IMAGE CAT 1.01 Copyright 1989 Chet Walters All rights reserved. LEGALESE..... This program is *-NOT-* public domain and is intended for donators only! Thank you for your donation. Make it worth your while and keep this in YOUR library. Back it up in case of floods or hurricanes and save the original. For free updates, you'll need to send back the original. Use the back up! LEGALESS...... Use of this program is the owner's responsibility (that's you). If you want to put 700 image files in one folder on your harddrive and fry your printer, that's up to you, it's not my responsibility. However, to safeguard against that, IMG CAT will only print up to 150 images at each punch of the CATALOGUE button. Period. That's the limit. You can select and print as many paths as you please during any one session (thousands of files if you want to), but you can't access more than 150 image files from any one path. It's recommended that you limit any path to less than 100 images and then print several paths which gives the printer time to rest and cool. Don't tax your printer. Those babies wear out quick enough. Make sure your ribbon has enough ink to keep the pins lubricated. If you have an HP Deskjet, no sweat, but those carts are a bit on the expensive side, no? Laser printer? Well, I don't have one to test with IMG CAT, but I bet they can get pretty hot after a long session. Keep an eye on your printer! BRAGGING..... With the advent of Touch Up, scanners, Dr. Bob's MVG and the like, many folks have opted to store their bit graphics in DRI IMG format. This is nice. It makes it possible to store graphics in compressed form and let's one work with images larger than the actual display screen. Ideal for DTP applications. However, up till now, there has been a real vacuum in the Atari community. That is, a way to effectively catalogue and easily reference those very bit images. There are currently no real slide shows which will let you quickly page through a set of IMG's so you know what's there (though Dr. Bob's MVG comes real close with it's QWIKKIES feature). It was really up to your failing memory (grey type) to know whether that XMAS01.IMG file was the one of the wreath or the one of the Christmas tree ... or was it the one of the Courier and Ives winter scene that you liked so well??? Yeah, yeah, I know, you have it all in a database somewhere. But, geez, in the data base it says 'winter scene' but which one? I had three... Was this the sleigh? Or the mountain? or ??? A picture is worth a thousand words they say.... Well, wonder no more. IMG CAT to the rescue. Before IMG CAT, if you wanted a hardcopy of a set of IMG files, you were forced to drag out Easy Draw, PageStream, Calamus or other DTP packages and laboriously lay out a page of IMG's, name them, title them and then print them. A tough and time consuming job. After you finished the job, you were likely pretty sick of DTP for a while anyway. No longer! IMG CAT will print in various configurations page after page of IMG files nicely laid out in alphabetical order with sizes and names ready for your perusal. Next time you're stuck for a nice graphic to go with that newsletter article about Christmas, just pull out your catalogue and look under 'W' for winter. Since you can put up to 15 images per page, you might even find one that suit's your needs better than the one you were looking for in the first place. And it's all without any hard work on your part. Just run IMG CAT, smack the return key, select a path, and smack the return key again. While your catalogue prints, you're free to pursue other interests (a candlelight dinner with that 'special someone' might be nice here). I've done all the work for you. I have painstakingly written IMG CAT in assembly language so that it's extremely compact. GDOS, the printer driver, the fonts, and those HUGE IMG files require lots of RAM. I've made IMG CAT tiny to accommodate this. I've been able to print 15 image files per page at 300 DPI with only 700K free at the desktop! Now that's efficiency! And with that efficiency comes speed. Your part in the use of this program is very small (the printing takes the time). I meant it that way. IMG CAT is a breeze to use and it's flexible to suit your tastes (more on this later). REQUIREMENTS.... Well, now that the chest beating is out of the way, there is one other thing before we get to the real good stuff. You should know that IMG CAT requires GDOS (Atari) or G+PLUS (CodeHeads) and a suitable printer driver with at least one printer font that has 10 point and 12 point typefaces. That's 'easy'. Migraph (Easy Draw, Touch Up, Super Charger) makes an excellent one for Epson and a terrific one for the HP Deskjet. NeoCept (of Word Up fame) has a good collection of drivers for GDOS too. There are drivers available for most any printer. If you need more info on GDOS, there are several sources and we won't expound on it here. If you work with IMG files, you likely know about GDOS already. If you haven't a clue about GDOS, write CodeHead Software about their excellent and FAST G+PLUS system for GDOS compatibility. The folks there are mighty helpful. CATALOGUING..... I think that's how you spell it. Anyway... You should go through a little preparation before using IMG CAT. IMG CAT will print only the image files found within one path on your diskettes or harddrive. It will not dig into any folders other than the one you open with the fileselector. What you see is what you get, no more, no less. This is not a real limitation. Most folks don't keep more than 150 IMG's in one directory on the hard drive and floppies can hold only so many. Too, as mentioned, this will keep you from turning your printhead into scrap iron or taking a fire hose after your laser all the while swearing at me for letting you do it. So, with that in mind, if you don't already have your images 'organized' do it first. You might even want to make a first run with IMG CAT then go through and sort your images into catagories for a final run (there's a draft feature for HP owners described later for just that). Think about it? Was this possible before IMG CAT? Nope, it was a hard job to get.... wait, this ain't the bragging section..... RUNNING IMG CAT Put IMG CAT and it's RSC file together in the same directory (it need not be the same directory you wish to print). Double click on the IMG_CAT.PRG from the desktop. It's not recommended that you run this program from within other programs which have the PEXEC feature (like Flash or the like). We tweak the system a bit to get the job done and though we follow ALL the rules, there's no guarantee that you won't see some of those explosive beasties if you run this from within. Besides, we need the memory for IMG files and fonts. Programs like NeoDesk from GRIBNIF and HotWire! from the CodeHeads (ie specially designed as shells) and Dr. Bob's Menu Helper should work ok if you have the RAM (Dr. Bob's is ideal here since it is VERY small). As a point of interest, this program was written on a Mega 4 with CodeHead's HotWire residing peacefully and always in memory using many of the work saving features of HotWire! Highly recommended. BUTTONS, BUTTONS, WHO'S GOT THE BUTTONS? When IMG CAT is initialized, you'll see lots of buttons. Unless you've never heard of a mouse, you don't need to be told what to do with them. The button defaulted is the SET PATH button. That's what you should do first. Just hit RETURN or punch that button and the fileselector will appear. Dig around until you have the IMG files you want to print before your very eyes then click on OK or hit RETURN again (you don't need to select an individual filename). The path you chose will be in the TITLE box and CATALOGUE will then become the default button. If you wish to have a special title for this (perhaps you have a collection of animals on a floppy labeled ANIMALS but the title of A:\ for this section of your catalogue would be a bit less than informative) you can edit the title line up to 40 characters (press ESC and type ANIMALS DISK ONE for instance). Make sure your printer is on and there's plenty of paper and smack the RETURN key again. Your work is done! IMG CAT will do the rest. See, that wasn't so hard! Go have that dinner! Once you're done with dinner (or whatever the dinner might have lead to) then come on back. You'll see that SET PATH is once again defaulted and the kitty is waiting for you to select another path to print! SETTINGS and FLEXIBILITY This would be a very poor program indeed if I foisted my preferences on you. Oh, yes, I do have preferences, and you'll see them when you first run IMG CAT plain as the whiskers on the kitty. But they're not etched in stone. We'll discuss each in turn and then tell you a way of saving YOUR preferences so you don't have to click the mouse ninety times (like some other programs which I won't mention here) to have it your way every time you run IMG CAT. ...PAGE STYLE You have three choices. If you've got a 300 DPI printer and like lots of information at your fingertips, then style 15 is your baby. It prints 15 images per page with each image 2 inches by 2 and the names printed sideways (only place they'll fit!). If you've got a 9 pin printer or like more white space on your pages, then style 12 is for you. This gives 12 images per page with upright titles and some white stuff for easy on the eyes viewing. Style six prints (you guessed it!) only 6 images per page and is more or less for those with limited memory. Style six is also a good one for those HUGE scanned images, halftones, and quick looks at a small set of IMG files too. Just click on the icon of your choice. ...ASPECT RATIO You can elect to preserve or ignore the aspect ratio of the images on the page. Unlike Degas, TNY or NEO pics, IMG files have widely varying sizes. Some may be long and skinny or short and fat or wide and narrow. Each image on the page is printed within a fixed area (ie 2 x 2 on style 15 pages). If you elect to PRESERVE aspect, then we look at the longest side of the image, shrink that to exactly fit the box, then we shrink the short side a corresponding amount which may or may not be the size of the box. This way, we preserve the overall 'look', or aspect of the picture. If you choose to IGNORE aspect, the we look at the longest side, shrink or enlarge that to fit and go on to enlarge the short side so the image fills the box entirely. This often has a 'fun house mirror' effect on the picture and I can't fathom why anyone would elect to ignore aspect, but you're not locked to my preferences. ...IMAGE SIZES IMG CAT will print the pixel sizes in WIDTH x HEIGHT above or beside (depending on page style) and just after the name of the image. This is to give you a rough idea of the actual size of the image. If you have a 300 DPI printer, then a 450 x 300 image will be an inch and a half by one inch pixel for bit. Since all images regardless of size print strikingly well through IMG CAT, you might not know the actual extent of the image by just looking at the picture. SHOW the size. If it's 1200 x 890 then you know that it's a pretty darn big image. You can then easily surmise if a particular image is a good choice to import 30 times on a page in your DTP application for making labels (the big ones don't do this well). If you don't want sizes printed, then HIDE them. ...PAGE BINDING This somewhat 'cryptic' option is for the style of the overall catalogue rather than individual page design. If you choose NONE then the page titles on all pages will be printed flush right on the page. If you choose CONT, then odd numbered page titles will be printed flush right while even numbered ones are set flush left for a 'book' effect. The CONT means continuous which further means that the titles will be swapped book style, but there will be no pause between pages. You can then punch and collate with 'page protector' plastic covers for a nice book. SING means single sheet which further means that the titles will be swapped and IMG CAT will wait for you to respond to an alert box between each page. It's not recommended that you print on both sides of a sheet of paper unless it's at least 60lb since heavy graphics tend to bleed through to the other side spoiling the whole thing. But, the option is here for you if that's what you want to do. This feature is there for those who have single sheet printers too. ...BOX STYLE Personally, as you can see, I like dotted boxes around my images. This gives an impression of the aspect of the image, doesn't clutter the page, and keeps the names and sizes relative to the particular image for easy reference. If you like no boxes or solid lines for boxes, then take your pick. SAVING PREFERENCES All of the preferences mentioned above can be saved for ensuing sessions with IMG CAT. In addition to STYLE, ASPECT, SIZES, BINDING and BOXES, the ASPECT, PLACEMENT, and ENLARGEMENT of single printing (discussed later) and the "DON'T ASK" condition of printer checks are also saved. Just click on the kitty's nose at the main dialog and insert your working program disk into the drive from which it was run (fixed media hard drive owners need not worry about this). Your preferences are saved directly to the IMG_CAT program so there's no third file besides the PRG and RSC floating around for you to worry about. If you have a harddrive, this will happen so fast you won't think it worked! But, next time you run IMG CAT, you'll see that it did indeed 'take.' ********* CAUTION ******** There are safeguards to ensure that you can't inadvertently spoil another program file when saving defaults, but you can screw that up royally by poking around with a sector editor into the IMG CAT program file. DON'T and there will be no problems. No guarantees otherwise. FONTS As noted, IMG CAT requires GODS and fonts for your printer. Check other sources for information on GDOS and it's foibles. IMG CAT allows you to choose from up to six fonts maximum during any one session. Note, however, that GDOS requires that ALL fonts listed in the ASSIGN.SYS file be loaded all at once. If your ASSIGN.SYS