Conference bulova::decw_jan-89_to_nov-90

3315.0. "Annotated image delivery problems" by IOOSRV::COLVIN () Thu Sep 06 1990 22:22

The is request for some guidence in the use of annotated VAXcamera images.

The following is what I am trying to accomplish - without much luck yet.

Take an image with VAXcamera - annotated under DECwindows with DECwrite 1.1
- and now comes the hard part, using either a user developed program or using
Digital software products and DCL glue provide a way to display the DECwindows
annotated image on the screen to a shopfloor user in under 5 seconds.

The following is the file conversion maze as I have run it so far.


	VAXcamera .VIF file
		|
	DECwindows Developer - output file types DDIF, SIXEL, Postscript
		|		|		|
	DDIF file which		SIXEL file	PS file
	can be annotated	which can't	which can't
		|		be annotated	be annotated
		|
	DECwrite 1.1 - output file types DDIF, Postscript or display on screen
		|		|			|
	DDIF file with		Postscript file		Screen Capture
	overlay annotations	with annotations	of image with
	and complete image	and image merged	embeded annotation
	|			/	|		|
	|		       /	|		|
	|		      / 	|		|
	|		     /  	|		|
	|   #2	VMS 5.4 Postscript   PSprint product	Screen Capture into
	|	previewer of	     used to convert	either grayscale DDIF
	|	annotated PS file    PS file into	or SIXEL file for use
	|			     SIXEL for use	by user program
	|			     by user program
	|					\	/
	|					 \     /
    #1	Annotated image			    #3	Embeded Annotation
	Displayed by				SIXEL or DDIF file
	DECwrite 1.1				displayed by user program


The #1 solution does work to present an annotated image on the screen of
a VAXstation 3100 in about 45-50 secondes and the DECwrite placing and
size can be controlled at startup.  This solution is to slow


The #2 solution is a future solution that is not available to customers
currently and when VMS 5.4 ships the question will be can an X-window
terminal be able to handle the PS x-protocol extension at the same time?


The #3 solution is almost there in terms of providing the embeded annotated
image except for the following problems.  First the sixel side.  Using
PSprint to generate the SIXEL file for a DECterm window does not work
because the target devices for the PSprint are printers and not any
terminal devices that display SIXEL.  When a SIXEL file is displayed
on a DECterm that was originally targeted at an LN03S the size is about 6 times
to large.  When the screen capture using grayscale and SIXEL is used
from the Session Manager under DECwindows the image looks like it has
been converted to bitonal.

When using the Screen Capture with capture the image from a DECwrite
session that shows the annotated image, again the image seems to be
converted into bitonal.  When the orginal DDIF file from the Developer
is run throught the CONVERT/DOC ddif analysis conversion and the analysis
file is looked at the IDU_PIXEL_STRIDE is 8, the IDU_BITS_PER_PIXEL is 7
and the SGA_IMG_NUMBER_OF_COMP is 1 and the SGA_IMG_BITS_PER_COMP is 8.
When the same thing is done with the screen captured ddif file the
IDU_PIXEL_STRIDE is 1, the IDU_BITS_PER_PIXEL is 1 and the 
SGA_IMG_NUMBER_OF_COMP is 1 and the SGA_IMG_BITS_PER_COMP is 1.  

In looking through the DECimage Application Services for VMS Image
Service Library Programmer's Reference Manual (AA-LE70B-TE) version 2.0
page 3-2 table 3-1 Defaults for Spectral Attributes - the column under
grayscale has IMG$_PLANE_BITS_PER_PIXEL of 8, IMG$_PIXEL_STRIDE of 1,
IMG$_NUMBER_OF_COMP of 1 and IMG$_BITS_PER_COMP of 8.

Any suggestions as to how to get to the goal of an annotated image on the
screen in less than 5 seconds?

Steve Colvin