GIF FILE CROPPER 1.3
__________________________________________________________________

If you like this program, please do one of the following:

Go down to your local bookstore and buy a copy of "Coven:
A Novel", by Steven William Rimmer, published by
Ballantine Books. Read the book and tell your friends
about it if you like it. Send us some comments about the
book or a photocopy of the cover and we'll consider you a
registered user of this program.

Alternately, send us $35.00, the normal user fee for this
software. (The book is $3.95 or $5.50 in Canada:
considerably cheaper than cash.)

Registered users of this software are entitled to phone
support, notification of upgrades and good karma. Our
address can be found at the end of this file.

NOTE: If you're searching for Coven and having trouble finding
it, you can mail order it from the following book store:
Christies of Cookstown, P.O. Box 392, Cookstown, Ontario L0L 1L0,
Canada, (705) 458-1562. The cost is $7.00, which includes
the postage. The author would like to thank everyone who's thus
far chased it down (or tried).

NOTE: German users of CropGif should contact our German
distributor, PD-SERVICE-LAGE, Postfach 1743, D-4937 Lage, West
Germany.

NOTE: Australian users of CropGif should contact our Australian
distributor, Budgetware, P.O. Box 496 Newtown NSW 2042. Phone
(02) 519-4233 FAX (02) 516-4236.

__________________________________________________________________


Thanks for checking out CropGif.

This program will allow you to crop fragments from existing GIF
files. The fragments will be written to new... smaller... GIF
files.

Unlike other GIF cropping programs, this one doesn't involve the
use of any tricky measurements. It works like the cut and paste
functions of a paint program. It requires that a Microsoft
compatible mouse driver be present before it will work, as the
mouse does all the work.

In order to make the program work reasonably fast and in a
decent amount of memory, the image you'll get to work with
will not be a full colour one. Instead, CropGif will show you a
dithered monochrome version of your source GIF file. However, the
destination file will have the same colours as the source file
did.

Because the CropGif display works with monochrome graphics, it
can be used with pretty well any display card. It supports:

- CGA (ugh!)
- EGA
- VGA
- Hercules monochrome

and, of course, anything which can emulate these modes. It should
automatically sense your display card type.

Here's how the beast works. Let's assume that you have a GIF file
called ANGELA.GIF, from which you wish to crop a fragment to be
called FACE.GIF. We'll allow that the fragment will probably
contain Angela's face, although the program itself probably won't
care.

Note that FACE.GIF, the destination file, will be created by
CropGif. ANGELA.GIF, the source file, will not be modified in any
way.

Making sure that you have previously loaded your mouse driver...
and that, prior to doing so you have indeed remembered to buy a
mouse... you would type the following:

CROPGIF ANGELA.GIF FACE.GIF

In fact, you can leave off the .GIF extensions, as CropGif
assumes these. You will see a beg notice... please don't merely
ignore this... with the program status below it. CropGif will
begin by loading ANGELA.GIF. It will then proceed to dither
ANGELA.GIF, that is, to create a temporary black and white
version of it. When this is complete, your screen will pop into
graphics mode and you'll see the dithered image.

The dithered image probably won't look too great, but don't worry
about this. It's only used to help you decide what to crop out,
and has no effect on the final image.

Move the mouse cursor to the upper left corner of the part of the
image you want to crop out. Hold down the left mouse button and
drag your mouse until the bounding rectangle encloses everything
you want to crop into FACE.GIF. Release the mouse button.

If you discover that you've selected the wrong bit of the picture
you can click your mouse to erase the bounding rectangle and try
again.

When you've got the right part of the picture enclosed, hit the
End key and your screen will return to text mode. The beg notice
will return... once again, please don't ignore this... and you'll
see a line at the bottom of your screen informing you that your
fragment is being written to FACE.GIF.

When this is done, you'll return to the DOS prompt.

If you change your mind and decide you don't want to crop a
fragment once you're in graphics mode, just hit Esc to return to
DOS.

Note that if you attempt to crop a fragment in which either
dimension is less than eight pixels, CropGif will assume you've
made a mistake and abort.

Also note that the cropped fragment will include everything
within the bounding rectangle and the pixels under the lines of
the rectangle.


OTHER DETAILS
_____________

CropGif uses a fair bit of memory, especially for large GIF
files. It might refuse to function on machines with restricted
memory, or on computers which have a lot of resident stuff
already loaded.

If your computer has expanded memory... EMS... CropGif will
attempt to use it to store the GIF file it's working on if there
isn't enough DOS memory. Note that this is not the same as
extended... XMS... memory. A suitable EMS driver must be present
in your system for this to work.

Some of the more voluminous GIF files around might be larger than
your screen. This probably won't occur if you use a VGA card...
which will show you up to 640 by 480 pixels in monochrome mode...
but it could happen on an EGA or Herc system. In this case, you
can make the picture scroll around by simply moving the mouse
cursor to the edge of your screen.

If your computer refuses to go into graphics mode, chances are
you have a multimode card which is confusing CropGif. In this
case, you can manually force the screen mode by adding a third
command line argument. For example, this would make CropGif use
Hercules graphics.

CROPGIF ANGELA.GIF FACE.GIF /HER

The following are the mode switches which CropGif recognizes.

/CGA- CGA card
/EGA-EGA card
/VGA-VGA card in 640 by 480 monochrome mode
/HER-Hercules card in 720 by 438 monochrome mode

Some low rent Microsoft compatible mice seem to have a problem in
some graphics modes, in that their cursors will refuse to move
more than about halfway down the screen, flash on and off, vanish
and so on. The Agiler mouse, for example, is a problem. This
doesn't happen with real Microsoft mice, or with the better
compatibles, such as the LogiTech mice.

