PhotoGIF™ and PhotoGIF Filter™ share a common interface, which is well documented in the included PhotoGIF Filter™ manual, but they are not completely interchangeable in function.
PhotoGIF Filter™ lacks the ability to open files as a filter plug-in and has no GIF animation support. However, because PhotoGIF Filter™ is a filter plug-in, more transparency features are possible. It is able to set GIF transparency from Photoshop layer transparency, which isn't possible with PhotoGIF™, and it is able to dither alpha masks used to set transparency making smooth drop shadow effects easily possible with transparent GIFs. PhotoGIF Filter™ is also compatible with many other third party applications because it is a filter plug-in.
PhotoGIF™ is a file format plug-in that allows you to open, edit, and save GIFs and GIF animations within Photoshop just as you would any other type of file using Photoshop's Open, Save, Save as, and Save a Copy commands.
PhotoGIF™'s capability exceeds that of PhotoGIF Filter™ in all cases, except noted above. File format filters can not access layer masks, which prevents PhotoGIF™ from being able to set GIF transparency based on Photoshop layer transparency.
PhotoGIF Filter™ exists primarily to provide compatibility with all other image editing applications that support Photoshop filters.
This addendum to the PhotoGIF Filter™ manual provides instruction for capabilities that are exclusive to PhotoGIF™.
Installing PhotoGIF™ 3.0.2:
Drag PhotoGIF™ into Photoshop's plug-ins folder. PhotoGIF™ will be available the next time you launch Photoshop.
It does not matter what sub-folder you place PhotoGIF™ into within the plug-ins folder, but the typical place for file format plug-ins like PhotoGIF™ is in the Formats sub-folder within the Plug-ins folder.
PhotoGIF™ is a file format plug-in and will appear in formats menu in Photoshop's standard open and save dialogs.
It IS NOT a filter plug-in and WILL NOT appear in the filters menu as most other commercial plug-ins do.
Installation troubleshooting:
If PhotoGIF™ is not visible in the formats menu of Photoshop's open and save dialogs after re-launching Photoshop you should check the following in order:
1: Delete your Photoshop's preferences file, which is located in the Preferences folder within the System folder if you have Photoshop 3.0 or 4.0. If you have Photoshop 5.0 or newer, the preferences file is located in the application folder within the Adobe Photoshop Settings folder. It is common for Photoshop to slightly corrupt its preferences file, and this will often prevent it from recognizing new plug-ins.
2: Confirm the location that Photoshop is set to look for plug-ins in it's preferences.
3: Confirm that your install of Photoshop is PPC native if running a copy of Photoshop 3.0 or 4.0. 68k installs of Photoshop can not use PPC only plug-ins such as PhotoGIF™. You can check this by looking at Photoshop's About dialog, which will denote PowerPC next to the version number if it is PPC native.
4: Re-download PhotoGIF™ and install a new copy. It is possible that is has become corrupt through download, decompression, or a disk error and that is preventing Photoshop from recognizing it.
The PhotoGIF™ 3.0.2 interface:
In addition to common interface elements that are documented in the PhotoGIF Filter™ manual, PhotoGIF™ has additional dialogs and additional controls for working with GIF animations and preferences capability.
These are the:
1: Open options dialog
2: Color reduction dialog
3: Preferences dialog
The Open options dialog:
The Open options dialog shown below allows you to control how GIF animations will be opened for editing in Photoshop. It is shown only when you open a GIF file containing multiple images.
There are four methods that can be used when opening multiple image GIF files: Edit single image, Edit in cell strip format, Extract single image, and Extract all images.
- Edit single image
Opening a GIF animation file with the Edit single image method opens a single image from the multiple image GIF file to edit, while preserving the multiple image structure of the GIF animation file.
- Edit in cell strip format
Opening a GIF animation file with the Edit in cell strip format method causes all of the images contained in the multiple image GIF animation file to be opened into one document oriented either horizontally or vertically. This method also preserves the multiple image structure of the GIF animation.
The Edit in cell strip option will only be available as an option for opening GIF animations if all images in the animation share a common global palette. GIF animtions with images using individual local palettes can not be opened with the cell strip method.
- Extract single image
The Extract single image method does not open the original file. It creates a new single image GIF file of the image selected from the open option dialog, then opens the new file for editing. The new file is always created in the same folder as the original file.
- Extract all images
The Extract all images method does not open the original file. It creates a new single image GIF file for every image contained in the original GIF animation file and then opens all the new files for editing. The new files created will always be located in the same folder containing the original multiple image GIF animation file.
The Color reduction dialog:
When you are editing an image from a GIF animation and have made color changes to the images palette that can not be accommodated in the current global palette for the GIF animation additional palette options are shown in the Color reduction dialog to handle resolving the conflicting palettes.
Two new options are provided for resolving color conflicts between the image being edited and the GIF animation's global palette in the Palettes menu of the Color reduction dialog. In this case choosing the Custom option from the Palette menu also behaves differently than when working with single image GIF files.
- Adjust into global
Choosing adjust into global from the Palette menu will cause a new super palette to be created based on the colors used in the current image and those already used by the GIF animation. This new palette will replace the existing global palette for the animation, so that all images will have the same new palette. This option will result in changes to all images in the GIF animation, not just the current image being edited.
- Force to global
Choosing Force to global from the Palette menu will cause the image being edited to be re-mapped to the exact colors in the GIF animation's global palette, and no change will be made to any other images in the GIF animation. Only the image being edited will be changed.
- Other options from the palette menu
Choosing any other palette option from the Palette menu will still result in the same color reduction as usual, but in this case it will also result in the image being saved with a local palette instead of using the common global palette for the GIF animation.
The Preferences dialog:
Nearly all default behavior in PhotoGIF™ can be controlled through extensive preferences. The Preferences dialog is accessed through the Apple -> About plug-in -> BoxTop PhotoGIF menu. The splash screen for PhotoGIF™ will be shown first, then after clicking on the splash screen the preferences dialog is shown.
There are several tab panels of controls in the Preferences dialog, all corresponding directly to controls in the PhotoGIF™ options dialogs, except for the two top items found in each preferences panels which control whether associated dialogs are initialized from preferences or from last used settings.
BoxTop Software, Inc.
PO Box 2347
Starkville, MS, 39760
voice 601-263-5410
fax 601-263-5412
http://www.boxtopsoft.com
info@boxtopsoft.com
PhotoGIF™ is Copyright 1995 - 1999 BoxTop Software Inc. All rights reserved. PhotoGIF Filter™ is Copyright 1997 - 1999 BoxTop Software, Inc. All rights reserved. PhotoGIF™ and PhotoGIF Filter™ are trademarks of BoxTop Software Inc., which may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other trademarks are recognized as the properties of their respective holders.
Document published: 3/3/99
Copyright 1999 BoxTop Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
