Save and Restore Menu

Save and Restore Menu

This submenu allows the contents of a buffer to be saved to disc or subsequently restored from disc. A number of compression options are available during the save operation. Choosing run-length encoding allows a reasonable degree of compression without sacraficing any information. Reduced spatial and intensity resolution is also possible, but only at the cost of lost information.

R Restore buffer.

Restores DigImage .PIC (compressed and raw), .TIF and .BMP images. For .TIF and .BMP, the number of pixels is preseverd rather than the aspect ratio. To preserve the image aspect ration, use [B Load Windows BMP file].

S Save buffer.

May be used to save as DigImage .PIC (raw or compressed), .TIF, .GIF and .BMP. For .TIF, .GIF and .BMP, the number of pixels is preserved rather than the aspect ratio. To preserve the aspect ratio for .BMP, use [C Save Windows BMP file] or [G Save as GIF image]. To save a window rather than the whole buffer, use [W Write window to file].

L Load window from file.

Loads image to a specific point in a frame buffer. This option supports raw .PIC, .TIF and .BMP files. For .TIF and .BMP the number of pixels rather than the aspect ratio are preserved. For .PIC files the window may be required to either wrap around, or truncate if it reaches the edge of the buffer.

W Write window to file.

Save a specific window to a raw .PIC, .TIF, .GIF or .BMP file. This window may subsequently be reloaded using [L Load window from file] or [R Restore buffer from file]. No compression is used on the data. For .TIF, .GIF and .BMP the number of pixels rather than the aspect ratio are preserved (use [C Save window to BMP file] or [G Save as GIF image] to preserve aspect ratio).

The format of the file .PIC file is binary, with the first two bytes giving the number of rows (ni), and the next two the number of columns (nj) in the window. The data is then stored as single bytes as (0,0),(0,1),...,(ni,nj).

B Load window from .

BMP file. This option loads 1, 4 or 8 bit Windows bit map files into a specified window within a frame buffer. The bit map is automatically scaled to completely fill the window. The output LUT is automatically changed to that associated with the bitmap.

C Save window to .

BMP file. This option saves the specified window as a 1, 4 or 8 bit Windows bit map file. The current output look up table is saved along with the image. The image is rescaled to the desired resolution, the defaults maintaining the aspect ratio. The .BMP file may be reloaded using [B Load window from .BMP file], or loaded into a Windows application.

G Save as .

GIF image. This option provides the ability to write an image to a .GIF file. These files are commonly used for storing images on bulliten boards and on the World Wide Web as part of the HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language).

X Load all buffers.

This option reloads the buffers with the images previously saved to DIGIBUFF.### by [Y Save all buffers]. If one of DIGIBUFF.### is not found, then the buffer concerned is not altered and a message displayed.

Y Save all buffers.

This option saves the contents of all the buffers (except buffer 0) to a series of files DIGIBUFF.###, where the ### extension specifies the buffer number. The buffers may be saved in either raw or compressed form.

F Save as formatted file.

This option provides the ability to write out the contents of an image as a simple formatted (ASCII) file with a variety of formats.

M: Movies.

Menu providing facilities to record, play and edit DigImage movies. The frame rate and resolution achievable are a compromise limited by the speed of the PC and its hard disk.


Parent menu

Main Menu

DigImage User Documentation


Stuart Dalziel, last page update: 19 February 1996