Re: Prism is fantastic!

[isc26330@leonis.nus.sg (ONG TAT-WEE)]

OK, so LT Chean beat me to this:  but I'm going to say it all the same


		--->>>	PRISM IS FANTASTIC!!!!!  <<<---
			=======================

Seriously, this program is worth the > 6 months' wait and all the rumours
about its demise.  For starters, Prism is a graphics image conversion
_and_ processing utility for the IIgs.  It can read all IIgs graphics
formats (including all 3200 formats, Allison raw data, ComputerEyes GS,
Visionary VID raw data) plus GIF, IFF and TIFF formats.  Prism converts to
greyscale, 16, 256 and 3200 colours in 320 mode or greyscale and 16
colours in 640 mode.  Besides doing conversion, Prism includes a lot of
options to manipulate and process the loaded image.

First, I want to say that the results Prism gives are simply astonding.
It converts _fast_ and produces _very nice_ pictures.  3200-pictures come
out best as they have the most colours, but what shocked me were the 256
and 16 colour pictures.  The 256-picts come out so clean that they make
the 3200-picts seem almost redundant.  The 16-picts gives very good
results also, and sometimes they look similar to their 256 (and 3200!)
counterparts!  <--  NB: I tested with _many_ picture with > 16 colours!!

As for speed, well, this is the result I got when I went to LT Chean's
place to match Prism against SuperConvert; we converted a 256-colour gif
(Crush.GIF) to IIgs 256-colour mode:

SuperConvert using multipalette mode with zone division: 6 min 40 sec.
Prism using 256-colour mode: 0 (zero!) min 51 sec.!!!

Not to mention, Prism's conversion kills SuperConvert. :-)  In fact, Prism
is so fast that I can change image processing effects and convert again
and again until I get the desired picture without feeling the drag.


Other interesting Prism features:

- Allows aspect ratio correction for GIFs with vertical resolutions of
240, 480, 600, 768 or 1024, or for Amiga IFFs which are interlaced.

- Allows crop to screen (any part of the picture), halve height, halve
width, halve height + width or reduce to fit to screen.

- When performing the above, checking "Smoothed Reductions" takes adjacent
pixel colours into account and remap or add new colours if necessary to
create subtle transitions without compromising quality.

- Image effects like "Blend", "Mix", "Noise Reduction" and "Sharpen"
enhances the current image.

- A "Count Distinct Colour" option to help in the above operations.  NB:
some effects actually force Prism to look for new colours to add to the
current image to smooth the rough edges!

- "Convert to Raw Data" expands current range of colours to help in
getting better effects.

- Conversion settings include "Dithering", "Colour Separation" (from 0 to
7) and "Global Histogram Impact" for specifying if Prism should give
priority to colours in the current line or to the entire picture.

- Preferences allow setting of "Conversion After Open" (automatically
converts to specified format when file is opened), "Conversion After
Launch" (when data files are double-clicked from Finder), "Colors Per
Palette" (tells Prism how many colours per line to use; eg. Prism can use
14 colours and reserve 2 for user to play with).

- "View True Colour" shows a 15x200 narrow strip surrounded by black
whereby each of the 15 pixel is a _true_ colour of the picture.  Uses
mouse to scroll around.  "View True Colour (wide)" shows a 30x100 strip.

- Other cool features like showing amount of memory used, _not_ crashing
but trapping low-memory situations, requires System 6.0, very nice desktop
interface, cool "About" screen, etc.....


To see just how good results Prism gives, look out for a slide-show I'll
be doing with all the GIFs I've converted today!  Then you'll believe that
Prism is very impressive!!  Oh yes, if you're wondering why Prism took
more than TWO years to hit the market, it's becoz the author did it in his
free time!  He has other full-time commitments.

Now, let's just keep our fingers crossed and hope that Emerald Visions will
come out soon.....

    ___ \   ___  / ___  ___/ |         / | David Ong Tat-Wee
   /    /  /    /      /     |    |   /  | Internet: isc26330@leonis.nus.sg
  /    /  /    /      /      |  / |  /   |
______/ ______/    __/      ___/ ___/    | Look out for Prism slideshow demo!