IFF2ICON

                           by

                     Alan Bomberger
                  Poor Person Software
                    Feburary 2, 1990

I have probably re-invented the wheel, but in case this is new I
am releasing this for everyone's enjoyment.

IFF2ICON converts Almost any IFF file into an Icon image.  Icons can
can be 320x100 160x50 or 80x25 pixels.  The original IFF file may be
HIRES, LOWRES, HAM, Overscan, colors from 4 to 32.  This in itself
is not necessarily all that exciting and is within the capability
of some icon editors.  IFF2ICON does the conversion and compression
in such a way as to represent 10 colors on a standard 4 color 
Workbench.  To achieve this, 2 pixels on the Workbench screen are 
used to represent a pixel in the original IFF file.  While this 
represents a further decrease in resolution, the addition of 6
extra colors more than compensates.  In an attempt to preserve
information from the original image, several pixels are averaged
to make up the 2 pixel workbench pel (I have gotten the bit/baud
relationship straight but not the pixel/pel relation ship).

Not every image takes well to this compression but some images
are rendered excellently.  Generally those images with clean sharp
lines and simple pictures do very well.  Busy images and those with
a large amount of green and yellows are rendered poorly on the standard
Workbench.  If you have altered your Workbench colors so that you
have green available, you will get different results.  The included 
images are some examples of the better renderings.

IFF2ICON is strictly a CLI program.  Usage is as follows:

    IFF2ICON  iff-file-name  [320|160|80]     

320 is the default size if the size is left unspecified.   IFF2ICON 
will read the iff file and display the image on the workbench in a 
window of the correct size.  The window may not be moved!  When the
rendering is complete, IFF2ICON prompts:

   Do you want to create an icon Y/N? 

If you respond 'n', IFF2ICON simply closes the window and exits.
If you respond 'y', then IFF2ICON prompts for the name of the icon.
Enter the name WITHOUT the .INFO and IFF2ICON produces an icon, closes
the window and exits.

Simple!

I ask only that if you modify or adapt this program and subsequently
distribute it, you continue to distribute the source.  Enjoy!