COLLAGE VERSION 2.01 SHAREWARE 1. OVERVIEW Collage is a LOW cost QUICK and EASY to use image viewer. It includes a number of useful image ENHANCEMENT and EDITING features and a powerful COLLAGE creation capability. The fact that it is a MDI (Multiple Doc- ument Interface) application allows you to view and manipulate a number of images in one main window. Furthermore it is capable of playing back MOVIES and has the ability to EXPORT frames as images. For a quick look at some of the features of Collage see section 3. For registration details (US$10) see Section 10. For developers the Delphi source code(US$15) is also available. (See section 10) 2. INSTALLATION Make sure you UNinstall any previous versions of Collage first. To install simply unzip the Collg201.ZIP file and double click on the setup.exe file. The install wizard does most of the hard work and will guide you through the installation. Some example images and collages are also installed. To uninstall simply go to the windows Settings | Control Panel and activate the Add/Remove Programs application. Proceed with the removal of Collage. 3. FEATURES Some of the features of Collage ver 2.01 are briefly summarized here: * MDI application - can load single or multiple images * Collage creation - assemble a number of individual images and save the collage as a single image. This is quick and easy and allows for different backgrounds or colors, frames and borders. See the examples. * Clipboard aware * Can view a variety of image formats * Can playback video clips (avi, mpg - depending on windows configuration) and freeze and export frames as images. * Image processing routines such as AutoBalance, Histogram equalization, Linear Contrast Stretch, Smooth and Sharpen can be used to enhance images. * Standard set of controls with hot keys - Next, Previous', Delete, Close, Close All, Save, Save As, Open and plent'y more! * Auto fit to screen (Automatically sizes image to fit screen maintaining aspect ratio) * Magnify / Reduce capability (Zoom in and out using a variety of algorithms - choice of 9) * Resize image capability (Enter width and height values) * Crop and Paste functionality * Slide show - adjustable timer allows auto display of a directory of images * Windows association of supported image extensions (Associate the Collage application with the image extension(s) of your choice in the Explorer and then just double click on the file name to activate) * Right click menu of popular commands * Region of Interest (ROI) aware - using the left mouse button demarcate a Region of Interest on the image, any further manipulation of the image with Zoom, Copy or other image processing function will now effect only the demarcated area. * All user settings from the last working session are recalled i.e. Directory, Zoom Factor, JPG quality factor etc. Most of these can be set from the 'Options' menu item. * Text insertion. * Border and Frame insertion. * Move files capability. * Colour to GreyScale conversion. 4. KEYBOARD COMMANDS Besides the main menu and the Right Mouse Click PopUp Menu the following hot keys are available: * F1 - Show About Information * F2 - Save Image * F3 - Load Image(s) * F4 - Save Image As * F5 - Fit Image to Screen (maintaining aspect ratio) * F6 - Crop demarcated area * F7 - Restore original Image * F8 - Move Image to Home position * F9 - Activate Slideshow * F10 - Full screen i.e. display only the image * F11 - Zoom In (Magnify Image) * F12 - Zoom Out (Reduce Image) * Space bar - Displays next image * BackSpace - Displays previous image * Down, up, right, left cursor key - Moves image down, up, right and left respectively * PG Down, PG up - Moves image down/up respectively * Cntrl + Tab - Toggle between images (VERY USEFUL!!) * Cntrl + Ins - Copy to Clipboard * Shift + Ins - Paste from Clipboard * Del - Delete Image (NB deletes image does not post to Recycle Bin) * Ins - Display next image without closing current image * Alt + F3 - Close Image * Alt + F4 - Exit Application * Alt + F5 - Close All Images * Alt + R - Rename a file * Alt + C - Create Collage Canvas (see section 6) * Cntrl + P - Paste to Collage Canvas (see section 6) * Cntrl + I - Invert Image * Cntrl + R - Rotate Image 90 degrees * Cntrl + B - Insert a border * Cntrl + C - Insert an oval\circle border * Cntrl + D - Duplicates image * Cntrl + T - Insert Text 5. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Collage has been tested on both Windows 95,98 and Windows NT 4. Although not necessary Collage works best in a 800x600 graphics resolution. The Color Palette however must be set at 24 bit True Color or higher. 6. TIPS Collage is very easy to use. When in doubt consult this Readme file and remember all the speed buttons on the toolbar have hints which are activated by holding the mouse cursor over the button and waiting a few seconds (do not click). When using Collage one can either load a batch of images at once and then toggle through the selection using the Cntrl + Tab keys or select the first image in the directory and hit the space bar to display the next image. Note pressing the space bar first closes the active image and then displays the next image. If you wish to retain the active image press the INS key - this displays the next image with out closing the current image. Using the Windows95 explorer one can associate most image extensions (jpg, pcx,bmp etc.) with the Collage application. [In the explorer go to the View| Option| menu item and open the File Types dialog box. Click on a file type i.e. 