Gromada.com
Introduction
Installing
/ Uninstalling
Compatibility
With Previous Versions
How
1st Impression Works
Menu
Commands
Program
Options
Image Resize
Modes
Logo Galleries
Supported
Image
Formats
Frequently
Asked Questions (FAQ)
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Introduction
1st Impression automatically
replaces Windows startup and shut down logos each time your system restarts.
There is a basic image collection already included with the package and
more can be downloaded from various sites around the net. Even better,
this software can convert almost any image to the logo format, including
digital photos, pictures from the Internet, scanned images, fractal images,
3D renderings, etc. 1st Impression can display multi-line messages which
are stored to user-editable plain-text files. With 1st Impression restarting
Windows becomes a fun.
Warning:
This software does not work under Windows
NT or Windows 2000.
Privacy statement:
This program does not send any personal data over the Internet, however
if any additional software is distributed with 1st Impression it has its
own installation procedure and privacy policy that you should read.
Installing / Uninstalling
Always check for the latest
version of 1st Impression on its home page:
http://www.gromada.com/1stImpression.html
Before installing any new version
of 1st Impression it is recommended to uninstall the previous one. To
uninstall version 1.30 or newer just start it's uninstall procedure (Control
Panel -> Add/Remove Programs). To uninstall versions prior to 1.30 do
the following:
- Start 1st Impression from
its program group
- Click "Options"
- Click "Restore original
logos"
- Confirm the operation
- Close the "Options" dialog
by clicking "OK"
- Close the program and start
the standard uninstall procedure (Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs)
Now you can install the new version
by double clicking its self-installing package and following the on-screen
instructions.
If you have trouble uninstalling
1st Impression find more in Frequently
Asked Questions.
Compatibility With Previous Versions
To convert logos from previous
versions to the new format first locate the storage folder used by the
previous version of 1st Impression. The default location is "C:\Program
Files\Common Files\1stLogos" but this may be different in your
installation. Start the new version of 1st Impression, click Add, go to
that folder and select all the pictures in it. The image resize mode is
not important (just click OK on the next dialog) because 320x400 pixels
images are never resized anyway.
Galleries created with 1st
Impression version 2.1.2 and newer are fully compatible with this version.
Galleries created with 1st Impression 2.0.0 need to be re-created using
some newer version of the software.
How 1st Impression Works
Windows can display three different
logos, depending on its current state. These are:
- Startup, shown when Windows
is starting up (logo.sys).
- Wait, while operating system
is shutting down (logoW.sys).
- Turn off, when the computer
is ready to be switched off (logoS.sys).
Many people never see the last one because their machine turns itself
off automatically.
Each time your system is restarted
1st Impression changes these logos by selecting random images from the
list of candidates kept in its private folder. Note that this program
does not "live" in the tray bar and does not constantly
occupy your system memory or CPU time. It just changes all logos during
the startup and quits.
When 1st Impression is started
manually from its program group the program enters the interactive mode
where you can change various program settings, add/remove logos, install
and create galleries, change text messages, etc.
Menu Commands
The following menu commands
are available in the interactive mode:
- Image
Menu
- Add
- Adds new images to the list. To make an image appear as a logo this
is the first step to do. Simply click this button and in the dialog
that will open select one or more images to be added. You can add
images from your hard disk, network drive, CD or other storage device.
After you select files you will be prompted to choose the resize mode
and file prefix for these images. See Resize
Modes for details about that.
- Delete - Removes
selected images from the list. It will not delete the original images
you added, only their converted copies stored in the application's
private folder. Logos deleted this way are not in the Recycle Bin
and cannot be restored, but you can create them again from the original
pictures with the Add command.
- Rename
- Changes the name of the image in the list.
- Choose Position
- Sometimes you want to display some logos only at startup or shut
down. For example, rocket launching looks great at startup, while
sunset is more appropriate for shut down. In this dialog you can choose
the desired positions for one or more selected logos. This affects
automatic logo changing and the Shuffle command, but has no
effect on manual logo changing with the Set command. You can
also use F6, F7 and F8 to change these settings for the currently
displayed image.
