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- PolyView by Polybytes.
- ======================
-
- PolyView is a shareware graphics viewer, file conversion, image manipulation,
- and printing utility for Windows NT and Windows 95. PolyView supports the
- majority of the popular image formats available on Windows and Unix systems.
-
- PolyView is authored and copyrighted by:
-
- Polybytes
- 3427 Bever Avenue S.E.
- Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52403
-
- e-mail: polybytes@kagi.com
-
- =============
- INSTALLATION:
- =============
- The executable file for PolyView downloads and distribution is a self-extracting
- archive that contains all the necessary installation information. Run the .EXE
- file from the Explorer or File Manager and press the setup button on the resulting
- dialog box. You will then be led through a standard installation procedure.
-
- If you downloaded one of the ZIP files containing a partial distribution of PolyView:
- Unzip the downloaded file in the directory where you want to store and execute.
-
-
- =============
- DISTRIBUTION:
- =============
- PolyView is a shareware program and as such it is permissable to load it onto
- any and all computer systems and networks. Polybytes' only requirement is that
- ALL the files contained in the PolyView ZIP archive be distributed together,
- preferably in their original archive. These file include:
- Readme.txt
- setup.exe
- _inst32i.ex_
- _isdel.exe
- _setup.dll
- _setup.lib
- data.z
- Setup.ins
- Setup.iss
- Setup.pkg
- uninst.exe
-
- ============== RELEASE NOTES: ==============
- Version 2.80
- Added an animated GIF creation command to the File menu. Automatic
- playback of animated GIFs will occur based on a setting in the General
- tab of the Properties dialog.
-
- Added support for acquiring images from scanners, digital cameras, and
- other devices supporting the TWAIN interface. See the TWAIN topic of the
- File menu.
-
- Added an Open With command to the image context menus. The Open With tab
- of the Properties dialog can be updated with the names of up to 4
- applications to open PolyView images with for further processing.
-
- Added recursive (include subfolders) thumbnail creation operations to
- the Thumbnails menu.
-
- Added new/move/copy/rename/delete operations on folders to the Explore
- window.
-
- Added the Next Page, Previous Page, and Go To Page commands to the View
- menu for moving around in multi-page DCX, GIF, and TIFF files. With this
- change we also disabled the automatic assembly of tiled TIFF files to
- better deal with very large images (the primary purpose for tiled
- TIFFs). Tiled TIFF files are now handled like multipage TIFF files. (If
- requested, an option to assemble a tiled TIFF into a complete bitmap
- image can be added to a future version of PolyView.)
-
- Added the option to append additional pages to DCX and TIFF files if
- export of these formats is specified to go to an existing file.
-
- Added X,Y position of the mouse cursor on the current image to the
- status line.
-
- Added window arrangement commands to the Window menu.
-
- Added a command to the Window menu to close all image windows.
-
- Added a global Gamma adjustment factor capability to the Gamma
- Adjustment dialog.
-
- Added the RGB Adjust command to the Appearance popup of the Options menu
- to implement precise control of the red-green-blue components of an
- image.
-
- Added new image Brightness and Contrast Adjustment menus to the Options
- menu.
-
- Changed the Register File Types operation to use a separate File
- Description for each file type.
-
- The Register File Types dialog now programs .PVX and .PVD thumbnail
- database files to directly invoke the Explore window.
-
- Added a choice of icons to the Register File Types dialog for use in the
- Windows Explorer.
-
- Added the F2 key as a shortcut to the rename operation in the Explore
- and Browse windows.
-
- Added an option to the File Properties Tab of the Properties dialog to
- add TWAIN files to the current slide show list as they are acquired.
-
- Added a command to Browse Selected Folder to the Browse menu of the
- Explore window.
-
- Added Delete and Browse options to the tree context menu in the Explore
- window.
-
- Added Move and Rename operations to those available with an open image.
-
- Added a command to the Options menu of the Explore window to set the
- font used to display file names for files which do not have thumbnails.
-
- The title used for windowed slide shows is now the name of the script
- file which defines the slide show.
