TUTOR FOR MERGEIT We will use the image files eschrB1.pcx, eschrB2.pcx and the initial values file eschrB.ini. Start the program from the directory where it is located, with the command=> mergeit /eschrB.ini Sequence of program operations: a) Read initial values file, read beginning of lst image. b) Check disk space for required space for output file. c) Analyze top edge of first image for black reference blocks c) Calculate image cutting values, check against first image size available. d) Analyze top edge of second image for black reference blocks e) Calculate image cutting values, check against second image size available. f) Determine RAM space required to rotate image when merging. If space is available, prompt user if they want to rotate and merge. If not enough RAM is available, prompt user if they want to cut the image shorter,use diskspace to store intermediate image file, or not rotate at all before merging. The popular Escher print we will use for the tutorial was scanned in at 200DPI with the print in the landscape orientation. The right half was scanned first, as is the convention for MergeIt. Normally we would merge the scans together without rotation, but for tutorial purposes, we'll work with it both ways. When rotated, the right side of the image will be on top, the top of the print will be on the left side. To do an unrotated trim tutorial, answer "N" until you are prompted to approve of an unrotated merge. You will probably find it helpful to print out the two pcx image files to get oriented to how MergeIt works before doing the trimming. Normally you would have the original hardcopy image to refer to. Simple audio feedback is given during the user trim process while viewing the merged image region: A simple beep indicates the start of a trim operation (typically the insert/delete) which requires more input to finish. A double beep indicates the end of a trim operation/command. A triple beep, after a indicates the end of user trimming and either the redisplay of the current viewed region or a continuation of the merge process to the next merge image section. A single, low pitched beep indicates an error, perhaps a trim limit has been reached. Rotated Image User Trim Tutorial (The phrase "Nx" where N is a number means do the operation N times, i.e. 3x= do it 3 times.) The right most 100 lines of the unrotated image will be shown as the top of the rotated image. The most useful trim at this point might be to add/delete a few lines from the top of the image. Press cursor up key 3x, a double beep will follow each entry (indicating a complete user operation). Press "enter" () to see the effect on the image. Wait for a single beep which signals the end of image redisplay process. To accept the new image without further change, and continue the merge process, press . The screen will revert to text mode, describing the merge process: how many lines must be merged in total and how many are in this current scanned image section. When a multiple of 128 lines are finished, this will be displayed until the final (left most) 100 lines of this scanned image section are reached. If you press at this time, when the next 128 lines are finished, the process will pause and a short menu will be displayed. You may quit the program or continue the process at this time. Finally, the screen will return to a graphic mode and the last 100 lines of the image will be shown. This display process ends with a single beep as before. At this point you have 2 useful operations: trim the bottom edge up or down, or change the view region to a more critical section. Press the down cursor key 4x (2 beeps with each entry). Press to see additional 4 image lines at merge boundary. You may repeat this 11x more, after that you will hear a lower pitched, longer beep when you press the down key, this signifies the edge of available image to view and merge. You may note that the last lines shown the image masked off by a paper guide when scanned. Press the up cursor key 10x to remove most of the extra image lines, then press to see modifications. (We'll leave a few extra lines here for tutorial purposes.) To finally accept the viewed image, press without making any more changes. A small merge edge marker will appear in the center of the screen, denoting the boundary between this and the next scanned section. A few seconds will pass while the next image section is processed. Soon the right most 100 vertical lines (before rotation) of the next image section will be shown as the top 100 lines of the rotated image. The right view clearly shows the redundant image at the merge. At this point we can ONLY trim the new image, i.e. only the image below the marker. Press the up key 8x to move the image up. Press to see the modification. The left view shows a small left-right misalignment (in a curved line about 1 1/2" in from the left edge (on a 14"screen) ). We could shift the whole image left or right with the left/right cursor keys but instead lets delete a few dots (in the lower image) to the left of the misaligned curved line. Select the delete operation by pressing the delete key (1 beep will follow). A line marker will appear below the image, on the right side. Use the home key to move the marker 1/8 of the width of the whole image line to the right. Since there is immediate visual feedback thru the motion of the marker, no audio feedback is given. Note that the marker stays in the center when the choosen line spot is between the two views. Press the home key a total of 6x, until the marker is at the left edge. Note that a 7th press of the home key sounds a low beep- you've reached the limit of the image line. Press the space bar 9x to move the marker 72 pixels to the right (8 pixels at a time). The actual deletion will occur at the left edge of the marker. Press the '+' key 2x, (a single beep will follow each entry). This will delete 2 dots. Finally press to make one more deletion and end the deletion operation (a double beep will sound). Press again to see the effects of the modications (a triple beep will sound). The right view isn't aligned so well. We could insert a few dots in the center region of the merge, but for tutorial purposes, lets shift the whole image right 2 dots by pressing the right cursor key 2x (A double beep follows each entry). Press to see modifications. We could delete one dot to the left of the curved line in the left view (same line that was misaligned before). Instead, lets shift the viewed section on the left first. Press Alt-V (alter view), 1 beep will sound. Choose the left