Variaton Image Tools

All image manipulation functions you can assign to a variation image are described here

All image manipulations will immediately be performed when the auto apply option is enabled. Otherwise you have to hit the apply button to perform a change.

When the active image is a variation image then you can select between 16 graphics file formats.

GIF

Select this format to save images for internet use. You can choose between the following options:

• Interlaced
  If you select this option the image will be displayed in more than one step on a web site, with each step showing more details of the image.
• Transparency
  If selected the image will be saved with one color of the color palette functioning as a transparent color. Click on the Change... button and then on the desired color for transparency in the selected variation. The new transparent color will be displayed on the left side of the Change... button.
• GIF Animation
  The Animation Frame will only be enabled when you have opened an animated GIF. Initially the animated GIF file will be played continuously in the original image and not be played in the variation image.
• Animated
  If checked the GIF will be treated as an animated GIF
• Image No.
  You can take an entire look at all frames of an animated GIF when the Play animation button is not pressed. With Image No. you can choose the image number of the animated GIF to be displayed in the variation image. This field has no effect when an animated GIF is playing.
• Play animation
  If pressed the animation will be played continuously (if the opened GIF is an animated GIF with infinite looping).

JPEG

Select this format to save photo realistic images for internet use. You can choose between the following options:

• Quality
  You can select any setting between 2 (best compression, but worst picture quality) and 254 (bad compression, but superb quality).
• Progressive
  When checked the image will be saved as a progressive JPEG. Use with caution for internet use, because some web browser don’t support this file format.
• No. Passes
  When the Progressive checkbox is checked the JPEG file will be saved as a progressive JPEG with this number of passes.
• YUV Color
  Choose between different colorspace settings. You can choose between YUV 4:4:4 (better quality, but lower compression), 4:2:2 and 4:1:1 (lower quality, but better compression).
• Grayscale
  When checked the JPEG image will be saved as an 8 bit grayscale JPEG image (= YUV 4:0:0). Use this option for original grayscale images to achieve more compression.

For each displayed variation you can change the color resolution, dithering method and color palette:

• Pixel Depth
  Depending on the selected graphics file format you can choose between different color resolutions. For example, color JPEG files can only be saved in 24 bit color resolution, while the GIF graphics file format allows 1 (2 colors) to 8 bits (256 colors) per pixel color resolution. Changing the color resolution greatly affects the size of an image.
• Dithering Method
  When the selected pixel depth is at maximum of 8 bits per pixel you can select a dithering method to improve the appearance of an image. You can choose between different dithering methods In general we recommend Floyd Stein dithering method because it seems to produce the best results in most cases.
• Colors
  When you have selected the optimized palette you can reduce the number of unique colors in an image by setting this field to the desired number of colors. This is a good way to fine tune an image for compression. Example: You have chosen 3 bits per pixel as the color resolution, that is 2^3 = 8 Colors. If you would set the color resolution to 2 bits per pixel, the maximum number of colors would be 2^2 = 4 Colors. To select 5, 6, or 7 unique Colors for that image you can leave the color resolution at 3 bits per pixel and fill the Colors field with the desired number.
• Palettes
  Select between 4 predefined color palettes, where Fixed stands for a fixed standard color palette, Optimized for a dynamically generated palette with only adapted colors which are as close as possible to the original colors. The Windows palette contains the system colors filled up with adapted colors (Often similar to Optimized palette). The Netscape palette is a good choice for Web Site images, because most web browsers like Netscape Navigator and MS Internet Explorer are using this palette on screen displays with only 256 colors.