Copyright: Copyright ©1993, 1998, FMJ-Software


Contents

Copyrighted, © 1993, 1998, by F. Markus Jönsson of [image] FMJ-Software, All rights reserved

v3.7

Written by:

F. Markus Jönsson
mail: Hövdingagatan 5a,  126 52 Hägersten,  SWEDEN
http://hem.passagen.se/fmj/fmjsoft.html

Contents

•	Terms of use

•	Getting started

•	Viewer commands

•	Index commands

•	File formats

•	Slide show scripts

•	Troubleshooting & FAQ

•	Revision history


Terms of Use

Shareware notice:

This piece of software is distributed as Shareware.
This means that you may try the unregistered version of the program a few times, a maximum of 30 days, after which it will disable itself. If you decide that you want to continue using it, you must register it and pay a fee to obtain a user license. The license is valid for one single user only and cannot be transferred or resold. The license will cover all versions of the software, past present and future, and so is a once per lifetime expense. The enclosed registration form REGISTER.TXT contains the details on how to register.

Legalities:

The program and it's components are copyrighted by the author, F. Markus Jönsson, a.k.a. FMJ-Software.
The program and it's components may not be modified or altered in anyway whatsoever without prior consent from the author.
The LZW algorithm used in GIF and TIFF files has been 'Licensed under U.S. Patent No. 4,558,302 and foreign counterparts' from Unisys.
The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of CompuServe Inc.
GIF(sm.) is a Service Mark property of CompuServe Inc.
JPEG(sm.) is a Service Mark of the Joint Photographics Experts Group.
The FIF format is the Copyright property of Iterated Systems Inc. and the technology behind it is covered by several patents owned by Iterated Systems Inc. This product can make use of their free decoder library if it has been installed on the same machine.
This software is based, in part, on the work of the Independent JPEG Group.
Pentium is a trademark of Intel Corporation.
Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
All trademarks, servicemarks and other registered names, mentioned in this, and accompanying texts are the property of their respective owners.

Distribution:

This product may never be bundled, sold or otherwise distributed with, or as a companion to, a commercial product expect by prior consent from the author. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this program, or any portion of it, may result in sever civil and criminal penalties.
Relaxations: You (an individual or an entity) are hereby authorized to freely keep, distribute and multiply copies of the unregistered distribution archive for this software with, through and on, BBB's, Internet-sites and equivalent information and on-line services. You are also allowed to store it on personal media like hard disks, floppy disks and networks, for personal use, or for sharing with friends. You are further allowed to include it on so called 'Shareware collection' CD-ROMs and equivalents. Note that these relaxations do not affect the actual use of the software whatsoever. All users of such products still have to pay the registration fee to gain the legal right to use this software as defined in the Shareware statement.

The following files must always supplied:
FILE_ID.DIZ	Short program description.
IMAGEEYE.EXE	The actual viewer program executable.
IMAGEEYE.HLP	Program Manual in WinHelp hypertext format.
IMAGEEYE.JPG	A small test file.
REGISTER.TXT	Registration form.
README.TXT	Installation instructions.

Disclaimer of warranty:

FMJ-Software exclude any and all implied warranties, including warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
Nor does FMJ-Software make any warranty of representation, either express or implied, with respect to this product, its quality, performance, functionality or fitness for a particular purpose.
Nor shall FMJ-Software have any liability for special, incidental, or consequential damages arising out of or resulting from any use of this product.
Nor shall FMJ-Software have any responsibilities, nor any obligations whatsoever to provide support for this product.


Getting Started

Welcome to Image Eye!

These have been the design goals for Image Eye:
-	The only image viewer you should need for browsing images.
-	Small, very fast, highly tuned code.
-	Optimized display in all video modes - no compromises in image quality.
-	Lean user interface with no scroll bars or window menus taking up precious space.
-	Supports most common image file formats.
-	Rotate, mirror, zoom, pan, adjust contrast, brightness, color saturation, and more!
-	Full screen display when the window is maximized.
-	Adapts to, and lets you change video mode 'on-the-fly'.
-	Index feature with very fast image thumbnail creation.
-	Does not attempt to be any half-baked semi-editor or file format converter.
-	Includes a simple slide show scripting language - roll your own presentations!

In this section you will be given basic instructions on using the rather minimalistic user interface.

