ImagePro Setup
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The ImagePro Setup window is displayed when 1) you run ImagePro for the first time, 2) you select Setup from the ImagePro pop-up menu, 3) you install or remove an image translator.
The window lists all of the image MIME types for which you have a translator installed on your system. If you want ImagePro to be the Preferred Application for an image-type, click the check-box for that type.
If you no longer want ImagePro to be the Preferred Application for a mime-type, run the BeOS FileTypes application from the Preferences menu in BeOS to change it.
- Image Translator
- This is a small program which decodes image files into raw bitmaps which can be displayed on your screen. ImagePro itself doesn't understand any image formats but uses a translator to decode the image. Translators for common image types (for example jpeg) are included with BeOS, but you can also install translators yourself for more unusual image formats, for example wavelet-encoded images. You also need to install your own translator for GIF images. Be does not include a GIF translator because the GIF format is patented and Be would need to pay a license fee.
Image Translators can also encode raw bitmaps for saving on disk. This means you can use ImagePro to convert images between different formats, for example save a PNG (Portable Network Graphics) image as a jpeg image. You can even use ImagePro to reduce the size of jpeg images by saving them with a lower quality! See the section on Saving Images for more details.
- MIME Type
- Every single file on a BeOS has (or rather, should have) a MIME type, also known as a File-type. Jpeg-encoded images have a mime-type of image/jpeg, GIF images have a mime-type of image/gif, etc. MIME is a new concept and lots of mime-types don't follow the standard properly, which is why you see things like image/png, image/x-png, etc.
- Preferred Application
- The Preferred Application for any particular mime-type is the application which BeOS opens a file with when you double-click on a file with that mime-type. If there is no Preferred Application for a mime-type, BeOS uses the Preferred Application for the mime-type's supertype. All images belong to the image/* supertype. If the supertype has no Preferred Application, BeOS will ask you which application you want to open the file with.
Copyright © Magnus Hellman 2000