-
- Added an option to the Browsing tab of the Properties dialog to disable
- screen savers while a full screen display is in progress.
-
- Added an option to the Files tab of the Properties dialog to enable the
- stripping of the path and extension from the image file name as
- displayed in the window title for the image.
-
- Fixed a problem which caused thumbnail information to be inaccurate
- after a File Save or Export operation.
-
- Fixed a problem which caused hidden thumbnails to become unhidden after
- a thumbnail database Maintain operation.
-
- The Directory Browser no longer resets the selected file position when a
- file is deleted.
-
- The Move and Rename operations of the Browser window now also rename and
- move the associated image thumbnails if the Explore window is open.
-
- Fixed a problem which caused an access violation if the last file in the
- list presented by the Directory Browser was deleted.
-
- Fixed a problem with Delete key handling during in-line editing of
- folder names in the Explore window and in various edit boxes.
-
- Added additional exception handlers to better deal with low memory
- situations.
-
- Fixed a problem with pasting clipboard device independent bitmaps which
- are 24 bits-per-pixel and contain a non-empty color map.
-
- Fixed a problem with the decompression of 4 bits-per-pixel gray scale
- images.
-
- Fixed a problem with the decompression of 24 bits-per-pixel PNG images
- which also contain an alpha channel.
-
- Version 2.70.2
- Improved the way the thumbnail pane positioning is managed when the
- Explore window is resized. This also corrects anomalous behavior when
- the Explore window is maximized.
- Version 2.70.1
- Fixed a problem which caused an access violation GPF to be generated
- if a corrupted thumbnail database file was encountered.
-
- Fixed a problem which caused the thumbnail for a renamed file to
- disappear until the containing folder was refreshed.
-
- Added some additional robustness for dealing with errors encountered
- while creating thumbnails.
-
- Version 2.70
- Created a new Browse menu which has some of the commands that were previously
- in the File menu, and several new ones (see below).
-
- Added an Open Script choice to the Browse menu for the direct opening of
- slide show script files.
-
- Added commands to the Browse menu to invoke a browser for directories and
- files marked during slide shows.
-
- Added the capability to display slide shows (or multiple slide shows) in
- on-screen windows. (See the Browsing tab of the Properties dialog.)
-
- Added the capability to mark files during slide shows, as well as pause and
- continue functionality.
-
- Added an option to the Browsing tab of the Properties dialog to expand slide
- show images to fill the available viewing area.
-
- Added an option to the Files tab of the Properties dialog to force PolyView
- to interpret multiple command line arguments as a single file name containing spaces.
-
- Added a command to the File menu save a file as wallpaper.
-
- Added the Display Reduction Method option to the General tab of the Properties
- dialog to control the method used to reduce a large image to a small window.
-
- Added the Background Color command to the Options menu to set the background
- color used for images.
-
- Added a Tools menu to facilitate selection of the area selection, zooming,
- and panning tools.
-
- Added an area selection tool to the Tools menu and the associated Crop and
- Copy Selected Area commands to the Edit menu.
-
- Added a panning tool to the Tools menu to simplify moving the visible window
- around in a large or zoomed image.
-
- Added a Photo-CD tab to the Properties dialog with options to control the size
- image to decompress from a photo-CD image pack file.
-
- Added a splash screen to display the PolyView logo during program startup and
- initialization, and added an option to the General tab of the Properties dialog
- to disable it.
-
- Added appearance adjustment commands to the context menu for an image.
-
- The thumbnail position now stays constant after Deleting an open image while the
- Explore window is open.
-
- Fixed a bug which caused misbehavior if full screen state was interrupted by a
- pop-up window or screen saver activation.
-
- Corrected the actions of the Tool Bar and Status Bar options in the View menu
- for the Explore window.
-
- Improved the screen update algorithms to reduce flickering when resizing image
- windows.
-
- Corrected the consistency of the actions on the thumbnail context menu of the
- Explore window. The Add to slide show and Delete options now affect all selected
- images.
-
- Clicking the right mouse button on the thumbnail pane of the Explore window
- no longer deselects selected images.