Start the program by running ImageEye.Exe.
An 'Open image file' dialog comes up. Here you select the image file you want to view and click View.
If everything goes well, the image now turns up in a window on the screen. A special feature of Image Eye is that this window is completely free from scroll bars, tool bars, or any window menu that otherwise would occupy precious space and clutter up your desktop.
If the image is larger than the window, the mouse cursor changes shape when you move it over the window, indicating in which direction(s) it can be scrolled. To scroll, you press down the left button and drag with the mouse. As an alternative you can scroll with the keyboards arrow keys. Insert, Home, Delete, End scrolls to the corners of the image. If you have a mouse with a mouse wheel, you can also use that to scroll vertically.
If you double-click with the left button on the image, it is maximized (or restored if already maximized). In maximized mode, it will occupy the whole screen; no (disturbing) title bar!
Now you may ask, where is the program menu? Click with the right mouse button on the image and it will pop-up!
The complete set of menu choices are described in the Viewer Commands section.
Apart from those things, the usual Windows conventions for handling windows apply.

There are seven ways that you can open an image file:
1) Run ImageEye.Exe, select one ore more files in the dialog box that pops up and click View.
2) By clicking on an image button in an 'index' window. An index window contains buttons with so called thumbnail icons (small images) for all image files in a directory. You can bring up an index window by either clicking the 'Index' button in the 'open image file' box, or (if you have allowed Image Eye to associate file types with itself) by right clicking on a directory in any Windows shell program (like the Explorer) and selecting 'Image Eye index'.
3) If Image Eye has been associated with a file type; just double click on one or more files in Windows Explorer.
4) In a running Image Eye window, select Spawn new from the right mouse button menu. See 1).
5) In a running Image Eye window, select File->Load new from the right mouse button menu. See 1). This will replace the current image.
6) Drag an image file from the Windows Explorer to a running Image Eye window.
7) In an open image window; press PgUp or PgDn to display the previous/next image in the current directory.

I hope you’ll enjoy using Image Eye!


Viewer window - Right mouse button commands
Viewer Commands

Pressing the right mouse button over the image viewer window brings up a 'context' menu with the following commands:

Spawn new...	Opens a new image file in a new window.
Load new...	Opens a new image in the current window.
-------------------
File ->	Next image file 	Display the (alphabetically) next image file in the current directory.
Previous image file	Display the (alphabetically) previous image file in the current directory.

Index	Displays a thumbnail index of all images in the directory.
Slideshow...	Creates and runs slideshow script for all images in the directory.

Save as...	To save the image in .BMP or .GIF format.
Delete file...	Lets you delete the current image file from the disk.
Copy to clipboard	Puts the image on the clipboard so that you can paste it into other apps.
Print image...	Lets you make a paper copy.

View -> 	Adjust colors…	Brings up a color adjustment dialog.

Size window to image	Adjust the windows size to the image size.
Size image to window	Adjust (resample) the image size to the window size.
Restore original size	Restores the image to the size it had when you first opened it.

Rotate image +90 °	Rotates the image 90° counter-clockwise.
Rotate image -90 °	Rotates the image 90° clockwise.
Mirror image vertically	Mirrors the image around the horizontal axis.
Mirror image horizontally	Mirrors the image around the vertical axis.

Zoom to X% size	Zoom the image to X % of it’s original size.

Use as desktop wallpaper	Sets the image as desktop wallpaper (background image).

Display-> …	List of available display resolutions (video modes).
(to change color bit-depth then Win98 or NT4 may be req.).
Properties	Opens a dialog with image information and program settings.
For help, press [?] and then click on the control you want help with.

-------------------
Close window	Closes the window / exits the viewer.
Help	Opens this help text.

There is also the following keyboard and mouse commands:

Left mouse button	Hold down and drag to scroll image.
Mouse wheel	Scroll vertically (req. Win98, NT4 or later).

Arrow keys	Scroll in the arrows direction.
Insert	Scroll to upper left corner.
Home	Scroll to upper right corner
Delete	Scroll to lower left corner
End	Scroll to lower right corner
PgUp	Display the previous image file in the current directory.
PgDn, Space bar	Display the next image file in the current directory.
Esc	Close window.


Index window - Right mouse button commands
Index Commands

Pressing the Index button in the open image file dialog creates a thumbnail index window for all the images in the current directory. These thumbnails will be recreated every time you do this, they will not be stored on disk (so it will not eat up any disk space). Note! this feature is only available when running under Windows 95 or under NT 4.0.

