IFF-Checker (Windows)

[Nightshft]

I created a small windows tool that shows you information about iff-files (pictures)

- picture dimensions
- number of bitplanes
- number of colours
- compressed yes/no
- ham mode yes/no
- the rgb values of the palette (if present)
- and more

Installation:
No installation needed - it's just a portable.

Usage:
As simple as it can be - just drag&drop .iff files onto it.

I hope it's useful.
Enjoy

Update: Version 1.1.4 (see posts below)

[ptyerman]

I will find this useful. Thanks.

[Nightshft]

I hope you do, cheers

Note that it can list the palette color values and it's possible to copy and paste them.

My main motivation was that PaintShopPro and XnView don't show the actual number of bitplanes of an iff file. They round up to 4 and 8 respectively.
And thus it's handy to have something that shows you the correct number of bitplanes.

--

It started as a quick hack that reads values at hardcoded adresses. Then I realized that
- iff uses chunks
- reading the other chunks can be fun/useful too
- in rare cases the file even starts with other chunks and the bitmap header comes later

Which lead me from
- read some fix adresses
to
- read all the chunks (its basicly a linked list)
- parse the data
It was quite some work as I used no libraries and wrote everything from scratch. IMHO it's working quite well now.

--

Version 1.1 is in the making. It will
- recognize EHB iff files (version 1.0 recognizes HAM)
- do better filechecks
- improved stability when file corrupt

[Nobby_UK]

What does this mean ?

[Nightshft]

Yeah, sorry. I tested v1.0 with a lot of valid iff files, which worked fine,
but forgot to implement checks into the parsing routine for wrong data.

Which are implemented in Version 1.1
- identify EHB iff files
- do better filechecks
- no more crashes when file not iff or corrupt
(Download at first post)

I think it's rock stable now. Please test/comment/criticize/praise and most importantly use it

@Nobby_UK
I suppose this happened with a non iff file?

[StingRay]

Quickly tested it with a few files, seems to work fine. I'd remove the "Warning: Fileextension should be IFF" message though as the extension is completely irrelevant on Amiga. And hence shouldn't matter on PC either when you check files. Content matters, extension doesn't.

[coldacid]

Nice tool. What'd you use to write this?

[Nobby_UK]

No they were 2 small bitmaps I tile on Workbench:
+
Updated Grab:
I rotated one and re:saved that and go no error

[Nightshft]

Originally Posted by StingRay

Quickly tested it with a few files, seems to work fine. I'd remove the "Warning: Fileextension should be IFF" message though as the extension is completely irrelevant on Amiga. And hence shouldn't matter on PC either when you check files. Content matters, extension doesn't.

Let me think about it. You'r right! Guess I remove it in the next version.

Originally Posted by coldacid

Nice tool. What'd you use to write this?

Thank you coldacid. It's written in Delphi.

Originally Posted by Nobby_UK

No they were 2 small bitmaps I tile on Workbench...

Could you pm me with some link to those files please? (Maybe gdrive or dropbox? working and non working version would be needed). I'd really like to investigate.

[Nobby_UK]

Too late I've 'fixed' them

[Nightshft]

A fresh small update...

Version 1.1.2
- no more warning if fileExtension is not .iff (thx Stingray )
and some additional output:
- filesize [kB]
- transparent colour (pen) info if present
- AUTH string if present (Author information)

As always, the download is the attachment of the first post.
Enjoy...

[Nobby_UK]

"Amiga pictures should have an even width"

Says Who ?

[Nightshft]

Carolyn Scheppner (Commodore Amiga Technical Support) mentioned it in an iff ilbm reference article from back then.

Not sure if this still holds true. If not, I can easily remove/mute the check in the next version.

[Nightshft]

Version 1.1.4
- now reads palette files (for example DPaintIV .pal and .set files)
- doubleclick on background in palette-list-view toggles between hex and dec values
- small fixes