I am pretty frustrated trying to get rgb files captured on an
onyx over to the Mac in any usable form.  I have used the
totiff, tops, togif, topict, and toppm utilities, and several utilities
on the Mac side including Adobe Photoshop and
GraphicsConverter.  Every file I bring over from the SGI bombs
the Mac applications, or comes up as an 'unknown' format.
I even tried saving an image from inside Showcase 3.2 as
encapsulated postscript, and on the mac this bombed the
applications as well.

I have done this in the past by converting rgb to pict files,
and it is especially frustrating that this process no longer
works, because I have a big deadline to meet.

Does anyone know of a reliable way to get rgb to tiff,
pict, gif, or ppm that can _really_ be used on a Mac?
Since these were captured on an Onyx, is there any
alpha channel data that might cause me problems?

I am using IRIX 5.2 on an Onyx RE2, with 2RMs.

Thanks for any help you can give me,

-Randy

---
# Randy Stiles            Lockheed AI Center  
# sti...@aic.lockheed.com Orgn 9620 Bldg 254F
# Office: 415.354.5256    3251 Hanover Street
# Fax:    415.354.5235    Palo Alto, CA 94304-1191

This is very simple, and routine.  I do this all the time with no problem.

1. Convert the rgb to gif or jpeg using togif or tojpeg (freeware).
2. Download file to Mac (preserve the binary format!).
3. Use freeware jpegview on Mac.  Go to FILES/OPEN, and select item
     "Scan for images" in dialog menu.
4. Select your image, sit back and smile smile smile!

'luck,

 The only format I go between platforms with now-a-days is Targa. I think
this might be the only format that someone has yet to screw up the imple-
mentation of (sometimes the compressed format is not coded, but I'm talking
about the uncompressed version). I use either the SDSC imconv tool (which
is outdated but still works for Targa) or ImageMagick to convert SGI-type
files into Targa and then pull them over to the Mac.

 I never have had good luck with PICT (I think the only valid reader/writer
of PICT files in the world is in the Macintosh ROM) or TIFF (there are either
unknown tags or the picture is flipped... not to mention that, because of the
different versions of TIFF, you often have a hard time finding two programs
that will actually write the same version.. especially between Mac and SGI).
Don't even waste your time with EPS, and there aren't enough programs that
read PPM to make it worth while.

 If you're still having problems, I have to give this advice:

  Get Debabelizer.

 Of course, it is only available on the Mac. Hopefully the guys who made it
will port it to other platforms (it's just too slow on the Mac when trying
to do massive batch jobs). It would be really nice to have available on the
SGI, especially given that they are adding the Softimage, and I think Alias
and Wavefront graphics file formats into the next version.

 See ya later,
   Chris

--
Chris Trimble - chr...@uiuc.edu-  "'Lectroids? Planet 10? A girl named John?"

:  If you're still having problems, I have to give this advice:

:   Get Debabelizer.

:  Of course, it is only available on the Mac. Hopefully the guys who made it
: will port it to other platforms (it's just too slow on the Mac when trying
: to do massive batch jobs). It would be really nice to have available on the
: SGI, especially given that they are adding the Softimage, and I think Alias
: and Wavefront graphics file formats into the next version.

You may have your wish come true very soon.  Their office happens to be
next door to mine and I think that you will like what their working on.

Jim Atkinson
R.E. Snader and Associates, Inc.
--
                                             Jim Atkinson

        1) GIF is an 8-bit format.  If you were hoping to move
           24 bit images to the Mac, this option is useless.

        2) JPEG is a lossy compression scheme, meaning that
           picture detail is thrown out during compression.  This
           might be fine for some purposes; then again, it might
           not.

Two options which come to mind:

        1) convert the image to uncompressed TIFF format using the
           imgcopy or imgworks programs.  Both are part of the
           bundled ImageVision Tools suite.

        -or-

        2) Use Debabelizer on the Mac to read the SGI image and convert
           it to a suitable format for your Mac application.

--
Michael Portuesi
Member of Technical Staff - Collaborative Computing
Silicon Graphics, Inc.                  internet: portu...@sgi.com

However!  Big difference in file size.  If that's important more than
preservation of original detail (like say a picture of Kelly Bundy nude),
then JPEG is best.