lists more than six fonts, the excess is just wasted memory. Along these same lines, IMG CAT uses ONLY point sizes 10 and 12. Other point sizes are wasted space too. You might want to write a special ASSIGN.SYS for just IMG CAT which has only the 10 point and 12 point fonts of your favorite six fonts. G+PLUS from the CodeHeads offers a great alternative by allowing you to load ANY ASSIGN.SYS with any program run automatically and this is a boon to IMG CAT. Highly recommended (it dramatically reduced the development time on this program, I can assure you). Note, that if you have limited memory, you should load only one or two fonts. If you're having the problem of 'missing' images on a page (the last two or three are blank boxes) then you have simply run out of memory (RAM type). Set up an ASSIGN.SYS with only SWISS in 10 and 12 points and this problem should go away. Use fonts designed for your printer. Limiting your fonts to 10 and 12 points will also make IMG CAT load and run much faster. DEVICE DRIVERS Presently, IMG CAT references only Device #21 or Device #23 as printer devices. This is the norm (as far as I know) and should present no problems. Make sure your printer driver in your ASSIGN.SYS file has one of these designations. Device #21 is the default for most drivers (EPSON), but the Migraph HP DeskJet driver installs as device #23 for 300 DPI and device #21 for 150 DPI (as the came from Migraph). If you have Migraph's driver and have these devices listed as such, then IMG CAT will detect it and default to device #23 for 300 DPI if you're using the original ASSIGN.SYS. Otherwise, it will install device #21. If you have another printer (LQ, SLM) then edit your ASSIGN.SYS file to specify either device #21 or device #23 for compatibility. ***** HIDDEN FEATURE ***** If you have a DeskJet and Migraph's driver for it, then you CAN bypass this automatic #23 install for draft printouts if need be. Merely press and hold the SHIFT key when you double click on the IMG_CAT.PRG and keep it pressed until the choice box appears. You can then choose DEV #21 for preliminary 'sorting' printouts (if you've followed Migraph's lead and have DJET150.SYS as 21 and DJET300.SYS as 23). This little hidden feature is useful as well if you only have one floppy drive. You can boot with a disk which has GDOS and which installs the ASSIGN.SYS file. You can then remove that disk from the drive and insert the disk with IMG_CAT.PRG. Hold down the SHIFT key and double click the PRG. Keep holding down the SHIFT key until IMG CAT loads and gives you an alert. Remove the disk with IMG CAT and re-insert the GDOS disk with all the fonts and drivers. CLick on the device desired and off you go! Thanks to Frank T. for thinking up this little feature. NECESSITIES IMG CAT needs no GDOS screen fonts, no screen drivers and no META driver. It needs only the printer driver for your printer and at least one printer font in both 10 and 12 point designations. Below is a sample of the MINIMUM ASSIGN.SYS configuration required for Epson 9 pin: ;your path goes below PATH = D:\EASYDRAW\EPSYS\ 00p screen.sys ; --START OF SCREEN FONTS-- 01p screen.sys 02p screen.sys 03p screen.sys 04p screen.sys ; --END OF SCREEN FONTS -- ;PRINTER DRIVER 21 FX80.SYS ;--START OF PRINTER FONTS-- ; SWISS ATSS10EP.FNT ATSS12EP.FNT ;up to five additional fonts here... Yours may vary depending on driver and fonts, but you must have device #21 or #23 as the device number before your printer sys file. If you have an SLM 804 then you should enter: 21 SLM804.SYS in place of the 21 FX80.SYS above and: ATSS10LS.FNT ATSS12LS.FNT ;up to five additional fonts here... for the fonts. DJet owners with Migraph's drivers should have: 23 DJET300.SYS ATSS10LS.FNT ATSS12LS.FNT ;up to five additional fonts... ... 21 DJET150.SYS ATSS10DJ.FNT ATSS12DJ.FNT ;up to five additional fonts... ... to take full advantage of IMG CAT's HPDJ 'shift into draft' printing feature detailed above. ***** PLEASE NOTE: If you run with a minimum ASSIGN.SYS file such as this one, subsequent programs requiring GDOS drivers and fonts may not work properly. Subsequent programs may need the META.SYS or the screen fonts and they will not be installed. Using G+PLUS from the CodeHeads eliminates this ASSIGN.SYS headache and allows easy GDOS configuration for individual programs. If you normally boot from a floppy, then by all means write an ASSIGN.SYS file like this one and boot with it to run IMG CAT. Reset your system when you're done with IMG CAT so that the 'short' sys gets cleared out of memory. If you have a harddrive then you should get G+PLUS to handle this for you. PRINTING SINGLE IMAGES Click on the PRINT SINGLE button (logical... no?) and