Collection of Tools & Utilities/Collection of Tools and Utilities.iso/graphic/iv1_02a.zip/IV.DOC

Text File | 1994-01-08 | 17KB | 375 lines

                                imgTECH/IV


This document contains a brief introduction to the imgTECH/IV image
viewer.  The following topics will  be considered:
1.  What is imgTECH/IV and what is it useful for?
2.  What are the hardware requirements?
3.  What capabilities does it have?
4.  What limitations does it have?
5.  Installation
6.  Using imgTECH/IV


1. What is imgTECH/IV?

imgTECH/IV is an image viewer.  That is, it can read digitized pictures,
display them and manipulate them in various ways.  A person may wish to
do this for one of several reasons:


2. Hardware requirements

  a)  386SX or higher CPU
  b)  At least one megabyte of memory
  c)  A hard disk with at least two megabytes free
  d)  A mouse


3. imgTECH/IV capabilities

  a)  IV is a 32 bit program.  As such it requires a 386 or higher CPU.  Since
      displaying an image require a lot of memory, IV will use all extended
      memory installed in the computer and will then use the hard disk as
      virtual memory.  IV requires a VGA system, and operates it in 256
      color mode with one of the following resolutions:
      1.  640x480x256
      2.  800x600x256
      3.  1024x768x256

  b)  IV allows multiple images to be loaded in memory and displayed in the
      screen at once.  Images may be of arbitrary size.  If the image is larger
      than the screen resolution (ie. an 800x600 pixel image and a 640x480
      pixel screen) the image will be clipped to fit the screen.  The image
      may be scrolled using the CTRL+ARROW keys.

  c)  IV can read and write images in the following formats: IV native
      format (faster), BMP, PCX, JPG, TIFF, GIF and ASCII.  An ascii
      image is a text file in the following format:
      Line 1:                # of rows
      Line 2:                # of columns
      Line 3 -> 3+rows:      pixel values of that row

  d)  IV supports image stacks.  An image stack is an image file that
      contains a number of individual images.  An image stack may
      represent:
      1.  A time series.  That is, a series of pictures of an object taken at
          different times.
      2.  The third spatial dimension.  Images are two dimensional, but an
          image stack may be a series of pictures taken at various depths.
      3.  A number of images that are somehow related, and stored together
          for convenience.  For example, a number of images may be stored
          together and shown in sequence creating a slide show.
      4.  A totally unrelated set of images.

  e)  IV supports the following general kinds of images:
      1.  Grey scale images.  Each pixel in the image represents light
          intensity at that point in the image.  No palette is stored with the
          image.  The image is shown with a grey scale palette (the IV
          default).  These images may be 8 bit (0<=pixel value<=255) or 16
          bit (0<=pixel value<=65536).
      2.  Color images.  Each pixel in the image represents an index into a
          color palette (usually 256 colors) stored with the image.  IV will
          load the image's palette whenever the image is shown.  Since IV can
          show many different images at once, and since the VGA mode used
          by IV is restricted to only 256 different colors, when one color
          image is displayed, other color images already on the screen may
          end up looking strange because a different palette is loaded.
          NOTE: displaying a 256 color image may change the colors IV uses
          for menus and dialog boxes...  This is because there are no more
          colors left for IV to use.
      3.  24 bit color images are currently not supported.  JPEG images are
          converted to 8 bit color images.

  f)  IV provides the following functions:
      1.    scale -- scale an image up or down.  X and Y may have different
            scale factors.  The scale factor is determined by specifying the
            numerator and denominator.  For example, to scale an image by
            1.5 in the X direction and 0.67 in Y the Y direction:
            X: numerator = 3  denominator = 2    3/2=1.5
            Y: numerator = 2  denominator = 3    2/3=0.67
      2.    rotate -- rotate an image by 90, 180 or 270 degrees.
      3.    mirror -- create a mirror image.
      4.    zoom -- zoom in on a small part of an image.
      5.    greyscale -- convert a color image into a grey scale image.  The
            red, green and blue components of each color in the image's
            palette are used to find a grey scale intensity for that color.
      6.    movie -- display each image in an image stack in rapid succession.
            Creating a movie or slide show effect.  Note: the number of
            frames per second displayed depends on the size of the image.
      7.    tile -- display a number of images in an image stack at once.
      8.    insert -- insert an image into an image stack.
      9.    delete -- delete an image from an image stack.
      10.   split -- split up an image stack into a number of single images.
      11.   cut -- cut a portion of an image out, creating a new image.
      12.   paste -- paste one image into another.
      13.   undo/redo

  g)  IV has hypertext help.

  h)  The IV interface features drop down menus and a command line.

  i)  All IV functions are available from macros.  IV can create macros by
      recording a series of key strokes.  Macros are stored in ascii text files
      so that they may be later edited and refined as necessary.  Macros also
      support looping and if-then constructs.

  k)  IV has a full screen mode in which an image is displayed on the screen
      by itself without any menus etc.  This is a useful mode for creating
      slide shows.

  l)  Gamma correction.


4. imgTECH/IV limitations

  a)  No 24 bit color images.
  b)  Doesn't use 32K, 64K color, 24 bit VESA modes when available.
  c)  Doesn't support, or even run, under Windows, OS2 or Deskview.
  d)  Doesn't read compressed TIFF images.
  e)  Cannot print images.  Images must be imported into a word processor
      or desktop publisher to be printed.
  f)  Doesn't support image editing (drawing lines, adding text etc.)


5. Installing imgTECH/IV

  a)  Place the installation disk in drive A:
  b)  Type a:
  c)  Type install
  d)  Install will examine the video system, if it is recognized, install will
      ask for confirmation.  If install doesn't recognize the video system or is
      incorrect, you may select a driver from the list presented.
  e)  When installation is complete, IV may be started by typing iv from the
      dos command line.  Note: IV requires the CPU to be in real mode.
      Programs like Windows and some EMS emulators put the CPU in
      Virtual 86 (V86) mode, and are thus incompatible with IV.  If you are
      using an EMS emulator like EMM386.SYS make sure that EMS is not
      disabled (ie. EMM386.SYS is NOT run with the NOEMS parameter).
  IV can also install from a hard disk if so desired.

  Whenever the configuration of the computer is changed, such as changing
  video cards, adding a math coprocessor or changing path names, run the
  program ivconfig.  This will tell IV about the changes.

  IV may be started from any directory, as long as the file iv.cfg is located
  in a directory named in the path statement.  iv.cfg is created by
  ivconfig.


6. Using imgTECH/IV

  When IV starts, it will show a message indicating the program's serial
  number and the person to whom the program is registered.  Press any key
  to get past this message.

a)  Using the menus
    Clicking on a menu title, or pressing ALT+The highlighted letter in the
    menu name will cause the menu to drop down.  Use the arrow keys to
    move the scroll bar from item to item, or else click (using the left mouse
    button) on the desired item.  Pressing ENTER or pressing the right
    mouse button (always equivalent to pressing ENTER) will select the