Pressing the right mouse button over an index window brings up a 'context' menu with the following commands:

View image	Opens the selected image icon (same as left clicking on the 'button').
View slideshow	View the selected slideshow.
Edit slideshow	Launch NotePad to edit the selected slideshow.
Open	Open the file with any associated application (for non-image files).
Spawn viewer...	Opens the 'Open image file' dialog.
Delete file…	Deletes the selected file.
-------------------
Index properties	Opens a dialog with index window and other program settings.
For help, press [?] and then click on the control you want help with.
Sort icons->	Submenu that let you sort the icons by name, image size, file size or file date.
Slideshow…	Creates and runs slideshow script for all images in the directory.
Recreate	Re-reads the directory and recreated the thumbnail icons.
Create cache	Creates a disk cache files containing all the currently displayed icons.
Update cache	Recreates the disk cache file so that it is up-to date with all the current icons.
Remove cache	Deletes the disk cache file.
 -------------------
Help	Opens this help text.

There is also the following keyboard commands:

Esc	Close window.
Home	Scroll to the top.
PgUp	Scroll up one thumbnail
End	Scroll to the bottom
PgDn	Scroll down one thumbnail


Slide show files
Slide Show Scripts

You can display simple slide shows using Image Eye. There is currently no integrated slide show editor so you will have to construct the slide show file by hand using a text editor.

A slide show file is a text formatted file with an .IES extension. It must start with the text "ImageEye SlideShow {" followed by a variable number of statements and terminated with an "}". A statement is a commands string followed by a variable number of argument strings terminated by a ";". A string is a sequence of characters terminated either by a white space or a ";". If you want to include spaces or ;'s in the string, enclose the whole string in "'s. To insert a " character in a string, use "". You can also use C++ style comments: /* ... */ for a multiline comment or // for a until-end-of-line comment. Here is an example named TEST.IES:

/*
 * This is an example slide show file
 */

ImageEye SlideShow {

  // First display a welcome picture and play a sound!

  display welcome.jpg;
  shell "Play" "c:\windows\media\chord.wav";
  delay key;	// Wait for a keypress

  // Then display some product adds
  display prod1.bmp; delay 5;
  display "product 2.jpg"; delay 5;

  // Finally pop up a text file with further info
  shell open moreinfo.txt;

  // Toggle between two images until user press Esc
  loop {
    display "forever.png";

    display "and ever.png";
  }
}

These are the currently available commands:

delay num	Pause num seconds before continuing the slide show.

delay key	Wait for the user to press any key or left mouse button.
display str	Display the image file str.
loop { ... }	Loops the statements ... until Esc is pressed.
loop num { ... }	Loop num times the statements ....
shell str	Run the program file str.
shell verb str	Execute the Windows shell command 'verb' on the document 'str'


File Formats

Image Eye can read and display the following image file formats:

File Extension:	Description:

BMP, DIB, RLE, ICO, CUR	Msft Windows/IBM OS/2 (Device Independent) BitMap / Icon / Cursor.
1,4,8,16,24,32 bits/pixel. Uncompressed or RLE.

IFF, LBM, BBM	Electronic Arts Interchange File Format.
This is a more general data format; only 'ILMB' data are handled:
1..8,24 bits/pixel planar type 49h and 8 bits/pixel type 50h.
Compression types supported: No Compression (0), Byte Run/RLE (1).

FIF	Iterated Systems Fractal Image File format.
24 bits/pixel. Fractal compression.
This format has the very special property of being resolution independent but Image Eye will always decompress these file to the same resolution as the image had before compression. Note! You need to install the free 32bit decoder (Deco_32.dll) from Iterated systems in order to be able to view these files. This file can be downloaded separately from FMJ-Software's www site.

FIT, FITS	NOST Flexible Image Transport System.
8,16,32 integer bits/pixel, 32, 64 float bits/pixel.
This format is used by many astronomers, e.g. at NASA. 1D data is not supported. For data with dimension > 2, only the first 2D is used. The data 'range' is always mapped onto the full range of an 8bit grayscale bitmap for display.

GIF	CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format v87a, v89a.
1..8 bits/pixel. LZW compression. Uninterlaced or interlaced.
Multiple-images, animations and/or overlay text are ignored if present.

JPG, JPEG, JIF	Joint Photographic Experts Group, JPEG - JFIF.
Extended baseline JPEG support: Both sequential and progressive scan images supported. DCT transform with 8 bits/component data precision. Huffman compression. Can read extended precision quantization tables (word size) and an extended number of Huffman tables (max. 4DC & 4AC). YCbCr, RGB and Grayscale color spaces supported.

