Image Compressor Demo Help File ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Program and instructions by Andrew Smith. This version is Public Domain and is a Copyrighted Product. This file MUST be included as part of a distribution. ^^^^ WHAT DOES THIS PROGRAM DO? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Image Compressor is aimed at all AMOS programmers. It is a simple utility to compress and convert images into different formats. It was written to replace the IFF Compactor that is supplied with AMOS Professional. In my version you can squash and Powerpack ABK images. The main limitation with the IFF Compactor was that you could only convert IFF files to ABK, you couldn't do the reverse. To Powerpack an ABK image, you must have the powerpacker.library in the LIBS: assign, either on your boot disk or a hard drive. EXPLANATION OF MENU ITEMS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Load an image ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keyboard shortcut : F1 A file requester will appear when this option is clicked. You should select a picture to load. If it is not a recognised file then a requester will appear informing you of this fact. If you wish to cancel, then just click Cancel on the file requester. When the image has loaded, it will be displayed on- screen with an information bar giving the filename, size, file format and its dimensions. The information bar can be removed by pressing RETURN or by clicking on the top left-hand gadget. Pack as screen ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keyboard shortcut : F2 You need to select this option if you want to save out in any of the ABK formats. If you're going to use the Save IFF image option, then you do not need to pack your image. This option will save the image data, and the size and position of the screen it occupies. When you have chosen this option the Pack Screen Requester will appear. If you click anywhere on the screen (not the requester) a growbox will follow your mouse pointer. Click the left mouse button to move the top-left of the growbox and click the right mouse button to move the bottom-right of the growbox. You will notice that as you drag the growbox, the values in the requester will change. You can click in these edit zones with the mouse. Then you can edit the values using the keyboard. If you want to move on to the next zone, press the TAB key or just use your mouse. When the new values have been entered, the growbox will change size. If you are happy with the area, then click on PACK, if not click on CANCEL. Pack as bitmap ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keyboard shortcut : F3 This option is very similar to the Pack as screen option but it only saves the image data. This means the file will be smaller than an ABK file with all the screen data. Save IFF image ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keyboard shortcut : F4 This option can only be selected when there is an image held in memory. The image will be saved out as a standard IFF picture which can be loaded into any art package such as Brilliance, Personal Paint and Deluxe Paint. Save ABK image ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keyboard shortcut : F5 Saves the image as an ABK picture which can be loaded into a 'memory bank' in AMOS. The files are often much smaller than their IFF counterparts. The image must first be packed using either the 'Pack as Screen' and 'Pack as Bitmap' options. Save squashed ABK image ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keyboard shortcut : F6 Saves the image as a squashed ABK picture which is even smaller than a normal ABK file. The image must first be packed before you can use this option. See 'Save ABK image'. Save Powerpacked ABK image ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Keyboard shortcut : F7 Similar to the squashed ABK image but uses the popular Powerpacker library. The Powerpacker library must be in your LIBS assignment for this option to work. About ~~~~~ Displays information about this program and includes a current memory status. Quit ~~~~ Keyboard shortcut : ESCape Leaves the Image Compressor. Batch Conversion ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Only in Licenceware version. Alter Palette ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Only in Licenceware version. Info ~~~~ When this option is selected a brief report will be displayed which shows the filename, screen size, amount of colours and what format the file is stored as, on the image held in memory. The Preferences Screen ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This screen allows you to change the settings for Powerpacker and the squasher. You can change the settings by moving the sliders. The slider for Powerpacker can takes 5 positions ranging from 'fast' to 'best'. The 'fast' setting is the poorest compression but the fastest. The 'best' position will compress the file to the best of its abilities but will take much longer. The slider for the squasher can takes values from 256 to 4095. As with the Powerpacker slider, the smallest value is the 'fast' compression ratio and the highest number is the 'best' compression ratio. Below the sliders are three tick gadgets. They are ' Save Icons?', 'Filename extension?', 'IFF Compression?'. 'Save icons' will give a default icon to all converted images when they are saved out. 'Filename extension' will append a filename extension according to the format it is saved in. ' IFF Compression' will set whether the IFF file is compressed or not. You are recommended to leave this set. If you want to accept the settings, click on Okay. If you wish to save them, click on the SAVE button. Your settings will be used every time the program is loaded. PROBLEMS? ~~~~~~~~~ If you have any problems, or if you have found some bugs or you have some suggestions that might prove helpful to other users, then please do get in contact with me. My address is: Andrew Smith, 2 Fairway, Hockley, Tamworth, Staffs, B77 5HA. England. Alternatively you can Email me on my internet address: Andrew.N.Smith@bs47c.staffs.ac.uk or cm4bcans@bs47c.staffs.ac.uk I prefer Email and you are a million times more likely to get a reply if you do. If you contact me by snail-mail (he he) please enclose a SAE to guarantee a reply. Thanks. New Features in Version 2.0 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The control panel has been expanded to allow for the new Batch Conversion and the Alter Palette functions. The preferences screen has been tidied up and some more options have been added. A batch convert function has been added to allow you to convert many images in one go allowing you to go and do something else. I felt the need for a palette editor was great, so I added one! :-) Plus a whole host of bug fixes. Known Limitations (or bugs) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ There seems to be a bug if you do the following: Load up Image Compressor for the first time. Load an ABK image Then save it back out as an IFF file. Then load another IFF picture. It crashes here. It works fine through the editor but it crashes when it is compiled. I apologise for this serious error but there is little I can do to rectify it. Another bug in the Compiler, tut tut Europress. No more bugs realised at this time. If however you come across a bug yourself, please write to me and tell me exactly what you were doing and what you did to make it crash. A copy of the file would also be helpful.