Image Processing Software

    The GIMP is an Open Source multiplatform photo manipulation tool. GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. The GIMP is suitable for a variety of image manipulation tasks, including photo retouching, image composition, and image construction.
    It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. The powerful feature of GIMP it can handle multilayer images and save them as an animation sequence.
    GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.

    Initially the authors of the program were Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis. But now, being an Open Source platform, GIMP has a whole lot of developers contributing to various aspects of the application.

    You can start GIMP simply by clicking on its icon or with command-line arguments. The detailed list of available command-line arguments is in the Chapter 3.1 of the tutorial.

    Installing of the GIMP for the first time at your PC isn’t possible without prior installing of the environment GTK+. In such a case the installer detects a fatal error of the installation process and indicates the need for installing GTK+ at first. While installing GIMP you see the setup window in which you get information in the language native for your system version.
    You should take into account that GIMP installer creates a number of work directories in your Documents and Settings directory. Without these working directories the work with GIMP may be hampered.
    It’s interesting that the language of the application interface is detected automatically from the native language of the operational system; apart from English there are a number of interface languages available including Russian. You could change the current interface language in the GTK+ Runtime Environment menu from the whole lot of available languages.

    Downloading of the program and its environment as well as libraries and documentation is avalibale at the web-page http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/.
There is also an on-line manual for GIMP in the Web, available in several languages: English, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, Italian, German, Swedish. The English version of the manual is available through the link http://docs.gimp.org/en/, the German version - at http://docs.gimp.org/de/
You can install help-files on your PC via the corresponding link at the web-page www.gimp.org/windows/. These help-files are exceptionally detailed and contain a complete manual and tutorial for work in GIMP.
At the download page there are tips for installing GIMP for the first time at the link http://www.gimp.org/unix/user_install.html

    The basic Main menu in the Main window of the application has only three options: File (opens File Dialog), Xtns (contains a list of configuration options) and Help. But every GIMP window has its own Main menu. The Main menu of the image window has 10 options: File, Edit, Selection, View, Image, Layers, Tools, Dialog, Filters and Scripts-Fu.

    The option File of the Main menu opens File Dialog popup. Apart from usual options of file opening and saving/closing there are options of opening the image from the Internet (Open Location) and opening the image as a layer (Open as Layer…) and saving it as a template for future images (Save as Template), as well as options of closing the current window, quitting the application and printing setup/printing the current image.
The option Edit of the Main menu opens Edit Dialog popup. Here there are usual editing options such as Clear, Cut, Copy, Paste, Clipboard, etc, as well as pasting from Clipboard and colour pouring. There is an option of Undoing/Redoing changes.
The option Select contains various selection options.
The option View contains view options. Some of them are checkable; if checked they enable the feature, otherwise the feature is disabled. The option Scale sets the scale of the image view. The option Information window shows detailed information about properties of the current image. The option Screen filters allows to apply various screen filters to the current image.
The option Image of the Main menu contains other image handling options such as setting the grid, setting the size of the canvas, scaling, getting screenshots, transforming the image.
The option Layers contain opens layer handling popup.
The option Tools allows to select and choose a needed image handling tool.
The option Dialog allows working with the instruments in a dialog mode by selecting and choosing tools from the toolboxes.
The option Filters unites available image filters. It has the option Text allowing to add texts in the image in the selected font.
And the option Script-Fu contains a list of available special effects to apply.

    Of course this description of the application is very short and incomplete. It is very sketchy. GIMP is very powerful image handling tool. You can receive detailed information about interesting aspect of work with GIMP either from the manual or using context-dependent help.

    IrfanView is a rather small and compact image converter and refinisher (the size of the installer executable is only 885K). It’s especially useful for working with digital photos and their refinishing. IrfanView is a very fast image viewer/converter. It features: viewing support for dozens of formats both popular and obscure, drag and drop support, fast directory view, print support, TWAIN support, slideshow view, batch conversion, color depth and more.

