ImCon v1.1
============
This is the English documentation of ImCon version 1.1. The German version of
this text is in the file "IMCONGER.TXT".
Dies ist die englische Dokumentation von ImCon Version 1.1. Die deutsche
Ausgabe dieses Textes finden Sie in der Datei "IMCONGER.TXT".
What is ImCon?
================
ImCon is a program with which you can convert pictures between different file
formats. On the way, you can apply some changes to the picture, like zooming
or dithering. You may also view pictures. ImCon features a full GEM User
Interface.
Legal Section
===============
ImCon is Freeware, i.e. you may use and copy it freely as long as you copy all
the files listed in 'README.TXT' and don't change any of them. However, if you
use ImCon regularly, it would be nothing more than fair to send me a little
donation of about 30 DM / $20.
ImCon is provided AS IS without any guarantees or warranty. The author is not
responsible for any damage or losses of any kind caused by the use or misuse
of the program.
Hardware Requirements
=======================
ImCon should run on all ATARI ST style computers (includes Ste, TT, Falcon,
...). Because I didn't have the possibility to test ImCon on a Falcon or under
MultiTOS, I can't say for sure whether it will work or not.
Memory:
ImCon requires a lot of memory. You should disable the accessories and the
programs in the AUTO folder on a 512K machine.
Graphics:
ImCon should work with most graphic cards, since it uses GEM to access the
screen. However, I don't know how HighColor and TrueColor hardware can by
accessed via GEM, and I expect ImCon will treat it like black and white
screens.
Installation
==============
Copy the files 'IMCON.PRG' and 'IMCON.DAT' together into a folder or onto a
disk and that's it. To start, double-click on 'IMCON.PRG'.
The Menu Bar
==============
Menu 'IMCON'
Here you'll fin the usual info-dialog and the accessories.
Menu 'File'
'Open...'
This brings up a Fileselector to choose the file to load. ImCon tries to
recognize the format of the file, in some cases you'll have to tell it the
right format. After loading the file, ImCon creates a new window which
represents the image data just loaded.
'Open As...'
This brings up a Fileselector to choose the file to load. After that a dialog
will appear where you must enter the dimensions and the mode of the picture.
You can use this item to load certain uncompressed picture formats. If you
have no idea what I'm talking about, you'd better forget that this item is
there.
'Close'
This closes the frontmost window and frees the memory associated with it.
CAUTION! Don't forget to save the data BEFORE you close the window, because
there's no alert telling you the data hasn't been saved.
'Save...'
Use this to save the image from the frontmost window to a file. First pick the
format of your wish from the list, then enter path and name of the file to be
created in the Fileselector.
'Cycle'
Use this to cycle through the windows.
'to Disk'
Writes the image data of the frontmost window to disk and removes it from
memory. While the data is not in memory, you can't work with it.
'to Memory'
Reads the image data back into memory.
'Quit'
Quit ImCon. CAUTION! Don't forget to save the data BEFORE you quit ImCon,
because there's no alert telling you the data hasn't been saved.
Menu 'Mode'
The items in this menu allow you to convert an image between the different
modes. To convert a Paletted or TrueColor image to Bitmap, you have to convert
it to Grayscale first. For more details see 'Dithering'.
Menu 'Zoom'
'Zoom 200%'
Doubles both the width and the height of the picture.
'Zoom X Factor...'
Enlarges the width of the picture by a given factor.
'Zoom Y Factor...'
Enlarges the height of the picture by a given factor.
'Zoom 50%'
'Zoom X 50%'
'Zoom Y 50%'
These items can be used to shrink Grayscale and TrueColor images.
'Scale...'
Zooms the picture to a size you specify. With '< Calc' you can recalculate the
size so that the proportions of the image will remain the same.
'Canvas...'
This changes the size of an image without zooming it. If the new dimensions
are larger than the old ones, if will put a border around the image. If the
new dimensions are smaller, the image will be clipped. You have to tell ImCon
where to position the old picture within the new one.
Menu 'Image'
'View'
Shows the frontmost picture. More details given below.
'Invert'
Inverts the picture.
'Histogram...'
Shows a histogram of the picture (shows how frequent each color is in the
picture). Use the arrow in the top right corner to switch between the channels
(Black, Red, Green, Blue). 'Optimize' and 'Optimize All' can be used to
optimize one or all channels. You may also click on the histogram itself to
move the small marks at its bottom. The changes are only applied when you
leave the box by clicking 'OK' or hitting the Return/Enter key.
'Blur'
A filter which makes the picture softer. Only available for Grayscale and
TrueColor.
'Edit Palette...'
Use this to edit the palette of a Paletted-picture.
