.FLYINGHEAD PALMPILOT HOW-TO
.TITLE Displaying pictures on your PalmPilot
.AUTHOR Bob Freud
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY Contributing Editor Bob Freud is really into his PalmPilot. Instead of showing off printed snapshots of his children, he pulls out his PalmPilot and shows digitized images of his kids on screen. It’s not entirely clear if he’s prouder of his kids or his PalmPilot! Now you too can be proud: download photos, maps, and even presentations into your PalmPilot.
"Got any pictures of that new baby of yours?"
"Sure do," I said. Rather than bring out a bulging wallet, I took out my PalmPilot and passed it around to the admiring oohs and ahs of my lunch-table companions. No, my friends were not admiring the PalmPilot’s address book and memopad functions but rather were looking at the ten grayscale photos of my new daughter.
PalmPilot users know by now that the device is an extraordinarily useful tool for carting around massive amounts of text-based information in a very small package, but are you aware that the PalmPilot also has the ability to display grayscale images with four levels of gray? Your PalmPilot has the ability to display 2-bit grayscale images, as shown in Figure A. That gives you four colors: (black, dark gray, light gray, white). For the sake of comparison, remember that most computer monitors display at least 8-bit graphics. A black and white 8-bit graphic on most computers would have 256 shades of gray. By using a process called dithering, the PalmPilot can make those four shades of gray appear to be seven different shades. Understandably, the 2-bit images are not going to look nearly as smooth as 8-bit images. More information on the PalmPilot’s ability to display grayscale images can be found in article in Handheld Systems Journal (http://www.cdpubs.com/hhsj/tocs/46toc.html).
.FIG A This is what a picture of me would look like on your PalmPilot.
.H1 Installing Image Viewer
A number of developers have exploited this ability and created software that enables users to export bitmap, .JPG, or .GIF images from your PC to a PalmPilot-displayable format. The Image Viewer format, developed by Art Dahm has received the widest acceptance. Image Viewer is shown in Figure B. After you’ve download the Viewer software (which consists of the Image View program, an Image Converter program, and some sample images), install the Image View software onto your PalmPilot by selecting the PalmPilot Install Tool from the PalmPilot Desktop Group of applications and then browsing for the Image View Software. After you have selected the Install button, you can exit the Install program and perform a Hot Sync to install your new software. To ensure that you have installed the program correctly, you can also install one of the sample images that come with the package.
.FIGPAIR B This is my picture, originating on the PC.
.H1 Safe computing note
Make sure you backup any crucial data on your PalmPilot by performing a hotsync before you install any new PalmPilot software. Many wonderful shareware and commercial programs are being released daily for the PalmPilot, and some of them have been released in beta format. Nobody can ensure that they will all work with the particular third-party programs and software hacks you may have already installed.
.H1 Converting images
Once you have installed the viewer software, you will want to convert and install your own images. To do so, you must use a program that converts images to PalmPilot-readable files. This program, the Image Converter utility, is included with the Viewer software package.
When you start Image Converter, you will see a window with four tabs. In the conversion window, you can select your image source. This can be the clipboard, an image on your screen, or a graphic file on your hard drive. Once you have selected the image source, you can select the Note tab to add a short or long (up to 700 words) note describing the image. Selecting the "Preview" tab will enable you to see what your image will look like once it has been converted into a PalmPilot-readable format. Once you are satisfied with the way your image is going to look and added any notes you want to include, it’s time to select the Conversion tab. Here you can select an image type: black and white for simple line art or grayscale for photographs and images with a variety of colors. Choosing the dithered option will make your images appear to display more gradients. Give your image a title and click the convert button.
.H1 Images on the PalmPilot
How do the converted images look? Remember that with only four shades of gray you are not going to wind up with museum quality photos, but when you convert drawings and other line art to a PalmPilot readable format, you will be pleased with the amount of detail which is retained.
Although you can convert any image (color, black and white, or grayscale) to Image Viewer format, you will obtain your best results if you first crop out of the picture anything that is unnecessary using an image editing program. (PaintShop Pro is a popular shareware program that can be used for this) Then reduce the number of colors in the picture to 8 or 16, and finally convert your picture to a grayscale image. Images prepared this way will appear better when converted.
If you select the Auto-Install option in the Image Converter program, your image will be ready to be installed the next time you HotSync your PalmPilot. If you would prefer to create the images first and choose which ones to install, deselect the Auto-Install option while converting your images. When you are ready to install your newly created images onto your PalmPilot use the PalmPilot Install Tool and performing a Hotsync. Now your images will now be ready for viewing on your PalmPilot.
Although the PalmPilot has only a 160-by-160 screen, you can still display images that are larger than this size. You can scroll through an image that is larger than the PalmPilot screen size by dragging the stylus anywhere along the image. Drag right with your pen, for example, and your picture will move to the right.
It is possible to add notes to any picture. These can be added when you create the picture in the Image Conversion program discussed above or they can be added later on your PalmPilot using the Graffiti input system. To add a note from the Image Viewer information screen, tap the stylus directly to the right of the image size and the note window will appear.
.H1 Memory usage
PalmPilot users, especially those with the PalmPilot Personal Edition, may be concerned about memory usage. The Image Viewer software takes up only 32 K and smaller images (approximately 200×200 pixels) will typically use 7-10k of memory. A very large 620×380 image, however, can use 50k. Most PalmPilot Professional users will have no difficulty loading the software and five to ten images. Image information can be retrieved from the Image Details window in the Image View Software.
.H1 Conclusion and ideas
Besides having the ability to display photos of your friends and family, there are many practical uses for image display on the PalmPilot. Maps, especially those created on line at services such as MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com), can be stored on the PalmPilot, with driving directions attached as a note, as shown in Figure C. Those in sales could maintain a fairly comprehensive range of product images on their PalmPilots. Real estate agents could upload pictures of houses they plan to show to clients.
.FIG C Look at this great map!
And for those who cannot get by without Microsoft PowerPoint, quite effective mini-PowerPoint presentations can be created as long as the screen size is limited to the 160 by 160. This will probably result in presentations that contain a title and four bulleted items or a title and one graphic, as you can see in Figure D.
.FIGPAIR D This is what mini-PowerPoint presentation would look like.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability
Image Viewer is available for download on the Internet at the Tap This web site at http://members.aol.com/PilotApps/index.html.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.DISCUSS http://www.component-net.com/webx?13@@.ee6b861