you will be greeted with a new dialog. Your installed device and DPI rating (though mileage may vary depending on use) will be shown (though only shown, not selectable). When you first visit, the CHOOSE FILE button is your first choice and is the default if you press RETURN. Select an individual IMG file to print (yes, Virginia, you MUST select and individual IMG file here). The file will be read and its size will be noted in the pixel boxes. You can choose the PLACEMENT on the page, the ENLARGEMENT factor and the preservation or ignoration of the ASPECT (discussed above) of the printout before you punch the print button. Note, that if you choose to IGNORE ASPECT, the image will always print exactly SQUARE per the longest side of the image unless it won't fit on the page that way. If you choose an enlargement factor that causes the finished product to be larger than an 8 1/2 by 11 inch sheet (the only page size that IMG CAT is aware of, by the way) then the image will print FIT TO PAGE. Click the filename button (under the kitty) to choose another image, or just change the placement or enlargement of the current image for a reprint. When done, click EXIT to return to the main catalogue dialog(ue??). CAVEATS First, if you have an HP DJ printer, then some of the features of the program will not be available to you on a strict basis. Due to the peculiarities of the DJ, if the printer is turned on when the computer is booted, then it detects as ALWAYS ready whether it is or not. Conversely, if it's switched off with an AB switch when the computer is booted then it detects as always OFF and you must reboot with the printer on to get back the ability to print. It also gives odd timeout signals which makes things difficult too. There's a complicated fix for this little (and painful) oddity, but it involves inserting a transistor into the centronics plug and I won't detail it here. Bear in mind, if you have a DJ, you are responsible to make sure the printer is on and ready when you press the CATALOGUE or PRINT buttons. Even if you make a mistake here, you have about 30 seconds to right it by turning it on. Also, I've had to eliminate some of the 'hey, is the printer there?' checks within the program for that very reason. The DJ is very TIMEOUT prone so I've had to go to other means described in the next paragraph. IF YOU HAVE A DJ, THEN BY ALL MEANS CHOOSE SHIFT FROM THE ALERT AT SAVE DEFS. OTHERWISE, YOU MAY BE THINKING YOUR CATALOGUE US PRINTING AWAY (the DJ's quiet you know) WHILE THERE'S AN ABORT? ALERT SITTING THERE WAITING FOR A CLICK. If you have an Atari laser hooked up to the DMA port, then by all means set the printer checks to SHIFT and not TIMEOUT since there will be nothing hooked up to the parallel/serial port. This also holds true for folks whose printers hook to the serial port since the program checks only the parallel port or the serial port (according to what you have installed with the desktop control panel accessory) for timeouts. Since IMG CAT explores and exploits some of the very dark regions on the back roads of TOS, there is no easy way to abort a print once it's begun. Once you see the 'page 1 of ?' prompt, the system has taken over and the kitty no longer has control. Just about the only way to abort the print is to shut off the printer. In about 30 seconds, TOS will (smartly) realize that there is no printer and will give control back to the kitty. At that time, if you're only printing one page or a single image, then no sweat, just pick up where you left off. If, however, you're in the process of printing 2 or more pages, the kitty will just keep on trucking unless he detects that a SHIFT key is pressed. It would be nice to just check at the end of each page to see if the printer is on or not, but some printers give timeout signals when they shouldn't. If there was a check like this at the end of each page printed it would cause some printers to ALWAYS pause at the end of each page. Certainly not desirable. The SHIFT solution is the only workaround for this, and that is the way IMG CAT comes in its out-of- the-box condition. But, I don't lock you into this. You can change way IMG CAT asks for abort. To do this, you must save your defaults. At that time, you will be asked what method to use. If you're having timeout troubles at the end of each page, then choose SHIFT like the DJ folks and the Atari Laser DMA folks. If you've chosen SHIFT from the ALERT when saving defs, then to abort a multiple page print, shut off the printer then count 'oneMississippi twoMississippi three...' until you get to about 15 then press and hold the SHIFT key until kitty asks you if you want to quit. If you've chosen TIMEOUT from the