Graphics Utilities for DOS
(image viewers, converters, special graphics progams)

Ratings: [* fair] to [* * * * * excellent]

 Front Page

 


Notes:

Some of the image viewing programs below require (or work best with) VESA drivers which permit graphics to display in hi-resolution true-color modes on VESA compatible SVGA systems. Most computers come with VESA software on disks or already installed on the hard drive- check your documentation. As a last resort. here is a site that lists links to VESA drivers for specific graphics cards- as well as a universal driver that works with most cards. The latter (UniVesa) is an old freeware version of UniVbe which is now shareware.


PictView- A very fast graphics file viewer AND converter in a small package.

* * * * *

Small. Fast. Versatile. Configurable. This program packs both image viewing and format conversion functions into a very efficiently coded program. Impressive. Drawbacks: No slideshow or zoom options. Directory viewer does not display file sizes.

From the docs: "PictureViewer is a mouse-driven viewer and converter of images. It runs on all EGA, VGA, SuperVGA and Extended-VGA video adapters. PictureViewer is able to read images stored in approximately 30 graphics file formats and convert them into another format. All functions are extremely fast, up to 10 times faster then [sic] other programs."

Supported formats:

!PX - Thumbnail from PC PaintBrush IV Deluxe for Windows, read onlyread only BMP - Windows BitMap, OS/2 BitMap BW - SGI image in gray scales CDR - CorelDraw! 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, 6.0 read preview and imported images only CMX - CorelDraw! 5.0, 6.0 - Corel Metafile Exchange Fileformat, read preview only CUR - MS Windows cursors, read only CUT - Dr. Halo/Dr. Genius DCX - Multipage facsimilie documents DIB - Windows Device Independent FLC, FLI - AutoDesk animation GIF - CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format HAM - IFF/ILBM in HAM mode HRZ - Slow scan television, read only ICN - RIPterm images, read only ICO - MS Windows Icon, OS/2 Icon, read only IFF - Amiga Interchange File Format IMG - IMG Software set, read only IMG - GEM IMG, Vivid Raytracer, read only JMX - Images from the Tetris game, read only JIF,JFF,JPG - JPEG and JFIF, images in gray scales and YCbCr color model only LBM - InterLeaved BitMap ( =IFF ) MAC - MacPaint, read only MSP - Microsoft Paint, read only OBR - Format useable by PutImage functions in Borland's programming languages PBM - Portable BitMap, raw/binary format only PC2 - Degas Elite medium resolution, read only PCT - Macintosh PICT, read only PCX - ZSoft PC PaintBrush PGM - Portable GrayMap, raw/binary format only PIC - PC Paint/Pictor PIC - Dr. Halo/Dr. Genius, read only some files only PNG - Portable Network Graphics, read only PNM - Portable aNyMap, actually one of PBM/PGM/PPM PPM - Portable PixelMap, raw/binary format only QFX - QuickLink II Fax file format, read only RAS - Raster Sun Microsystems, uncompressed only RGB - TrueColor SGI image RLE - RunLength Encoded Windows BitMap ( =BMP ), Utah RunLength Encoded, RunLength Encoded SGI files SAM - Images in text documents from AmiPro SCx - ColoRIX, uncompressed only SGI - Silicon Graphics Image File Format SEP - TIFF 6.0 Separated CMYK, read only TGA - TrueVision Targa TIF - Aldus / Microsoft Tagged Interchange File Format ( TIFF ) WPG - WordPerfect Graphics, read only.

download pictv165.zip (90K)


ShowJPG- Fastest and smallest DOS-based JPEG-viewer.

* * * * *

I've been waiting years for an app like this.

Download showjpg.zip


PixView- JPG, GIF, and BMP image viewer with slideshow.

* * * *

PixView is an excellent JPG, GIF, and BMP image viewer and is comparable to the popular shareware product QPV in speed, navigation and display capabilities. Until PictView appeared, this was easily the quickest and smallest freeware JPG viewer around. The file menu interface is easy to navigate with a mouse. Surprisingly, PixView has not been widely distributed to FTP sites. PixView requires a VESA driver to display images at resolutions other than 320X220X256 color/gray (no driver support for graphics cards). One shortcoming of the freeware version is the inability to load files using the command line (the shareware version allows this, has true color support, load-while-display feature for slide show, and optimized compilation.). Home page

download pixv22.zip (110K)
or download from alternate site


JPEG- command-line image conversion utility.

* * * *

JPEG is a speedy command-line image conversion utility. This package contains two main executables- one for converting images to JPG format- and another for converting JPG files to GIF, BMP, TGA, or PBM format. Progressive JPEG format is supported. Many options are included: compression quality, smoothing, scaling, etc. This is a great utility for performing batch conversions and is optimized for 386 or better machines (a separate zip file contains an executable for 286 machines). JPEG does not come with an image viewer.

download jpeg6a.zip (386 optimized).
(300K)


Display- image viewing and conversion package.

* * * *

Display is a robust image viewing and conversion package. Display is not small- it chews up about one MB of disk space. Supported image and movie formats include BMP, RLE, TIF, GIF, JPG, TGA, ICO, PCX, AVI, MPEG, MOV, GL, DL, FLI, FLIC, and a few other exotic image formats. Progressive JPEGs are supported. Text file viewing is supported (including ANSI color) as is UUencoding- decoding and Mime encoding-decoding. I use DISPLAY primarily for batch image conversion and viewing of uncommon image formats. The principle drawback of Display is its slow dithering of true color images compared to other viewing packages (e.g., PixView). The latest AVI movie standards (interlaced) and some MOV files are not supported. Display can create contact sheets (somewhat complicated) and can create FLI files from a sequence of individual images. Several image manipulation options are available (smooth, scale, etc.). The interface is generally clean and is mouse compatible (under DOS only). Image preview available. An optional font package is available for use with contact sheets (not listed here).

6-29-97: A new version is undergoing beta testing.

download disp189a.zip
(800K)


Pov-Ray - Ray tracing application.

* * * * *

Pov-Ray (Persistence of Vison) is a freeware ray tracing application and is the product of several years of continuous development by the POV-Ray team of independent programmers. Pov Ray represents a remarkable achievement in programming and is a professional application. With the release of a Win 32s/WIN95 version of POV-Ray, the MS-DOS version finally steps into the background because of the limitations of the DOS environment (no multitasking). If you are unfamiliar with ray tracing see the POV-Ray team's home page for a good introduction to ray tracing theory and some sample images.

download povmsdos.exe (broken link fixed 6-18-97)
(about 2.5 MB)


FractInt- Fractal image generator.

* * * * *

Very complete fractal image generator and nicely documented. An older compilation has been ported to Windows 3.1.

download frain195.zip
(600K)


[ Front Page ]

(c)1997 Richard L. Green