-
- Fixed a problem which caused a maximized window to be incorrectly displayed
- after a full screen slide show or image view operation had taken place.
-
- Fixed a bug in the Soften routine invoked through the Options menu.
-
- Fixed a bug in the Export Image command of the File menu which caused the last
- save/export directory to not be used.
-
- The splitter bar position in the Explore window is now restored between sessions.
-
- The thumbnail position now stays constant after Delete or Move operations in
- the Explore window.
-
- Fixed a problem which prevented purging the slide show list if the slide show dialog
- was closed with an empty list.
-
- Version 2.60.3
- Fixed a bug which could leave the last few rows of thumbnails unreachable
- in the Explore window.
-
- Version 2.60.2
- The slide show dialog now uses a device dependent bitmap for display if
- the corresponding option is checked in the General tab of the Properties
- dialog, resulting is a faster screen update on displays configured for
- more than 256 colors.
-
- Fixed a bug which corrupted the output file name during batch file format
- conversions if the destination directory was the root directory of a drive.
-
- Fixed a bug which caused excessive system resources to be used,
- and a potential for a stack failure, during the opening of some folders
- in the Explore window.
-
- Version 2.60
- Added Undo operations.
-
- Added variable thumbnail sizes.
-
- Added palette optimization techniques to improve display of thumbnails in
- 256 color systems.
-
- Added ReCreate Selected and Recreate All options from the Thumbnail menu of
- the Explore window to simplify recreation of thumbnails after a size change.
-
- Added a progress bar for the thumbnail creation process.
-
- Added a command to stop thumbnail creation.
-
- Added a Sort option on the View menu for the Explore window to sort thumbnails
- by Name, Type, Size, and Date, with either ascending or descending sort order.
-
- Improved the behavior when moving files in the Explore window so that the
- thumbnail for the image is retained.
-
- Improved the handling of large folders in the Explore window for better
- responsiveness.
-
- Added /E:Startup_Folder to the command line options to specify that the
- Explore window is to start with a specific folder opened.
- Example: polyview /E:c:\picture\my vacation
-
- Dragging thumbnails to the Recycle Bin icon in the Explore window tree is
- now supported.
-
- Added display of hidden folders in the Explore window
-
- Added standard length and width options on the dialog presented from the
- Options:Change Pixel Resolution command.
-
- Added the Gamma Adjustment operation to the Options menu.
-
- Added the Change Color Depth operation to the Options menu.
-
- Changed the layout of the slide show dialog when the screen resolution is
- 640x480 or 800x600 to achieve a better fit when large fonts have been selected.
-
- Deleting a displayed image from the File menu sends the file to the Recycle Bin
- on Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 system.
-
- Corrected a problem with the decompression of PNG files which are grayscaled
- and contain 16 bit channel information.
-
- Corrected a scrollbar thumb positioning problem after delete operations in the
- Explore window.
-
- Corrected the View:Refresh option of the Explore window to correctly update
- when folder configurations have changed.
-
- Fixed a problem with color map manipulations which caused printing and other
- difficulties when the number of colors in an image is less than the maximum.
-
- Version 2.53
- Fix: Problem with interpolating 24 bit images with display mode set to
- 256 colors.
- Version 2.52
- Fix: Problems with interpolation which make minor improvements for 24
- bit/pixel images, and major improvements for 8 bit/pixel images.
- Version 2.51
- Add: Option to turn off device dependent bitmap generation.
- Add: Option to create new window from some filtering actions.
- Add: Neon filter to Special Effects.
- Fix: Problem with output format in Format Conversions window when
- the user is unregistered.
- Version 2.50
- Add: Batch file format conversions. (Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0)
- Add: Various image manipulation filters, including sharpening, softening,
- edge enhance and detection, negative, and special effects filters.
- Add: Duplicate Image command.
- Add: Improvements to 1 and 4 bit/pixel image handling.
- Add: Additional 1 and 4 bit/pixel save formats.
- Add: Optimizations to improve speed of initial image display.
- Add: Refresh option on thumbnail pane.
- Add: Sort button on slide show dialog.
