ConvImgs

Contents

Introduction

ConvImgs is an application that allows the batch interconversion of various image filetypes, e.g. sprite, PNG, JPEG, with the bonus that a number of simple transformations can be carried out at the same time.

While ConvImgs is under continuous development, this help manual may not keep up with developments. It should be correct for the development version shown in the header to this page.

Installation

For a new installation, simply drag and drop the ConvImgs application into the directory of your choice.

If you have a previous copy of ConvImgs you have two choices.

• Move the old version of ConvImgs somewhere safe and replace it with the new version
• Simply copy the new version over the old version, with filer options set to 'Force' and 'Newer'

Usage

ConvImgs is run in the usual way by double clicking on its icon. It will install on the icon bar.

The file, or selection of files, to be converted should be dragged to ConvImgs, either to the iconbar icon, when the control window will open, or if the control window is already open, files may be dragged to it.

The selection of files can be added to by dragging further selections. In addition, if one or more folders are dragged, then ConvImgs will add any suitable image files in the folder to the list.

ConvImgs will NOT recurse down the directory structure, only suitable image files in the top level will be added to the queue for processing. This is a deliberate decision - the worst case scenario with full recursion is that every image file on your 200GB drive is converted to eg. PNG format!

For any particular batch process, the types of the files to be converted need not be all the same - ConvImgs will queue for processing any image type it is able to load. It is currently able to load the following filetypes.

• Sprite
• JPEG
• PNG
• TIFF
• BMP
• GIF
• Sprite in a draw file (the first one found)

The iconbar icon

If a selection of suitable image files is dragged to the iconbar icon, these files will be added to the list of files to be processed. The control window will open automatically if not already open.

Clicking with SELECT on the iconbar icon will open the control window.

The icon bar menu

Info

Shows application information, including the version number, and also contains a Web button to check the download site for new versions.

Help...

Opens the html help file (this one).

Control...

Open the ConvImgs control window (see below). The control window can more easily be opened by clicking on the icon bar icon with Select.

Choices...

Open the ConvImgs choices window (see below). This allows you to change certain general settings, and also determine the settings in force when ConvImgs first starts up.

Quit

Remove the application from the iconbar.

The control window

The control window is shown below.

In the top section is shown information about the selection of files waiting to be converted.

Files to convert

This shows the total number of files waiting in the queue to be processed.

Clear file list

Clicking this button allows the file list to be cleared if you change your mind about files in the list. It will clear the whole list.

File types

This shows a breakdown of the different filetypes in the queued selection.

The middle section of the window allows a number of standard transformations to be applied. In this version there are three types of transformation options.

• Rotate/flip
• Resize
• Filter

These are described in detail below.

At the bottom of the window are the settings for the saving of the converted files.

Save to

This shows the path in which the converted files will be saved. This directory can be set in three ways.

• Click on the menu button to the right of the path field and drag the directory icon in to the destination directory
• Drag the destination directory from a filer display in to the path field. It must be in to the field, anywhere else in the window will result in ConvImgs searching the directory for suitable image files to be processed.
• For the masochists, the path may simply be entered from the keyboard.

Save as

This shows the format to which the files will be converted. The format can be changed by clicking on the popup menu button to the right of this field. This will open a small dialogue box, shown below.

This allows the output filetype to be set. The JPEG quality may be set, for when saving as JPEG files. The SET button should be clicked to apply the new settings.

At the bottom left of the control window is the Save settings button. Clicking this button will save all the current settings so that they will be remembered over a restart. This excludes the file list and the save path.

At the bottom right of the control window is the Convert button. Clicking this button will start the conversion process, assuming there are files waiting in the queue. The control window will close, and the status window will open. This is described below.

Process options

Rotate/flip

If this option is ticked, each image will be transformed by rotation or flipping before type conversion and saving. The current setting for transform type is shown to the right, and may be changed by clicking on the popup menu button and selecting a new setting from the menu that appears.