view region by pressing the home key, 1 beep will sound. Choose to move it left with the home key again (2 beeps-operation is finished). Press to see the new region. We can now see that the left edge is misaligned, we can shift the whole image left 5 dots by pressing the left cursor key 5x (2 beeps after each entry). Press to see effect. To improve the left curved line, we can insert 2 dots to the left of it. Press the insert key (1 beep). The line marker will appear. Press the home key 6x to move the marker to the left of the curved line (no beep-marker motion is indicator). Then press the space bar 9x to shift the marker to the right. Press '+' key to insert 1 dot at this location (1 beep). Press to insert a second dot and end input process. Before viewing effect, lets insert 3 dots on the left side of the right view. Press insert key again, press home 2x. Finally press '+' 2x to insert 2 dots and then a to insert a third dot and end operation. View the modifications with a . Lets change the right view before continuing the merge process. Press Alt-V (1 beep will sound). Choose the right view by pressing the End key (1 beep). Move it to the right by pressing the End key again (2 beeps). Press to see the new region. Note that if you tried to repeat this shift again on the right side you would hear a single low pitch beep when you hit the End key the second time since you are at the right limit of the merged image. Press to accept the image and continue the merge process. The screen will revert to text mode again and messages about the merge process will be displayed The final screen is the left edge of the second image (the bottom edge of the rotated image). The views are of the opposite corners, which is the result of what we selected before. While there are no more images to merge with this edge, you may trim this edge up/down with the up/down cursor keys. The limit in the down direction depends on how the image was scanned and cut; there may be up to 16 extra lines. In this case, there are 13 extra lines. If you attempt to press the down key more than this a single low beep will signal the end of the image available to work with. After making any changes and viewing the modifications, a without additional trimming will signal the finishing of the merge process and return you to DOS. UnRotated User Trim Tutorial There is only one merge region which is shown on the right half of the screen. The left side of the screen only shows the left edge of the image which is not trimable. With a three or more piece merge process, two merge regions are shown at a time, both trimable. The first 200 lines of the merged image is shown. Note the small region marker which looks somewhat like: "__..." The solid side points to the merge region and indicates the image to the right of the merge is currently selected for trimming. This region is a little high. Press the down cursor key 5x, a double beep will follow each entry. Press to see the shifted region and merge (a triple beep indicates the trimming process is over- the merge process will either continue or the current viewed region will be redone). When the modified image is fully displayed, a single beep will sound, prompting you be more input. We overcompensated in our shift according to the top black/white border so press the up cursor key 1x (but do NOT press yet). Note that the region to the right of the merge is lower than the left by 2 or 3 lines in the center portion. We can delete 2 lines above this region and below the top border. Press the delete key (1 beep will follow). A small marker will appear in the center of the screen, on the last image line. We can move this line marker up/down 8 lines at a time with the page up/ down keys. You may move the marker 1 line down with the space bar. Since the marker visually moves, no audio feedback is given. Press the page up key 16x. To delete at the marker (in the region selected by the region marker below-currently under the right region), press the '+' key (1 beep will follow). To delete another line and end this deletion operation, press the (2 beeps will found to indicate the end of this operation). Press again to see the modifications (3 beeps will follow). After hearing 1 beep which signals the end of the redisplay process, press to accept the image and continue merging. The next 200 lines will be displayed. The image to the left of the merge is a little below the image on the right. We could add a few lines on the right side, but for practice let us delete 2 lines in the left image. First select that image by pressing the home key 1x. The region marker will move to the left side of the merge (followed by a double beep). Then start the delete operation by pressing the delete key (1 beep will follow) and a small line marker will appear at the bottom of the viewed image, at the center of the screen. The line marker can be moved up/down 8 lines at a time with the page up/dwn keys. Press the page up key 22x, followed by a '+' to delete 1 line (1 beep). Then press to delete a second line and end the delete operation (2 beeps). To see the effects of this operation, press (3 beeps-trimming input ended, image redisplayed). When the display is finished, a single beep will sound and the region marker will appear below the right side of the merge. For practice, lets insert a line in the right image, where the region marker is already. Press the insert key (1 beep and the line marker will appear). Move the line marker up by pressing the page up key 23x. Press to insert one line and end the insert operation (2 beeps). Press to see the modification (3 beeps). To accept this merge region and continue the process, press (3 beeps). The next 200 lines will be displayed. While this region looks OK as is, since this is a tutotial, lets modify it anyway by moving the image on the right into the merge with the left cursor key. Press this key 4x (2 beeps with each entry). Press to see the modified image. Perhaps the return to the beginning image view surprised you? Since you moved the whole right image left, the whole merged image file had to be rebuilt. To accept this merged region, press . After the second display is finished, press to accept this region and return to the region we were at before. Lets undo the previous operation, move the right image away from the merge. Press the right cursor key 4x (2 beeps with each entry). This time, to speed up the rebuild process and avoid viewing the previous images, enter 'B' (build the image again w/o view until the current image) (2 beeps will follow). Then