    The Main menu of the utility has 6 options: File, Edit, Image, Options, View and Help.
The option File opens File Dialog. The File Dialog popup menu is very elaborate and has many options gathered in separate groups. Many options of the File Dialog has associated with them function keys. The first such group includes standard options of opening files Open, Reopen, Open with external editor, Open As. The option Reopen allows for yet another opening of yhe last opened file. The option Open with external editor allows for the opening of the selected image with the help of the other image editor if such external image editor is written in preferences. The option Open As allows for th1e opening of the image in specific formats ASCII, HEX and RAW.
The standalone option Thumbnails allows for opening of images by selecting and choosing thumbnails in a directory tree.
The option Slideshow allows you to open slideshows. The option Batch conversion/Rename… allows for conversion image format of a selected group of files. It opens a window of built-in image converter. In this window you can define a file group for conversion (optionally including subdirectories), an output image format, an output directory and path, and much more. You can also set some specific options of the selected output format.
There is also the group of standard options of dealing with files in the File Dialog: Rename File…, Move File…, Copy File…, Delete File…. These options allows for working in IrfanView as in any file browser.
The option group Save and Save As allows for saving of the selected image in a chosen image format.
The standalone option Print allows for printing of the selected image. It opens the Print window in which you can set various properties of printing and actually start the printing process.
Then there is the group of options dealing with image hardware: Select TWAIN source…, Acquire/Batch scanning… and Copy Shop….
The standalone option MRUDs opens the popup of recently opened image directories.
The standalone option Exit cancels program execution.

    The option Edit opens Edit Dialog popup which comprises various editing options mainly to deal with selections in the selected image. It allows undoing recent actions, and clearing the whole picture and the Clipboard, and inserting texts in the current selection.

    The option Image opens the Image Dialog popup containing yet another group of image editing options - mainly various special effects. As usual there are, of course, rotating and flipping of the image, resizing the image and/or the canvas, color changing, negation of the color and converting it into greyscale, and more. The option Information opens the information window which contain extensive data about the current image.

    The option Options opens the Options popup allowing for setting of various options and preferences of the application. Some of the options (Start Multimedia Player and JPG Lossless Operations…) require external plug-ins which can be downloaded from the website of the developer. The option Capture/Screenshot let you make screen captures.
The option Change language… deserves special mentioning. It allows changing of the program interface. In the basic configuration two variants are envisaged: English and German (Deutsch). But you can select one of the two dozen plus European and Asiatic languages if you download the corresponding language support file from the web-site of the developer. You can see there the list of currently supported languages. It includes Russian . Apparently, the languages support DLLs are developed by the programmers community. At least, the Russian language DLL is developed by some guy from Zelenograd, Russia. The multilanguage support is exceptionally strong feature of IrfanView. It’s very rare in other FreeWare applications.

    The option View of the Main menu opens the popup of view options. Here you can set showing/hiding of application tools (the taskbar, the toolbar, the meny bar), select full-screen or window mode, select an option of fitting the selected image or no fitting at all. You can also change the current image in the editor by scanning the current image directory (options Next/Previous/First/Last/Random File in Directory), or even set an automatic view of the current image directory (the option
Start/Stop automatic viewing). There are options of zooming in and out, or returning to actual size of the image (the option Original size). There is also and option of viewing the HEX-content of the image file (Show HEX view). And you can view multipage images with the option Multipage images or even create them (but creating of such images require an extenal plug-in - except TIF format).

    The option Help opens a Help popup. There are context-dependent help in the Microsoft Help formay, the FAQ list, the Keyboard Shortcuts explanation and options of various info about the program and its developer. The is the option
Registration… for customer registering. Registered customers can receive technical support.

    Under the Main menu bar of the application there is the taskbar containing buttons for various most often usable actions in the applications. In the taskbar there is a small window for selected the current image directly by specifying its directory index. You can see in the window on-line tip about the number of image files in the current directory. The current selected file is indicated in the format The Index Number Of File-Slash-The Number Of Image Files In Directory.
    At the lower edge of the Main window there is the status bar of the application. The status bar contains information about bits per pixel of the image, its directory index, the file size, the date and time of its creation.

