The Sinclair QL Forum

After a year off for personal problems. back to the QL!
Thanks to the fantastic collaboration of Roberto Porro I finally publish QTImage 1.5
Thanks also to Armdo Fumero for the Spanish translation

What's new?
Resizing the program in three ways
Added management of the Spanish language
Improved file import management
Added new wave effect
Added dithering filter
Added new function: image merging
Improved color management
Added function: parabolization
Solarization effect added
New feature: invert colors
New X-ray effect
New feature: Quantization

Downloadable from the usual site:
https://www.hunggartorino.it/ql/qtimage-2/

Hi Giorgio,
It looks interesting! However, I fear there may be a problem with the zip file. It appears damaged. Can you check it, please?

try now...

Thanks! It really looks nice, but some hopefully constructive comments:

1. the manual sentence
"4 Execution

Launch QTImage_obj, is simple!"

isn't quite right because it as it relies on DBAS which is not something I usually have loaded, so it just errored out on me. The requirement is only mentioned much later in the help text, so it wasn't that obvious. You could maybe try to check for the OPEN_DIN keyword before using it and open a window with a more meaningful error message.

2. I suggest to supply example images along with it. I don't have _pic files laying around, so I could not give the application a quick spin.

3. The default file extension selector for "file open" should be "_pic" instead of "pic" I think. This way "bmp2pic" etc. are not listed anymore.

4. I don't even know how to create a "_pic" file quickly. There are all these "bmp2pic" and "jpg2pic" utilities supplied but they are not explained and they don't seem to do anything, at least not for me when executing them, with commandline or without. Why can't I just select a "_jpg" or whatever in QTImage and it automatically converts the file using the appropriate filter? P.S.: I only found out after writing most of this that the "empty document" icon next to the open window does exactly this. It was somewhat non-obvious to me apparently, so I just leave the text in to show where a newbie might fail.

5. I found one "_pic" file on my hard-drive that was supplied with PQIV called "papa512_pic". I think it's a mode 33 file. It was accepted but afterwards the application just ends up in an endless redraw-loop of its own menus. A mode32 version finally loaded fine. But it really took too long to get to this point, best to include examples images to quickly get started.

6. Selecting the "Gaussian blur" crashed with an "index out of range" error. Same with "dithering" and all others that want to open a sub-menu apparently. (Line 2214).

7. The "Pixel" option errored out with "illegal parameter" at line 5484 "RECHP". It's possible that this was due to the fact that with previous failed tries the memory was exhausted, not sure. Can't reproduce after a reboot.

So there are still a lot of problems for me, but all in all this thing is pretty impressive UI-wise. It's clear that much like Per you try to push the envelope of PE GUI and that can only be applauded, well done! Also, the multi-language feature... wow!

Cheers, Marcel

- I find your suggestions interesting, you will surely find them in the new version.

- The various _jobs that are in the folder are not documented because they are not utily .. they are part of QTIMAGE itself, I realize that they confuse them, maybe I put them in a sub-folder.

- Regarding points 6 and 7, you can send me the image you used to do the tests, so I try to understand why it did not work (because I was not able to replicate the errors)

Giorgio

I take this opportunity to tell you something I do not understand about the windows manager.
If I run a QTimage menu installed on WIN1_ it works perfectly.
If I put a copy in a RAM_ it doesn't load the contents correctly. (the exact same program .....)
you can easily do the test too by moving QTIMAGE

Giorgio Garabello wrote:- The various _jobs that are in the folder are not documented because they are not utily .. they are part of QTIMAGE itself, I realize that they confuse them, maybe I put them in a sub-folder.

One suggestion, they could maybe show a short error message like "This can only be called from within QTIMAGE" if executed directly. And either unify "File open" and "file import" or change to another icon for "file import". It didn't occur to me to click on it as it more looks like a "new document" icon...

- Regarding points 6 and 7, you can send me the image you used to do the tests, so I try to understand why it did not work (because I was not able to replicate the errors)

I'll send you the file. And regarding point 7, this is interesting, it really only happens when I execute QTImage from ram1_. It works correctly from win1_, strange. What is in line 2214? Maybe I can investigate.

Cheers, Marcel

Hi Giorgio.

An impressive image manager for SMSQE, the graphical interface is very very good. Congratulations, great development.

mk79 wrote:It's clear that much like Per you try to push the envelope of PE GUI and that can only be applauded, well done! Also, the multi-language feature... wow!

Yes, Giorgio is expanding a clever use of PE in a very elegant way.

mk79 wrote:Thanks! It really looks nice, but some hopefully constructive comments:
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Thanks, Marcel, for saving me the trouble of writing all that. I agree
with most of your findings, starting with how good (and professional)
QTImage looks!

Personally, I found there were too many icons doing the same thing.
And the second row of large icons, they take up too much space for my
taste. Could they be made smaller - or optional?

One of the most useful functions (to me) was the ability to export
PICs to JPEG format - where did that go?

Anyway, good work Giorgio! Keep coming!

By the way, one more reason why I didn't recognize the "Import file" thing as to what it is... QTImage defaults to German on my system and the file select dialog that pops up says "Farbübergange verfeinern" ("smooth colour transition") instead of "Datei importieren" ("Import file").