MAC	MacPaint image.
1 bit/pixel. 576x720 res. RLE.

NEO	Atari Neochrome image.
1..4 bits/pixel. Uncompressed.

PCX	ZSoft image - PC Paintbrush.
1,4,8, 24 bits/pixel. Uncompressed or RLE.

PIC	Pictor / PC Paint.
1, 4, 8 bits/pixel. RLE.

PNG	Portable Network Graphics.
Inflate/Deflate compression. Uninterlaced or Adam7 interlaced.
Grayscale: 1,2,4,8,16 bits/pixel.
Palette: 1,2,4,8 bits/pixel.
RGB: 8,16 bits/pixel.
Any alpha channels, transparency colors, gamma corrections, an color correction table are ignored.

RAS, SUN	Sun Raster format.
1, 8 or 24 bits/pixel. Uncompressed.
No support for text formatted data.

PBM, PGM, PPM	PBMPLUS Portable BitMap, GrayMap, PixelMap.
1,8,24 bits/pixel.
Uncompressed or Ascii text format.

TGA	Truevision TARGA image.
8, 15, 16, 24, 32 bits/pixel. Uncompressed or RLE.
No support for interlaced files.

TIF	Tag Image File Format.
1, 2, 4, 8, 24 bit/pixel supported.
Uncompressed, Packbits, LZW and Predicted (type 2) LZW compression, CCITT Group 3 (T.4) or Group 4 (T.6) fax compression.
Color and grayscale response curves are ignored.

Image Eye can write to the following image file formats:

File Extension:	Description:

BMP	Msft Windows BitMap format.
8 or 24 bits/pixel uncompressed.

GIF	CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format v87a.
1..8 bits/pixel (automatically selects lowest possible bit-depth for smallest possible files, automatically converts 24bit images to 8bit using an optimized palette and dithering).
LZW compression. Uninterlaced.


Revision History

version 3.7,	<98-06-16>

Windows 3.1/Win32s support has (finally) been dropped. This was necessary because I have switched to a newer compiler which has no Win32s support. W3.1 users should continue using Image Eye v3.6!

The program now loads slightly faster!

Added an 'Adjust colors' command to the View menu. As the name implies it lets you adjust the color of the image - using the following parameter set: contrast, brightness, color saturation, overall intensity, red-, green-, and blue-component intensities.

Added 'zoom' commands to the View menu which let you zoom the image to 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 300, or 400% of it's original size.

Added mouse wheel support for the index window.

Fixed yet another bug with some kinds of TIFF files.

version 3.6,	<98-04-24>

Added a file date display option for the index window properties.

Added commands to sort the icons in the index window by name, file size, file date, or image size.

The Next/Previous image file command in the image window now skips any files of zero size (typical of interrupted internet downloads) as well as when encountering other 'bad' files.

The 'autosize image' option now leaves the last image in place until the new, resampled, image has been calculated.

Fixed a 'sort-of-bug' with hanging when reading some strange GIF files having larger 'local image size' than 'global image size'.

Fixed a problem with some uncompressed TIFF files.

version 3.5,	<98-02-01>

The index 'thumbnail' images can now be cached on disk for faster display (this feature works best in true color mode). You manage the cache manually by using 'Save cache', 'Update cache' or 'Remove cache' from the index window's context menu. The cache is never created automatically which means your disk will not be filled with Image Eye Index cache files where you do not want them. The cache files (ImageEye.iei) can optionally be compressed reducing the disk space usage (typically by about 20%).

Added a 'Delete file' command to the context menu for the icons in the index window.

Added .GIF file format export.

The space bar now has the same function as the PgDn key in the viewer (i.e. display next image in the current directory).

Fixed bug with hanging on reading many 'animated' (multi-image) GIF's.

version 3.3,	<97-10-01>

Added support for 'progressive scan' JPEG files. The JPEG decoder is also slightly faster for 'normal' JPEG files due to a more effective use of the CPU cache.

Added a 'Display' submenu top the right mouse button image menu so you can easily change video mode (if you have Win98 or NT4 then you should also be able to select color bit depth).

Added 'Rotate image +90°', 'Rotate image -90°', 'Mirror image vertically' and 'Mirror image horizontally' commands to the view submenu.