press to do the rebuilding and redisplay the current merge section. The screen will revert to text mode and the building of the previous 400 lines will begin. Progress of the merge will be displayed by messages every 128 and 200 lines. Then the screen will return to graphics and the current modified merge region will be displayed. To see a list of commands appropriate to the trimming commands available while viewing a merged region, enter any simple character key (i.e. "?", "h", etc., NOT F3, Cursor keys,etc.). If you do so now, 12 help lines will be shown, (1 beep will follow-indicating there are more help lines to be shown). Press another character key to see the remaining 6 lines of help, (2 beeps will follow-indicating the end of this operation). If the necessary help files are not available, a special low pitched double beep will sound. To continue the merge process and see the next region, press . The larger egg shape image needs to have the merged regions closer together. Lets move the left image into the merge. First select this region with the home key, the region marker will move to the left side of the merge (2 beeps). Press the right cursor key 3x to move this image. Press "B" to rebuild the merged image more quickly. Press to initiate this rebuilding. While you're waiting for the rebuilding, perhaps you realize it is expedient to do any whole scanned image motion early on in the merge process. If the original image scanning is done with a rigid left guide edge, whole scanned section motion is seldom required after the initial displayed 200 lines. Typically, only line insert/delete trimming is required. The modified merge looks better, lets finally improve it by deleting a line in the image on the right. Press the delete key (1 beep). Press page up 7x to move the line marker up. Press the space bar 1x to see the marker move down one line. Press '+' 1x to delete 1 line. Press to delete a second line and end this process. Press to redisplay this image. To accept this merged region and continue the merge process without more viewing, press 'G' (2 beeps will follow) and then . The screen will revert to the text mode again. The size of the merged image file will be shown in additon to how much has already been done. The progress of the merge will be displayed with messages when every 128 and 200 lines are merged. Examining Reference Block Image Analysis This is an optional part of the tutorial, hopefully you won't need to peek into the details of image analysis for determining the black reference blocks. If you are curious, then make a copy of the initial values file "EschrB.Ini" to "EschrBB.Ini" (or whatever name you want). Then edit it with an ascii text editor, changing the 3rd number on the 4th line from 0 to 1000. This will cause each image line that is analyzed for reference block determination to be displayed for 1000 millisecs (1 second). Restart MergeIt with the new initial values file. Once a line's analysis is displayed, pressing will hold this display. Otherwise the next line will be shown after a pause of 1000 millisecs. Restart the merge program with the edited initial values file. As soon as the first line analysis is shown, press to hold this screen. At the top of the screen is the index of the line being shown and the label for the following 5 lines of image information: Left Side. To determine the location of the reference blocks, about 1.5" of the image line is analyzed starting at the left and right edges. These 5 lines display each image dot as a 0 (=black) or 1 (=white). They are arranged with 70 values/line divided into groups of 10 separated by ",". The inverse video dot values indicates the beginning and end of the reference block as determined by the program for that line. (Note that both line indices and dot indices start at 0). Below this line data is a summary of reference block information. "Left Blk Ht/Bot=" refers to the height of the left reference block at this point in the analysis and the line index of the bottom of the reference block. At this point, the height of the block is only 1 and no bottom has been reached (index=0). Similar information is displayed for the right reference block. The next couple of lines display the dot indices on this line for the reference block start dots and the block width in dots. Note that for both the left and right blocks, the start dot is for the block's left side. The last line is a help line for user input: : the analysis will simply continue. "F" : the line by line display will continue but will pause for 1/4 of the present pause time. "S" : the line by line display will continue but will pause for 4x the present pause time. "B" : the line by line display will be terminated, only the summary of analysis for each image will be shown. Continue viewing the line analysis until line index 31. This line determines the bottom of the left reference block. The black line segment is too short. Note that the left block bottom is now shown to be at line index 30 (the previous line). The start and width dot information for the left block on this line is replaced with the phrase "L Blk defined". In the continuing line analysis for the right reference block, no more analysis will be done on the left reference block. Continue viewing the line analysis until line index 36. This line determines the bottom of the right reference block. Line analysis will stop at this point. A summary of the analysis will follow, showing 15 lines of reference block information at a time. The dot indices for edge and width will be listed for the left and right reference blocks. Press to see the next 15 lines of information. The main thing to look for is the stable reference block location and size for each line. The last line or two may be off After all lines are shown, average values for these dot indices will be displayed. Finally, calculated image cut parameters will be listed, again by dot indices, for the X and Y dimensions. For each dimension, the cut indices are listed first, separated by "..". The last value is the size of the original scanned image. If a calculated cut parameter is beyond the image size, it will be flagged with a large value typically >60000. The last line is a help line for user input. Similar to above, you have the choice of faster (F), slower (S), or continue (). Press and as soon as a line's analysis appears, press again. Then press "B" to bypass continued line by line displays. Only the final summary will be shown. To not do the actual image merging, answer the questions about how to merge with "N".