer. It can be one of the following: /PTDJ (HP DeskJet), /PTLJ (HP LaserJet), /PTPJ (HP PaintJet), /PTPJXL (HP PaintJet XL), /PTPJXL3 (HP PaintJet XL300), /PTDJC (HP DeskJet 500C) or /PTDJ5C (HP DeskJet 550C). * The /PWn (print width) is used to specify a print width. It is a decimal value from 0.0 to 10.5. If you enter a number greater than 8.0, the print will automatically be rotated 90 degrees. The print width represents the width that you want the horizontal image dimension as seen on your screen to be printed, no matter what rotation angle you use. * The /PTMn (printer top margin) sets the number of inches from the current position of printhead that the image will start printing. It is a decimal value ranging from the minimum value of your printer (see /FTMn below) to 10.0. If set to 99, your image will be centered from top to bottom. * The /PLMn (printer left margin) sets the number of inches from the left side of page that the image will start printing. It is a decimal value from 0.25 to 7.5. If set to 99, your image will be centered from left to right. The maximum printable width on all printers is 8.0" (1/4" left & right margins). The /SVn will allow you to use a 800 x 600 x 2 color mode to display IMG or HPGL files in a high resolution mode if your graphics card supports it. The n is the decimal mode number that your card uses for this mode. Most Paradise cards use 41 decimal for this mode, and the Tseng cards (including Orchid) use 89 decimal. This special mode and the standard 640 x 480 x 2 mode will allow faster panning on screen than the same resolutions in VESA modes will for large B & W images. NOTE: The panning icon which is available in VESA modes is not available for B & W modes. The /WH is similar to /WN except that the weights of lines will be halved (divided by 2). The /WF (full weights) will display the weights as originally drawn. The /WN (no weight) will not display weights of lines in an HPGL plot file if the SP (select pen) keyword was used when creating the plots. This will greatly speed up the screen drawing if you don't need to look at or print the weights. Some CAD programs which generate the plot files create weighted lines by simply drawing the lines multiple times in the plot file (each slightly offset) and not by using the SP (set pen) command. The /WN & /WH switches will have no effect on this type of plot files. SYSTEM DEFAULTS: /P1 /AB /AM101 /D3 /WF /FB /CO /PTDJ /PW8.0 /PA0 /PTM0.25 /PLM0.25 /FL10.5 /PXS1.0 /PYS1.0 Ex: VESAVIEW /L2 /AW /D10 - Will use printer port LPT2:, display arrays with a white background, and delay 10 seconds between slides. Ex: VESAVIEW /LO105 /LO107 /AM103 - Will lockout modes 105 and 107 from being valid VESA modes and will use mode 103 when displaying arrays. The program will test to see if your graphics card supports the VESA Bios Extensions by either hardware or software driver, whether you have a HIMEM driver loaded and how much extended memory you have available. Use the <ESC> key to exit program. A mouse button can not be used to exit the program. CHANGING DIRECTORY: While the list of files is on your screen, you can change your current directory by placing the cursor on the lite blue entries (which are directory names) and pressing <ENTER>. The . (single dot) will take you back to the root directory, and the .. (double dots) will take you back one directory level. You can also press the <C> key (or point to CDIR with mouse) to keyin a new path that can include a new disk drive. (Ex: B:\ or C:\GIF or C:\IMAGES\GIF or \GIF) VIEW SINGLE IMAGE: To view a single image move the cursor (with arrows, pageup, pagedown, home or end keys) to the desired image file and press <ENTER>. Then select a Vesa Mode from the Mode Menu. An asterisk denotes the Best Mode (calculated by the program) which will display the most of your entire image on a single screen in the best resolution. After your image is displayed, press <ESC> (or right mouse button) to return to main menu. Note that when viewing IMG files or HPGL files, you can use a VESA mode (only B&W colors used), use the standard 640 x 480 x 2 mode or use the Super VGA mode that you optionally entered on the command line. Entries in gray on the Mode Menu are not available for your graphics card. VIEW MULTIPLE IMAGES (slide show): To view multiple images as a 'slide show', use the <Space Bar> (or right mouse button) to select the images you wish to view. You can mark all images in the current directory with the <M> key (or point to MARK with mouse) or unmark them with the key (or UNMARK with mouse). These can include GIF, PCX, BMP, TGA, IMG, TIF, PLT and HPG files. By pressing the <C> key, you can change your current Disk &/or