The options available are

• rotate left 90°
• rotate 180°
• rotate right 90°
• flip horizontal
• flip vertical

Resize

If this option is ticked, each image will be transformed by resizing before type conversion and saving. The current setting for resizing method is shown to the right, and may be changed by clicking on the popup menu button. A dialogue box will be opened.

There are currently four options for resizing.

Resize by

This will rescale the image by the percentage shown in the field to the right.

Resize X to

This will scale the images to the width (in pixels) entered in the field to the right. The aspect ratio of the image will be preserved.

Resize Y to

This will scale the images to the height (in pixels) entered in the field to the right. The aspect ratio of the image will be preserved.

Fit within

This will resize the images such that they fit within the height and width values specified. If the button Ignore aspect is not ticked then the aspect ratio will be preserved. If it is ticked then the image will be stretched in one of the directions to completely fill the specified size.

If the option 'Allow scale up' is ticked, then the images will be scaled up if necessary to fit the size, otherwise images smaller than the set dimensions will be left as is. This setting applies only to the last three options. If the 'Resize by' value is greater than 100%, then this will always be honoured.

The SET button should be clicked to apply the new settings.

Filter

If this option is ticked, each image will have a filter applied before type conversion and saving. The filter that will be applied is shown to the right, and may be changed by clicking on the popup menu button. The current options are:

Various levels of sharpening or blurring are available. The option 'Slight sharpen' is probably the one to use to reduce the softness of digital camera images.

The status window

When the Convert button is clicked, assuming there are some files in the queue, the control window will close, and the status window will open. This is shown below.

There are four display fields which show the progress of the processing. The total number of files to process, and the position in the queue of the current file are shown. The filename of the current file is also shown. There is also a field that shows the current operation being carried out.

If this window is expanded to full size, you will find two buttons at the bottom to allow some control over the processing.

Pause

This will allow the conversion process to be paused. The button text will change to Resume, and clicking on it again will result in the conversion being continued.

Stop

ConvImgs will first ask whether you really want to stop the conversion. If you do, then the conversion will be stopped as soon as possible. The current action (eg load) will be completed and then the conversion will be stopped.

Choices...

The Choices... window, accessed from the iconbar icon menu, is shown below.

Limit multitasking during processing

When the conversion is started, ConvImgs will always poll the wimp in between each individual operation of the conversion (eg between the file load and the file save). If this option is unticked, then ConvImgs will also poll the wimp during each operation. In most cases this means after each row of pixels of the image is processed. This will be slower, but the machine will remain fully responsive as the conversions are carried out. If it is ticked, then an hourglass will be shown during each phase of the conversion while there is no multitasking.

Add file extension

If this is ticked then ConvImgs will add the appropriate file extension (eg /jpg or /png) to the filename of each file as it is saved. If not ticked then the original filename, stripped of any extension it had, will be used for the saved file.

The additional option Long extension will use eg jpeg instead of jpg, where such alternative extensions exist.

Retain original date/time stamp

If this is ticked then the converted files will have their date/time stamp set to that of the original file. When unticked, the converted file will have a date/time stamp corresponding to when the processed file was saved.

Auto select process option when changed

This is for those of us who set up e.g. resize options, but then forget to select the option button to make the setting be used in the conversion. If this is ticked, then the appropriate option button will be automatically selected when a processing option is changed.

At the bottom of the window are three action buttons.

Set

When this button is clicked, ConvImgs will use the new settings for subsequent conversions.

Save

When this button is clicked, ConvImgs will use the new settings for subsequent conversions, and will save the settings so they are restored when ConvImgs is run on a subsequent occasion.

Cancel

When this button is clicked, the window will be closed and any changes made will be ignored.

Screenshots

All the screen shots in these pages were obtained using Snapper, a versatile screen capture application.

Snapper is available from http://www.chris-johnson.org.uk/software/snap.html

Contact

All communication about ConvImgs should be directed to Chris Johnson (Email:chris@chris-johnson.org.uk). Suggestions for new features are always welcome.

Web sites

Chris Johnson's web site is at http://www.chris-johnson.org.uk/index.html, with his RISC OS software at http://www.chris-johnson.org.uk/software/index.html.