Welcome to the world of PC Photography: MGI PhotoSuite II SE (PSII)
To get late-breaking technical and product information, click the following topics:
Important Note
DirectX
Minimum System Requirements
Changes to Documentation
General Problems and their Solutions
File Types
Camera and Scanner Information
Online Issues
Fonts Installed with MGI PhotoSuite II SE
Technical Support
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Important Note
MGI has made every effort to incorporate an accurate online help file and manual with
PhotoSuite II SE. However, the periodic revision of the software may result in some features
in your version of the program being not exactly as documented. We apologize for any
inconvenience.
DirectX
To ensure full and correct functionality of DirectX, it is mandatory to install the
language version which corresponds to the language of your Windows operating system.
Choose the appropriate DirectX installer located on the MGI PSII CD in the
DirectX directory, based on the chart below. If you are running a version of Windows which
is not in the chart, consult the Microsoft Web Site.
| LANGUAGE |
INSTALLER |
|
|
| English |
dx5eng.exe |
| German |
dx5ger.exe |
| French |
dx5frn.exe |
| Spanish |
dx5spa.exe |
| Italian |
dx5itn.exe |
| Portuguese (Brazilian) |
dx5brz.exe |
| Dutch |
dx5dut.exe |
| Swedish |
dx5swe.exe |
| Japanese |
dx5dosv.exe |
| Japanese (NEC) |
dx5nec.exe |
| Chinese (Traditional) |
dx5cht.exe |
| Chinese (Simplified) |
dx5chs.exe |
Minimum System Requirements
MGI PhotoSuite II SE requires:
- 133 MHz Pentium PC
- Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0
(with SP3), or Windows 98
- 16 megabytes of RAM
- 80 megabytes of hard drive space
Changes to Documentation
In the section How to Register on page 12, the printed
manual states, Make sure you transfer the registration number
label onto the registration card. As a convenience to our
customers, MGI now prints the registration number
directly on the registration card, thus this transfer is
no longer necessary.
General Problems and their Solutions
Display Optimization / Changing Display settings
The optimum setting to run MGI PhotoSuite II SE is 24-bit color. A minimum resolution of 800
by 600 pixels is required.
To change your display settings:
In Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT, right-click on the desktop background, select Properties from the menu, then click the Settings Tab. In the Color palette
box, select High Color (16-bit) or higher. In the desktop
area box, move the slider to at least 800 by 600 pixels. Click Apply,
and then OK. If necessary, follow the directions for
restarting your computer.
Distorted introductory video
Windows 98 users may experience a problem with the introductory video that plays when MGI
PhotoSuite II SE starts. This problem can be solved by closing the program and restarting
Windows.
Out of memory/Disk space messages
MGI PhotoSuite II SE uses space on your hard drive while working to store large amounts of
image data. These temporary files are removed when PSII closes. PSII
checks, and in the following circumstances, warns when drive space is low. PSII
cannot start when there is less than 30 megabytes available. PSII warns that it
may have problems working with large photos when the space available is between 30 and 50
megabytes. When the available space is between 50 and 100 megabytes, PSII simply
warns that disk space is getting low.
Note: These messages will not appear on systems using Windows 95 version 4.00.950 and
4.00.950a due to a technical limitation in the operating system. This problem was resolved
in later versions of Windows 95.
Server busy message
In certain circumstances where PSII terminates abnormally, and it
is restarted, a Server Busy message may be displayed. If
this occurs, simply shut down the computer and restart it. If the problem still exists,
run the PSII PS_Clean program located in the PSII install
directory. This program simply deletes the TempPSII folder.
Send via Email
This feature only supports MAPI compatible mail programs.
On Windows 98 systems, MGI PSII may not accurately detect the settings of a MAPI
compatible mail client, hence the Send Via E-mail command
may be erroneously enabled. Executing the Send Via E-mail
command in this situation may cause your computer to stop responding. If this happens, the
computer must be reset or turned off.
Font Smoothing
For text to be displayed at its best, with smooth edges in the project area, font
smoothing must be turned on. In Windows 95, right-click on the desktop background, select Properties from the menu, then click the Plus! Tab. Check the Smooth edges of
screen fonts box to turn font smoothing on. In Windows 98, font smoothing can be
activated via the Effects tab in the Display Properties control panel. In Windows NT 4, font
smoothing is activated via the Plus! tab in the Display Properties control panel.
