Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!apple!uokmax!drtiller From: drtiller@uokmax.uucp (Donald Richard Tillery Jr) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: GIF viewing again and again (long but informative!) Keywords: GIF, graphics, IFF, conversion Message-ID: <1990Aug26.164932.14290@uokmax.uucp> Date: 26 Aug 90 16:49:32 GMT References: <5338@harrier.ukc.ac.uk> <1990Aug23.045556.17590@uokmax.uucp> Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK Lines: 69 Granted the programming effort involved in image format conversion is challenging but I think it comes nowhere near that of say a Deluxe Paint III or a Turbo Silver 3.0. What I am commenting on is the fact that (to use your own most appropriate term) the pictures I convert are ONLY "eye candy" for my own enjoyment. I can use TS or DPIII to create marketable items (well maybe not me because my actual artistic ability is >nil:) but I am merely interested in viewing them for my own enjoyment (and possibly impressing people enough for them to buy another Amiga - something I get no remuneration for). I just can't justify quite those prices for a conversion utility that does (IMHO) little in the way of creativity and only makes the picture viewable (on ANY platform, I'm tired of hearing that someone can charge a high price on the Amiga because someone else is charging an exorbitant price on another computer - lame). I heard about TAD's module format and thought they might have licked the price question until I saw the prices. Let me talk actual numbers here so you can see that I'm not trying to be unreasonable: I feel that $40 for the basic TAD (without the Turbo Silver or Sculpt-Animate converters which now come with it) is reasonable and $10-$20 for the conversion modules (allowing for difficulty and copyright dues {doesn't Compuserve charge for using GIF?}). When the "professional" version was released (something I am pissed that they didn't tell me would exist when I bought it because I always intended to pass my graphic gems back into the IBM/Mac world) I expected perhaps an upgrade at $40-$50 and maybe $5-10 for the expansion modules. I hope you don't think these prices too low because I am perfectly willing to pay (as you can see with calculator in hand) around $120-$130 for the ability to to translate (BOTH WAYS!) between IFF, GIF, Digi View 4.0, and Turbo Silver (I don't own SA, yet another price complaint). As for color separation, I agree that professionals should pay for this feature, but I'm no professional, only a rank amateur who likes the "art of light" in the form of pretty pictures on my computer display. I'll pay for it but $200 is a bit much (and the professional version of TAD is even more ridiculous, especially when I ran out and bought the first version and got screwed because they failed to tell me about the upcoming prof version and offered me an unreasonable upgrade policy - letters are on the way). Please realize that I can afford and justify a certain amount for my hobby, but I operated on the principal that I should not have to pay more than a product is worth (plus an author and retail mark-up) and the aforementioned products are just above my opinion of their price. All this is especially true since there are some reasonable PD programs which do the job adequately for nothing. I was really looking for something all-in-one that perhaps added a few features like better dithering or something. Since you are the author of ImageLink, can you answer a couple of questions about it: What kind of size limitations are placed on the GIF images with adequate memory (TAD will not let me load in a 1000x1000x256 GIF with 5 megs - 1000x 1000x256 = 1Meg, plenty of memory)? Does it support the dynamic modes (yes the "eye candy" which improves images considerably at the expense of doing much else, after all, I just view them in slideshow fashion)? Does it translate both ways between IFF-GIF (and the other modes which I'm not the least bit interested in yet, because I don't have access to such pix)? Does it support DV4.0, TS3.0, and SA (for info) RGB files? Does it support ARexx? Thanx for your interest and conversing with me like a resonable person with minimal flames (actually I did not see much "flames" just an honest reaction too my complaints - thanx). _______ __________ _/____) ' __ /_/ / ' / / __ _ "N.I.N.J.A.J.I.S."-Me / \___/__/___/ |_ /__/__/__/_/_-_/__/_/ The Displaced Razorback. ___________________________________________/ Founder: IDGAFF Ltd. The Amiga Computer - "...a more fiendish disputant than the Great Hyperbolic Omni-Cognate Neutron Wrangler of Ciceronicus Twelve..." -D.Adams; Well, almost.