Directory. Press <ENTER> (or left mouse button) to start the slide show. The files will be displayed one by one in the best VESA mode as determined by the program (640x480x2 mode is used for PLT & HPG files). The delay between slides will vary depending on the time it takes to read in the next file while one is on your screen and the value used in the /Dn switch. After the last file is displayed, the program will loop back to first slide. Pressing <ESC> (or right mouse button) during the display will stop the slide show. (this may take several seconds) VIEW AN ARRAY OF IMAGES: To view multiple images on a single screen at once, use the <Space Bar> (or right mouse button) to select the images you wish to view. These can include GIF, PCX, BMP, TGA, TIF and IMG files but not PLT or HPG files. Press <A> (or point to ARRAY with mouse) to select array display. Select the VESA mode from Mode Menu and then select the number of images to display per screen page. Then sit back and watch your images appear. Pressing <ESC> (or right mouse button) will abort the display after the current image is displayed. If more than one page is required, you could press <G> to save the currently displayed page as a GIF file, for Windows BMP file or <Z> for ZSoft PCX file or <PAGE DN> will continue to display the next page. Since each image uses it own unique 256 colors, a special optimized color table and color dithering is used to display arrays. Note that when displaying a 2-color file in an array, the scaling down of the original image (especially a line type drawing) will cause much of the info to be lost on the screen unless the /FB or /FW command qualifier is used. NOTE: Arrays are only available in VESA modes. AUTO ARRAY GENERATION/SAVING: If you are going to have many pages (screens) of array images and you will be saving them all out as single files, you can do this automatically by the <G> (or point to AUTO/GEN with mouse) to activate the generate option. This will automatically display the arrays on the screen and then save them out without any user intervention until the last one is processed. You begin just as you would for the standard array option by selecting the files to display, the VESA mode, and then the number of images/page. You are first prompted for the file type to use when saving. Then you are prompted for the first 1-6 characters of the filename that the program will use for the files it generates. The system will append a 2 digit page number and appropriate extension to your input. EX: You are going to have 3 pages of array images and you select <G>IF as the filetype and enter TEST as the filename. The System will generate 3 files named TEST01.GIF, TEST02.GIF & TEST03.GIF. VIEWING GIF89A FILES - Special Case: If you are viewing a single GIF89A file, most of the 89A extensions will be processed including multiple images, plain text and control blocks. Comments will not be displayed. Because of the way VESAVIEW reads images into Extended memory before displaying them, the plain text will only be displayed on the screen (not XMEM). This will prevent the printing of the text since printing is done from what is in Extended memory. One way around this, if your screen has enough resolution to display the entire file, is to save your screen out to another file with <G> and then pull up that file and print it. NOTE, that the save commands will only save out what is on the screen after all of the 89A extensions are processed. If the extensions include delays between images, or require the user to <press> a key, the program will continue after 15 seconds maximum so that slide shows will not be put in a wait state looking for user input. If you are viewing arrays which include GIF89A files, the extensions will be processed entirely in XMEM before displaying them in the array. No text extensions will be displayed (they would be probably be too small to read anyway). Delays between GIF89A extensions are not processed when displaying array images for increased speed. VIEWING HPG or PLT FILES: To view a plot file created in a HPGL format, move the cursor to the filename and press <ENTER>. Then choose the Display Mode and Plot Mode you wish to use. The program will try and determine the size of plot from the plot file header, but some CADD packages don't supply this info in which case the program will assume a "C size". The HPGL codes for Plot Sizes are: PS4 = 'A' size PS0 = 'B' size PS1 = 'C' size Choosing a display mode of FIT, 2X or 4X will speed up the drawing process but the resolution of the image will be diminished. As the image is decoded, you will see it being drawn in a preview mode at screen size. After the image is complete, pressing any key