Updating thumbnails in the photo and project libraries
At times you may notice that the thumbnails representing the current photo or project
being edited is not updated to reflect your last changes. To update a thumbnail in the
photo or project library, double-click on it.
Undo/Redo limitations
MGI PSII provides multiple undo/redo levels in most areas of the program. The
number of undo/redo levels is restricted only by the available memory and hard drive space
available on the system. To conserve memory and hard drive space while using PSII, the undo/redo stack is cleared whenever the program switches photos or switches modes.
For example, when switching from a photo to a project the undo/redo stack of the photo
will be cleared. When returning to the photo, the undo/redo commands will be disabled to
indicate that the undo/redo stack is empty.
Display problems
Many display problems can be corrected by updating the video drivers for your video
display card.
If you are encountering display problems, be sure to check with the manufacturer of the
video card or their Web page to see if later versions of the drivers are available. If so,
install the new drivers and retry the operation within PSII.
Sound drivers
When installing MGI PSII, you may have been prompted to update your sound drivers
with DirectX5.2 files. If you selected NO to the question about overwriting existing
files, then you will experience problems with playing .WAV files from within the
PSII SlideShow module. If you wish to update
your drivers after you have installed MGI PSII, simply run the appropriate
DirectX program located on the MGI PSII CD in the DirectX directory. When
prompted to update your sound card drivers, click YES.
File Types
Importing and exporting files
MGI PSII can open only certain types of photo files. There are several
third-party or custom photo file formats that PSII cannot open. Check the manuals
and online help of the software that created those files for more information on how to
convert them to a form that PSII can read.
Note: MGI PSII converts all photos to a True Color (24-bit) internal file format
when they are opened. However, the original file on disk remains unchanged until the file
in memory is saved. When a photo is saved using the Save
command, the original file will be overwritten with the True Color version. To preserve
the color depth of the original file, the Save As...
command should be used and a different filename given.
MGI PSII supports the following photo formats:
| .EPS |
.GIF |
.JPG |
.PCD |
.PCX |
| .PNG |
.STN |
.TIF |
.TGA |
.BMP |
| .WMF |
.PIC |
.FPX |
.SFW |
.IMG |
| .KPQ |
.RAS |
.PSD |
.EMF |
|
For more information about the supported features or restrictions of a particular
format, see the following:
FPX
When opening FPX files with Prompt for Options checked,
MGI PSII will ask what size photo to open. If no changes are made to the photo
before going to another area of PSII then, upon returning to the photo,
PSII will prompt you once again to select an photo size. This can be prevented by
editing the photo in some way and then undoing the change prior to moving to another area
of the program.
GIF
The Graphics Interchange Format filter supports file format versions GIF87a (including
interlacing) and GIF89a (including interlacing and transparency). The GIF filter has the
following limitation: Only the first image of an animated (multi-image) GIF is imported.
JPG, JPEG
The JPEG graphics filter supports Version 6.0 of the JPEG File Interchange Format (JFIF).
The JPEG filter has the following limitations: The filter does not support JPEG Tagged
Interchange Format (JTIF) files. The filter does not support CMYK
(cyan-magenta-yellow-black) JPEG files.
PCD
The Photo CD graphics filter supports the Kodak Photo CD version 3.0.
When opening PCD files with Prompt for Options checked,
MGI PSII will ask what size photo to open. If no changes are made to the photo
before going to another area of PSII then, upon returning to the photo,
PSII will prompt you once again to select an photo size. This can be prevented by
editing the photo in some way and then undoing the change prior to moving to another area
of the program.
PCX
The PC Paintbrush graphics filter supports all versions of the .PCX file format through
ZSoft version 3.0, with support for 256-color photos.
PNG
The Portable Network Graphics filter supports files conforming to version 1.0 of the
specification.
