G i f . g I f . g i F M A N U A L This is a very brief manual for Gif.gIf.giF. It can be found online at http://www.cafe.net/peda/ggg/man.html. We begin with an overview of the single control window. All of the elements of the control window are described, proceeding from top to bottom. Please refer to Gif.gIf.giF's control window while reading the manual. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - File Name The control window's name includes the name of a saved animation, or is simply "Gif.gIf.giF" if the animation has not been saved. Registered User's Name The user's name is displayed next. GIF(1) animations produced using Gif.gIf.giF include a GIF comment "Made by , using Gif.gIf.giF v1.11.". GIF comments are not shown during playback, but can be seen by GIF editing programs. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - General Controls Start Press the Start button to begin recording a sequence of frames. After the button is pressed, a 3-second countdown is displayed, after which recording begins. Alternatively, recording may be started by pressing control-shift-alt. Grab The Grab button is used to capture single frames. Pressing the button causes the current area to be added to the current animation. Single frames may also be captured by pressing control-shift-space. Stop Press the stop button to halt a recording session that has been started using the Start button. Alternatively, recording may be stopped by pressing control-shift-alt. 0 Frames (0 bytes) Displays the size of the current animation, in frames and bytes. Large animations (in bytes) will take a long time to download; a 14.4k modem can download 60-80K per minute when there are minimal network delays. After saving, the animation will be slightly larger, as a file terminator must be added after the last frame. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Capture Area The desired capture area should be selected before recording an animation. Once frames are recorded, the capture area cannot be changed. Size: 400x300 Displays the current size of the capture area; in this case the capture area is 400 pixels wide and 300 pixels high. With unregistered copies the sizes before and after inserting the "Unregistered Copy" banner are displayed. Top Left: 0,0 Displays the coordinates of the top left corner of the capture area; in this case the capture area includes the top left corner of the display. Such information is useful if one can fine-tune the program being captured to stay within the capture area. Show Area When checked, causes the current capture area to be outlined with a slowly moving frame. The outline is just outside the capture area, so the moving frame will not be placed in the animation. Select Area Press to select a new capture area using the mouse. Pressing escape aborts the selection process. The selection area may be defined using the space bar: 1. position the cursor at one corner of the desired capture area and press the space bar, 2. position the cursor at the other corner and press the space bar again. Refresh screen Press to refresh the screen contents; all programs will redraw their windows. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Capture Options The capture options should be selected before recording an animation. Many of the controls are locked after recording has started. Maximum Frame Rate: 4 fps The maximum frame rate controls the rate at which frames are captured. It defaults to 4 fps, or 4 frames per second. At 4 fps, 1/4 of a second elapses between captures; on slower machines the actual frame rate may be significantly below the selected frame rate. The slowest selectable frame rate is 5 spf - 5 seconds per frame. Higher frame rates generate smoother, larger animations. Frames are output only when successive captures differ. Interframe Transparency When selected, transparency is used to produce compact animations: any areas that do not change between successive frames will be recorded as transparent areas in place of the actual image. Record Timing Info When selected, timing information is placed in the animation. If 1/3 of a second elapsed (during the recording) between two frames, the two frames will be displayed 1/3 of a second apart. When timing information is not recorded, the subsequent animation is played back as quickly as possible. When grabbing single frames (with the Grab button) the maximum frame determines the timing information. A frame rate of 5 fps results in 1/5 of a second wait between frames on playback. Loop When selected, the produced animation will loop infinitely. When not selected, the animation will play once and stop on the last frame. Overlay Border When selected, a thin black outline is placed around the animation. The border is drawn over the pixels on the edge of the animation. Overlay Cursor When selected, a cursor is added to each frame of the recording. The option is normally not used, as the cursor will be captured automatically during recording. Some graphics cards overlay the cursor while updating the screen; with such cards this option should be used. Internet Explorer Compatible When selected, recorded animations will be viewable under the Macintosh version of Microsoft Internet Explorer 2.0. They will also take up a little more disk space. If later versions of Internet Explorer follow the GIF specification properly, this setting will not be required. The Windows beta versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 do not show animated GIFs. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - You are now ready to record animations. * Gif.gIf.giF is a 32 bit Windows program, so it requires win32s to operate under Windows 3.1 or 3.11. * When recording in 8-bit mode (256 colours), ensure the subject (captured program) is foremost when recording starts. The colour palette is captured at this time and is used for all frames; ignoring this rule may cause colour inconsistencies. Gif.gIf.giF does not work well with programs that change their palette as they execute. * Unregistered copies of Gif.gIf.giF will produce animations with a banner proclaiming "Unregistered Copy...Unregistered Copy...". Registered copies of Gif.gIf.giF do not insert a banner. * Some GIF animation editors have difficulty interpreting transparent frames. Editing may be made possible by disabling the automatic interframe transparency before recording starts. For more information visit the Gif.gIf.giF web page at http://www.cafe.net/peda/ggg/. ______________________ (1)The Graphics Interchange Format(C) is the Copyright property of Compuserve Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of Compuserve Incorporated.