PEGGER 2.0 Demo Documentation PEGGER is Copyright © 1993,1994, Express-Way Software, Inc. Published by: DKB Software, Inc. 1. What is PEGGER? Welcome to the PEGGER 2.0 Demo. PEGGER is a utility to help save Amiga graphic animators and artists hard disk space and to give all your graphic programs the ability to load and save JPEG files automatically. JPEG is a method of image compression that can reduce the size of a 24-bit image file by 15 to 1 with no noticeable loss in the quality of the image. A 24-bit image file normally takes up to 1MB of disk space but JPEG'd it only takes 50 to 70K! PEGGER supports a number of popular Amiga file formats including: color JPEG grayscale JPEG IFF24 HAM8 color IFF8 grayscale IFF8 (often used for Alpha channel data) DCTV 3 and 4 bit Video Toaster FrameStore and CG Pages Impulse RGB8 Targa PEGGER is fast, on an Amiga 4000 it only adds 5 seconds to the time it takes to load a 752 by 480 JPEG file as an IFF 24-bit file. Network support has been added and tested with Parnet, Enlan DFS, and Novell. 2. Ordering information. PEGGER has a list price of DM 148.00 and is available from Hirsch & Wolf oHG, Mittelstr.33, D 56564 Neuwied, +49 2631 83990 (voice) +49 2631 839931 (fax) PEGGER 2.0 started shipping in August 1994. DKB Software is offering a limited introductory price of only $59.95 US plus S&H for PEGGER 2.0. Registered PEGGER owners can purchase the 2.0 upgraded for $15 US plus S&H. For more information please contact: DKB Software, Inc. PO Box 438 Wixom, MI 48393 USA (810) 348-3755 (voice) (810) 348-3531 (fax) Internet: pegger@express-way.com 3. About the PEGGER demo. The PEGGER demo is a fully functioning version of PEGGER with the following exceptions. Any image PEGGER converts will have the PEGGER logo stamped into the center of the image. Due to this, PEGGER will not allow you to use PEGGER to REPLACE any images that PEGGER converts. Also, the PEGGER "About window" has additional information in it about the demo and ordering PEGGER. We will not try to provide complete documentation on how to use PEGGER. Instead, we have included the text of several tutorials from the PEGGER manual. These tutorials should help you become familiar with how PEGGER works. The tutorials will use the JPEG files found in the TutorialFiles sub-directory of the PEGGER_Demo directory. 4. Installing the PEGGER demo PEGGER requires an Amiga with AmigaDOS 2.0 or greater, a hard disk, and a minimum of 2 megabytes of RAM. PEGGER uses the standard Installer program provided by Commodore. PEGGER must be installed on your hard drive to run properly. An Installer script is included in the PEGGER_Demo directory and its icon is named "Install PEGGER". The installation is started by clicking on the "Install PEGGER" icon. Three libraries will be installed in your LIBS: directory; pegger.library, peggersnoop.library, and the dctv.library. And the installer will create some PEGGER data files in the PEGGER_Demo directory. 5. Starting PEGGER Once PEGGER has been installed, you can start PEGGER by double- clicking on its icon. PEGGER will open an "About window" with the PEGGER logo animation and information about PEGGER. Just click on the close button of the "About Window" to continue. Now PEGGER will open up all its windows; CJPEG, DJPEG, and SNOOP. The CJPEG window is used for setting up image files to be JPEG compressed, the DJPEG window is used for setting up image files to be JPEG decompressed, and the SNOOP window is used to setup PEGGER to automatically JPEG compress or decompress files for other Amiga software running in the background. These windows can be opened up by selecting their respective Menu Item from the Workbench Tools Menu or double clicking on their respective App Icons on your Workbench. 6. JPEG Decompression of a single file. Open the DJPEG window. Make sure the cycle gadgets in the upper center of the window say {Files} and {Create}. In the area labeled "JPEG File to Decompress", click the {From} button to open a file requester, then select the Tutorial_1.JPG file from the TutorialFiles sub-directory. In the area labeled "Directory where Image Files go", select the type of image file you want to create using the cycle gadget on the far right. Now click on the {To} button to open a directory requester and select the Images sub-directory as the directory where you want PEGGER to put the decompressed file. PEGGER can rename files it creates for you. Using rename you can give files a file name extension to indicate what type of file it is. If you are creating a 24-bit IFF image you could use the extension .24, for HAM8 it could be .HAM8, for DCTV it could be .DCTV, etc. Now click on the {Rename} check box so that it is checked. In the text gadget to the left of the Rename check box enter .{your ext}, such as .HAM8. You are now ready to begin decompressing the file. Click on the {Decompress} button. If there is a problem with your settings a requester will notify you of the problem and the decompression won't start. Check your settings and try {Decompress} again. Once JPEG decompression of the file has started you will notice that a status box at the top of the window will say "Decompressing" and a small indicator box next to it will flash. PEGGER does all of its JPEG processing in the background. So, while this file is being decompressed you could set up additional files to be decompressed or compressed. PEGGER keeps track of all the files you want it to decompress. To view the status of file decompression click on the {Status} button to switch to the DJPEG Status window. To return back to the DJPEG setup window click on the {Setup} button on the DJPEG Status window. Switch back to the DJPEG Setup window and wait for the status to change from "Decompressing" to "Idle." 7. JPEG Decompression of a batch of files in a directory. Open the DJPEG Setup window. Make sure the cycle gadgets in the upper center of the window say {Batch Dir} and {Create}. In the area labeled "JPEG File to Decompress", click the {From} button to open a directory requester, then select the TutorialFiles sub-directory. In the area labeled "Directory" where Image Files go, select the type of image file you want to create using the cycle gadget on the far right. Now click on the {To} button to open a directory requester and select the Images sub-directory as the directory where you want PEGGER to put the decompressed files. It is important to note that the directory requester will not show any filenames; only the directories available. PEGGER can rename files it creates for you. Using rename you can give files a file name extension to indicate what type of file it is. If you are creating a 24-bit IFF image you could use the extension .24, for HAM8 it could be .HAM8, for DCTV it could be .DCTV, etc. Now click on the {Rename} check box so that it is checked. In the text gadget to the left of the {Rename} check box enter .