Here are some reviews about the application from the Web:

Reviewed By: Richard Weil
I’ve been using this viewer for years and wouldn’t use anything else. I’ve tried others and remove them and return to Irfan View exclusivly. This freeware program is probably as good or better than most viewer software. Adding the available plug-ins makes it even better. It can view any type graphic file you desire. It’s the best!

Reviewed By: Jamie

This tiny software is wonderful! You can resize pictures, touch them up change the color and view all types of gif, jpg, bmp and tons of other extensions

Reviewed By: Sven

It is small, fast and has all functions it needs. And it’s free!

Downloading of the application is available via download page
http://www.sofotex.com/downloads/d59.html

Technorati Profile

    This is rather simple image editor allowing to edit images fom a variety of formats (GIF, JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF, PCX, BMP, TARGA, AVI); create images for websites; create and view GIF animations; adjust colours in photos; apply filters and transformations; magic wand selections; use any picture as a brush or fill pattern; blur; sharpen.
    The program is developed by Paul Bird from England. The program has a commercial version, too. The commercial and freeware versions are different in that help files, sample images, texture and fill patterns are available only in the commercial version. In the commercial version there are more filters, the 3D Shape Maker, Object to Bitmap Converter and the RAM Viewer. The commercial version is shipped by the developer on a CD-ROM. The freeware version has no on-line help.
    Downloading of the freeware version of the application is available on
    The Main menu of the application has eight options: File, Edit, Selection, Toolboxes, Picture, Run…, View and Help.

    The Help option opens the Help popup, containing options Brush Strokes Manual, General Tips, What Do I Do Next? and a standard option About (some information about the application and its developer). As a mater of fact, in the freeware version the option Brush Strokes Manual (the on-line application manual) is, in essence, disabled; it opens a window containing information that the on-line manual is available only in the commercial version. But the options of on-line tips (General Tips and What Do I Do Next?) work.

    The option File opens File Dialog containing options of opening/closing image files (New…, Open…, Save picture as…), getting images from a digital camera (Capture from Camera) and from a video image file (Get frame from Video); printing images (Print… and Print Preview), cancelling the program execution (Exit) and a link to the web-site of the developer (Free Software Website). It must be noted that in the freeware version the option of printing images Print… doesn’t work; but the option of Print Preview works.

    The option Edit opens Edit Dialog containing only the usual options of selecting and editing (Copy, Cut, Paste, Select All, and Crop Selection), clearing the window content (Clear), and undoing/redoing changes (Undo/Redo).

    The option Selection calls the popup containing options for working with the current selection (Paint Background, Set Transparency - sets transparency level of the selection, Linear Interpolation - if checked it improves the quality of transformations in slight expense of speed, and Colour Tolerance - sets how colors and shades need to be considered part of the same selection).

    The option Toolboxes calls the popup containing checkable options of opening/closing toolbars of the application (Pens&Brushes, Lenses&Filters, Selections, Transformations, Frame Tools), the option of opening the window of applying plug-in filters to the current image Plug-in Filters, the option of inserting some text in the image in the selected font Texts&Fonts, checkable options of opening/closing palette toolbars (for 16 and 256 colors), the option Greyscale Colors which actually replaces colors with shades of grey, and the option of resetting color palettes Reset Colors.

    The option Picture of the Main Menu calls the popup containing options of changing the size of the image Change Size, swapping current frames Swap Frames (which is assigned the function key F1), Adjust Colors - calls the window of adjusting colors of the current image, and checkable options Use Only 16 Colors and Use Only 256 Colors.

    The option Run… serves to call the plug-ins Object To Bitmap Converter, 3D Object Maker, and RAM Show. As has been mentioned above these plug-ins are absent in the freeware version; the corresponding options of the popup Run link to the webpage for ordering the commercial version instead.

    The option View calls the popup of zooming the image and displaying it in full screen. This popup has the option of animation preview, too. An animation consists of several frames; in this option you can set the number of frames in the animation.

