Collection of Tools & Utilities/Collection of Tools and Utilities.iso/graphic/iv1_02a.zip/README.TXT

Text File | 1994-01-08 | 18KB | 417 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 way.


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 -> 2+rows: pixel values for that row (# columns values)

 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.  JPEG images are converted to 8 bit color
    images when they are being decoded.
 b) Doesn't use 32K, 64K color, 24 bit VESA modes when available.
 c) Doesn't support, or even run, under operating environments other than
    DOS such as Windows or OS/2.  See part g below.
 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.)
 g) The CPU *must* be in real mode when starting IV.  IV will then
    switch to protected mode.  Some drivers loaded at bootup, notably
    memory managers such as EMM386.EXE switch the CPU to virtual
    8086 (V86) mode, which is incompatible with IV.

    Several options exist with EMM386.EXE:
    1. Get rid of EMM386 altogether
    2. Start EMM386 with the OFF or AUTO parameters
       DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE OFF
       or
       DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE AUTO
    3. Start EMM386 without any parameters or specify an amount of
       EMS for it to emulate, then turn it off before running IV and turn
       it on again afterward.
       DEVICE=C:\DOS\EMM386.EXE
       ---
       C:\DOS\EMM386 OFF
       IV
       C:\DOS\EMM386 ON
       ---


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.  See above.
 IV can also install from a hard disk if so desired.  Make sure that the
 directory to which you are installing is not the same as the directory from
 which you are installing.

 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