Graphic Workshop for DOS -- What's New ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ PLEASE READ THIS FILE BEFORE YOU PROCEED Version 7.0f PNG SUPPORT ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß This release of Graphic Workshop supports PNG files, the new lossless compression standard which replaces GIF. While Graphic Workshop 7.0f looks cosmetically similar to earlier versions, we had to power up every sneaky trick we knew of to get the extensive PNG code into the restricted real estate available under DOS. A lot of things work differently inside Graphic Workshop now. While this shouldn't affect your use of this application, it's possible that some of this new functionality will have introduced bugs into the software that scuttled past the beta testers. If you have problems with Workshop, please get in touch with us. Graphic Workshop requires an 80286-based system or better to run -- it will not run on a machine with a first-generation 8088, 8086 or 80186 processor. A minimum of 640 kilobytes of memory is essential -- a few megabytes of extended or expanded memory will speed up Workshop's operations a lot. If you have problems with Workshop after you install it, read the GWS.DOC file for information about configuring Graphic Workshop. THE UNISYS GIF TAX ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß This new release of Graphic Workshop and the new PNG file format exist because of the Unisys GIF Tax. Unisys is a large computer company which holds a patent on the LZW compression algorythm that GIF and LZW TIFF files are based on. While the patent was issued in 1985, Unisys appears to have kept its existance quiet until fairly recently -- until GIF was widely in use -- and then demanded royalties from software developers who have implemented GIF or LZW TIFF in their applications. Unisys makes banking systems, network servers, PCs and other sorts of business hardware. If you are in a position to purchase or advise on the purchase of the sorts of products Unisys sells, we urge you to consider using another supplier. If you wish to contact Unisys to hear their side of this, or to voice your opinions about their business practices, we recommend that you contact Unisys' corporate council: Mark Starr Unisys Corporation P.O. Box 500 Blue Bell, PA 19424-0001 You can also contact him by telephone at 1-215-986-4411, and by FAX at 1-215-986-5721 NOTE: As of this writing, it's our understanding that if you bundle shareware which will read or write GIF or LZW TIFF files with a commercial, for-profit product, Unisys may demand a royalty from you based on the price of your product. Should you wish to include Graphic Workshop with a book, CD-ROM or other commercial entity, please contact us about an LZW-free version of this package. To read this document again at a later time, type: EDIT WHATSNEW.DOC in your \GWSDOS directory. ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß