viewers browsers and www performance: appendix-viewers

(2) Viewers, Browsers, and WWW Performance

by Huntley, Bittorf, and Taragin

Dermatology Online Journal, July 1995
Volume 1, Number 1

Appendix B: Viewers

UNIX VIEWERS

IF YOU WISH TO DOWNLOAD THESE PROGRAMS: You may use this WWW program to retrieve applications or other files. Because you do not want to "view" an application program, you will want to set your browswer to "save-to-disc" mode before you give the command to retrieve the file.

Some of the archive sites for Macintosh and PC applications are quite busy, and you may want to use alternative sites. Those will be given for the three better programs on an "alternative site" page. If you are able to reach the archive site, but the file you want is not available, most likely it has been replaced by a newer version. Get the directory listing and look for a file with a similar name (usually a higher version number).

xv: xv 3.10a Created by John Bradley, this is shareware seems to be the most commonly used viewer on workstations. It is shareware and comes with a suggested registration fee of $25. The manual which is sent upon registration is well written and quite useful if xv is to be used for anything more than simple file viewing. XV may be obtained by ftp from ftp.cis.upenn as the file xv-3.10.tar.gz.
xli: xli version 1 patchlevel 16 by Graeme Gill. This freeware is based on xloadimage version 3 patchlevel 01 by Jim Frost. This does not support as many file formats as xv, but otherwise serves well as a simple viewer. It is available from ftp.x.org as the file xli.1.16.tar.gz.
display: display by ImageMagick display is a machine architecture independent image processing and display program. It can display an image on any workstation display running an X server. display first determines the hardware capabilities of the workstation. If the number of unique colors in the image is less than or equal to the number the workstation can support, the image is displayed in an X window. Otherwise the number of colors in the image is first reduced to match the color resolution of the workstation before it is displayed. It is available from ftp.x.org as the file ImageMagick-3.5.tar.gz.

MACINTOSH VIEWERS

JPEGView: JPEGView 3.1 (free) This program can display a wide variety of images files and can perform conversions from one format to another. It requires System 7. QuickTime system extension is optional. This program is available from UUNet, Virginia as the file jpeg-view-331.hqx.
GIFConverter: GIFConverter (shareware - $40) This program is a viewer and converter which supports JFIF, PICT, JPEG, and GIF formats. It requires system 6.0.5 or later. It is available from Pacific HiTech.
GraphicConverter: GraphicConverter (shareware - $35) This is similar to GIFConverter, but it is larger and more functional. It requires system 7 and QuickTime to view JPEG images. It is available from Pacific HiTech.
Photoshop: Photoshop (commercial) This Adobe program is excellent for managing images, especially for customizing imported material and creating GIF files, but as a simple viewer it was outperformed by some of the shareware programs.

WINDOWS VIEWERS

LView Pro: LView Pro version 1.A (shareware $30) This program is a converter/viewer for JPEG, GIF, and BMP formats. It requires 386 or better processor. There is an optimized version for Win32s/NT, 486, or Pentium CPUs. It is available from lviewpla.zip oak.oakland.edu under the name lviewpla.zip.
WinJPEG: WinJPEG version 2.65 (shareware- $35) This program views or converts between JPEG and GIF, Targa, TIFF, PCX, and BMP files. Requires 286 or faster processor. (a 386 version exists). It is available from oak.oakland.edu in the file winjp265.zip.
Paintshop Pro (on the Simtel site = psp30.zip): Paintshop Pro version 2.00 (shareware $69) has many image manipulation features and supports a lot of different image file formats. It is available from princeton.edu in the file pspro200.zip.
Photostyler: Photostyler (commercial) is a professional image processing program. From version 2.0 on the Kodak Precision Color Management System (CMS) is a built in feature, which ensures that correct colors are used with input, display and output. A lot of different filters and functions are available including color separation for print. As WWW-viewer a simpler program like one of the above mentioned shareware programs is satisfactory.

All contents copyright (C), 1995.
Dermatology Online Journal
University of California Davis