ALERT at save defs, then the kitty will ask you if he finds the printer is off (at the parallel port) at the end of the page without this baby sitting. This 'kloodgie' aspect of the program I apologize for, but that's a necessity for some cantankerous printers. Scanned photographs and halftone pictures will take on a crossed hatch appearance when they are enlarged or reduced. IMG CAT works great with line art (cartoons, drawings etc) but with these other types, the going gets rough at times. They also use lots of ink! If you need to print several of these, then use PageStream, which has a 'screening' feature to eliminate this freak of nature. The dialogs used here were designed to look really terrific on a monochrome screen. The buttons in the single print dialog, however, might look a little crowded and somewhat off-center on a color monitor. IMG CAT runs in hi and med rez only. Since most folks who fool with bit images use the monochrome, this should not pose a problem. Also, color users will have no 'progress' reports since the icons are elongated in med rez. Since IMG CAT keeps a channel open to your printer the ENTIRE time it's running it requires that your printer be turned on when you exit the program. No big deal really, and when you consider that this eliminates the need to load the fonts for each path you print, you'll agree that it's a small price. If the printer is off when you want to exit, then IMG CAT will tell you what you need to do. If you have an Atari Laser then you'll probably see a quick box flash on the screen each time you quit, but pay no heed. IMG CAT sorts the image names on only the first four characters for extra speed. If you have a series of IMG's named CAT1, CAT2, CAT3 then they will sort correctly. However, if they are named KITTY1, KITTY2, KITTY3 then they will all be together in the printout, but not necessarily in that order. For speed I use the blitter for the kitty (not to be confused with litter for the kitty). If you have a blitter then you get 300 kitties on the screen when you run. If no blitter you only get 100 kitties (300 takes too long). Anyway, this caused me much headaches with the first release of the demo. I hope you appreciate the consideration. Every effort was made to ensure that the program would run on any size monitor or screen. I don't have a Viking to test it on. The only thing I had was a PD program called BIGSCRN which fooled GEM into thinking that the screen is bigger than the standard monitor. But that's all it does, fool GEM. It's buggy. My stuff looked ok as long as the screen was 640 pixels wide and 800 long, but wider it looked funny even though my checksums worked out to the right values. I think that's the fault of BIGSCRN and not IMG CAT. If you have a big monitor, then please let me know. (I'll return the favor by letting you in on a back-door feature). ************* DEMO *************** If you're reading this doc and working only with the DEMO of IMG CAT, then you'll quickly realize the limitations of the demo. It will give you a good idea of what the full blown version will do. Support ATARI ST ShareWare authors. Don't make us feel like beggars. Send in a donation of only $10 for a full version. You'll like it I'm sure! Chet Walters P.O. Box 45 Girard, OH 44420 ********************************** If you've donated and are reading this doc then I thank you very kindly for your consideration. I will strive to continue to put out useful and bug free ShareWare. The latest version of FujiDesk is on the disk and if you like working with bit images, you'll want to get Dr. Bob's MVG, a demo of which is on this disk too..... *********************************** For the curious, DEVPAC from HiSoft through Michtron was used to write this program. WERCS from the same was used for the dialogs. If any of you read the plea for a recommendation on a new language to use for writing programs on the ST in the stead of GFA, then know that this is the one. Highly recommended. Many thanks go to Mr. W.D. Parks for his kind assistance and motivation. Thanks also goes to Craig Daymon (Manual Maker) for his 'public' suggestion of exploring the possibilities of using the system to print images. ************************************ You can bet if a company or product was named herein, then it bears a trademark or copyright. Here's a semi complete list of things you'll want to check out if you really want quality stuff.... G+PLUS (****) [four stars if you wondered] HOTWIRE! (****) Codehead Software P.O. Box 4336 N. Hollywood, CA 91607 EASY DRAW (****) TOUCH UP (***) various printer drivers (****) Migraph 200 S. 333rd St. Federal Way, WA 98003 NeoDesk (**) GRIBNIF P.O. Box 3050 Hadley, MA 01305