32 New Features in PMView 0.90 ============================== Here are some of the neat new things in PMView 0.90: 1. The shareware (unregistered) version is now fully functional. You can now test all the features before registering (except the ability to turn off the logo). 2. There is a new dialog for file saves. In addition to being able to save BMP files and PMView slideshows, you can now save a bitmap using GIF, JPEG, PCX, PIC, TGA, TIFF, or PBMPlus (PBM, PGM, and PPM) formats. (And BMPs can now be saved in OS/2 1.x, OS/2 2.x, or Windows 3.x format). 3. There is fully context-sensitive online help (just hit F1). 4. There is a new Convert to-> command on the File Open and Save popup menus. This makes it convenient to batch convert images as a background task. 5. You can now print! You can print an image across multiple pages, adjust gamma for your printer, set up your printer, set up your page margins using millimeters, inches, or percentages. 6. There are new filters, including user-definable filters. NOTE&colon. The filter file format will change significantly in the next release of PMView, so you should be prepared. 7. There is a palette editor, so that you can change the palette entries on non-deep-color images. 8. You can now drag a rectangular area to cut, crop, or paste. An optional Track Info dialog box tells you the exact size and location of the selected area, and lets you type in a new location or size. 9. There is new support for reading and writing PBMPlus files (PBM, PGM, and PPM). 10. Kodak Photo CD PRO files (6144x4096) can now be read. 11. There is support for more TIFF formats&colon. FAX3/2D, FAX4, and Thunderscan compressions. 12. There is a completely new multithreaded method for painting the PMView window. This usually requires 3-4 times less RAM(!) than the old method and lets PMView display arbitrarily large bitmaps. (The old method used a shadow bitmap and would have required approximately 120MB of virtual memory to display a 40MB TIFF file. This is, in fact, more than OS/2 PM can handle; trying to use a bitmap this large usually makes the system hang. With the new method, you can display the same bitmap with 45MB of free virtual memory.) However, since the new method may be slower on certain display drivers, the old method is available as an option in the settings notebook. Additionally, you can set an image-size threshold to choose between display methods depending on the image you want to view. 13. The new Edit mode allows you to load, view, and save images with more colors than you can display. (View mode discards extra colors to save memory, speed painting, and give the best display quality for your screen mode.) 14. Dithering (to the screen or when reducing colors) is now multithreaded. 15. Long file name support has been improved. PMView now displays the long file name in the title bar and in all info dialogs. PMView also handles the .LONGNAME extended attribute in full. So, for instance, you can copy an image from an HPFS drive to a FAT drive (using the Drives object), and PMView will display the long file name. It also means you can give your images arbitrarily long names, even on FAT drives, and PMView (and OS/2's drive object) will display these names. (Note that OS/2's DIR command and many other programs will *not* display the long names.) 16. If you wish, PMView can display physical file names instead of Long File Names. 17. Support for 16-color systems has been improved. You can choose from a variety of optional fixed palettes and dithering methods. 18. Support has been improved for 256 color systems without palette manager. You can choose from a variety of optional fixed palettes and dithering methods. 19. There is a new Solarize special effect. 20. You can now adjust Gamma for your screen. This can be very useful when displaying images created on other computer systems (which often look too dark or too bright). 21. You can reduce to black/white, 16 colors, or 256 colors. (The last command includes an option to let you choose any number of colors between 0 and 256.) 22. The new "complete" Undo/Redo works on any operation that has modified the image. 23. The bulky old progress bar has been replaced by an animated clock mouse pointer. This saves screen space, RAM, and time. 24. You can now see color adjustments (brightness/contrast, gamma, etc.) in real-time on systems with deep color or without palette manager! 25. All the transform functions have been enhanced. The clock pointer will show your progress, and you can cancel the operation at any time by pressing ESC. 26. Transform functions now run in idle-time (with priority boost). 27. Priority boost has been enhanced to be less sensitive to "CPU hogs" once the process has started. (Previous versions of PMView could boost load priority unnecessarily due to a temporary "CPU hog".) 28. There are new command-line options. For instance, /WPOS lets you control the initial size and position (including Z-order!) of PMView's window. 29. There are new pages in the options notebook. The Confirmations lets you choose whether to be warned when deleting files, discarding changes, or stopping a batch conversion. The logo page (disabled on the unregistered version) lets you select how long to display the opening logo (or you can turn it off). And, by popular demand, a second page has been added to the Slideshow page of the options notebook, so you can set the defaults for new slides. 30. PMView can now interpolate pixels when resizing or rotating images. This is a little slower, but the results look much better. 31. The File Open Container and Slideshow Container will now "auto scroll" when you keep the left mouse button pressed and move outside the container. This is very handy for selecting multiple files. 32. PMView has better support for national language conventions. For instance, PMView will sort the names in the File Open box correctly according to the country selected in OS/2. Dates, times, and numbers will be displayed in the way that you have configured OS/2.