by Does anybody know if there exists an utility/library/source to read PICT files under UNIX, or
even better: converts PICT files to TIFF format? If you do, PLEASE send me an email about it!
I need to do this conversion as part of a large Publishing project. The application program
being created is supposed to be used in a heterogenous computer environment, where all the
pictures and articles are stored on a central file server which runs under UNIX. In order
to minimize network traffic and CPU resource needs, only lowres images are being transferred
to terminals(MACs and PCs). When an EPS file is saved, it is also possible to have a small
preview representation of the page. On the MAC this is(as far as I know) saved as a PICT
resource file along with the EPS file. And it is this preview representation I am going to
convert to TIFF format (since the EPS files are saved on a UNIX server, the resource files
are easily accessed when working under UNIX). The BIG problem is the complexity of parsing
the PICT file when none of the MAC-OS routines or datatypes can be used. Therefore I hope
that some of you out there know of some utilities I can use in this process.
If you don`t know of any such utilities, maybe somebody can give me a few ideas on how to
do this converting effectively. And to the wizards of you out there, I have a couple of
questions:
- Is there a more effective way of finding the picture data(pixMap & pixData) than
to scan through the whole file using a LARGE switch/case sentence to identify
the opcodes. Do I really have to make an entry for each an every opcode that
exists, or is it possible just to scan through the file only searching for the
opcodes(the one telling where the picture data lies f.ex)I need?
- Which compression methods are being used in PICT files for the bit/pixmaps?
Where can I find documentation of these?
- Is a PICT file a resource file with the standard resource header: 16 byte res.header
followed by 112 reserved bytes and last 128 application bytes(again followed by the
resource data and resource map)?
- Has the PICT file format and the opcodes changed much since 1988. My documentation
(Inside Macintosh), which by the way lacks a great deal, is printed in that year.
That`s it! Hope anybody have the time and knowledge to answer!! Thanks in advance.
Send answers to:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ - Dag-Frode Rekdal
Institute of Computer Science and Telecomminications,
NTH - The Norwegian Institute of Technology,
University of Trondheim
Norway.