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TheGrin Version 1.02 Macintosh (tm) Picture File Viewer/Printer COPYRIGHT (C) 1986,87 TheSoft Programming Services and Ian E. Davis All rights reserved by TheSoft Programming Services Written in Turbo Pascal on a Tandy 1000 I N T R O D U C T I O N: TheGrin was written because no other program really provided the features I wanted. To give credit where its due, TheGrin is derived from the public domain program MacView, although at this stage there isn't a single byte that remains the same. MacView allowed simple picture viewing, and it contains a bug which limits that ability. TheGrin corrects that problem, and adds multiple facilities for enlarging, shrinking, and printing of pictures. TheGrin divides the enlargement and shrinking of images into two commands: Expanding and Squashing. Expanding works horizontally only. If you specify to expand the image by a factor of two, TheGrin will only make it horizontally twice as wide as before. Since expanding an image is a time consuming process, any changes made are permanent. TheGrin goes beyond other programs in its expanding capacity. It can handle a -variable- expand from a factor of 0.10 to 8.00. Other programs I've seen only allow 50% (1.5) or 100% (2.0) expansion. With flexibility however, TheGrin takes about 10 seconds to expand something. However, factor two expansions are done most often and are optimized to work in two seconds. Squashing as you might guess works vertically. Similar to expanding, a squash factor of two makes a picture twice as long without adjusting the width. Unlike expanding, squashing is fast and done in real time. What this means is you can repeatedly change the squash factor without losing resolution in the picture. Other programs physically squash the picture. If they run out of buffer space, you picture stops there. TheGrin avoids that problem entirely. As they come from a Mac, picture files appear distorted on a PC screen. This is because the aspect ratio is different. You can correct the aspect ratio by either specifying a squash factor of 0.5 or an expand factor of 2.0. The best way to get a good feel for these commands is to use them. TheGrin Page 1 I N T R O D U C T I O N (cont): Printing is another area where TheGrin leaves the others behind. TheGrin has a limited buffer space. Expanding an image uses some of that space, thus reducing the length on an image. If you want to print something with the aspect ratio corrected, you can either squash the picture then print (making a small image), or expand it and print (making a large picture, but chopped off). TheGrin gets around this by giving you a choice. You can either print whats in the buffer, or request a [F]ull enlargement. What that does is reload the picture, then squash/expand it as the printing progresses. Neat stuff huh? Better still, if the image on screen is wider than your printer, you can print the image in -columns-, then tape them together for a huge printout. Conceivably a WALL SIZE picture is possible although it takes a few hours to print out. Other features are available in the program. You can blowup on an image (squash and expand at the same time), zoom in on a particular feature and other things. Enjoy! TheGrin Page 2 C O M M A N D S: The following commands are available while using TheGrin: [B] - Blow up image 100% [C] - Configure TheGrin (printer) [D] - Dump current screen to Disk [E] - Expand image (horizontal) [L] - Load new picture file [P] - Print current picture [S] - Specify new squash factor [Z] - Zoom on any part of image. In addition, other keys are assigned various functions: F5 - Expand image 50% F6 - Expand image 100% F9 - Squash image 50% F10 - Reload current picture PgUp - Move up 1/2 screen PgDn - Move down 1/2 screen Home - Go to top of file End - Go to bottom of file ESC - Exit TheGrin The arrow keys may be used for moving around the image also. The command functions are described on the following pages. TheGrin Page 3 [B] - Blow Up Image 100% This is a fairly straight forward function. It makes the current image four times larger by using an expand/squash factor of 2.0. You might use this command for quickly enlarging a picture to a desired size. Other programs always start from the top of a picture and work down until they run out of space. TheGrin starts from where the top of the SCREEN is current located in the picture. This allows you to more closely examine those parts a bit further down. [C] - Configure TheGrin This command allows you to configure TheGrin to your printer. You do this by specifying three control sequences and other parameters to TheGrin: [A] - Normal linespacing (1/6th inch) [B] - Graphics linespacing (around 1/8th inch) [C] - Select 120 DPI graphics mode [D] - Printer Width (in inches) [T] - Printer Description/Title Codes for the first three may be found in your printer manual. An escape code (27 decimal) is always sent before these control sequences so you don't need to enter it. TheGrin comes configured for the IBM Graphics printer, however I believe the same codes are used in Epson printers and others. Check to see before changing anything. Parameter [C] is only the code for selecting 120 DPI mode. TheGrin assumes the printer needs a byte count of the graphics data the immediately following the control codes. ie: <Escape><Parameter [C] codes><Byte Count><Graphics Data....