Cheers,

--
Daryoush Tehranchi              |  Phone: (303) 779-2886  
Computing Devices International |  FAX  : (303) 779-7704
7100 East Belleview Ave         |  email : (daryo...@keystone.denver.cdev.com)
Englewood, CO 80111-1635        |       or (daryoush.tehran...@cdev.com)

  I just converted an rgb file on my indigo using xv (which will convert jsut about anything to jsut about anything) and used fetch to transfer it to a mac in binary mode. GIFConverter had no trouble at all reading the tiff format that xv supplied.

hope this helps,
Jason
ug...@cobalt.ee.umn.edu

I got  the images I needed over using  toppm,  and
then read them in using vt.  When vt read them in,
it  converted them to 8 bit color, and I could see
them on the Mac I was using.  I think the portable
pixmap (PPM)  utilities are pretty good, and so is
vt.  Another good  program is GraphicsConverter on
the Mac.

I think that my problems with TIFF and PICT on the
mac side were either:

1) not enough  memory set aside for the programs I
was using on the Mac
2) 24 bit color display attempts on a 16bit Mac.

I think  I  am going  to  try several of the other
routines  suggested  below, and see  which  is the
most trouble free, direct, and reliable.

Following  are the replies  that I  found  on  the
newsgroup.   I suspect that everyone  that replied
to me by email found that it bounced - our company
has  a  firewall,   and   the  machine  where  the
newsreader is located does not  know about my real
email address.

To send me email without a bounce use
sti...@aic.lockheed.com

Thanks again everyone,

-Randy

####################################################
From: MLNeum...@aol.com
Sender: "MLNeumann" <MLNeum...@aol.com>
To: sti...@aic.lockheed.com
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 94 13:18:53 EDT
Subject: .rgb to Mac woes

Randy,

I saw your post on one of the newsgroups regarding .rgb to Mac.

You may have alredy tried this, but you might have more success if you
convert the .rgb file to a .tif, .gif, .tga, or whatever on the SGI side
using xv.

I assume that you are doing this for the proposal (time is clearly running
out). Wish I could help some more than just this suggestion, but I have ~0
experience with what a Mac likes to read.

Good Luck,

-- Mike Neumann
Newport News Shipbuilding
mlneum...@aol.com

####################################################

From: jsqui...@nic.cerf.net (James A. Squires)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.apps
Subject: Re: SGI Images for Macintosh
Date: 21 Aug 1994 17:16:55 GMT
Organization: CERFnet
Keywords: rgb alpha macintosh

This is very simple, and routine.  I do this all the time with no problem.

1. Convert the rgb to gif or jpeg using togif or tojpeg (freeware).
2. Download file to Mac (preserve the binary format!).
3. Use freeware jpegview on Mac.  Go to FILES/OPEN, and select item
     "Scan for images" in dialog menu.
4. Select your image, sit back and smile smile smile!

'luck,

From: trim...@ph-meter.beckman.uiuc.edu (Chris Trimble)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.apps
Subject: Re: SGI Images for Macintosh
Date: 21 Aug 94 21:28:50 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Keywords: rgb alpha macintosh

 The only format I go between platforms with now-a-days is Targa. I think
this might be the only format that someone has yet to screw up the imple-
mentation of (sometimes the compressed format is not coded, but I'm talking
about the uncompressed version). I use either the SDSC imconv tool (which
is outdated but still works for Targa) or ImageMagick to convert SGI-type
files into Targa and then pull them over to the Mac.

 I never have had good luck with PICT (I think the only valid reader/writer
of PICT files in the world is in the Macintosh ROM) or TIFF (there are either
unknown tags or the picture is flipped... not to mention that, because of the
different versions of TIFF, you often have a hard time finding two programs
that will actually write the same version.. especially between Mac and SGI).
Don't even waste your time with EPS, and there aren't enough programs that
read PPM to make it worth while.

 If you're still having problems, I have to give this advice:

  Get Debabelizer.

 Of course, it is only available on the Mac. Hopefully the guys who made it
will port it to other platforms (it's just too slow on the Mac when trying
to do massive batch jobs). It would be really nice to have available on the
SGI, especially given that they are adding the Softimage, and I think Alias
and Wavefront graphics file formats into the next version.

 See ya later,
   Chris

--
Chris Trimble - chr...@uiuc.edu-  "'Lectroids? Planet 10? A girl named John?"

####################################################

Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.apps
Path: enterprise!butch!netcomsv!netcomsv!larry.corollary.com!paris.ics.uci.edu!cs ulb.edu!nic-nac.CSU.net!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!sg igate.sgi.com!sgiblab!cgl!cgl.ucsf.edu!troyer
From: tro...@cgl.ucsf.edu (John M. Troyer)
Subject: Re: SGI Images for Macintosh
Message-ID: <troyer.777510...@cgl.ucsf.edu>
Keywords: rgb alpha macintosh
Lines: 46
Sender: n...@cgl.ucsf.edu (USENET News System)
Cc: sti...@rdd.lmsc.lockheed.com
Organization: UCSF Computer Graphics Lab
References: <1994Aug21.074149.2...@enterprise.rdd.lmsc.lockheed.com> <338267$...@news.cerf.net>
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 1994 23:02:49 GMT

This is trickier than it looks: not all TIFFs are created equal. I've
spent hours banging my head against the wall doing this.

