[comp.sys.amiga] A gif viewer

eretherf@math-cs.kent.edu (Eric Von Retherford) (07/24/90)

Could anyone Email me the name of the best gif viewer around? If possible I
would like it to convert gifs to iffs.

thanks for your help!

Eric
.

aaronf@hpfcbig.SDE.HP.COM (Aaron Friesen) (07/26/90)

From: eretherf@math-cs.kent.edu (Eric Von Retherford)
> Could anyone Email me the name of the best gif viewer around? If possible I
> would like it to convert gifs to iffs.

Me too!

Thanks,

Aaron aaronf@hpfcsup.hp.com

drtiller@uokmax.uucp (Donald Richard Tillery Jr) (07/29/90)

For all those interested (and even if you aren't) I would like to give you the
IMHO of the best GIF to IFF conversion process.  A PD program by Steve 
Schmidtke called GIFtoRGB (get vers 1.1 if possible - 1.0 on Xanth) will take
a GIF file and translate it to the RGB IFF format used by Digi View 4.0 (make
certain you have plenty of disk space 'cause those RGB files aren't compressed
and can be extremely large).  Then the file can be sized, padded (to assure it
is a standard Amiga size) and loaded into Digi View 4.0 for conversion to IFF.
With this set up you can translate that GIF file into whichever of the modes
you want to try from line-art, bw, 32 color, Extra Half Brite, and HAM to (you
guessed it) Dynamic HAM and Dynamic Hi-Res.  (For the latter two you must have
at lease 2 megs and I'd suggest a processor accelerator)  The results are great
and you can adjust the picture to compensate for color differences between the
source machine and the Amiga (inevitable).

There is also a new program on the market called The Art Department which I 
personally haven't seen yet (here in the Amiga desert we call Oklahoma) but
which will do similar conversions to all the modes and some work-alike
dynamic modes (viewable with Dyna-Show).  It has recieved quite a few kudos on
FidoNet, but my mail order outlets (the ones I trust anyway) are out of stock.

One more point about Digi View 4.0.  NewTek isn't exactly selling the software
separately but if you call them and ask for a software update, they'll sell it
to you so you can have a legal copy (this was their suggestion no less) even
if you aren't actually a registered owner. (They seemed to have problems with
selling the software alone though)  Enjoy those conversion, I do!
 
 _______              __________
  _/____) '  __  /_/       /  '  /  / __  _      "N.I.N.J.A.J.I.S."-Me
  /  \___/__/___/ |_      /__/__/__/_/_-_/__/_/  The Displaced Razorback.
  ___________________________________________/   Founder:  IDGAFF Ltd.
The Amiga Computer - "...a more fiendish disputant than the Great
Hyperbolic Omni-Cognate Neutron Wrangler of Ciceronicus Twelve..."
-D.Adams;  Well, almost.