The dBASE Gif to Png Converter

Description

The dBASE GIF to PNG Converter converts files in the patented Graphic Interchange Format (GIF) to Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format, an open W3C standard. The engine of this Converter is based on a command-line shareware made by by Alexander Lehmann. The code for auto-interlace conversion was made by Greg Roelofs and production packaging by Eric S. Raymond. Actually, I just did the GUI interface in order to avoid the command-line switches.

Normally this shareware converts each file, leaving the source GIF file in place (unless the user checked the checkbox that requests the original GIF file to be deleted). The PGN created has the same prefix as the source GIF file: for example, the shareware will use Image1.GIF to created Image1.PNG. However when a multi-image GIF file named Image1.gif is converted, the shareware creates multiple PNG files, each containing one frame; their names will be Image1.png, Image1.p01, Image1.p02, etc.

The program will preserve the information contained in a GIF file as closely as possible, including GIF comment and application-data extension blocks. All graphics data (pixels, RGB color tables) will be converted without loss of information. Transparency is also preserved. There is one exception; GIF plain-text extensions are skipped.

Efficacy

The PNGs created by the Converter are approximately 70% of the size of the equivalent PNGs created by Photoshop 6.0

  Size of the Gif image Size of the Png created by the
dBASE Gif to Png Converter
Size of the PNG images exported by Photoshop 6.0 Converter/Photoshop
  35 97 923 10.5 %
  10,054 5,171 7,441 69.5 %
  20,313 8,568 12,241 70.0 %
  30,016 19,651 27,727 70.9 %
  83,944 69,234 94,320 73.4 %
         

Installation

a) Install the dBASE Plus Runtime Engine (7.2 MB). This is the Virtual Machine needed for dBASE Plus applications to run.

b) Download S_G2Png.zip (76 Kb) in a temporary folder.

c) Extract the three files it contains (START_ME.exe, Start_me.ini, Gif1Png.wfo and þð×æÆxök.exe) in the folder you would like the Gif to Png Converter to be.

d) Create a shortcut to START_ME.exe on your Desktop or in your Start Menu.

Once this application is installed, you can delete S_G2Png.zip.

History

Cost

The dBASE Gif to Png Converter is free.


April 2003.