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Archive-name: pixutils-faq

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---
Jef

           Jef Poskanzer  jef@netcom.com  jef@well.sf.ca.us
                    "...Is this a trick question?"

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This newsgroup is for discussion of pixmap utilities.  A pixmap is
any image composed of pixels, whether it's a one-bit-deep bitmap, a
grayscale image, colormapped, or full color.  There are dozens of
different file formats for storing pixmaps, and there are a number of
software packages for converting between formats and displaying
formats.  Some of these packages are listed in the Frequently Asked
Questions posting in comp.graphics - the relevant excerpts are appended
below.

Discussion of these packages and other similar ones will probably be
the main topic here.  Posting uuencoded sample pixmaps for some weird
format you're trying to decipher is fine, especially if they are small,
but mass posting of pixmaps is not welcome.

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[from the comp.graphics weekly posting]

7) Free image manipulation software.  There are a number of toolkits
for converting from one image format to another, doing simple image
manipulations such as size scaling, plus the above-mentioned 24 -> 8,
color -> gray, gray -> b&w conversions.  Here are pointers to some of
them:

    PBMPLUS, by Jef Poskanzer.  Comprehensive format conversion and image
    manipulation package.  The latest version is always available via
    anonymous FTP as ftp.ee.lbl.gov:pbmplus*.tar.Z,
    wuarchive.wustl.edu:graphics/graphics/packages/pbmplus/pbmplus*.tar.Z,
    and export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/pbmplus*.tar.Z.

    IM Raster Toolkit, by Alan Paeth (awpaeth@watcgl.uwaterloo.ca).
    Provides a portable and efficient format and related toolkit.  The
    format is versatile in supporting pixels of arbitrary channels,
    components, and bit precisions while allowing compression and machine
    byte-order independence.  The kit contains more than 50 tools with
    extensive support of image manipulation, digital halftoning and format
    conversion.  Previously distributed on tape c/o the University of
    Waterloo, an FTP version will appear someday.

    Utah RLE Toolkit.  Conversion and manipulation package, similar to
    PBMPLUS.  Available via FTP as cs.utah.edu:pub/urt-*,
    weedeater.math.yale.edu:pub/urt-*, and freebie.engin.umich.edu:pub/urt-*.

    Fuzzy Pixmap Manipulation, by Michael Mauldin <mlm@nl.cs.cmu.edu>.
    Conversion and manipulation package, similar to PBMPLUS.  Version 1.0
    available via FTP as nl.cs.cmu.edu:/usr/mlm/ftp/fbm.tar.Z,
    uunet.uu.net:pub/fbm.tar.Z, and ucsd.edu:graphics/fbm.tar.Z.

    Img Software Set, by Paul Raveling <raveling@venera.isi.edu>.  Reads and
    writes its own image format, displays on an X11 screen, and does some
    image manipulations.  Version 1.3 is available via FTP as
    export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/img_1.3.tar.Z, and
    venera.isi.edu:pub/img_1.3.tar.Z along with a large collection of color
    images.

    Xim, by Philip R. Thompson.  Reads and writes its own image format,
    displays on an X11 screen, and does some image manipulations.
    Available in your nearest X11R4 source tree as contrib/clients/xim.
    A more recent version is available via ftp from video.mit.edu.  It uses
    x11r4 and the OSF/Motif toolkit to provide basic interactive image
    manipulation and reads/writes GIF, xwd, xbm, tiff, rle, xim, and other
    formats.

    xloadimage, by Jim Frost <madd@std.com>.  Reads in images in various
    formats and displays them on an X11 screen.  Available via FTP as
    export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/xloadimage*, and in your nearest comp.sources.x
    archive.

