jdm@hodge.UUCP (jdm) (05/27/89)
There have been many posts about conversion utilities for Targa, GIF, PCX, and PIC files lately. There is a software package that I use called ImageTools 2.0 that does at least some of what people are asking for on the IBM PC. To order the product call Microtext Industries at 714-240-7105. The current price for the package is $99. Their BBS (The GRAFX Group BBS) number is 714-240-7459. The author of the Imagetools software is Jeff Bridges and he has an account on this BBS and will usually respond to email within 24 hours. Here is a blurb about the package and the utilities that come with Imagetools V2.0. BTW, I am in no way associated with Microtex or the GRAFX group. I am just a satisfied customer passing on what I think is useful information. ------------------------Blurb to follow---------------------------- Image Tools is a collection of utility programs that will allow a user to select an image from a variety of video sources, convert it to a popular PC viewing format and display or animate the images using popular tools like GRASP(tm) from Paul Mace Software. There are provisions for image enhancement during conversion, scaling, averaging several images together, multi- file operations for animation sequences and color selection and location for specific palette mapping. There is also a utility for converting images to various gray-scale formats for desktop publishing. Image Tools provides a complete package for the desktop video enthusiast. AVERAGE - AVERAGE is a utility for averaging two or more TARGA or Jovian Via FULL COLOR files together to help reduce some of the frequency spikes generated by low-end video capture. This is especially useful when working with a poor quality video source and a video capture board. It can also be used to generate interesting special effects via the add and overlay parameters. PICBW - PICBW converts TARGA, GIF, PIC, PCX or VI files to black and white PCX files for use in desktop publishing or general black and white printing. It has options for toner blackness adjustments, paper whiteness adjustments, scaling and rotation. There are also parameters for random intensity comparisons and non-RGB weighted intensity calculations. PICTGA - PICTGA is a utility for converting Pictor, PCX or GIF files to TARGA compatible images. This is useful when a user wants to reduce the number of colors in a picture, change the video mode of a picture while preserving color palette, or get a group of pictures into TARGA format so that they may be converted back into Pictor pictures together in with the same palette using TGAPIC. TGAPIC - TGAPIC is a utility for converting TARGA format pictures into Pictor, GIF or PCX pictures into either EGA 16 color, MCGA 256 color or VGA 16 color modes. It reduces the color palette while providing options for color combining, smoothing, black- level thresholding and also allows full control over starting color and number of colors so that direct palette mapping is available. This means that the user can decide exactly how many colors he wants in the picture and where those colors are to reside in the palette. Colors may be sorted in increasing intensity order so that gray scale conversion quality is maximized, decreasing saturation level, or in hue order which helps to group similar colors together. If multiple pictures are converted simultaneously, they are all converted to the same result palette. TGASCALE - TGASCALE performs color-space scaling on TARGA or Jovian full-color VI files. This is much better than the normal pixel scaling found in paint programs and utilities. Instead of merely inserting or throwing away pixels, the continuous color stream is scaled allowing for the deletion or insertion of appropriate pixels without aliasing or loss of color resolution. ------------------------End of Blurb---------------------------- -- jdm@hodge.cts.com [uunet zardoz]!hodge!jdm James D. Murray, Ethnounixologist Hodge Computer Research Corporation 1588 North Batavia Street Orange, California 92667 USA TEL: (714) 998-7750 Ask for James FAX: (714) 921-8038 Wait for the carrier