'jpg image' and edit the OPEN command to execute Collage.exe.] This allows one to double click on an image file name in the Explorer and very quickly view the image using the Collage application. ROI - Region Of Interest: Demarcating a region of interest on an image is undertaken simply by holding down the left mouse button and dragging the mouse accordingly.Once you have demarcated an area you can apply one of the available image processing operations to it for example Zoom In, Invert , Rotate etc. This will take effect on the demarcated region. Try the Copy and Paste functions - only the ROI will be pasted to the New Image. Collage Creation: I often come across the situation that I have a number of smaller images that I would like to arrrange on one canvas and save as a single image. For this I have implemented a utility that enables one to create a collage from a number of individual images. To do this follow the following basic steps: - Open the images that you wish to use in your collage compilation. - Edit these images as you wish i.e. add borders,text etc. - Now press the Collage Canvas speed button (CC on the ToolBar) in order to create a background canvas on which to paste your individual images.(Note if you right click the CC button you can set the back- ground options of the Collage canvas to your preference.) - Use the Cntrl+Tab key or the mouse to switch to the image of your choice and then press the Collage Paste button (CP on the ToolBar or use the PopUp menu). - This action transfers the selected image to the Collage Canvas and you can position your image anywhere on this canvas by moving the mouse. - At the desired location left click the mouse button and the image will be anchored at that location. - Continue this process until all the single images have been placed upon the Collage Canvas. Text, borders and frames can now also be inserted on the Collage Image if desired. - Once your Collage is completed save it as a BMP or JPG. Viewing Movies: Collage can also playback AVI movies (or even mpeg/mpg if your windows configuration allows for this). Note movies and images can exist in the same workspace. In fact you can even playback multiple movies at the same time.An exceptional feature of the movie utility is that you can easily freeze a and extract it as an image (use the export frame button - right most button on the movie controller).You can then save the image as a JPG or BMP. Note when extracting frames make sure that the movie display area is not covered by any other images or partially hidden offscreen. 7. FUTURE ENHANCEMENTS A number of enhancements are to be made to this version of Collage namely : * The collage creation utility will be further refined * Thumbnail creation * Enhancement of Border and Text insertion utilities * The playback of video clips will be enhanced - better controller * Help menu * Mosaic utility * Bug fixes will continue. Any suggestions will be welcome. 8. CREDITS Thanks go to K. Nishita for writing the excellent NviewLib.dll and to Anders Melander for the interpolated bitmap resampling routines(freeware code). 9. WHATS NEW Version 1.5 (from previous version 1.20) Several bugs have been fixed and the following features added or enhanced: * The following Image processing functions have been adde'd - RGB Balance and brightness levels - Autobalance - Histogram Equalization - Adjustable Linear Contrast Stretch (Note these algorithms can be used to enhance images. The degree of enhancement depends on the image content). * Color to Greyscale conversion. * Full screen display i.e. View only images and nothing else * Move image capability i.e. Transfer images from one directory to another. * Enhanced slide show capability. * Enhanced Collage Canvas options. * Insert Text capability. * Insert Borders capability Version 2.0 (from previous version 1.50) * Several bug fixes * Sharpen filter added * Smooth flter added * Zoom algorithms extended (selection of 9 available) * Insert Frames capability * Added Rotate text and vertical text improvements. * Move/Copy active Image utility added * Utility to export frames from movies as images. Version 2.01 (from previous version 2.00) * Minor bugfixes 10. DEVELOPERS DETAILS Author of Collage - George Vrahimis Email address - vrahimis@netactive.co.za To register this version of Collage please mail US$10 (UK&5) to the following address. This will entitle you to a registered version of Collage (via email). Mail Address: - George Vrahimis 26 Harry De Stadler Close Fish Hoek 7975 South Africa SOURCE CODE For those of you who are working in Delphi 3 or 4 and wish to adapt this version of Collage according to your own requirements the complete source code is available at a cost of US$15 (UK&10). Note the decoding of the image formats is done by the NviewLib.dll. There is no warranty or other guarantee of fitness for this software, it is provided solely "as is". Bug reports or fixes may be sent to the author,who may or may not act on them as he desires. The source code will in particular help developers in the following areas of application development: - How to handle a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) - Windows file extension association interface. - Clipboard aware interface. - Menu and pop-up menu utilisation. - How to manipulate BMP's/DIB's. - How to handle text on an image surface. - How to write image processing algorithms. (The code for all the algorithms in the Collage application. i.e. Rotate, Invert, Sharpen, Smooth, Histogram Equalization etc.) - And a whole lot more! If there is a demand for a customized version of Collage please email me.