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

Version 1.0 (April 2003)
Version 1.01 (May 2003): the PNG filename can be set in uppercase letters, in lowercase letters or the first letter of the filename can be capitalized.
Version 1.2 (November 2003): a major bug has been corrected. On some systems, the PNG file was not created: now it is. Moreover, the application can work with images that are not in the same folder as the application.

Cost

The dBASE Gif to Png Converter is free.

April 2003.