TIF, TIFF
The Tagged Image File Format graphic filter supports all image types and compressions that
conform to TIFF Specification Revision 5.0 and 6.0, Part 1: Baseline TIFF. These include
monochrome, grayscale, palette color, and RGB Full Color image. The filter correctly
handles a single 8-bit alpha channel stored with an RGB Full Color image. The TIFF filter
has the following limitations: The filter does not support the TIFF Extensions for CMYK
images. The filter does not support multiple alpha channels (stored as subfiles) or alpha
channels that don't have 8 bits per pixel. The following compression schemes are also not
supported: JPEG, Group 3 Fax, and Group 4 Fax.
TGA
The Targa graphics filter supports Truevision Targa images with up to 32 bits per pixel.
BMP, DIB, RLE
The Windows Bitmap graphics filter supports Windows and OS/2 bitmaps, Run Length Encoded
(RLE) bitmaps, and device-independent bitmaps (DIB). The BMP filter has the following
limitations: The filter does not support version 2 OS/2 bitmaps and JPEG compressed files.
IMG
The GEM IMG graphics filter only supports black and white (1-bit) and grayscale (8-bit)
images.
PSD
The Adobe PhotoShop file filter supports all versions of the file format up to version
4.0. The PSD filter has the following limitations: The filter does not support multiple
layers and will create a flat representation of the photo. The filter does not support
CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow-black), duotone, and 48-bit per pixels and above PSD files.
Associating a file type so MGI PSII will be the default
application to open it.
MGI PSII will set itself to be the default application to open a photo file if
the file type isn't previously associated with another program. If you have a file type
that MGI PSII can open, and you wish to set PSII as the default program
to open it, do the following:
- In My Computer or the Explorer, click the View menu,
and then click Options.
- Click the File Types tab.
- In the list of file types,
click the one you want to change.
- The settings for that file type are shown in the File Type
Details box.
- Click Edit.
- In the Actions box, click Open.
- Click Edit, and then use the browse button to select
the MGI PSII icon. It can be found in the MGI\PhotoSuite
II directory under Program Files.
Note: MGI PSII can only open certain types of photo files. There are several
third-party or custom photo file formats that PSII cannot open. Check the manuals
or online help of the software that created those files for more information on how to
convert them to a form that PSII can read.
Associating a file type so another program will be the default
application to open it.
MGI PSII will set itself to be the default application to open a photo file if
the file type isn't previously associated with another program. If you have a file type
that MGI PSII has set itself to open, and you wish to set another program to open
it instead, do the following:
- In My Computer or the Explorer, click the View menu,
and then click Options.
- Click the File Types tab.
- In the list of file types, click the one you want to change. The settings for that file
type are shown in the File Type Details box
- Click Edit.
- In the Actions box, click Open.
- Click Edit, and then use the browse button to select
the program you want to use to open that type of file.
Camera and Scanner Information
Downloading photos from digital cameras
While downloading photos from digital cameras, it is strongly recommended to operate the
camera while connected via the camera power adapter. Downloading photos while running the
camera with the internal batteries may result in file corruption if the batteries are
running low on power.
Directly supported Digital Cameras
MGI PSII directly supports the following digital cameras:
- Sanyo Camera – DSC-V1
(S), DSC-X1 (N), DSC-V100 (S), DSC-X100 (N) and
DSC-SX1Z
- Kodak DC2
- Kodak DC25
- Kodak DC40
- Kodak DC50
- Kodak DC120
- Kodak DC220
- Kodak DC260
- Agfa ePhoto
- Olympus D-320L (same than
model C-820L in Europe)
- Epson PhotoPC
Note: Photos from the Kodak DC50 camera cannot be deleted from within MGI PSII.
If you encounter problems while trying to access one of the cameras listed above, visit
our website http://www.mgisoft.com/ for more
informations about updates.
TWAIN scanner and camera information
MGI PSII supports devices that implement the TWAIN interface. Be sure to check
with your camera or scanner documentation to verify that it supports this interface.
Many digital cameras do not install TWAIN driver software by default. If your camera does
not show up in the list on the Digital Camera (TWAIN) page, check to make sure that the
camera's TWAIN software is installed. Many camera manufacturers have TWAIN drivers you can
download from their Web sites.
Many camera and scanner problems can be corrected by updating the software that comes with
the camera or scanner.
