0README
1XWPICK - X Windows Image Pick up Utility.
2
3
4GENERAL INFO
5============
6
7Xwpick lets you pick an image from an arbitrary window or rectangular
8area of an X Window (DEC Window) server and write it to a file in a
9variety of formats.
10
11Why xwpick?
12
13 o Xwpick is convenient in use. The onmipresent blinking rectangle
14 surrounding the area to be picked and involment of the keyboard
15 input in addition to the mouse help to get rid of numerous parameters,
16 nevertheless satisfying in quite a natural way the most common needs
17 of users, namely, picking an image from a selected window or from
18 an arbitrary rectangular area and a possibility to change the
19 selected image just before outputing to a file.
20
21 Xwpick also allows to pick images from pop-up menus, which are on the
22 screen only when the mouse button is pressed and disappear immediately
23 after the button is released.
24
25 o Xwpick can output images in various formats: different PostScripts,
26 GIF, PCX (IBM PC), PICT (Macintosh), PPM (PBM Plus).
27
28 o Xwpick runs not only on UNIX platforms, but on OpenVMS (VAX/Alpha)
29 as well.
30
31 o Xwpick uses the Lempel-Ziv Welch (LZW) compression algorithm for
32 image encoding in PostScript, thus producing very compact files:
33 3-5 time less than files produced with Run Length Encoding (RLE) and
34 10-30 times less than files produced without compression.
35
36 PostScipt files produced by XWPICK automatically understand on what
37 kind of printer they are being output. On level 2 PostScript printers
38 the native LZW/ASCII85 decoding filters will be invoked, while on
39 level 1 printers the inline decompression code is executed. Rendering
40 time on level 2 printers is pretty fast (usually less than 1 minute),
41 on level 1 printers the image rendering, of course, is much slower, but
42 nevertheless essentially faster than for Run Length Encoded PostScript
43 images.
44
45
46CHANGE OF NAME
47==============
48
49Originally xwpick had more short name xpick. First public version of the
50utility xpick-1.21 (Rev: 23/11/93) has been uploaded on the asis01.cern.ch
51file server at European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
52
53Starting from version 2.10 (Rev: 15.08.94) the name has been changed
54to xwpick, to avoid a conflict with xpick by Gerry Tomlinson, which is
55"...an X11 Athena Widget implementation of pick, from "The Unix Programming
56Environment" by Kernighan and Pike..."
57
58
59WHERE IT RUNS
60=============
61
62Xwpick runs on all UNIX platforms and under OpenVMS (VAX/Alpha).
63
64FILE LIST
65=========
66
67Distribution for xwpick-2.20 (Rev: 20/09/94) consists from 18 files:
68
69 1. 0README This file
70 2. 0INSTALL Installation instruction
71 3. CHANGELOG Revision history
72 4. CNL_ARTICLE.PS CERN Computer News Letters article on xpick-1.21.
73 (There is a comparison table with rendering times
74 on different PostScript printers)
75
76 5. Imakefile Input for 'imake' program.
77 6. Makefile.std Ordinary Makefile file for 'make' utility
78
79 7. vmsmake.com Make file for OpenVMS (VAX/Alpha).
80 8. setup.com Set up file for OpenVMS.
81
82 9. xwpick.man Man page for UNIX.
8310. xwpick.hlp Help page for VMS.
84
8511. xwpick.c Main routine for xwpick.
8612. ImgToolKit.c Set of routines for work with X Window system.
8713. PS_LZWencode.c PostScript (LZW) encoding routine.
8814. PSencode.c PostScript (RLE) encoding routine.
8915. GIFencode.c GIF encoding routine.
9016. PICTencode.c PICT (Mac) encoding routine.
9117. PCXencode.c PCX (IBM PC) encoding routine.
9218. PPMencode.c PPM (PBM+) encoding routine.
93
94
95WARNINGS
96========
97
981) Xwpick uses PostScript level 2 compression algorithm, which
99sometimes generates data lines containing symbol % in first position.
100That can get confused some PostScript spoolers and post-processing
101programs which eliminate PostScrip comment lines (i.e. lines starting
102with % in column 1) from the generated output.
103
104So, be careful by applying such programs for PostScrip files produced
105by xwpick.
106
107An example: the dvips program which converts a TeX DVI file to PostScript
108must be used with option -K0 in case when the TeX (LaTeX) file contains
109references to PostScript files produced by xwpick.
110
1112) Xwpick does not work on 24-bit DirectColor/TrueColor devices.
112
113
114COPYRIGHT NOTICE
115================
116Xwpick is Copyright 1993, 1994 by Evgeni Chernyaev
117
118Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and
119its documentation for non-commercial purpose is hereby granted
120without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all
121copies and that both the copyright notice and this permission
122notice appear in supporting documentation.
123
124This software is provided "as is" without express or implied
125warranty.
126
127
128The author may be contacted via:
129
130 Mail: Evgeni Chernyaev
131 Institute for High Energy Physics
132 142284 Protvino, Moscow region
133 Russia
134 E-mail: chernaev@mx.ihep.su
135