Re: Encoding GIFFs on an Apple II

[scott@alfter.diespammersdie.us (Scott Alfter)]

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In article <1150686199.465374.79300@p79g2000cwp.googlegroups.com>,
mdj <mdj.mdj@gmail.com> wrote:
>I've always just used a simple RLE compressor I wrote myself years ago
>to store Apple II graphics. You could probably implement a TIFF encoder
>that used this technique to produce a file readable by most graphics
>programs...

PBM is a dead-simple format (you can even write it as a text file!) that can
be converted into whatever format you want (BMP, GIF, PNG, etc.) with
widely-available tools.

At one time, I had programs (running on UN*X, not on the II) that converted
between PBM and Hi-Res/double Hi-Res files.  I misplaced the source long
ago, but recreating those programs on Linux, Mac OS X, or whatever would be
trivial.  Porting them to the Apple II would be a little bit more difficult
(assembly language instead of C or C++), but since no compression is
involved, they would still be simple to write.  (They'd also run reasonably
fast, even on an unaccelerated II.)

If you want color, there's the related PPM format, but you'll need to
translate bit patterns into the proper colors...a little more work, but not
insurmountable.

  _/_
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