    Under the Main Menu of the application there is the main taskbar containing buttons for various actions. If you want on-line tip for the button just press the right-hand button of the mouse while the mouse pointer points to the chosen button.

    At the bottom of the Main window of the application are displayed information about the current position of the cursor and the composition of the color at this point (in shares of Red, Green and Blue).

The first button in the main taskbar with a question mark is present only in the freeware version. It calls the page warning about absent help files and inviting to visit the webpage for ordering the commercial version.

    Artweaver is a simple freeware image editing program for creative painting, i.e. Artweaver offers you all artistic effects which you need for your work.
You can create sketches from photos and experiment with a wide range of brushes. The brush simulation is thereby so realistic as possible.
Main features of the program:

• Support of many different digital brushes e.g. chalk, charcoal, pencils and so on.
• Standard image editing tools like gradient, crop, fill and selection tools.
• Transparency and Layers support.
• Effect filters like sharpen, blur, emboss and mosaic.
• Support for the most common file formats like AWD (Artweaver), BMP, GIF, JPEG, PCX, TGA, TIFF, PNG, and PSD (no layer support).
• Pen Tablet support for a realistic feeling.
• Support for several languages through language files.

    At present Artweaver supports through language files English, German, Chinese and Hungarian languages.
Artweaver is available for downloading through links at the web-page
http://www.artweaver.de/index.php?downloads_en
    You can download via these links the needed language support files.
    Artweaver is primarily an image editing tool with many artistic effects. Although it supports a number of image formats and can be used for image format converting. Image formats supported by Artweaver: AWD (native format for Artweaver), Bitmap (.PCX, .RLE), GIF, JPEG (.JPG, .JPEG, .JPE), PCX, PNG, Photoshop (.PSD), TARGA (.TGA, .VDA, .ICB, .VST ), TIFF (.TIFF, .TIF).
    The Main menu of the application has nine options: File, Edit, Image, Layer, Select, Filter, View, Window, Help.
    The option File initiates File Dialog popup which has both standard options of opening, closing and saving files (New, Open, Close, Save and Save As), and some specific options for this application. These are, for example, options of cloning images (Clone and Clone Source), the option Iterative Save. The File Dialog supports a list of recently opened files though a bit peculiarly for Windows-oriented programmes - not directly but via the option Open Recent of the File Dialog popup. In the File Dialog popup there are also options of exporting-importing images (Export/Import) as well as options for printing images, and the option Exit for cancelling program execution and quitting the application.
    The option Edit calls Edit popup containing standard editing options (Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete), as well as options of undoing/redoing changes, presetting and setting preferences. In this popup are also included options of transforming images (free transforming, rotating, flipping and so on).
    The option Image calls Image popup containing options of various adjustments (coloring, curves, hues, saturation, etc), duplicating the selected image (Duplicate), setting the paper color, setting the size of the image and canvas, and rotating the canvas. The option Attributes of the popup initiates an information window about properties of the image.
    The option Layer calls Layer popup designed for managing layers of the image (if such layers exist). Artweaver supports layers in the image (i.e. the image may have several layers which could be brought to front sent to back. Each layer can be dealt with independently.
    The option Select calls Select popup with various options of selecting and dealing with selected material. Besides usual possibilities of selecting you have the option Layer Content allowing you to select the whole layer content in the image. There are also options of saving the selection onto a disk and loading the selection saved earlier. Selections are saved in .Asl file format (Antweaver Selection).
    The option Filter of the Main menu allows using special effects with images as a whole as well as with the selected layer of the image. There are a whole lot of such special effects and the popup Filter is rather rich in content.
    The option View of the Main menu contains options of zooming in and out of an image, fitting the size of an image, setting the grid and so on.
    The option Window of the Main menu comprises standard options of work with windows for Windows-based programmes (cascading and tiling windows, arranging, closing, and minimizing), as well as options of hiding/showing various tools windows of the application (toolbars, palettes, brushes, color sets and so on).
    The option Help of the Main menu calls a popup with options of Help and About, as well as System Information and links for updating the program. The Help of the application is in Microsoft Help format. It’s structurized, indexed and has the option of context-oriented search. The Help is very detailed describing basic concepts and work with images with application tools. In the Help is especially underlined that the creator of the program strived for maximal approach to real painting (e.g. you can imitate various textures of canvas material).
    In the Main window of the application there are windows of application tools: Toolbar (selecting various tools), Brush (specifically for changing the properties of the brush if brush is used as a current tool), Color Set (denoting the current color of paint), Layers (for changing the layer destined to work with) and Preview (to show the image as it would be printed).
    Under the Main menu is also located the taskbar containing comboboxes with regulators for changing properties of the image.
    You can contact the developer of the application via web-page http://www.artweaver.de/index.php?contact_en or visit Artweaver support forum at the address: http://www.artweaver.de/forum/