Added 'mouse wheel' support for vertically scrolling images (req. Win98 or NT4 and a Msft Mouse 2 or similar to work).

Added a 'Slideshow' command to the right mouse button menu (for both the viewer and the index windows). It creates and runs a slideshow script for all the images in the current directory.

Fixed problem with not always receiving the 'long file name' when launching images from e.g. the Explorer (which also made the next/previous image command fail when started with a 'short' file name).

Fixed a bug with the slide show script 'delay key' command.

version 3.2,	<97-09-07>

Much more 'forgiving' when reading corrupted GIF's and JPEG's: In other words it should no longer crash as often if you e.g. try to read a GIF that you started downloading from the net but interrupted before the whole image was finished...

For the astronomers out there, I have added FITS support (Flexible Image Transport System v1.1, .FIT files).

Added support for TIFF images using CCITT Group 3 (T.4) or Group 4 (T.6) fax compression.

Added support for 16bit and 32bit .BMP files.

Now uses the Windows shell for the file->delete command which means that deleted files end up in the recycle bin.

No longer associates .ICO or .CUR files with Image Eye since Windows built in 'live icons' are better (you can still open them explicitly using the open file dialog).

Killed a handful of bugs.

version 3.1,	<97-01-20>

This is the first officially promoted release of Image Eye.

Removed the 'nag box' from the unregistered versions (it was a little too cruel...) - instead the text 'unregistered' is painted in the upper left corner of images and the software will disable itself after 30 days of use. The slide show feature is now also available in the unregistered version.

Added view->Next image file / view->Previous image file (also accessible through the PgUp / PgDn keys) to quickly view the (alphabetically) next / previous image in the current directory.

Added 'optional' support for .FIF files - Fractal Image Files. To enable it, you must have installed Iterated Systems free 32bit decoder library; Deco_32.dll version 6.0 or later. This file can downloaded from my www site.

Image files must now have the correct file extension to be recognized by the index feature. The previous version tried to determine if it was an image file even if it had an incorrect extension. However, some file types simply were not constructed in such a way that they can be 100% reliably detected which sometimes caused the index feature to load a non-image file as some image file type, which in turn could make it crash...

The first time the program is installed, it now asks if it should associate file types with itself. There's also a little checkbox that you can use to toggle all file associations on or off.

Added new slide show script command "delay key" to wait for a keypress.

Fixed a bug with missalignment of some 4bit .BMP files.

Fixed a bug that made it crash on a few .GIF files.

Fixed a serious bug in the printing code.

Added the option to measure the time it takes to load an image - for comparing performance with other viewers...

Licensed the LZW algorithm used in GIF and TIFF files from Unisys.

version 3.0,	<96-12-10>

First 32bit Windows release.

version 2.1,	<94-01-01>

Last of the (by now long forgotten) DOS versions.


PVP:


The number of times you have opened an image file in the program.


The number of times you have saved an image from the program.


Windows version and build number.


CPU type and number.


Display resolution and color depth.


The image files resolution and color depth.


The complete name of the image file.


Program version number.


PGP:


 FMJ-Software is a pseudonym for F. Markus Jönsson, who wrote this program.


If you are connected to the Internet and have a www browser installed, you can click here to visit FMJ-Software’s www-site!


Check this box if you want Image Eye to register itself for the ‘open’ command in the Windows shell for the supported image file types. This will let you open an image file from the Windows Explorer simply by double-clicking on it.
Note! You will always be prompted before any association made by another program is overwritten.


Click to enter your registration keycode.


Click to uninstall the program and clean up the registry.


Licensee.


POP:


Normally, in 8bit (256 color) modes, Windows uses 20 fixed colors and 236 modifiable. Checking this box will set it to use only 2 fixed colors (black and white) which leaves 254 modifiable. It will make the images look better but all window controls and stuff will become black and white as long as an image window is open.


Check this box to use a fixed standard palette when displaying images in 8bit (256 color) modes. This will let you have multiple image windows open without them ‘stealing colors’ from each other. Image quality is still quite ok if you enable dithering as well.


When displaying an image in a video mode with lower color depth than the image has, enabling Floyd Steinberg dithering can drastically improve the subjective image quality. It tales a little extra time to compute but is definitely recommended.


When displaying a 24bit image in a 15 or 16bit video mode, enabling Floyd Steinberg dithering can improve the subjective image quality. The improvement may not be very noticeable though and it does take some extra time to compute...


Check to run the program with the image window maximized.

