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From: jonah@amos.ucsd.edu (Jonah Stich)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: GIF => 3200 colors?
Message-ID: <12421@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 26 Aug 90 15:17:59 GMT
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In article <139800018@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> wogg0743@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>Awhile back, someone mentioned a program from some group called F.U.C.K.
>which would turn GIFs into 3200 color pictures.  Does anyone have this,
>is it share/freeware, and if so can someone mail me a copy or post to
>comp.binaries.apple2?

Actually, the F.U.C.K. converter did IFF pictures into 3200 colors. Also, 
F.U.C.K. seems to prefer distributing other people's works more than their
own, and havent releasedhe converter. However, fear not--I know of SEVERAL
upcoming programs to convert GIFs & IFFs into 3200 colo. Probably the most
versatile is John MacLean's The Grpahic Exchange, whose new library disk
(to be released ??) has 16/256/3200 color IFF AND GIF converters, along with
a slew of other conversions.No oense to John, but his converter is a bit 
slow (though not as slow as SHR Convert.) To solve this, I'm working on my 
own 16/256/3200 color GIF and IFF converter. I did some sample timings on
a file called BLAST.GIF last night, and here's what I came up with:

All of these times are to convert a 320x200x25GIF into 16 colors. John's
conversion looked the best, followed VERY closely by mine, and SHR Convert's
was the worst. (Interesting side note: SHR Convert plies some sort of dither
to its conversions, probably in an attempt to enhance color resolution.
Unfortunately it diminishes actualy resolution, and makes the images look
kinda' fuzzy. You don't notice it unless you have something to compare with,
though (at least I didn't :))

SHR Convert: 87 seconds
TGE : 53 seconds
Me: 12 seconds

These were done with SHRConvert 2.1, a pre-release copy of TGE 4.2, and v0.1
of my program.

While I'm writing a little novel on GIF conversion, I want to take the time to
ask everyone "What are you looking for in a gif converter?" and "do you have
a pet algorithm you'd like to see included?" I want to make this thing as 
powerful as possible, and to that end I'd like to include lots of options,
features, etc. Anything suggestions for things you like to see tossed in
would be GREATLY appreciated! Thanks for the help/suggestions!

Jonah Stich
jonah@amos.ucsd.edu