Some versions of the ATI EGA Wonder card refuse to go into the
Hercules graphics mode under CropGif. The EGA graphics mode works
fine. We're looking into this.


ROLL YOUR OWN
_____________

This is another book plug. If you're interested in writing
programs which use graphics, you'll find everything you need to
know in "The Book of Bitmapped Graphics", also by Steven William
Rimmer. It's published by TAB books, (TAB book 3558). It features
code to pack and unpack MacPaint, IMG, PCX, GIF and TIFF files,
as well as chapters on screen drivers, dithering and printing. If
you can't find it locally, you can mail or phone order it from
the bookstore listed at the top of this file.


MORAL DOGMA
___________

If you like this program and find it useful, you are requested to
support it either by buying the book mentioned at the top of this
file or by sending us $35.00. We'd rather you bought the book.
This will entitle you to telephone support, notification of
updates and other good things like that. More to the point,
though, it'll make you feel good. We've not infested the program
with excessive beg notices, crippled it or had it verbally insult
you after ten days. We trust you to support this program if
you like it.
Oh yes, should you fail to support this program and
continue to use it, a leather winged demon of the night will tear
itself, shrieking blood and fury, from the endless caverns of the
nether world, hurl itself into the darkness with a thirst for
blood on its slavering fangs and search the very threads of time
for the throbbing of your heartbeat. Just thought you'd want to
know that.

We are
Alchemy Mindworks Inc.
P.O. Box 500
Beeton, Ontario
L0G 1A0
Canada

Other programs we've done that you might like include:

GRAPHIC
WORKSHOP - This is the last word in image programs. It converts,
prints, views, dithers, transforms, scales and
halftones MacPaint, GEM/Ventura IMG, PCX, GIF, TIFF,
WPG, MSP, IFF/LBM, BMP and EPS files. It drives CGA,
Hercules, EGA, VGA, Paradise, Video 7, Trident,
Tseng Labs, Orchid, Hercules Graphics Station and ATI
VGA Wonder cards. It features batch processing,
extended and expanded memory support, an intuitive
user interface and easy to follow menus. It allows
you to convert colour image files into superb black
and white clip art for desktop publishing, among
other things.

DESKTOP
PAINT
256 - A powerful super-VGA paint program, Desktop Paint 256
will let you create and edit pictures stored as PCX,
GIF, TIFF and IFF/LBM files. It features a rich
selection of drawing and image manipulation tools,
XMS and EMS support to work on large images and a user
friendly interface. Looking very much like monochrome
Desktop Paint in colour, it's a powerful application
which will be equally useful for picture collectors,
artists and desktop publishing users... it makes a

quick and easy to use editor for grey scale TIFF
files, too. Supports Paradise (and compatibles),
Headland Video 7 and ATI VGA Wonder cards. Note that
you must have one of these super-VGA cards to use
Desktop Paint 256... it does not run in the standard
320 by 200 pixel "standard" VGA mode.

DESKTOP
PAINT - Is a powerful monochrome paint package fine tuned for
use with desktop publishing applications. It will
read and write MacPaint, Ventura IMG, PCX,
WordPerfect WPG and TIFF image files. It has EMS
support to handle images of virtually any size, an
intuitive user interface and a wide selection of
image creation and manipulation tools. Desktop Paint
can utilize fonts from many other sources, including
Ventura Publisher, Macintosh FONT and NFNT resources
and Windows FNT files.

VFM - Ventura soft font manager deluxe with a side of fries.
Adds new fonts and creates width tables with menu
driven simplicity.

GRAFCAT - Prints a visual catalog of your image files, with
sixteen pictures to a page. Drives all LaserJet and
PostScript laser printers, and works with any mixture
of GIF, PCX, MacPaint, TIFF, WPG, MSP, IFF/LBM, EPS,
BMP, PIC and IMG files.

CINEMA - Display a continuous "slide show" of image files. You
can set up the images to be displayed using a simple
script language. Cinema works with most super VGA
cards, using the same drivers as Graphic Workshop,
and with CGA, EGA and Hercules cards. It works with
any mixture of GIF, PCX, MacPaint, TIFF, WPG, MSP,
IFF/LBM, EPS and IMG files.

FI - File Information... this is a small utility which
will examine mystery image files and tell you what
they are and some details of what's inside them.

GIFINFO - Creates catalog files from your GIF collection,
allowing you to store fifty or more miniature full
colour representations of GIF files on a single quad
floppy.

STORYTELLER -
A hypertext program with a mouse driven graphical
user interface which will allow you to create
reports, manuals and interactive fiction, among other
things, which has a tree structure. Each page of a
storyteller document can lead to related sub-pages,
which can in turn have their own sub-sub pages, and
so on. It looks slick and is exceedingly user
friendly.

If you can't find them in the public domain, they're available
from us for $35.00 each.

REVISION HISTORY
________________

Version 1.3 - Has EMS support and a generally tighter user
interface. Also, the code's a bit smaller. The monochrome GIF
files work more reliably. Bar graphs will appear when CropGif's
busy.

Version 1.2 - Internal maintenance release.

Version 1.1 - Now supports monochrome GIF files.


LEGAL DOGMA
___________

The author assumes no responsibility for any damage or loss
caused by the use of these programs, however it comes down. If
you can think of a way a picture program can cause you damage
or loss you've a sneakier mind than mine.

All the trademarks used herein are registered to whoever it is
that owns them. This notification is given in lieu of any
specific list of trademarks and their owners, which would not be
as inclusive and would probably take a lot longer to type.

That's it...