PictView for DOS - general and DOS

Known problems with certain formats
a) Grayscale Progressive JPEGs and CMYK JPEGs are currently not supported.
b) JPEG-TIFFs are not supported and probably will not so in the near future. Since there are several flavours of this format, please send us such a file, so we will be able to test our code on more examples.
c) Dr.Halo/Dr.Genius: This format has an unusual layout. The files do not contain image dimensions (width and height). They just contain the ID of the videoadapter they were created on. We do not have the full list of such IDs. If PictView cannot read your images you made 10 years ago, send us a few such pictures. We will send you back an updated version of PictView within 48 hours.
d) Animated GIFs are a constant source of problems. Some of them may be displayed with an inappropriate background color etc. If you send us such pictures, we will consier their speciality for the next version of PictView.
e) Amiga IFF/ILBMs: There is no standard way of encoding images with odd number of bytes per line. Therefore some images can have the "shift" effect or can be misinterpreted. We work on a heuristic algorithm detecting the encoding.
e) Adobe Photoshop PSDs: If the file contains more than one layer, PictView is able to load and display only the first layer found in the file. As a result, some (or all) objects can be missing from the displayed image.

I get "Image too wide" error
This happens on very wide JPEGs, especially with subsamling 4:1:1. As a workaround, try turning OFF the High Compatibility Mode (see the next question).

I get "Image too large! Only first X lines will be read" error
The image in the uncompressed form must fit in the memory (conventional DOS and XMS, in total at most 19200 KB) and must have at most 5200 lines, otherwise it will be loaded only partially.
Besides the standard ways of memory optimization (e.g. disk cache and RAMdrive size decreasing), you can configure PictView to save extra 64 KB by turning OFF the High Compatibility Mode. PictView then uses VideoRAM as a buffer which is normally located in the DOS memory. However, this mode does not work on some videoadapters, with some drivers on MS Windows etc. Some users have also reported problems when reading images from floppy disks. Generally, the overall speed performance will be decreased. To leave the High Compatibility Mode run CfgPV.exe (or hit F7 when running PictView) and set 'High Compatibility Mode' on the main screen to 'No'.

I love PictView for DOS. Will you continue to support it?
We pesonally hate slow programs occupying megabytes (or gigabytes) and requiring 1 GHz Hexium (or a similar CPU). We also hate keeping 128 utilities for comfortable work with 20 basic file formats we usually encounter in daily work. In our opinions, PictView meets these criteria. PictView is written mainly in assembler and it runs on any 386 machine with at least 1 MB of RAM and a VGA adapter. We have started porting PictView to MS Windows (both 16bit and 32bit), but we do not plan abandoning further development and support of the DOS version. However, if we stop receiving feedback in long range (see also sponsoring the project), we will stop its development.

What's next?
In the near future: Grayscale Progressive JPEGs.
We are considering: Support of JPEG-TIFFs, playback of AVIs, "inteligent" selection of transparent color when saving a GIF, creating PNGs, support of MNGs (Multiple Network Graphics, "animated" version of PNG), improved "effects" in the F8 menu and their support on the command line, preview.
We are not considering: support of sound, playback of MPEGs.

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PictView for DOS crashes when attempting to view an image on MS Windows
Some video drivers for MS Windows 95/98/2000 under some circumstances do not allow DOS programs to use any SuperVGA mode. In some cases, the drivers crash the system in such a way that a hard RESET is needed.
MS Windows NT from their nature do not allow DOS programs to use anything else than the standard VGA modes. If you start PictView full screen, VESA BIOS can be detected, however attempt to use VESA modes may lead into hard crash of the system, when a hard RESET is the only solution. We are sorry, but we cannot do anything about it.

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