- Add: Optional higher quality print routines.
- Add: Progress bar options.
- Add: Enhanced printing on monochrome printers.
- Fix: Explore window folder size limitation on Windows 95.
- Fix: Problem with "Add All" button functionality on some Windows 95 systems.
- Fix: Restored old behavior of keeping child windows maximized.
- Fix: Print Visible and Print Preview Visible image boundaries were
- incorrectly calculated.
- Fix: Corrected a condition which could leave a file open when it was not
- recognized as any valid format.
- Fix: Double-clicking a file in the slide show dialog now correctly performs
- an Add operation.
- Version 2.40
- Add: Image format support for more than 20 new formats.
- Add: Slide show dialog converted to Windows 95 standard to take advantage
- of drag and drop for slide show building and ordering.
- Fix: Corrected problem with image manipulations not being saved properly.
- Version 2.30
- Add: The Explore window (Windows 95, Windows NT 3.51 with Shell Technology
- Preview, Windows NT 4.0)
- Add: Windows 95 compliant setup and uninstall procedures.
- Version 2.21:
- Add: Transparent Color dialog for specification of GIF transparency.
- File type used for the last file exported is now remembered as the
- starting type for a new export.
- Fix: Incompatibilities with Windows 95 taskbar during full screen modes.
- Errors occurring during manual slide shows were not ignored.
- Improved recovery from certain varieties of GIF file corruption.
- Image sizing and full screen behavior when the PolyView toolbar is
- floating instead of docked on a window edge.
- Version 2.20:
- Add: Image resolution changing with smoothing.
- Interpolated zooming.
- Slide show errors can now be ignored.
- Fix: Mark created windows as modified so "Save on exit prompt" will occur
- if configured to do so.
- Version 2.19:
- Add: Printing (for registered users)
- Print preview (for registered users)
- Fix: Behavior with screen resolution changes under Windows 95
- Version 2.18:
- Add: Individual image timing during slide shows.
- 24 bit gray scale images written to PNG 8 bit gray scale.
- GIF file exporting.
- Progressive JPEG file exporting.
- Separate open and save(export) directory paths.
- MRU file list operations(purge, purge on exit, variable size).
- Fix: Browsing properties dialog problem.
- Version 2.17
- Add: Export to PNG files. (Registered users only.)
- Reading of progressive JPEG files.
- Restored ability to write 8 bit images to JPEG files.
- Added Randomization of slide shows.
- Version 2.16
-
- Add: PNG file viewing.
-
- Correct: Image sizing now correct for side positioning of toolbar.
-
- Version 2.15
-
- Correct:
-
- Fixed a bug which prevented the file-open dialog from working
- correctly.
-
- Version 2.14
-
- Add:
-
- File saving to 8 bit RLE bitmap format.
-
- File saving to 16 bit bitmap format.
-
- Multiple file selection from file open dialog.
-
- Saving user entered comments to JPEG files.
-
- Implementation of a registration key system to provide certain
- features only to registered users. Note that ALL features of
- PolyView which were available prior to this change are still
- fully functional.
-
- Version 2.13
-
- Correct:
-
- Implemented command line parsing to handle file dragged from
- Explorer to PolyView shortcut.
-
- Corrected behavior when one or more slideshow scripts are dragged
- and dropped on PolyView.
-
- Version 2.12
-
- Add:
-
- Display of filenames during full screen modes.
-
- Version 2.11
-
- Add:
-
- File:Image Properties command.
-
- Image context menus from right mouse button.
-
- Correct:
-
- File handle release error on JPEG files.
-
- Version 2.10
-
- Add:
-
- Support for 1, 4, 16, and 32 bit BMP files, including 4 and 8 bit RLE.
-
- Copy and Paste of bitmaps to and from the Windows clipboard
-
- Scripted slide shows
-
- Background operation of image manipulation of file saving activities.
-
- Version 2.00
-
- This version adds file saving and conversion capabilities and thus
- no longer uses the image configuration files created by previous versions.
- All the .PVI files created by PolyView can be safely deleted.
-
-
-
-