    TIFF Software, by Sam Leffler <sam@okeeffe.berkeley.edu>.  Nice
    portable library for reading and writing TIFF files, plus a few tools
    for manipulating them and reading other formats.  Available via FTP as
    ucbvax.berkeley.edu:pub/tiff/*.tar.Z or uunet.uu.net:graphics/tiff.tar.Z

    xtiff, an X11 tool for viewing a TIFF file.  It was written to handle
    as many different kinds of TIFF files as possible while remaining
    simple, portable and efficient.  xtiff illustrates some common problems
    with building pixmaps and using different visual classes.  It is
    distributed as part of Sam Leffler's libtiff package and it is also
    available on export.lcs.mit.edu, uunet.uu.net and comp.sources.x.
    xtiff 2.0 was announced in 4/91; it includes Xlib and Xt versions.

    ALV, a Sun-specific image toolkit.  Version 2.0.6 posted to
    comp.sources.sun on 11dec89.  Also available via email to
    alv-users-request@cs.bris.ac.uk.

    popi, an image manipulation language.  Version 2.1 posted to
    comp.sources.misc on 12dec89.

    ImageMagick, an X11 package for display and interactive manipulation
    of images.  Uses its own format (MIFF), and includes some converters.
    Available via FTP as export.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/ImageMagick.tar.Z

    Khoros, a huge (~100 meg) graphical development environment based on
    X11R4.  Khoros components include a visual programming language, code
    generators for extending the visual language and adding new application
    packages to the system, an interactive user interface editor, an
    interactive image display package, an extensive library of image and
    signal processing routines, and 2D/3D plotting packages.  Available via
    FTP as pprg.eece.unm.edu:pub/khoros/*.

    LaboImage, a SunView-based image processing and analysis package.  It
    includes more than 200 image manipulation, processing and measurement
    routines, on-line help, plus tools such as an image editor, a color
    table editor and several biomedical utilities.  Available via anonymous
    FTP as ads.com:pub/VISION-LIST-ARCHIVE/SHAREWARE/LaboImage_3.1.tar.Z

    The San Diego Supercomputer Center Image Tools, software tools for
    reading, writing, and manipulating raster images.  Binaries for some
    machines available via anonymous FTP in sdsc.edu:sdscpub.

    The Independent JPEG Group has written a package for reading and
    writing JPEG files.  FTP to uunet.uu.net:graphics/jpeg/jpegsrc.v?.tar.Z

Don't forget to set binary mode when you FTP tar files.  For you MILNET
folks who still don't have name servers, the IP addresses are:

    ads.com			128.229.30.16
    cs.utah.edu			128.110.4.21
    export.lcs.mit.edu		18.24.0.12
    freebie.engin.umich.edu	141.212.68.23
    ftp.ee.lbl.gov		128.3.112.20
    nl.cs.cmu.edu		128.2.222.56
    pprg.eece.unm.edu		129.24.24.10
    sdsc.edu			132.249.20.22
    ucbvax.berkeley.edu		128.32.133.1
    venera.isi.edu		128.9.0.32
    weedeater.math.yale.edu	130.132.23.17
    wuarchive.wustl.edu		128.252.135.4

Please do *not* post or mail messages saying "I can't FTP, could
someone mail this to me?"  There are a number of automated mail servers
that will send you things like this in response to a message.  See
item 13 below for details on some.


8) Format documents for GIF, TIFF, IFF, BIFF, WHIFF, etc.

You almost certainly don't need these.  Read the above item 7 on free
image manipulation software.  Get one or more of these packages and
look through them.  Chances are excellent that the image converter you
were going to write is already there.  But if you still want one of the
format documents, many such files are available by anonymous ftp from
titan.cs.rice.edu (128.42.1.30) in directory public/graphics.formats.
These files were collected off the net and are believed to be correct.
This archive includes pixel formats, and two- and three-dimensional
object formats.  Other file format descriptions are welcome, send to
Mark Hall <foo@cs.rice.edu>.


13) How to FTP by email.

There are a number of sites that archive the Usenet sources newsgroups
and make them available via an email query system.  You send a message
to an automated server saying something like "send comp.sources.unix/fbm",
and a few hours or days later you get the file in the mail.

In addition, there used to be some FTP-by-mail servers, which would accept
FTP commands by mail and then mail back the results.  Unfortunately, the
services were abused, and have been shut down.