    This is a freeware paint and image editing tool. It features soft brushes, scanner support, crop, resize, rotate, special effects filters, gradients, patterns, and much more. The company provides for two version of the product - freeware and commercial (ImageForge Pro). Downloading of the freeware version of the product is available here. You can download either a self-extracting installer or a .ZIP file, containing installation files.
The Main menu of the application has eight options: File, Edit, Options, Picture, Effects, Tools, Window and Help.

    The option File opens a File Dialog. The File Dialog may be conducted in two styles: so-called Standard Windows and Enhanced. The selection of the File Dialog style is done by the option File Selector (pop-up menu) in the pop-up menu File Dailog. Both styles of the File Dialog support an image preview option. The File Dialog popup has also the option of acquiring images via a TWAIN device (Acquire from TWAIN device). There is also the option Print allowing you either to print the selected image on paper or export it to another image format (image converting). Image converting is available by the option Save As of the File Dialog popup. The File Dialog also has the option Exit to cancel program execution and contains a list of recently opened files.
    The option Edit of the Main menu opens the Edit Dialog which contains standard editing options (Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Select All), options of undoing previous actions and redoing them (Undo and Redo), the option Show Clipboard, and specific option Use paper color as transparent color which can be checked or unchecked. This option is checked if you want to set all colors which match the Paper Color to transparent when using the Paste as New Selection (Transparent) option under the Edit menu.
    The option Options initiates the Options Dialog popup which contains the following options:

• Button Bar (Small, Large)

Defines the size of buttons in the Main window taskbar.

• Toolbar (Left, Right

Defines the arrangement of the editor toolbar: on the right or on the left in the Main Window

• Auto Hide Tool Bar

This option can be checked or unchecked. Check this option if you want more editing room and would like the Tool Bar to be hidden when not being used. The Tool Bar activates again when you allow the cursor to hover at the edge of the frame.

• Snap Cursor to Drawing Grid

This option is checkable, too. If checked this option causes objects and tools to align with invisible grid points established with the Set Grid function. Useful to precise positioning lines and objects.

• Set Drawing Grid

Initiates Set Grid function and the Set Grid window, accordingly, allowing you to set the size of the grid cells.

• Show Magnification Grid

This option is checkable. If enabled this option places a grid over the image while it is magnified. This can make it easier to identify individual pixels in the picture.

• Undo On

This checkable option enables Undo feature.

• Set Selection Tools to Auto Crop
• Anti-Alias Image Rotation
• Draw From Centre

Objects (circles or rectangles) are usually drawn by clicking on the upper corner and dragging down and to the left or right. Checking this option allows to draw objects by clicking at the centre of the area in which to place the object and dragging outward in any direction.

• Set Preferences

Opens Set Preferences window in which one can set preferences of the program interface, saving, palette, etc.