> The byte count is sent in least significant byte (LSB), most significant byte (MSB) order. After you enter the appropriate codes, you must tell TheGrin the width of your printer in inches. This is so TheGrin knows when to stop sending graphics data and to print multi-column prints. Next, change the printer [T]itle so anyone you give the program to knows what they're getting. Lastly, to make sure you don't have to reenter this stuff again, [S]ave the configuration to the file TG.COM (must be present in current directory). TheGrin Page 4 [D] - Dump Current Screen Image This is another fairly straight forward function. It simply dumps the current screen contents to disk. Note, the entire picture is NOT saved, only what is physically on the screen at the time. You are first prompted for a valid filename, then you can choose one of two modes for saving the image: Binary or BSave (for Basic). Other modes (ie: for Assembler or Pascal) were not included as putting a 16k screen image chunk in the middle of a program is not practical. I'm not fixed on this though, and am always willing to add other functions. [E] - Expand Image Horizontally Expanding was described in the introduction and is more or less repeated here. TheGrin divides the enlargement and shrinking of images into two modes. Expanding and Squashing. Expanding works horizontally only. If you specify to expand the current image by a factor of two, TheGrin will only make it horizontally twice as wide as before. The larger the number, the more expanded the image will become. Since expanding an image is a time consuming process, any changes made are permanent. This is unlike the squash factor which is done in real time since it occurs very fast. TheGrin goes beyond other programs in its expanding capacity. It can handle a -variable- expand from a factor of 0.10 to 8.00. ANY number in between is acceptable up to about 4 decimal places or so (ie: 1.667 is ok). Other programs I've seen only allow fixed 50% or 100% expansion. With flexibility however, TheGrin runs slightly slower taking about 10 seconds to expand something. Since expanding by factor two is done most often, certain code is optimized to finish that in under two seconds. The best way to get a good feel for what is possible is to play with it. Try entering large and small numbers. Anything over 1.0 will make the picture wider, while numbers under 1.0 will crunch it. TheGrin Page 5 [L] - Load a New Picture Yet another "fairly straight forward function"! This one prompts for a valid filename then loads a new file. That is it. Period. Nothing else. Zip. [P] - Print Picture The printing ability of TheGrin is moderately sophisticated in that it can handle expanding, squashing, and multi-column print outs all at the same time. If the image has been adjusted in any way you are prompted if you want the current [I]mage or [F]ull enlargement to be done. The image mode takes the current buffer contents without changing anything. A full enlargement however reloads the image and expands/squashs the image to whatever the current settings were before. This allows you to make mammoth picture if you had the need. The biggest I've personally made is a wall-size poster three 132-column pages across and about 7 pages long. It also took three hours to print out, so be warned. There is a side effect to using the full enlargement however, you lose any squash/expanding settings that were in place. You have to manually reset them. The best thing to do is use the image printout until you get what you want, then as a last step use the full enlargement. If at anytime a given image would produce something wider than your printer, you are given the option of printing the picture in columns. This prints the left-most section of the picture first, does a formfeed, then the second section, and so on until it is all printed. It can be quite useful, especially for those users of 80 column printers. At any time during a printout, you can abort by pressing [ESC]. Since many pictures have nothing but white space for the last few lines, this can be used to save time. Don't press [ESC] during a multi-column print out however, until you are certain you are on the last page. TheGrin Page 6 [S] - Specify Vertical Squash Factor This command is the counterpart of the expand function. It works similarly except in the vertical direction. A squash factor of two makes a picture twice as long without adjusting the width, and the larger the number, the longer the picture. Unlike expanding, squashing is very fast and done in real time. What this means is you can repeatedly change the squash factor without losing resolution in the picture. Other programs physically alter the data, losing picture information. If they run out of buffer space, you picture stops there. TheGrin avoids that problem entirely. Again, the best way to get a good feel for what is possible is to play with it. Try large and small numbers. Anything over 1.0 will make the picture longer, while numbers under 1.0 will shorten it. Remember, any number you enter is relative to what the picture looked like when you LOADED it. Therefore, entering a squash factor of 1.0 shows what it originally looked like. [Z] - Zoom on Any Part of Image This command is the most fun to play with. It allows you to select a particular part of an image to enlarge. First a window the full size of the screen appears. You then contract that window using the arrow keys. If you overshoot your target, you can start over by pressing the [Home] key. One you get it over the wanted part, press [Enter]. The image is expanded and squashed the appropriate amount (takes about 10 secs) and the image is displayed. Similar to the blowup command, the top edge of the selected window becomes the top edge of the picture. TheGrin Page 7 T H E N A M E ? ? ? No doubt there are people wondering where on earth I devised an odd name like TheGrin. It worked like this... Along with a couple of friends, I was trying to thing of what the new monster should be called. TheMac sounded too, well, plain. We realized what most people would be doing once they started to play with the program <grin>. Therefore a name was born! TheGrin Page 8 P R O G R A M H I S T O R Y: Version 1.00 - Initial Release Version 1.01 - Added the blowup and zoom commands. Version 1.02 - Added printer routines and fixed glitch to stop expander doing some funky expanding. TheGrin Page 9 C O M M E N T S That is all these is to it. Please consider the donation of $10 (or any amount). Quality software at good prices is difficult to find these days. We at TheSoft Programming Services firmly believe in and support the concept of shareware products, and hopefully you do also. Please make any checks out to TheSoft Programming Services. If you have any requests, comments or suggestions for TheGrin, please send them to: TheSoft Programming Services c/o Ian Davis 1929 Whitecliff Court Walnut Creek, Ca, 94596. Thanks for your support! Macintosh (tm) is a trademark of Apple Computers Inc. TheGrin Page 10