will swap you to the actual image as stored in Extended memory for panning around in. Pressing <ESC> (or right mouse button) as the image is being decoded will abort it. Currently supported HPGL commands are: PU,PD,PA,PR,PS,IP,SC,SP, CI,AA Even though the LB,SI,SR,DF,DI & DR commands are parsed and used to display the image on the initial preview screen, they are not supported as the drawing is being created in Extended memory. This won't usually pose a problem since this program was designed to view HPGL files created by CADD programs and most of those programs represent Text etc. as vector elements. WARNING: Only plot files which were created as C size or smaller should be viewed, since the program does no checking for elements which could be drawn 'off' the page if too big. This check was omitted to speed up the drawing. DELETING FILES: While the file list is displayed on your screen, you may delete a file by moving the cursor to it and pressing <DEL> on the keyboard. To delete multiple files, mark them with the <spacebar> (or right mouse button) and then press <DEL>. You will be asked to confirm each deletion. SEARCHING FILENAMES: While the file list is displayed on your screen, you may select files by searching their filenames for a specific string. Press <S> (or point to SEARCH with mouse) and keyin the search string. The file will be selected if it contains the exact string anywhere in its filename. Don't use the wildcard characters * or ? since they will be search for literally. SPECIAL KEYS WHILE VIEWING: While viewing images in a VESA mode (other than arrays): F1/F2 Increase/Decrease RED F3/F4 Increase/Decrease GREEN F5/F6 Increase/Decrease BLUE F7/F8 Increase/Decrease RED F9/F10 Increase/Decrease RED ALT F9 Change to Gray tones ALT F10 Restore original palette P Send XMEM contents to printer as B&W or Color image G Create a GIF file (256 c) of screen contents B Create a BMP file (256 c) of screen contents Z Create a PCX file (256 c) of screen contents C Crop an image and save as GIF, BMP or PCX file (256 c) S Scale XMEM contents to screen and save as GIF, BMP or PCX file (256 c) V Display the current VGA palette While viewing an array: G Create a GIF file (256 c) of screen contents B Create a BMP file (256 c) of screen contents Z Create a PCX file (256 c) of screen contents C Crop an image and create a GIF, BMP or PCX file (256 c) While viewing IMG or HPGL files in a B & W mode: P Send XMEM contents to printer as B&W image I Create an IMG file (2 c) of entire XMEM contents. The 'I' option may also be used if you are viewing an IMG or HPGL file in a color VESA mode. Z Create a PCX (2 c) file of entire XMEM contents. In both Color and B & W modes you may pan screen with: (make sure the NUMLOCK key is on to use keypad) HOME Top left of image END Bottom right of image Page Up Move up approx. 1 inch Page Dn Move down approx. 1 inch ESC Return to File Selection Menu The arrow keys on either numeric keypad or separate arrow keypad pan the image approx. 1/4 inch in that direction. In addition, on the numeric keypad, the 1,3,7 & 9 keys pan the image diagonally and the 5 pans to center of image. Use the Control key with left or right arrows to pan 1 inch to the left or right. SAVING SCREEN AS a GIF, BMP or PCX FILE: While viewing an image in a VESA mode, pressing <G> will save the current screen (not necessarily everything in Extended memory) to a GIF file with the filename of your choosing. Pressing will save to a Windows BMP file. Pressing <Z> will save to a PCX file. The dimensions will come from the mode you are currently viewing the image in or the cropped size that you used. The color table written to file will reflect any adjustments you've made with the Function keys. CROPPING SCREEN & SAVING AS a GIF, BMP or PCX FILE: If you press <C> you will be able to crop your screen image before saving as a GIF or PCX file. You will see a box drawn around your complete image when you first press <C>. Press a <T> to move the TopLeft corner of box. Press to move the BottomRight corner. Use the arrow keys to move a single pixel at a time, or PageUp, <CTRL>Leftarrow or <CTRL>Rightarrow to move 10 pixels at a time. <HOME> will move the Topleft corner of box to Topleft of screen. <END> will move the Bottomright corner of box to Bottomright of screen. <ESC> will abort and a <CR> will start the screen save. You will be prompted whether to save as GIF, BMP or PCX file. See 'Using a Mouse' below. SCALING XMEM CONTENTS TO SCREEN & SAVING: If you press <S> you will be able to scale the entire image in XMEM to your screen. You will see a box drawn the screen when you first press <S>. If you just press the <CR> key at this time, your entire image