- Change Prefix -
Each picture has a gallery prefix in its name for easier grouping.
Use this command to change the prefix of one or more selected pictures.
- Set
as Logo - Sets the currently selected image to be displayed
on Windows startup and/or shut down. You can set a single image to
all three positions in just one step. If Automatic Logo Changing
is ON, this logo will last only till the next system startup after
which it will be replaced with another one (randomly selected).
- Shuffle - Randomly
sets all three logos. Use it to manually change all logos when Automatic
Logo Changing is OFF.
- Exit - Closes
the application.
- Gallery
Menu
- Open - Allows
you to choose and open a gallery file and append its pictures to
the list of logos. If you downloaded a gallery file from the Internet
try searching for it in My Documents or other preferred folder.
- Create - Packs
selected pictures into a gallery file. At
least two pictures must be selected in the list to create a file.
Use SHIFT or CTRL combined with arrow keys or mouse to select multiple
pictures in the list.
- View
Menu
- Current Startup Logo
- Displays the current "startup" logo.
- Current Wait Logo
- Displays the current "wait" logo.
- Current Turn Off
Logo - Displays the current "turn off" logo.
- Refresh List
- Refreshes the list of images, in case it has been changed by an
external application.
- Tools
Menu
- Web Sites - Links
to web sites featured by this version of 1st Impression.
- Options - Click
here for details.
- System
Files - Here you can change the physical folders and files used
by the application. Do not change anything in this dialog unless there
are problems with displaying logos.
- Windows files
tab shows the names of the destination logo files used by Windows.
Most people don't have to change any of them but if you have installed
Windows on the compressed drive then the startup logo location must
be changed to point to the host disk. In most cases that means you
must change the drive letter, e.g. from "d:\logo.sys"
to "c:\logo.sys".
- Storage folder
is the name of the folder where logo candidates are kept. Files
in this folder are those pictures displayed in 1st Impression's
main window.
- Restore Original Logos
- Restores original logos that were there before 1st Impression was
installed. This is also automatically done during uninstallation.
- Help
Menu
- Short Manual -
Displays this file.
- Debug Info - Creates
a list of relevant system and program settings. If
you have a bug to report please start this command, then go to your
email software or text editor and choose Edit / Paste to insert debug
information into your message. That can help us locate the bug.
- About - Shows
information about this software.
Program Options
The Options window contains
program settings grouped in several tabs:
- General
- Change logos each time
your system starts up - Self-explanatory check box. If you want
a new logo during each startup / shutdown enable this option, if you
want to change logos manually when you desire, then uncheck this option.
- Message Font -
Click the Change button to select desired font, size and style
used for writing custom messages over the logos.
- Text Color - The
color of the message text. The actual color may vary depending on
the colors that are present in the picture.
- Text Background Color
- The color of the border around each letter. The actual color may
vary depending on the colors that are present in the picture.
- Logo Pick Method
- The method used to pick one logo from all that are available. Sequential
means that logos are picked one after another from the sorted list.
This method ensures that all logos are shown without repeating. Random
picks the logo randomly, which means some logos can be displayed several
times and some very rarely.
- Message pick method
- The first two methods are the same as in Logo Pick Method option
above. The last option enables you to show only the first message
and ignore all others. This is useful for temporary messages, such
as "Don't forget your kid's birthday".
- Startup
- Enable Startup Messages
- When checked enables displaying of startup messages, otherwise no
text is displayed.
- Text box - Enter
the desired messages into this text box. You can have as many messages
as you want and each can have multiple lines. To separate messages
use the "--" marker (a line containing just two dashes).
Don't put this marker after the last message in the list. To stop
displaying messages clear the check box above. This text is saved
to the "msg-startup.txt" file which can be edited
manually in a text editor.
