Amiga gfx
 

Hi some help please been looking last night but no joy,I need a util that will let me import iff files from deluxe paint on to the pc > modify and return to delux paint on the amiga.

I have Grafx2 which will read the iff but when i save as lbm and import on to real amiga no joy ? for starters the file is to big compared to the original am I missing something ? tried reducing palette to original but still no joy.

Perhaps another util maybe.

Many thanks jamie.

ps. Or am I going about this the wrong way all together lol.

I wish to have a play with some of my old amiga gfx on pc only other way i see is use winuae.
In the long run I wish to re start like many :) having some thing new up and running.

I have the coding side sorted but not the gfx.

Sorry but this has probably been asked four million times in the past but can not find a good answer.

You can use XNView. Just convert any image to 32 colors and save as IFF.

I believe Photoshop can import and export IFF files. The filename must have the .IFF extension though else it won't know what format it's loading.
You can get a free trial from the Adobe website.

Grafx2 should work, just change its screen settings to be exactly the same as the image you want to load otherwise it will save that huge file. I still don't know how to avoid this,m it's a pretty annoying bug.

Paint shop pro ;-)

Yep, I 2nd paint shop pro. My choice for hand pixelling stuff.
If you save as iff/ilbm on pc software though and it doesnt load on dpaint or brilliance try it on PPaint, then resave as ilbm and it'll work in the aforementioned software.

Thanks for your replies I have decided to use a combination of Grafz2 & Xnview.

Akira I tried setting Grafz2 to correct screen size and colour palette before loading gfx but after saving 8 colour screen it does not show in deluxe paint but above works fine.

Thanks jay.

Which version of grafx2 do you have? It works perfect on my side.

Version 7 pre bloat is best :)

ver 2.3

I load 320*256 8 colour palette gfx from old work I done and displays OK in grafx2 then I save as lbm file and copy over to amiga and load, deluxe paint acts if it loads but no picture.

Also pre adjusted deluxe paint 320*256 8 colour screen.

Well I have version 2.4. And I know there are newer versions. Maybe you should try them. I remember some older versions being buggy.

No picture? Did you hit "File--->show page" (or press left shift + S)? I think your picture might be there somewhere inside a gigantic canvas.

I did have issues with .LBM files saved by grafx2 though. It's weird, the old version which saved IFF worked fine, but this new version is being poopy.

Bwahahahahaha!

You guys and gals made me laugh today :D

Photoshop is the industry standard, need I say more ;)

Ignore those posts, what they meant to say was :-

Photoshop, the plugin for .IFF is not installed by default but is actually on the disk, so if you have Photoshop, you've already got the .IFF plugin. It works 95% of the time and has never failed me. This plugin is old and I doubt it will ever be updated to be 100% accurate but it has always worked for me :) Of course, I'm not entirely sure if the .IFF plugin is included with the latest versions of PS.

Of course if you don't have Photoshop and you don't want to spend money the next best thing is XNView or IrfanView (you need to download the latest plugins for IrfanView). I haven't used IrfanView very much so I can't speak of it's accuracy but as it's free it's worth a look :)

Photoshop costs thousands of dollars and is very IMPRACTICAL for pixelling, so is PaintShop Pro. grafx2 is the most serious, DPaint-like software for pixelling on today's platforms and it doesn't cost a dime. It's made FOR pixelling and as such is the adequate tool. I didn't use anything but DPaint on my Amiga until grafx2 came out. It's that good,

Indeed I agree Akira :) I was only giving some other alternate options for freehand to try, although I have been more than pleased with PS for my needs regarding .IFF, that doesn't mean it's for everyone ;)

I must try grafx2 as I too would like to try another alternative that's more closer to DPaint :)

Yeah man, it's a thing of convenience. If you are used to work Photoshop, it's perfect. Many of my friends do pixelart on it and I have no idea how they manage. For me it's DPaint or grafx2 :)

I suggested paint shop pro for opening amiga image files (because they are supported) not specifically for pixelling.
Photoshop is standard use for a lot of people, but my suggestion to the OP is to go with what your comfortable with not what people tell you whats best.

You may be able to pixel with photoshop I don't doubt that but photoshop was created originally for far more complex tasks.

Kitty: You do know that was a personal joke with you? I was only kidding :)

Hi, current Grafx2 coder here. I tested the loading of IFF images from many sources, but about the saving, I only tested compatibility with Deluxe Paint 2E, the MS-DOS version which runs in 256 colors too.
Grafx2 always saves a 8-bit (256-color) IFF file, so this could be one reason for Deluxe Paint 3 or 4 to choke on it (if you use colors above 64, or your 64-color palette isn't EHB).

From the comment by Akira, I also checked why screen size matters :
Grafx2 saves the screen dimensions in the IFF header. It's asked by the format specification, and in MS-DOS times, it allowed Grafx2 to automatically re-open an image in the resolution it was designed.(even crazy modes for a PC, like 320x512)
If Deluxe Paint 3 or 4 tries to make a canvas of this size, it's him who's not following the written standard :/ But it won't be the first time I'll adjust the program according to "what works".

Can you give more details about what happens on re-loading an image in Deluxe Paint 3 or 4 ? and can you try to reduce the Grafx2 window to its smallest before saving (before you open the "Save" dialog), it will be exacly 320x200, a resolution that DP should know.

Well I can open the files just fine, I guess the original poster doesn't have enough memory in his system to do so. but basically the problem is that the saved image has a resolution equal to whatever your WINDOW size is in the software.

I am now testing if reducing the window size would work fine. It did. I resized my window to 320x200 and DPIV recognized it as 320x200. It still thinks it's 256 colors though.

Here's what happens otherwise, the picture resolution is that of the window and not what you set as picture size on grafx2's options:

http://i.imgur.com/ieJVU.png

Thanks for speedy reply !
Putting the window size as the "resolution" was maybe not ideal, but if I had put the desktop resolution, you'd see the same message with a bigger number like 1600x1200. I'm rather surprised that DP 3/4/5 mistakes the image(canvas) size with the editor size, especially since it is able to edit images larger than screen, and edit in a few overscan resolutions.

I'll build up a few tests images where I put the image size in the "screen size" fields, and see if they work better (I think I have DP4 on UAE)

User feedback is the only way to improve the program, so don't hesitate to report problems :spin