Matthew Phillips wrote on 11 Apr:
> Why do you need to wrap the JPEG in an ArtWorks file particularly?
> Could you not put the JPEG inside a Draw file instead? Surely Draw
> files can be put into Impression documents?
> If Draw would do, the format is fully documented and it would be a much
> quicker job for a developer. In fact, we already have most of the necessary
> code lying around here as this is exactly the method DrawPrint uses to
> support printing JPEGs.
That sounds promising! You're right: it doesn't need to be Artworks
particularly, if the openly-documented Draw could be made to do the
job. Artworks will do it already, thanks to the free !AWrender (which
lives in !Boot.Resources) -- I was wishing for a utility to automate
my repetitive manual steps.
But Draw apparently will need some equivalent module to be extended.
I already knew Draw could accept a JPeg, but when that drawfile is
dropped into Impression only a blank appears.
I did further experiments with other graphic formats and am surprised
to find that Draw also accepts PNG -- very welcome: Martin W hasn't
yet given in to requests and added PNG support to Artworks. Moreover,
this drawfile CAN be dropped into an Impression frame, the PNG
appears, *and* Impression's "Alter graphic" dialogue actually shows
the *resolution* of the PNG.
This rates as Discovery of the Month! From now on I shall use PNGs
in the magazine instead of JPegs in situations where JPegs acquire
unpleasant blobs -- particularly certain screenshots. (JPegs are
still essential, though: it would be counterproductive to introduce
the extra step of changing JPegs to PNGs, which are often larger.)
I'm talking about Draw 2.27 (dated 2004, came with Ro 4.39). The Rool
version of Draw ("1.20", dated 2012) is more primitive, doesn't handle
PNG.
Curiously, ROL's Draw 2.27 does seem to run on the Iyonix (Ro 5.18)
but dropping a PNG into it produces error "Draw cannot load this"; I
guess some other support module is involved.
Of course Impression since the year dot has always imported a sprite
by wrapping it in a drawfile, and its dialogue shows the resolution of
the sprite taking into account its magnification in the Impression
frame -- which is essential information before printing.
If you want to see a table of my experiments, and the sample files I
used:
www.archivemag.co.uk/JN/impressiontest.zip (38K)
> One question is whether ArtWorks has support for a wider range of JPEGs than
> the DrawFileRender module. That may be a reason to use ArtWorks over Draw.
We'd have to ask Martin Wuerthner that. But Artworks has so far
handled all the JPegs I've thrown at it. (version 2.XI.01, dated 2011)
--
Jim Nagel
www.archivemag.co.uk
>> "from" address is genuine but will change. website has current one.