    The option Picture calls the Picture popup allowing various actions with the selected image, namely:

• Crop
• Enlarge Canvas
• Resize
• Resample
• Duplicate
• Set palete…
• Change Color Depth (the number of colors)
• Dithering Options
• Flip Horizontal
• Flip Vertical
• Rotate
• Rotate by Degree
• Invert
• Clear
• Skew/Shear

    The popup Picture has also options Info (which initiates the info-window about current selected image - dimensions, number of colors, bits per pixel, size, compression, as well as file date/time and name including directory) and Preview initiating the Preview window.
    The option Effects calls the Effects popup allowing various special effects with the selected image, as to: changing colors of the image by different ways and changing outlines in the picture.
    The Tools calls the Tools popup containing only one option in the freeware version of the product: Create Album Or Slide Show.
The option Window calls the Window popup containing standard Windows options of arranging windows: cascading, tiling, etc.
The option Help calls the Help popup, containing options of on-line Help of the application (in the Microsoft Windows Help format), web-links of the creator, the option About (calling the About window of the application - info about the creator) and useful option Restore Default Registry Settings. With this option you can always restore default ImageForge settings if experience some problem. Sometimes it helps

In the Main window of the application there are also the Taskbar containing buttons for the most often usable actions and the Toolbar containing various editing instruments.

The current positioning of the cursor in pixels in the image is indicated in the left lower corner of the window.

To summarize, this image editor is very refined for a freeware tool .

    This is rather powerful advanced image converter and editor (in comparison with other freeware products of the same type). The full version of the product is distributed on a commercial basis. But there is a shareware version of the utility distributed for trial purposes.
    It supports reading graphics of BMP, DIB, JPG, JPEG, GIF, ICO, ICB, PCX, PCD, PSP, PBM, PGM, PSD, PPM, PSG, PNG, VST, VDA, EMF, WMF, TIF, TIFF, WBMP, RLE, SGI, and more. It supports saving graphics to DIB, BMP, GIF, JPG, JPEG, ICO, TIF, TIFF, WBMP, WMF, EMF, PNG, TGA, and more. It supports screen capturing with different ways. It supports more than 50 different filters. It supports unlimited UNDO and REDO operations.
    Key features of the product:

• Open and view more than 30 images formats including BMP, JPG, GIF, DIB, ICO, ICB, PCX, PCD, PSP, PBM, PGM, PSD, PPM, PSG, PNG, VST, VDA, EMF, WMF, TIF, TIFF, WBMP, RLE, SGI, TGA, and more.
• Save and write more than 10 mages formats including DIB, BMP, GIF, JPG, ICO, TIF, TIFF, WBMP, WMF, EMF, TGA, PNG, and more.
• Support capturing screenshots from many ways including [Capture full screen], [Capture full desktop], [Capture last active window], [Capture ICON Area], [Capture by every windows].
  Stretch image to ICON size and save as ICON file.
• Support editing image with selection, resize, rotate, add canvas, and more
• Support more than 50 filters like noise, contrast, soften, blur, sharpen, stretch, lightness, mosaic, gray scale, tweak, colorize, polarize, shake, swap, swirl, and more.
• Unlimited UNDO and REDO operations
• Full options of capturing, images formats, and other

    The Main menu of the utility has five options: File (File Dialog), Edit (Edit Dialog), View (View Dialog), Effects (allows applying various effects to a picture) and Help.
    The File Dialog provides for standard options to deal with files (New, Open, Save, Save As) as well as printing of the selected image (Print) and quitting the execution of the program (Quit). The File Dialog also supports a list of recently opened files.
    The Edit Dialog allows for various options of editing the selected image. This dialog contains options of screen capturing, too.
    The View Dialog has standard options of displaying files in the current directory (which is displayed at the lower left corner of the Main window of the utility) and the option ‘Options‘ (various preferences). In the Options window there is a pageframe with four pages (Format, Image, Capture and Other). In the page Format all checkboxes of file opening and saving are checked and disabled in the shareware version of the utility. In the page Image you can set some options for JPG, GIF and ICO files. In the Page Other you can set default directories for opening and saving files as well as the directory for temporary files. The option Effects of the utility Main menu is very rich and provides for editing of the selected image with various effects. The pop-up menu Help (the option Help of the Main Menu) provides for on-line help for the user as well as links for ordering the product, a user support, registration of the current copy of the utility (after the registration of the utility copy disabled options become enabled) and has a standard option About (in the About window there are some information on the product and its developer).
    There is a taskbar in the Main window of he application, too, which contains the buttons for often used actions and options.
    You can see the selected image in the right lower corner of the Main window.
    Actual converting of the image is being done by the option Save As of the File Dialog of the Main menu. Here you select the type of the output image.

