Image Tools

The Image Tools are a set of image manipulation programs based on the image 
tools from the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC).  
The strength of these tools is the support of many image formats. The formats 
currently supported are:

Format  Description
------------------------------------------------------------------------
bmp     Microsoft Windows BitMaP image file (2)
bucgl   Boston University CGL image (also known as "img" files)
cur     Microsoft Windows CURsor image file (2)
eps     Adobe Encapsulated PostScript file (1)
gif     Compuserve Graphics Interchange Format file
hdf     Hierarchical Data File
ico     Microsoft Windows ICOn image file (2)
icon    Sun ICON and Cursor file
iff     Sun TAAC Image File Format
mpnt    Apple Macintosh MacPaiNT file
pbm     PBM Portable Bit Map file
pcx     ZSoft Paint IBM PC Paintbrush file
pgm     PBM Portable Gray Map file
pic     PIXAR PICture file
pict    Apple Macintosh QuickDraw/PICT file
pix     Alias image file
pnm     PBM Portable aNy Map file
ppm     PBM Portable Pixel Map file
ps      Adobe PostScript file (1)
ras     Sun RASterfile (also known as "sun" files)
rgb     SGI RGB image file (also known as "sgi" files)
rla     Wavefront raster image file
rle     Utah Run Length Encoded image file
synu    SDSC SYNU image file
tga     Truevision (TarGA) image file (2)
tiff    Tag Image File Format file
viff    Khoros Visualization Image File Format file (2)
x       AVS X image file
xbm     X11 bitmap file
xwd     X Window System window dump image file

(1) WRITE-ONLY Formats.  The imtools can not read .ps and .eps files.
(2) File formats not supported on IBM RS6000 machines (including Lobster, our
    production machine).  These formats are also not supported by the tools
    imquery, imview, ximview, ximsave, and imindex, regardless of what machine 
    you are on.  Please do not submit any files to us via the slides command
    in any of these formats.

Tool Version on Version on Limited formats most machines IBM RS6000s supported on all machines ------------------------------------------------------------------------ imformats 2.1 2.0 N/A imadjust 2.1 NONE No imcat 2.1 NONE No imcltroll 2.1 NONE No imcomp 2.1 NONE No imconv 2.1 2.0 No imcopy 2.1 2.0 No imfile 2.1 2.0 No imfill 2.1 NONE No imflip 2.1 2.0 No imgray 2.1 2.0 No imhist 2.1 NONE No imindex 2.0 2.0 Yes immono 2.1 2.0 No impaste 2.1 2.0 No imquery 2.0 2.0 Yes imroll 2.1 NONE No imrotate 2.1 NONE No imscale 2.1 2.0 No imshear 2.1 NONE No imsplit 2.1 NONE No imtekprint 2.0 2.0 No imtekpsprint 2.0 2.0 No imview 2.0 2.0 Yes ximsave 2.0 2.0 Yes ximview 2.0 2.0 Yes xtekprint 2.0 2.0 No
The list of tools is as follows: * imformats - Lists information on the image file formats supported by these Image Tools. * imadjust - Adjusts pixel values in an image. (Not available on IBM RS6000 machines such as Lobster) * imcat - Concatenates multiple image files into a single image. (Not available on IBM RS6000 machines such as Lobster) * imcltroll - Rolls color lookup table by a number of entries. (Not available on IBM RS6000 machines such as Lobster) * imcomp - Composites two images together. Input and output image file formats may be different. (Not available on IBM RS6000 machines such as Lobster) * imconv - Converts an input image file using one file format to an output image file with a differing file format. * imcopy - Copies a portion of an input image into a new file. Input and output files may have different image file formats. * imfile - Determines the type of image file format used by each file on its command line and prints it to stdout. * imfill - Fills pixels in part or all of an image. (Not available on IBM RS6000 machines such as Lobster) * imflip - Flips an input image vertically, horizontally, or both and stores the results in the specified output file. Input and output files may have different image file formats. * imgray - Converts each input image to grayscale and saves it to an output file. Input and output files may have different image file formats. * imhist - Computes a histogram of an image. (Not available on IBM RS6000 machines such as Lobster) * imindex - Converts each input image to 8-bit indexed image and saves it to an output file. Input and output files may have different image file formats. * immono - Converts each input image to monochrome and saves it to an output file. Input and output files may have different image file formats. * impaste - Pastes an input image onto a background image and saves the result into a new file. Input, background, and output files may have different image file formats. * imquery - Prints to stdout the name, the image file format, and the width and height of each file on its command line. * imroll - Rolls images vertically and/or horizontally. (Not available on IBM RS6000 machines such as Lobster) * imrotate - Rotates an image in the image plane. (Not available on IBM RS6000 machines such as Lobster) * imscale - Scales input images by a selected scale factor, or scales them up or down to a desired size. Input and output files may have different image file formats. * imshear - Shears an image in either the X or Y direction. (Not available on IBM RS6000 machines such as Lobster) * imsplit - Splits a multi-image file into separate files. (Not available on IBM RS6000 machines such as Lobster) * imtekprint - Sends the file on its command line to the Tektronix 4093D color printer. * imtekpsprint - Sends the file on its command line to the Tektronix Phaser IISDX color printer. * imview - Determines the type of image file format used by the file on its command line and displays it in a GL window as best it can. (SGIs only) * ximsave - Allows the user to save the contents of an X window or of an arbitrary piece of the X window screen into an image file. * ximview - Determines the type of image file format used by the file on its command line and displays it in an X window as best it can. * xtekprint - Allows the user to send the contents of an X window or of an arbitrary piece of the X window screen to the Tektronix 4093D color printer.
Help: Man pages are installed, and each tool has its own help facility. command -help will give a short help message. command -fullhelp will give a long help message.
Command Examples * imconv and imgray - To convert a color BUCGL image to a grayscale image. imconv -outindex -outnoclt a.img b.img or imgray a.img b.img * imconv - To convert a BUCGL image to a Sun Rasterfile image. imconv a.img a.ras * imconv - To convert a BUCGL image to a (Enhanced) PostScript file. imconv a.img a.ps or imconv a.img a.eps * imconv - To convert a Sun Rasterfile image to a BUCGL image. imconv a.sun a.img * imquery - To find the type and size of every image file in a directory. imquery -long * * imconv - To convert a BUCGL image to a Unix tiff image. imconv a.img a.tiff * imtekprint - To print a BUCGL image to the Tektronix 4093D color printer. imtekprint a.img * imtekpsprint - To print a PostScript file to the Phaser IISDX color printer. imtekprint a.ps * imview - To view an image file in a GL Window (SGIs only) imview a.img * ximview - To view in an X Window a BUCGL image. ximview a.img * ximsave - Save the contents of an X Window to a BUCGL image. ximsave a.img

Additional Help/Documentation

To get more detailed information on any of the tools type "man tool_name". Alternatively, you can use the form below to access the Image Tools Man pages for all of the tools that exist on Lobster. To use the form, select the tool you wish to 'man' and click the Man button. Note that the version of the Image Tools on Lobster is slightly older than the version that exists on all of our other machines.

Please also consult the Supported Formats section of the SCV Frequently Asked Questions document for additional help and more detailed information on the image tools version discrepancy among our machines.


Document Name: image_tools
Author/Maintainer: Aaron D. Fuegi (aarondf@bu.edu)
Keywords: image, tools, sdsc, convert
Related Man Pages: imformats, imconv, many others
Created July 1, 1993; Last Revised July 20, 1995; Last Modified
URL of this document: http://scv.bu.edu/SCV/help/image_tools.html
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