will be fitted to your screen at the current VESA resolution. Use the arrow keys etc. (like in cropping above) to move the lower right corner of box. Scaling always occurs about the upper left corner of image, so you can't move this point. <ESC> will abort and a <CR> will start the screen save. See 'Using Mouse' below. SAVING XMEM CONTENTS AS a IMG FILE: While viewing a 2 color Black/White image (either IMG, 2-color PCX or HPGL files), pressing an will save the entire eXtended memory contents to a IMG file, or pressing <Z> will save as a 2-color PCX file. You will have the opportunity to reverse the image before saving. It doesn't matter whether you are viewing the image in a color VESA mode or one of the Black & White modes in order to with the mode, as long as the original image was actually a 2 color image. Currently, there is not a cropping option before saving as a IMG file. However, if you are viewing the 2-color image in a color VESA mode, you could save out as a cropped GIF, BMP or PCX file. PRINTING IMAGES: Before displaying an image that you will be printing, you should pull up the Printer Setup Menu (submenu of OPTS menu) and make any necessary changes to style, size, margins, rotation and gamma etc. After an image is displayed, any adjustments to color/brightness/contrast will be reflected in your print. The gamma value (see description of /PGn qualifier above) is a good tool to use if adjustment to brightness is needed for printouts. The maximum size of image is limited only by the amount of free XMEM you have. The maximum size of print is 10.5 x 8.0 inches on most printers. On the DeskJet 550C printer, note that you can't print on the bottom 1/2" of page, so if you are centering your print, the maximum length can't be greater than 10.0", but if you set your Top Margin to the minimum of 0.05", you can squeeze in about 10.4". If you want to print multiple images, select them from the file list with the <Space Bar> (or right mouse button) as for slides, and then press (or point to PLOT with mouse). Each file will be displayed on screen and automatically plotted until the last one is processed. NOTE that all of the plots will use the same size, rotation, justification etc. from the plotting options menu. Pressing <ESC> (or right mouse button) will abort the plotting. NOTE: This option is only available in Registered Version. While a color image file is displayed on the screen, pressing will create a print on your active printer in the current print style. The fastest print style is the halftoning process. The scatter style will produce a better quality print in most cases, but will take longer to process. You may cancel the plot by pressing <ESC> (or right mouse button) during the plot. The port defaults to LPT1 unless you specified a command line argument of /L2 when starting the program. The actual plot will be of your entire image (stored in extended memory) and not just what you may be viewing on your screen. While viewing a 2-color (black & white) file or HPGL (.PLT or .HPG), pressing will create a Black & White print. See description of /FB, /FW & /FN above to preserve image context when your print is being scaled down from the original size. You can use any of the printer qualifiers (available as command line qualifiers or from the Printer Menu within program) to change the defaults for Printer Port, Printer Type, Resolution, Rotation Angle, Width and Top & Left Margins. If you select a Print Width greater than 8.5", the program will automatically rotate print 90 degrees (unless 270 was already selected). The program will beep if you try to use an invalid combination of size, rotation angle, margins or resolution. MOUSE USE: In most cases where the keypad is used to move the text cursor, a MicroSoft compatible mouse can also be used. You must install any required mouse drivers before running VESAVIEW. The Left button is used just like the <CR> key on the keyboard to display one image. It is also used to select choices from pop-up menus, to select commands at the bottom of screen and to select the PageUp and PageDown icons from the vertical bar on the right side of screen. The Right button is used just like the <ESC> key on the keyboard to abort displays and menus. It is also used to mark files for use in arrays or for displaying them as slides (like the <spacebar>). If a large image has been displayed in one of the 256 color VESA modes, holding down the Left mouse button will display a panning icon on your screen. The green box represents your entire image size and the red box represents your screen size. While holding down the Left button, move the mouse and the red box will pan around with the green box. When you let