- Shut
Down
- Same as Startup, the
text is saved to "msg-shutdown.txt".
- Turn
Off
- Same as Startup, the
text is saved to "msg-turnoff.txt".
- Animation
- Enable Animation
- Enables animation effects that are achieved by manipulating several
colors in the image palette. Animations can be displayed only on
startup.
- Shape - Choose
some of the predefined animated shapes. This applies only for animations
created automatically with 1st Impression. Specially prepared logos
with complex animations use their own animation patterns and colors.
- Color Mix - Defines
how two available colors are mixed, can be either cross-dissolve
("smooth scroll") or sharp edge ("vegas style").
This applies only for animations created by 1st Impression.
- Color 1 and Color
2 - Colors that are interchanging in the animation pattern.
This applies only for animations created by 1st Impression.
Image Resize Modes
When new images are added
they need to be resized to the pixel resolution and color depth used by
Windows logos. Also images need to be changed from the standard 4:3 aspect
ratio to the weird ratio of logo images. Some resize modes are more appropriate
for some pictures, but since computers still have trouble recognizing
objects on pictures we leave it to you to choose the resizing method.
Available are:
- Show Entire Image
- Adds black border vertically or horizontally depending on the dimensions
of the image but keeps original proportions. This is similar to the
letterbox format used for displaying big-screen movies on TV. Whenever
you want to see the entire image without deformations use this mode,
(e.g. pictures of persons, cars, buildins and other objects).
- Fill The Screen -
Prevents distortions by zooming the central part of the picture and
cutting off vertical or horizontal margins. Can be used for displaying
landscapes because the picture looks much better when it covers entire
screen even if few lines are missing.
- Simple Stretch -
The simplest resize method that may produce distortions. However this
mode manages both: to cover the entire screen and display whole image.
Useful for abstract backgrounds, landscapes and already prepared logos.
When this dialog pops-up the
last used mode is already selected so you can just click OK or press ENTER
to continue using that mode. If you click CANCEL no images will be added.
This dialog appears only once
after you select a block of images, and the selected resize mode is applied
to each image selected in the Open File dialog. When you click the Add
button again you have a chance to add another block of images using a
different mode.
Logo Galleries
1st Impression logo gallery is a collection of pictures and other information
packed into a single file for smaller size and easier distribution over
the Internet. Anybody can create a gallery since the only software required
is 1st Impression (and a source of pictures, of course). For example,
you can turn digital pictures from your vacation into a gallery.
If you have an interesting
picture collection and wish to share it with others, simply put a logo
gallery on your web site and tell others where to download it. Remember:
if any of the images in the gallery are not yours you must have a permission
from the copyright holder to use them.
Supported Image Formats
When adding new images, 1st
Impression is not limited only to BMP or SYS format - almost all popular
image file formats are supported:
- BAY Bayer Image (bay)
- BMP Windows Device Independent
Bitmap, 8/15/24bit (bmp,dib,rle)
- GIF Graphics Interchange
Format (gif,giff)
- JPG Joint Photographic
Expert Group, JFIF 1.02 (jpg,jpeg,jfif,jpe,J)
- PCX Zsoft Paintbrush, 8/24bit
(pcx)
- PNG Portable Network Graphics
(png)
- PNM Portable Image, 8/15/24bit
(pnm,ppm,pgm)
- RAS Sun Raster Image, 8/24/32bit
(ras,sun)
- RGB Silicon Graphics Image,
8/24/32bit (rgb,rgba,bw,sgi)
- TGA Truevision Targa, 8/15/24/32bit
(tga)
- TIF Tagged Image File Format
(tif,tiff)
- XPM X-Pixmap (xpm)
- SYS, Logos are usually distributed
as .sys files, but in fact that is a BMP file with the .sys extension
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
The latest update of this file
is available on our web site. Make sure you are on-line and click to the
link below:
http://www.gromada.com/1stImpression_FAQ.html
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