Check to display the image resolution in the window title bar.

Check to display the time it took to load the image in the window title bar.


Check to automatically size the image to the window when you resize a window.


Check to use a faster but less accurate DCT algorithm for JPEG decompression. The image quality degradation isn’t very noticeable but neither is the time saving...


Check to use a box filter for upsampling subsampled JPEG-color components instead of a more accurate triangular filter. The subjective image quality differs very little and most decoders just uses the faster box filter...


PIP:


Check to show directories in the file listing.


Check to show non-image files the file listing.


Check to display image resolutions and color depths


Check to display file sizes.


Check to display file 'last modified' dates.


Enter maximum horizontal size of image icons (in pixels).


Enter maximum vertical size of image icons (in pixels).


Enter spacing between image icons (in pixels).


Check to enable compression of index cache files.
This will save you some disk space (if you use index cache files)  but will result in slightly slower loading times for the cached index thumbnails.


CLR:


Use this slider to change the contrast of the image. Increasing the contrast makes light areas lighter and dark areas darker. Decreasing it makes things a little more ’middle-gray’.


Use this slider to change the brightness of the image. Increasing the brightness makes light areas lighter while dark remain dark.


Use this slider to change the color saturation of the image. Increasing the brightness makes the image more colorfull while decreasing it makes it more gray.


Use this slider to change the intensity (bias) level of the image. Increasing the intensity makes both light and dark areas lighter. Decreasing it makes both darker.


Use this slider to change the red color component of the image. Increasing it makes the image redder…


Use this slider to change the green color component of the image. Increasing it makes the image greener…


Use this slider to change the blue color component of the image. Increasing it makes the image bluer…


Hit the Cancel button to return to the image without any changes.


Hit the Preview button to see how the current setting will change the image.


Hit the Finish button to apply and save the current settings and return to the image.


FAQ & troubleshooting
Troubleshooting and Frequently Asked Questions

Q	How do I register Image Eye, what does it cost and how do I pay for it?

A	Please refer to the REGISTER.TXT file that comes with the program. It contains detailed instructions. You can pay by credit card, by check, by bank transfer, or with cash.

Q	I'm a registered user. How do I upgrade to a new version?

A	Simply install the new shareware release on top of the old registered version and your registration should be 'remembered' by the new version!

Q	Can I run it under Windows 3.1 with 'Win32s' as I could with earlier versions?

A	No. Image Eye v3.6 was the last version that you could run under W3.1+Win32s. The reason for dropping W3.1-support is that I have switched to the latest Microsoft compiler, which alas doesn't support Win32s. But v3.6 is still available from my www site if you want it!

Q	I select, say 25 files, and try to open them all simultaneously but I get all sorts of errors!

A	Well, you are probably running Windows 95, right? Trying to open that many files at once will eat up so many 'resources' (file handles, bitmap handles and stuff, this is not the same as free memory) that the OS runs out of 'resource space'. Try setting FILES=50 or something like that in your CONFIG.SYS file and it will probably help! (See it's still running on top of old DOS!).
If it doesn't, well remember that a typical 24bit full screen image takes up about 3MB so 25 such images eats up 75MB! That's enough to make any OS feel just a little bit unhappy! (at least if you don't happen to have tons of memory)

Q	Is it possible to license Image Eye for use in / bundling with other products?

A	Yes it is available for low-cost mass-licensing! Please contact me for price information!

Q	I installed some other program. Now some file types are no longer associated with Image Eye. How can I restore these associations to Image Eye?

A	This is a little problem with Windows... The 'last program' installed gets what it wants and 'some' programs don't bother to ask the user about what associations it should overwrite (Image Eye do ask you!). To restore the associations to Image Eye do as follows:
1) Run ImageEye.exe and open an image.
2) Click the right mouse button on the image and select 'properties' from the popup menu.
3) Select the 'Program' tab and uncheck the 'Register shell 'open' command' checkbox.
4) Click OK.
5) Repeat steps 2) through 4) but now check that checkbox instead of unchecking it. You are now prompted for each file format that is associated with some other program. Select 'Yes' for those that you want to be associated with Image Eye instead.
6) Done!