go of the button, the screen with be moved to reflect your new window area. This mode of panning is much quicker than using the arrow keys, although you will probably use the arrow keys for fine tuning the pan. If a double-beep is heard when trying to use this feature, your image is probably smaller than your screen and no panning is possible. When Cropping an image, the Left mouse button will move the upper left corner of the cropping box and the Right mouse button will move the lower right corner of box. Pressing both the Left and Right buttons simultaneously will start the save (like pressing <CR>). Scaling works the same except the Left mouse button is not used (can't move the upper left corner of scaling box). CAUTIONS: The array used to store the files in current directory is limited to 400 files. The program determines the type of file to display by the extension used on the filename. Supported extensions are PCX, GIF, BMP, TGA, IMG, TIF, HPG and PLT. Any other extensions are ignored. Incorrect extensions may cause program to hang (ie. Don't name a PCX file with a GIF extension). Even though your VESA driver thinks it supports some of the higher resolution modes, your hardware may not have the required memory to do so. Therefore, you need to lockout these modes from the program with the /LOmode command line switch. If you don't lock out these modes, the program may hang and you'll have to do the 3 finger trick (<CTRL> <ALT> <DEL>). When printing, make sure your printer is online before pressing the key, otherwise the printer may lose some of the data or lock up the program. HINTS: When creating arrays of images that include 24 bit files, you may want to toggle the 24 bit palette option to STANDARD to speed up the processing. The color detail will not be too apparent at this small scale. If you are using a printer supported by the DOS GRAPHICS command, you can get a quick print of a Black & White screen by using the GRAPHICS command before running VESAVIEW. Version 5.0 of DOS supports the DeskJet & LaserJets and the syntax would be: GRAPHICS DESKJET /r (the /r will reverse black & white) Use <SHIFT><PRT SCRN> while graphics are on the screen to initiate the print. If you are printing to a color printer and you need to lighten up your print, try increasing the Gamma value instead of the brightness. This will lighten up the lower intensities and leave the higher intensities as they are. Besides using the SCALE option, there is a trick you can use to scale down an image by 1/2,1/3,1/4...1/9. Mark just one image and display it as an array. Select the Array Size according to the scale factor you wish to use. (The color table used to display a single image as an array will be the true color table of that image and not the standard palette). After the image is displayed, use the CROP feature to save the area you desire as a color image. Note that when a single array image is displayed, the background color and text colors will change according to the color table of the single image being displayed. If you need a VESA driver for your graphics card, login to Compuserve and go to the IBMPRO forum (GO VESA). In Lib #12 (Vesa), you will find VESA drivers for almost any card. If you are not sure what graphics card you have in your machine, there is a great little program in the GRAPHSUPPORT forum on Compuserve (GO PICS). In Lib #14 (Misc Util & Code) download VDEOID.EXE. This program will try and determine the card manufacturer & memory on it. CARDS TESTED: This program has been tested on the following computers and graphics cards: DELL 325D - Using built-in Paradise card DELL 325D - Using a CompuAdd Hi-rez card DELL 433D - Using Trident 8900 card DELL 433P - Using built-in Paradise card DELL 433P - Using a Video-7 VRAM II card DELL 486D/50 - Using built-in Paradise card NEC 386SX - Using a CompuAdd Hi-rez card AST 286/386 Premium - Using Orchid Designer Pro card AST 286/386 Premium - Using Diamond Stealth card (has built in VESA Bios on card) IBM 286 AT - Using a Paradise VGA Plus IBM 286 AT - Using an ATI Wonder card & ATI Vantage GATEWAY 2000 486/33 - Using an ATI Ultra card SUPPORT: If you have any comments, suggestions or questions, please leave me a message in the GRAPHSUPPORT forum (GO PICS) on Compuserve. My CIS ID number is 71170,2340. The current shareware version of VESAVIEW will always be posted in the LIB #3 (Decoders & Encoders) of the GRAPHSUPPORT forum on Compuserve. The Zipped archival of VESAVIEW will usually be named VEVIxx.ZIP where xx is the version number or VESAVW.ZIP. If you can't find it by filename, try searching for the keywords VESA and HPGL. You can also reach me at the P. O. Box listed in the Registration section.