    Downloading of the product is available at the download link on the wep-page http://www.graphic-converter.net/index.htm

    This is a freeware utility that converts GIF files to PNG “ping” format. The application can work so in batch mode as in drag-and-drop mode.There are different ways of scheduling files for conversion.

• Press the Files button on the application dialog.
• Drag files onto the running application from Windows Explorer.
• Drag files onto exorcist.exe or shortcut on your desktop.
• Run the program from the command line, passing the filenames as parameters.

    After the conversion the utility optionally moves the input GIF file into the recycle bin.
    The Main window of the utility has three different areas: a configuration area, a status area and a progress bar. In the configuration area there are four configuration check-boxes:

1. Create Interlaced PNG file (if this check-box is checked the utility creates output PNG files for every input GIF file; the output file has the same name as the input file but a different extension (.png instead of .gif); the output files are created in the same directory as the input files)
2. Delete Source GIF file. If this check-box is checked the utility moves the input file into the recycle bin after the conversion of the image format.
3. Write Histogram Information. PNG supports an optional palette histogram so that displays with fewer available colours can quantise the image more easily. This will make the output file slightly larger, but improve performance in color poor environment
4. Write Software Chunk. Identify The Exorcist - Gif2Png as the originator of the PNG file.

    In the status area of the Main window the utility displays information about the number of files in a conversion queue and the number of processed files.
    At the bottom of the Main window there are three buttons: File (opens File Dialog), Help (calls the Help .htm file) and About (calls the About window displaying information about the creator of the utility Nigel Stewart) and a status progress bar of the conversion process.
    At present, the utility is available for download at the link http://www.nigels.com/exorcist/Download.html, or through the web-page http://www.nigels.com/exorcist/Exorcist.html
     In general, one can say the utility is pretty refined. Nothing superfluous, it performs its task quickly and exactly.

    This is a simple highly specialized image converter developed for one purpose only: converting images in EMF/WMF (Windows Metafile) format to EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) format. Actual converting of the image is being done using the PostScript driver installed on the user’s PC. Without the PostScript driver the converting of the image format by this application is impossible. The structure of the program is pretty simple.     The Main menu contains four options: File, Edit, Convert and Help. The Pop-up menu File has two options: Open (for selecting and opening EMF/WMF images for converting) and Save As (allowing to save selected pictures under another name). The pop-up menu Edit has standard options for working with a selection list (Cut, Copy, Paste and Delete) and the option Preferences. Actually, the options Cut and Delete perform the same task - they delete selected file from the list for conversion. The option Preferences serves for selecting the PostScript printer (which should be installed earlier, of course). You can also set the resolution of the output image with this option (taking into account capabilities of the installed PostScript driver). The option Convert serves to convert image format of the whole list of image files or the selection of files within that list. During the process of converting the PostScript driver is called; the converted image is shown in the left lower corner of the Preview window of the printer driver. Actually, the destination of the output of the converted image is saving to EPS file, not the printing on paper. The option Help of the Main menu actually contains no help at all - only a pop-up About.
    The distribution package of the application is available at link http://www.projectory.de/emftoeps/emftoeps.zip or through a link in http://www.projectory.de/emftoeps/index.html.
    As a matter of fact there are no installation process, however. The distribution package is a .zip archive containing a ready-for-work copy of the application directory; the executable is EMFToEPS.exe. It’s interesting that the author of the application graciously supplies source files of the program, too. They are contained in the sub-directory ‘source‘.
    The author of the application - Dirk Struve warns that there are some bugs in his applet:

• Some WMF images can’t be loaded correctly, because the WMF format is not well defined and I don’t now all different versions. Solution: Always save images as EMF.
• Some WMF images are not converted correctly. (This seems to be a PostScript driver problem) Solution: Try saving images as EMF or WMF images with True Type fonts as curves.
• Preview of File Dialog sometimes wrong (Bug in Delphi libraries).
• On some Windows systems, images are not displayed correctly or dieappear.

