Steve Goldstein--Ph +1-202-357-9717 <sgoldste@cise.cise.nsf.gov> Tue, 08 September 1992 02:36 UTC

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To: "Mark H. Needleman" <mhn@stubbs.ucop.edu>
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In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 06 Sep 92 10:20:06 PDT." <9209061720.AA17589@stubbs.ucop.edu>
Date: Mon, 07 Sep 1992 22:23:02 -0400
From: Steve Goldstein--Ph +1-202-357-9717 <sgoldste@cise.cise.nsf.gov>

<<I am attempting to compile a list of all known software for pc's
Mac's and unix based workstations that can display TIFF images on
them. 
...
I would appreciate it if folks could send me info on any software they
know about, both proprietary and public domain that handle TIFF
format files.>>

Not exactly what you ask for, perhaps, but worth looking at, Mark!  --SG

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Freeware: Imagery v1.8, by Mark Lewis (for Macs)

Abstracted from the manual:

Abstract
Imagery is a simple utility which converts a range of graphics files from the 
IBM PC,  Macintosh, Apple IIgs, Atari ST, Unix and Amiga computers. The 
program generates standard TIFF files in TIFF 4.0/5.0 format compatible with 
Freehand, Digital Darkroom, Superpaint and many other drawing and editing 
programs.

Introduction
Like many people who wanted a Macintosh but couldnUt afford one, in 1985 I 
bought an Atari ST - one of the first in Canada and the very first one in 
Alberta. Within a year, Dave Small created a gimmick called RMagicSacS which 
allowed an ST to work like an old 64K ROM version Mac.

I managed to get a lot done on a single 400K drive system with about 400K free 
memory. Later I added a second 800K drive. However, when Small left his 
company to form a new company which created a 128K ROM version of MagicSac 
called Spectre 128 (later Spectre GCR), I found myself with an interesting 
problem.

To upgrade my ST to the point where it could be seriously useful with Spectre, 
not to mention buying the Spectre and obtaining a legal set of Mac 128K ROMs - 
which was becoming increasingly difficult, I would end up spending almost as 
much as buying a brand new Macintosh SE.

Also, Atari had a bad upgrade record with me. My original machine did not have 
ROMs, although the advertising guarenteed them. Same for an internal RF 
modulator. Atari never offered the RF modulator as an upgrade and only offered 
the ROMs as a $30 upgrade. Not much, I appreciate, but I had already more than 
paid for them. Well, when I asked Atari how I could upgrade my Atari ST to STm 
level (let alone STe), I was told RYouUll have to buy a new machineS - so I 
did... a Macintosh.

However, I was stuck with a lot of Atari image files in five or six formats 
(Degas, Degas Compressed, Neochrome, NVision and a handful of random singles) 
none of which were compatible with each other, let alone with anything on the 
Mac.

So, I wrote a program then called RTIFF-STS which converted all of these 
various formats into TIFF files. I chose TIFF for a couple of reasons. First, 
it is a standard and an easily implimented one. ItUs not proprietory. There is 
no special complex compression system unless you choose to use it and 
virtually all Mac graphics programs can use a version of TIFF.

Later, I found I was getting Amiga IFF files as well as a variety of IBM PC 
graphics files such as GRASP and PCX. With Windows, BMP was added to the list. 
I added these to the original TIFF-ST program and changed its name to Imagery.

Since then, I have spent a quite a bit of time and effort gathering nearly 
4.3MB of information on every file format I can find. I am compiling these 
files into a single document which I hope to post or publish sometime early 
next year. Many of these graphics formats have been added to Imagery and I am 
still adding more with the addition of PICT based images to handle a
collection of vector based image formats such as DXF, IGES and CGM to occur in 
version 2.0.




Comments and Reports

I can be reached via Compuserve at 76217,2241, on America Online as "T
Werewolf" or via the Internet at 76217.2241@compuserve.com. I'd like
to hear about any bugs you may find, and if you know of a graphics
file format Imagery doesn't support let me know. If you have a layout
for the format, please include it and I'll write it in as quickly as
possible. If you have any suggestions, I'd also like to hear them, as
long as they're polite :-).

Future Products

An IBM-PC version of this program should be available within a few
months, and a new commerical version called "Imagery Pro" will be
released this fall with full bidirectional conversions (where
possible) and a selection of image editing and enhancing tools as part
of the Unity/OneSolution series of modular applications. It should
also be able to support Photoshop, Digital Darkroom and Superpaint
modules (pending further information) and will combine many features
of all three of these programs at a very reasonable price - less than
US$100. A Windows version of Imagery Pro is slated for late fall.

  •   Mark H. Needleman
  •   Steve Goldstein--Ph +1-202-357-9717