If you are encountering scanning or camera problems, be sure to check with the
manufacturer of the device or their Web page to see if later versions of the software or
drivers are available. If so, install that software and retry the operation within
PSII.
Contacting scanner and camera manufacturers
The following list includes the home page addresses of many of the manufacturers that make
scanners and cameras that you can use with MGI PSII.
Note: MGI is not responsible for the content of these Web sites. References to these sites
should not be considered an endorsement of the products sold within them.
Online Issues
Sending large files via e-mail
Some online services limit the size of e-mails that you can send or receive. This limit
varies depending on the service provider, but typically is between 1 and 2 megabytes.
Because digital photos can be quite large, you may occasionally have problems sending
photos or slide shows.
If you're sending a photo:
- Reduce the size of the photo with the Resize... command
found in the Adjust menu.
If you're sending a slide show:
- Reduce the number of slides in the slide show.
Getting photos from Web pages
MGI PSII has the capability of dragging and sending photos from Web pages into
its photo library. These operations may not work on certain Web pages that use nested
frames or when photos are hyperlinks. In these cases, the Save
Picture As... command from the right-click menu can be used to save the photo. Once
a photo is saved, PSII can open it with the Open...
or Add Photo... commands.
Using online photo services and accessing the Internet from within MGI
PSII
When you access the Internet with MGI PSII you may be prompted to establish a
connection via dial-up networking. When you exit the Internet activity or any of the
Online Photo Service functions, such as Get from..., Upload to... and Print to...,
you will not be informed that the connection is no longer required. To avoid extra
connection fees, please remember to disconnect from the Internet whenever you exit these
functions or when you exit PSII.
Fonts Installed with MGI PhotoSuite II SE
The installation program for MGI PSII has added the following MonoType fonts to
your system:
- Adolescense
- Babjoman (Open Bold, Open
Light, Text)
- Bermuda (Squiggle)
- Century Poster
- Creepy
- Curlz
- Eraser Dust
- Falstaff
- Footlight
- Figaro
- KidtType Paint
- Mistral
- Orbus
- Palace Script (Semi bold)
- Plump Outline)
- Space Toaster
- Team Bold Outline
- Wendy
These fonts are used in the content files supplied with MGI PhotoSuite II SE.
Technical Support
-
Europe
MGI Customer Service
C/O Hoogoorddreef 68
1101 BE, Amsterdam Z.O.
The Netherlands
Telephone: (+31) 20 430 3026
Fax: (+31) 20 430 3024
E-mail: eurosupport@mgisoft.com
North America
MGI Software Corp.
50 West Pearce Street
Richmond Hill, Ontario
Canada L4B 1E3
Telephone: (905) 707-3672
Fax: (905) 707-3694
E-mail: photo@mgisoft.com
Taiwan
MGI Software Asia
9F, No. 1
167 Yung-Chi Road
Taipei, Taiwan
Telephone: (+886) 2 2763 7881 Ext. 151
Fax: (+886) 2 2763 7853
E-mail: producta@mgisoft.com
Japan
MGI
Software
- c/o Digital Wave
- St. Sasazuka, Building 3F
- 2-27-5 Sasazuka, Shibuya
- Tokyo, Japan
-
- Telephone: (+81) 3-3320-6821
Fax: (+81) 3-3320-2742
E-mail: mgisupt1@mb.infoweb.ne.jp
Australia
Support Group Services
Ground Floor
14 Spink Street
Gardenvale, Victoria
- Australia 3186
Attn: MGI Technical Support Australia
Phone: (+61) 3 9929 9735
Fax: (+61) 3 9929 9787
E-mail: techsup@supportgroup.com.au
Visit our Web Site!
Visit our Web site to find out what's new with MGI PhotoSuite II and MGI's other exciting
software products!
North America and Europe
http://www.mgisoft.com
Japan
http://www.mitsui.co.jp/mgisoft/psvw_main/ope.html
To purchase your
full copy of MGI PhotoSuite II, please visit your
nearest retailer or the MGIstore online at: http://www.mgisoft.com/Products/MGIstore.
MGI Software Corp.
50 West Pearce Street
Richmond Hill, Ontario
Canada L4B 1E3
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