But he writes he probably won’t continue work on it.

    Easy Graphic Converter is a powerful and easy-to-use graphic converter, image converter and thumbnails maker utility that can covert image files and make thumbnails. It a 32-bit software program that runs on Microsoft Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows ME Operating Systems.
    The version 1.2.0 of the product is free for use and available for download at the link http://www.etrusoft.com/graphic-converter/graphic-converter.exe. The size of the executable for installation is 813K.
    The basic features of the product are:

• Easy Graphic Converter can both import and export images in the following formats:
  • Windows Bitmap (*.bmp, *.dib)
  • GIF (*.gif)
  • JPEG (*.jpg, *.jpeg)
  • Portable Graphics PNG (*.png)
  • ZSoft PCX (*.pcx)
  • Adobe PSD (*.psd)
  • Targa (*.tga)
  • TIFF (*.tif, *.tiff)
  • Windows Metafile (*.wmf)
  • Windows Enhanced Metafile (*.emf)
• Easy Graphic Converter can make thumbnails in two ways:
  • Best Fit
  • Exact Size of specified width and height
  • Or simply export images the same size as the original ones.
• Easy Graphic Converter is a batch converting tool. You can convert batches of different formats images to one type of image in one time. It supports auto name.

    The Help of the application is in an separate .htm file and contains a list of basic features of the program, a simple FAQ section and the link to the site of the creator. At present, there is no on-line help section in the application.
    The Main menu of the application has the following options: Add (for adding individual files or whole directories of files for converting), Remove (for removing files or directories from the list for converting added earlier), Clear (clears the whole list), Settings (for setting converting options) and Exit (for closing application). In the Settings window you can define an output image format, bits per pixel, options of resizing of the initial image, the directory for saving output images and some other characteristics. Selected output settings for converting images are displayed in the Main window of the application.
    The process of actual converting selected images starts when you press the button Start in the application window.

    There are a lot of image formats and hundreds of software programmes capable of converting image formats from one to another. Sometimes individual graphic (image) format is native for some graphic application and may be as an export option in another graphic application (or may be not). In that case may arise a need to convert specific image into native format of that graphic application. Here is a list of some graphic applications and their native image formats:

• CDR - CorelDRAW
• CPP - Corel Photo-Paint
• PSD - Adobe Photoshop
• PDD - Adobe PhotoDeluxe
• AI - Adobe Illustrator
• UFO - Ulead PhotoImpact
• PSP - Paint Shop Pro
• MIX - Microsoft PictureIt and PhotoDraw

    Besides, there are a number of image formats that are considered as standard. A standard image format is one that is cross-platform compatible and supported by the majority of graphics applications.

    The most common standard bitmap-based image formats are TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), JPG (Joint Photographic [Experts] Group), GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), and PNG (Portable Network Graphics). On the Windows platform BMP (Bit Mapped Pictures) is a standard format and PICT is a standard bitmap format on the Macintosh. Photoshop’s PSD format is supported to some degree by most graphics applications, but you should take into account that transferring PSD between non-Adobe applications may give unexpected results.

    The most common standard vector-based formats are EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) and AI. On the Windows platform, most vector-based software also supports WMF (Windows Metafile Format) and EMF (Microsoft Enhanced Metafile Format) formats.

    While sending files over the Internet or transporting them between graphics applications, it is recommended to use one of these standard formats, or the results may be unexpected. When sending graphic images via email and the Web, it is best to use JPEG or GIF format, which can be displayed by any Web browser on any computer. If in doubt, ask the recipient of your files which image formats they can accept.

Sources: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/aboutgraphics/a/convertgraphics.htm, http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/glossary/g/nativeformat.htm, http://graphicssoft.about.com/library/glossary/bldefstandardformat.htm