I've had the best luck with 'imconv' (by Dave Nadeau of the San Diego
Supercomputer Center; use archie if you don't have it.).

imconv myfile.rgb -outcompress lzw myfile.tiff
imconv myfile.rgb -outcompress pb myfile.tiff

(try both; sometimes one or the other is much smaller. Sometimes on the mac
side one or the other won't load. I have more trouble with one format than
the other (lzw compression or packbits), but I forget which one.)

If you don't use a compression scheme, you will probably be sorry.

(If you think the alpha channel is giving you problems, use -outnoalpha)

Now the trick is

        DO NOT USE APPLESHARE TO TRANSFER THE FILES TO THE MAC

It never works. Instead use ftp or fetch (raw mode) to grab the files onto
the mac. They are now openable by Photoshop, GraphicConverter, or
GIFConverter.

Alternatively, there are 2 different plug-ins to read SGI rgb files on
AdobeIllustrator (which I got from the archives of this group).
They are slow, but work.

hope this helps,
john
tro...@cgl.ucsf.edu

####################################################

From: trim...@ph-meter.beckman.uiuc.edu (Chris Trimble)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.apps
Subject: Re: SGI Images for Macintosh
Date: 23 Aug 94 22:59:53 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Keywords: rgb alpha macintosh

tro...@cgl.ucsf.edu (John M. Troyer) writes:
[...]

 However, we just switched to a commercial package called Ethershare. It
has worked very well, and I have had no problem transferring over the
targa files that I use for putting animations to tape.

 I agree with your advice if we're talking about 1 or 2 files at a time--
FTP is a lot more reliable than Appleshare when going between platforms.
If you're talking about 500-600 files, oftentimes it's infeasible or
unnecessary. Using a DQ Animaq to put frames out to tape is a good example.
By using Appleshare, you can put the frame out to tape as soon as it is
loaded in and you won't need the extra disk space.

 - Chris

--
Chris Trimble - chr...@uiuc.edu-  "'Lectroids? Planet 10? A girl named John?"

####################################################

Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi.apps
From: Daryoush Tehranchi <daryo...@keystone.denver.cdev.com>
Subject: RE:SGI Images for Macintosh
Sender: n...@arl.mil (The News System <news>)
Organization: U.S. Army Research Lab (ARL), APG, MD.
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 1994 16:06:22 GMT

Please don't be frustrated, here is what you need to do:
Use either the totiff or topict utilities, and on the mac side the best product
that I found was MacDraw Pro, and bring it in as such.  You may have to
increase
the MacDraw Pro memory allocation to a larger number such as 6000 before doing
so.  Depending on the size of the file it may take a minute or so.  Using tops
and or EPS take too much space.  Also if you desire to take the output from the
Mac and put them on a floppy for transportability, you may use Stuffit to
compress/archive the files on the floppy.  It does a great job of compression
with graphics files as much as 95% compression ratio.  Also make sure you have
the latest versions of the to* files, if not you can get them from ftp:sgi.com.
Good luck!
DTC

--
Daryoush Tehranchi              |  Phone: (303) 779-2886  
Computing Devices International |  FAX  : (303) 779-7704
7100 East Belleview Ave         |  email : (daryo...@keystone.denver.cdev.com)
Englewood, CO 80111-1635        |       or
...

read more »

Hi Randy,

I went through the same kind of situation a few months ago.  It turns out that the topict filter works OK.  I have used it a number of times to make files that I worked on with canvas or superpaint on the mac.  The problem with the SGI filters is that they do not set the mac file type.  Some mac programs can figure out the file type, most cannot.  You can set it with ResEdit once the file is on the mac.  Most mac FTP clients (e.g., Fetch) will let you set the mac creator and file types.  For a pict file, s

et the file type to "PICT".  Hopefully, that will solve your problem.

Hope this helps,

Russ

for the best quality image you should use totiff over topict as tiff
files contain moer of the original data (of course they are larger also)

you shouldn't have any trouble using ftp moving either tiff or pict or sgi,
so long as you set the transfer mode to BINARY.

dwstu...@delphi.com