'Remove Unused'
This removes unused and duplicate colors from a palette.
Menu 'Options'
'Options...'
This brings up the Options Dialog. Here you can set some switches to make your
copy of ImCon fit to your needs. All changes you make only come into effect
when you leave the dialog with 'OK'. The switches are:
[Use Dithering]
Here you can switch dithering on and off. Dithering may be used when
converting pictures from Grayscale to Bitmap, from Grayscale to Paletted and
from TrueColor to Paletted.
[Real Gray Scaling]
Enables a better but slower algorithm for scaling Grayscale and TrueColor
pictures.
[Hex Color Values]
This switches between decimal and hexadecimal color values in 'Edit Palette'.
[Tiff Save]
These two options control the format of pictures being saved in 'TIFF' format.
You can enable or disable Intel Byte Order and LZW Compression.
[View Background]
Here you may select the background pattern to be used when viewing pictures.
[Canvas Background]
Here you may select the background pattern to be used in 'Canvas'.
[View Mode]
This switch contols how pictures are displayed.
[TrueColor Planes]
Activate this switch if you want the three planes of TrueColor pictures to be
shown as seperate planes instead of a vertical arrangement.
'Save Options'
This will save the settings in the dialog described above in the file
'IMCON.DAT'.
Dithering
===========
When you convert TrueColor and Grayscale pictures to Paletted or Bitmap, some
of the information in the picture is lost. To keep this loss of information
within acceptable borders, there are some special algorithms, called
dithering. They convert a certain color in the original picture to a mixture
of different colors in the dithered picture. The perception of this mixture is
much closer to the original color than it would be without dithering.
The algorithm ImCon uses is called Error Diffusion Dithering. Its advantage is
that it creates almost no regular patterns. You may also switch dithering off
in the 'Options' Dialog.
If you tell ImCon to convert from Grayscale to Paletted, it will ask you how
many colors (levels of gray in fact) the palette should have. Possible values
are 2 to 256. When converting from TrueColor to Paletted, things are a bit
more complicated. You have to choose from:
'Uniform'
Creates a palette with colors that are uniformly distributed within the color
space. The number of colors must also be specified in the dialog box. Since
the number of colors has to be the product of three integer values, the actual
number of colors you get may be smaller than the number you specified.
'Exact'
This will check whether the picture really uses more than 256 colors. If this
is not the case, the picture can be converted without any loss of information.
'Load'
This allows you to load a palette you previously saved in the 'ImCon Palette'
format. You may also load one of the predefined palettes distributed together
with ImCon.
'Previous'
This gives the picture the palette back it had the last time it was a Paletted
picture. An example: you want to use 'Blur' on a Paletted picture. To do this,
you have to convert it to TrueColor (using '-> TrueColor' in the menu 'Mode').
After blurring, you use the 'Previous' option and the resulting picture will
have the very same palette it had before the operation.
Viewing
=========
Viewing of pictures very much depends on the available hardware. ImCon doesn't
talk directly to the hardware, but uses GEM instead. The advantage of using
GEM is that ImCon will probably work wogether with new ATARI hardware and
graphic cards. However, I don't know HighColor and TrueColor modes can be
accessed through GEM. I expect ImCon will act like on black and white in this
modes.
For Bitmap images, viewing is no problem. For all other modes there are three
possibilities between you can choose in the Options Dialog:
Memory
The picture is shown like it is stored in memory. Every pixel of the picture
will appear as 8 black and white pixels on the screen.
Color
The picture is transformed so it can be displayed with real color or
grayscales. Of course this will only work when you've got a color monitor. For
Paletted pictures your hardware must also support enough colors.
Planes
The picture is devided into its bit planes, i.e. you get up to 8 black and
white pictures where each pixel in one plane represents a certain bit of the
respective pixel.
Key Commands in Viewing Mode
==============================
To scroll around, use the cursor keys or the keypad. Shift makes the movement
faster, Control makes it slower. To return, press 'Q', 'X', Escape, Return,
Enter, Undo, Delete or Backspace. With '+' and '-' you can switch between the
planes. 'I' inverts pictures that are being viewed in black and white (Memory
and Planes mode or Bitmap pictures). Unlike 'Invert' in the menu 'Image', this
doesn't change the picture permanently.
Supported Formats
===================
Doodle (.PIC .DOO)
Simple black and white Bitmap, always 640 by 400 pixels (ST high resolution).
Degas (.PI1 - .PI3)
Format created by ST paint program 'Degas', also supported by almost every
other paint program. This is an uncompressed format and limited to the 3 ST
resolutions.
Degas Elite (.PC1 - .PC3)
Format created by ST paint program 'Degas Elite', the successor of 'Degas'.
