Graphics Utilities for DOS (2 of 2)

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BITMAP PAINTING PROGRAMS

GRAFX- 256-color bitmap painting program.

* * * * [added 11-97; updated 3-8-98]

Good freeware paint programs for DOS or WIN are rare (non-existent?). Although I've never been a big fan of DOS paint programs, GRAFX2 is a nice 256-color painter from France that is currently undergoing beta development. If you rely on Windows Paintbrush for drawing, you should try this much superior alternative. Also see my set-up notes below. From the docs: "This program is designed for drawing 256-color pictures in a huge range of resolutions (actually, there are 60 with some coming from the Amiga world)...This program was first shown at Wired'96 where it met a big success (bigger than all our expects) so we hope you'll like it too...This program doesn't pretend to replace the best programs on Amiga, but it modestly tries to fill the gap between PC and Amiga in the field of bitmap drawing." Authors: Guillaume Dorme, Karl Maritaud, France. (1998) Home Page.

Features:

update 3-8-98: Beta 961 (3-98): Bug fixes, Added: Quick-shade mode, a couple of new parameters in the GFX2.INI file." Added a zip of GIF's.

Set-up note: While GFX may run "straight out the box" for you, I had to use an included batch file. With less than 16MB RAM, you may need to start the program using GFX2_MEM.BAT which must be edited as follows:

  1. First, you will need to obtain the DOS extender DOS4GW.EXE to allow swapping of memory to disk (not included; you may already have this on your system if you use DOS games) .
  2. You will need to edit the GFX2_MEM.BAT file and explicitly define the location of DOS4GW.EXE and the location of the GFX2.EXE program. Find these lines in GFX2_MEM.BAT and modify them according to your paths:

download gfx2a963.zip (? 450K)


IMPROCES- 256 color image processor/ bitmap paint program.

unrated [added 06-19-99]

While this image processor and bitmap painter hasn't been updated in years, it remains an excellent choice as a DOS paint program- especially if you own an older PC (runs great on my 386/20 laptop).

Requirements: DOS3.0+, Microsoft compatible mouse, 512K RAM (XMS/EMS can be used), 80286+ CPU (an FPU will also be utilized if found). Most users will need VESA video compatiblity and 64 K - 1 MB video memory; there is some dedicated video card support (c. 1993).

Formerly shareware, now freeware. Author: John Wagner, (1993). Home Page.

You will need to download two files- a free registration key and the zipped program files:

download improc42.zip (360K)
and
download IMREG.KEY (text, 1K)


OTHER GRAPHICS PROGRAMS


Pov-Ray - Ray tracing application.

* * * * * [updated 10-26-98]

Pov-Ray (Persistence of Vision) 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 Win 32s/Win9x versions of POV-Ray, the MS-DOS version finally steps into the background because of the limitations of the DOS environment. If you're unfamiliar with ray tracing see the POV-Ray team's home page for a good introduction to ray tracing theory, sample images, and version histories. A whole industry of specialized supporting utilities has blossomed over the last few years- many are freeware.

Notes, 10-98:

download povmsdos.exe (version 3.1, about 1.3 MB) | European site


GIF-TOOLS- Create animated and/or transparent GIFs, and more..

See extended description.


TTM- Create background texture images for HTML pages.

See extended description on HTML Utilities page.


FractInt- Fractal image generator.

* * * * *

Very complete fractal image generator and nicely documented. An older compilation has been ported to Windows 3.1. See the FractInt Home Page for latest version info.

download frain196.zip (675K)


PaintPro- ANSI drawing application.

* * * *

ANSI drawing programs are most commonly used for creating archive comments and FILE_ID.DIZ files destined for BBS's. The home user could use this program to make logos or more colorful batch files. This program implements a standard mouse and menu driven, text mode interface and is very easy to use. An undocumented (?) feature is multiple undo support. An included program can convert ANSI files to executables which offer faster display. Nice sample drawings included. EXE size = 190K. Authors: A. Kapostyak and A. Merches. Romania. (1997).

Features:

Limitations:

download paintpro.zip (111K)


CAMWORK- Download images from digital cameras.

unrated [added 7-20-98]

Untested. From the docs: "CamWork is a DOS program designed to extract pictures from the Agfa ePhoto and Olympus digital cameras. It has been tested successfully (as far as I know) with the Agfa 307, 1280, Epson 500, Epson 600, Olympus 200, Olympus 300 cameras...The program names images image01.jpg, image 02.jpg, etc..While the images are downloading the program displays session statistics, including elapsed time, time remaining, percent completed, images remaining, etc. Where possible, CamWork also displays the total number of pictures taken since the camera was created." E-mail ware. Author: Max Lyons (1998); Suggested by Dev Teelucksingh.

Command Line Options:
/d[drive:\path]                   specifies download destination
/p[1.2.3] or /p[1-9] or /pall     specifies pictures to download
/com[1],[2],[3],[4]               specifies com port to use
/s[9600],[19200],[38400],[57600]  sets communication speed
/e[1],[2]...[99]                  sets number of errors to ignore
/bw                               black and white display
/q                                turns off sound
/nb                               turns off battery check

download camwork.zip (46K)
Also see: Other programs from Tabaware.


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