{your ext}, such as .HAM8. Click on the {Decompress} button. This will bring up the Decompression Batch Directory window. You will see a display of your selections for decompressing JPEG files in this directory. The directory will be scanned and information about all the JPEG files found will be listed in the window. Once PEGGER has found all the JPEG files, click on {OK} to start the decompression and return to the DJPEG Setup window. You may want to use the {Status} button to switch to the DJPEG Status window to follow PEGGERs progress while it decompresses the files. Or close the DJPEG Window and go on to the next tutorial. 8. JPEG Compression of a single file. NOTE: This tutorial requires that the Image files created from the previous tutorial be present in the Images sub-directory of the PEGGER_Demo directory. For this tutorial we'll start by demonstrating the AppIcon feature of PEGGER. Open up the Images drawer in the PEGGER_Demo directory. You'll find icons there for the image files you created in the DJPEG tutorials. Since the original JPEG files you decompressed earlier had icons, PEGGER made a copy of those icons when it created the image files. Drag one of the image icons out of the drawer and drop it on PEGGER's CJPEG icon. This will open the CJPEG Setup window automatically. If the CJPEG Setup window were already open, you could just drop the icon for the image right on the CJPEG window. Or select the icon and then select CJPEG from the Workbench Tools Menu. Click on the {Next} button if the image file you chose to compress is not displayed in the text gadget in the "Image File to Compress" area of the window. Make sure the cycle gadgets in the upper center of the window say {Files} and {Create}. Normally you would want to replace the image file with the JPEG file PEGGER creates to save hard disk space. Since this demo is disabled by stamping every image it processes with the PEGGER logo, this feature is disabled for the demo. Click the {To} button to open a directory requester and select the JPEGs sub-directory. Now we want to rename the file to have the extension of .JPG like it did before. Click on the {Rename} check box and type .JPG into the text gadget. Another option you will need to consider is the Quality setting you want to use when you compress a file. It can be set from 0 to 100%. With 100% producing the highest quality JPEG image file with the least compression, and 0% producing a poor quality JPEG image file with the most compression. PEGGER defaults to using a Quality setting of 85% which produces JPEG images which rarely have any noticeable loss in quality, but offer significant compression. Click on the {Compress} button to start the JPEG Compression. 9. JPEG Compression of a batch of files in a directory. NOTE: This tutorial requires that the Image files created from the previous tutorial be present in the Images sub-directory of the PEGGER_Demo directory. Batch compression of a directory of image files works just like batch decompression of JPEG files except for using the Quality setting instead of selecting the type of image to create. 10. SNOOP JPEG Decompression PEGGER's Snoop function is its most valuable feature and it couldn't be much easier. Now that you've learned the other basic features of PEGGER you can now use Snoop to put them to work for you automatically. For purposes of the demo we will show you how to use SNOOP by Program. PEGGER was installed with SNOOP by Program settings for a number of graphic programs. Scroll through the list of Programs and select one that you use. If you don't see one that you use, start the program that you would like to test PEGGER with, then click the New button on the PEGGER Snoop Window and double click on the name of the program you want to use with PEGGER. The program you setup for SNOOP could be the Toaster Switcher, ToasterPaint, DPaint, DCTV, Brilliance, or any other program you use that loads image files. The name of the program will be displayed underneath the list and the gadgets for setting up SNOOP will be enabled. For this demo we want to show how PEGGER can allow other programs to load JPEG files. Now make sure the {Image Compression} check box is not checked and that the {JPEG Decompression} check box is checked. Make sure the {Enable/Disable} cycle gadget is set to Enable. Finally, select what type of image file you want PEGGER to create for this program when it decompresses a JPEG file. The {Save} button should now be unghosted. Click the {Save} button to save the SNOOP settings for the selected program. To test SNOOP by Program you will need to start the program for which you setup SNOOP. In that program try to load one of the JPEG files in the PEGGER_Demo/TutorialFiles directory. When your program tries to load the JPEG file, PEGGER will popup a requester informing you that it is JPEG decompressing the file for you. Once PEGGER is done the requester will go away and your program can load the JPEG file as the type of image you selected for the SNOOP JPEG Decompression. Since this is a demo the JPEG file you load will have the PEGGER logo stamped in the center of the image. Please note that the NewTek Video Toaster Switcher software as well as ToasterPaint only allow loading images as Framestores which have an exact resolution of 752 x 480. ANY IMAGE WHICH DOES NOT HAVE THAT EXACT X AND Y PIXEL RESOLUTION WILL NOT LOAD INTO EITHER THE SWITCHER OR TOASTERPAINT'S "LOAD FRAME" MENU OPTION VIA PEGGER'S SNOOP FEATURE! SNOOP by Directory works very similar to SNOOP by Program. 11. SNOOP JPEG Compression PEGGER can automatically JPEG compress image files saved by graphic programs. This feature is of great benefit to animators who need to create thousands of 24-bit frames for an animation. A 1000 frame animation saved as 24-bit IFF files would take up almost a gigabyte of hard disk space, but JPEG'd would only take up 50-100 megabytes.