The format is compressed, but still limited to the 3 ST resolutions.
NEOchrome (.NEO)
Format created by ST paint program 'NEOchrome'. The format is uncompressed and
limited to the 3 ST resolutions. However, if have only encountered low
resolution files.
STAD (.PAC)
Format created by ST paint program 'STAD'. STAD pictures are always black and
white, 640 x 400 pixel pictures. The pictures are compressed. ImCon can't
write this format.
Tiny (.TNY / .TN1 - .TN3)
These files are created by the program 'TINYSTUF', which can be used to store
Degas and NEOchrome pictures with more efficient compression. ImCon can't
write this format.
Art Director (.ART)
Format created by ST paint program 'Art Director'. These files are
uncompressed, low ST resolution pictures. Only the first of the 16 palettes is
used. ImCon can't write this format.
Spectrum 512 (.SPU / .SPC)
Format created by ST paint program 'Spectrum 512'. This program uses some
tricks to display up to 512 colors simultaneously in ST low resolution.
However, most Spectrum pictures don't use more than 256 colors. ImCon will
scan the image during loading to see if it really uses more than 256 colors.
Only if this is the case, the picture will be loaded as TrueColor. Can't be
written.
AIM Grayscale (.IM)
Format of the 'ATARI Image Manager'. Only grayscale pictures with a size of
256 x 256 or 128 x 128 pixels are supported directly. Pictures with other
dimensions can be loaded using 'Open As...'. Just select 'Grayscale' and enter
the correct width and height of the picture.
GEM Image (.IMG)
GEM's standard format for storing pictures. ImCon supports the XIMG extention
and TrueColor pictures.
IFF Bitmap (.IFF)
The standard picture format of the AMIGA. ImCon supports the HAM and HAM8
formats and loads them as TrueColor pictures. However, when you save TrueColor
pictures in IFF format, they will always be full 24 bit pictures.
ZSoft PCX (.PCX)
Format created by PC paint program 'Paintbrush'. Only version 3.0 pictures
with a VGA palette are supported. Can't be written.
CompuServe GIF (.GIF)
A hardware independent format defined by CompuServe. It offers up to 256
colors and very efficient compression (LZW).
TIFF (.TIF)
Another independent format defined by Aldus and Microsoft. This format is
widely used in the PC and Macintosh world. TIFF is a very liberal format,
allowing many different data arrangements and compression schemes. Here's a
list of what ImCon doesn't understand:
- PackBits, CCITT 1D and Facsimile compression
- rotated and flipped pictures (Orientation)
- Grayscale and TrueColor pictures with not exactly 8 bits per pixel
- Paletted pictures with more than 256 colors
- Files with FillOrder 2
ImCon ignores all information for exact color reproduction (ResponseCurves,
Gamma, WhitePoint). There are two options in the 'Options' Dialog which
control the format of picture files saved by ImCon in this format.
ImCon Internal (.IMC)
This format can be used to temporarily store images on disk. Since it is
identical with the internal format used in memory it is loaded and saved
without loosing time for some difficult conversion. However, the internal
format used by ImCon may change at any time without notice, and so will do
this file format, so don't use it for permanent storage of pictures.
ImCon Palette (.IMP)
This format is no real picture format. It only contains a palette. This format
can be used to save a palette and use it later when converting a TrueColor
picture to Paletted.
Restrictions
==============
ImCon doesn't allow pictures to be bigger than 4096 by 4096 pixels. Almost
everything else is only limited by available memory and the operating system.
Changes from version 1.0
==========================
- Fixed a fatal bug in viewing Grayscale pictures.
- The commandline is now evaluated.
- The XAcc-protocoll is now supported. However, you can't exchange pictures
with other applications in this version.
- The AV-protocoll is supported, if ImCon is running in a multitasking
environment together with GEMINI.
- ImCon will warn you if you're going to overwrite an existing file.
- Dispersed Dot Ordered Dithering has been removed. Error Diffusion Dithering
gets you better results, so there's no need for it.
- The Conversion TrueColor -> Paletted got it's own dialog.
- ImCon now remembers the number of colors you entered for the TrueColor to
Paletted and Grayscale to Paletted conversions.
- New menu item 'Open As...' to load dump files.
- TIFF files may now be written uncompressed and with Intel byte order.
Copyright Acknowledgements
============================
The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of CompuServe
Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of CompuServe Incorporated.
My Adress
===========
If you found a bug, have an idea how ImCon could be improved or want ImCon to
read a new format, please write a letter to me. If my efforts to solve the
problem result in a new version of ImCon, I'll send you that new version. My
adress is:
Christoph Pfisterer
Moritzburger Weg 38d
D 01109 Dresden
Germany