Q	Now every time I click on a GIF or a JPEG image, Image Eye opens, but a Windows system window opens to tell me the program was trying to find a file but couldn't! I can close it and everything works, but…

A	This is because of some 'residues' left in the Windows registry by certain versions of Internet Explorer. To fix it, run the program REGEDIT.EXE. You will find it in your Windows or WinNT directory.
Then go: 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT->.gif' and delete any 'strings' under this 'key' (including in subfolders) that has anything with 'dde' in their name. Now go 'HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT->giffile' and do the same. Repeat this procedure for .jpg, .jpeg and jpegfile…

Q	I opened the 'first' file in a directory and then used the next image/PgDn command to browse through all files in the directory. But not all files are shown! And the ones that are shown aren't shown in the order they come in the directory!

A	This command works on an alphabetically sorted list of all files in the directory. So selecting the next image means the alphabetically next image – not the next one in the directory. The first image in the directory displayed by e.g. the Windows Explorer may not be the alphabetically first one (depending on your view settings…). Similarly, using the previous image command will give you the alphabetically previous image.

Q	How do I uninstall Image Eye?

A	Alternative 1: Use the Windows Control panel's Add/Remove program feature.
Alternative 2: Open an image file. Click with the right mouse button on the image and select 'Properties' from the popup menu. Select the program tab and click on the Uninstall button.

Q	The Display/video mode selection doesn't work!

A	Get a newer driver for your video card. Anything certified for Win95B (the so called 'OEM2' release) or Win98 or NT 4 should work but you never know…

Q	How can I dynamically change color bit-depth as well as display resolution (using the Display submenu)?

A	Switch to Windows 98 or NT 4 or NT 5... Also, it may not work perfectly with older video drivers.

The following selected Q&A's have been reproduced from the Shareware FAQ by kind permission of Mitchell Friedman, ASP Public Relations. The Shareware FAQ is copyright 1995-1997, Association of Shareware Professionals, All Rights Reserved.

Q	What is shareware?

A	Shareware is a marketing method, not a type of software. Unlike software marketed through normal retail channels, where you are forced to pay for the product before you've even seen it, the shareware marketing method lets you try a program for a period of time before you buy it. Since you've tried a shareware program, you know whether it will meet your needs before you pay for it. Shareware programs are just like programs you find in major stores, catalogs, and other places where people purchase software -- except you get to use them, on your own computer, before paying for them.

Q	What happens if I like a shareware program?

A	You pay for it at the end of a trial period (typically 30 days) by sending the author a fee he or she has established for the program.

Q	Why should I pay for and register a shareware program?

A	The same reason you should pay for any program: because it is the honest thing to do. Shareware is commercial software, fully protected by copyright laws. Like other business owners, shareware authors expect to earn money for making their programs available. Paying for and registering a program also entitles you to support from the author and other benefits, as specified by the author. Moreover, the more consumers who pay an author to use a program, the more likely the author will continue to improve it and to offer new programs.

Q	How do shareware programs compare with other kinds of software?

A	Consumers who purchase shareware programs receive a level of product support that exceeds what traditional software manufacturers deliver. Shareware users who need support often speak directly to the actual developer of the program, who is intimately familiar with how it operates and therefore can provide excellent technical support. Shareware authors often fix bugs in programs and add features quickly, based on feedback from users. There is a wide price range for shareware, as there is with software distributed through other channels. In general, many shareware programs cost less than other kinds of software, while some programs cost about the same as retail counterparts.

Q	What do I receive when I pay for a shareware program, besides the use of the program?

A	Typically, the same things you receive when you pay for other software: support by telephone, fax, computer bulletin board, and/or through online services such as America Online, CompuServe, and Microsoft Network. Many authors also send manuals, reference cards, and other printed materials, and may offer free upgrades. Every shareware program is different, so the version you purchase comes with different materials. Documentation files included with the program describe the benefits you receive by paying for and registering a particular shareware program.

Q	What happens if I don't like a shareware program?

A	You simply stop using the program, and remove it from your system. Since you have had the opportunity to try the program first before paying for it, you lose only the tiny amount of money you spent to download the program or to acquire it from a vendor or other source.

Q	I ordered a shareware program from a catalog and paid for the disk. Why should I pay more now?

A	Shareware vendors distribute shareware versions of programs, charging a small fee for the costs of disk duplication and advertising, plus a small profit. Most shareware authors allow this type of distribution so you'll have a chance to try their programs. However, none of the money paid to a shareware vendor goes to the author. If you try a shareware program, then continue to use it after the trial period, you must pay for and register the program. The same principal applies if you buy a shareware disk at a computer show or find a shareware program on a CD-ROM disc or at a store.