# bmeps 2.1.5

- Overview
- Download / Installation
- Usage
- Examples
- bmeps GUI
- mkpdfsls
- FAQ
- Change log
- Other projects
- PDF manual (en)
- PDF manual (de)
- Doxygen docu

## bmeps GUI

- Overview
- Requirements
- Starting the program
- Startup problems on some Linux systems
- Screenshots
- Main window
- Choosing a directory
- Setting options
- Open options dialog box
- General options
- Predefined configurations
- Full-custom configuration
- PS/EPS
- PDF
- Bounding box
- Running a conversion
- Exit the program
- Adjusting GUI settings

### Overview

The GUI allows you to perform the following tasks:

- Choose the directory where the images to convert reside.
- Seet conversion options (choose output format and set format-specific options).
- Run the conversion.

### Requirements

The following software is required to use the Bmeps GUI:

- bmeps 2.1.4 or later and
- a Java runtime environment (JRE), I recommend to use the recent JRE from http://java.sun.com/.

### Starting the program

- On Windows there is a menu entry "GUIs => Bmeps GUI" in the "Dirk Krause's Tools" program group in the start menu.
- On other systems run the command

      java -jar /usr/local/bin/bmepsgui.jar

  to start the program.
  A simple script

      bmepsgui

  to invoke this command in background is installed during bmeps installation.
- To start the program manually on Windows systems run

      java -jar c:\programme\krause\bin\bmepsgui.jar

  (the directory differs depending on your Windows version and language).
  You can use the "javaw" command instead of "java" if you prefer that.

The main window is shown after the program was started successfully.

### Startup problems on some Linux systems

If you encounter problems when using the ``bmepsgui'' script, run

    java -jar /usr/local/bin/bmepsgui.jar

manually, correct the path if necessary.
If you see messages about a segmentation violation, attempt to run

    java -jar -splash:none /usr/local/bin/bmepsgui.jar

instead.
If this works, provide the option ``-splash:none'' to the bmepsgui script or modify the script and enter this option to the command line used in the script.

### Screenshots

#### Main window

The main window shows the directory containing the images to convert and the current program status.

#### Choosing a directory

To choose a directory we can use a menu entry or the button in the button bar. After choosing a directory the new directory is shown in the main window.

#### Setting options

##### Open options dialog box

We can use a menu entry or the button in the button bar to open the options dialog.

##### General options

- Make mode (check file modification times)
  Activate this check box if you want to run conversions only if necessary (output file does not yet exist or is older than input file).
  If the check box is deactivated conversions are run for all files, even if the output file is up to date.
- Draft mode
  In draft mode bmeps does not convert the images, it only produces simple placeholder graphics instead. To produce the placeholders there is no need to read the entire image file, reading the image header containing width and height information is sufficient. So bmeps runs faster.

##### Predefined configurations

When using predefined configurations you can choose to either use one of the built-in configurations or a configuration defined in a bmeps.conf file (if a bmeps.conf file is available).
Choose the configuration name in the list box.

##### Full-custom configuration

Experts can use full-custom configurations for a detailed driver configuration.

- Base driver
  Choose an output driver, either PostScript/EPS, PDF or bounding box.

###### PS/EPS

- General
  - PS/EPS version
    Choose the PostScript level: 1, 2 or 3.
  - Encapsulated PostScript
    Activate this check box to create EPS instead of PS.
  - DSC comments
    Activate this check box to write DSC comments to output.
  - Colored output
    Activate this check box to create colored output, deactivate the check box for grayscaled output.
  - Image interpolation
    Activate this check box to set the image interpolation flag in output. This flag allows PS interpreters to attempt to improve rendering quality on screen.
    - For JPEGs too
      Activate this check box to allow image interpolation for JPEG files too.
- Size + resolution
  Choose output image size.
  The default is to convert 1 bitmap image pixel into a small 1 point x 1 point square.
  For images containing a resolution chunk you can choose to use the resolution specified in the image.
  Alternatively you can choose to fit the output image onto a paper size, choose the paper format from the list.
- Compression + encoding
  The final step when writing output is to encode binary data from previous compression and encoding filters in text form.
  You can choose between ASCII-85 encoding (increases number of bytes by 25%, requires at least PS level 2) and ASCII-Hex encoding (increases number of bytes by 100%).
  For PS level 2 and above you can use run-length compression. Without the "Multiple data sources" option run-length compression can only compress lines of the same gray value. The "Multiple data sources" option creates separated data streams for red, green and blue to allow run-length compression of lines of the same color.
  Flate compression is available for PS level 3 only. It provides a losless compression at good compression rate.
  PS level 2 allows DCT-compressed data, so you can use DCT-compressed data from JPEG files directly without having to decode and re-encode them. For DCT there are multiple sub-mechanisms (SOFs) defined, the PostScript standard requires PS interpreters to support SOF-0 and SOF-1.
  The JFIF analysis (which checks the SOF marker types used in the input file) in bmeps sometimes fails, so you can ignore this analysis.
- Alpha channel
  PNG and TIFF images can contain alpha channels expressing opacity/transparency. You can use this data for two purposes (combination possible):
  - Mix against color
    Click on the color area to specify a default background color. If the input file contains a background image chunk specifying a background color, the color specified in the file is used unless the "Ignore background chunk" check box is activated.
    The color specified in the dialog box is used if the input image does not specify a background color or the "Ignore background chunk" check box is activated.
  - Create image mask
    To create an image mask you have to choose a trigger level. To print a point you can require either full alpha value or alpha > 0.
- PS operators
  When using a separated dictionary for each image the PS interpreter knows that resources created for that image are not longer needed after the image was printed. So it can release these resources during garbage collection.
  If a separated dictionary was used we can suggest to do a garbage collection after printing an image using the "vmreclaim" operator.
  The "showpage" operator can be added at the end of an output file to show the image. This operator should be used when creating output images for standalone viewing. You should not use this operator if you plan to reference the PS files from LaTeX (or other) documents.

###### PDF

- General
  - PDF version
    Choose a PDF version: 1.2, 1.3 or 1.4.
    Version 1.4 is supported by the up-to-date PDF viewers.
    Version 1.2 can be used for backward compatiblity to older viewers, but versions below 1.4 do not support included alpha channels.
  - Fit at open
    When opening a PDF file a reader can automatically set the zoom factor to fit the width, height or entire page into the viewer window.
- Alpha channel
  PDF version 1.4 allows to use alpha channels in bitmap images. So we can transfer an alpha channel from a PNG or TIFF images directly to PDF output.
  By default some PDF viewers use the CMYK color space for internal calculations. This produces "color shifting" effects for PDF files containing images with alpha channels. The "Allow PDF page attributes" option allows to add some additional page attributes to enforce RGB color space for calculations. If you use PDF images containing alpha channels with pdfLaTeX you should add these page attributes using

      \ifpdf\pdfpageattr{/Group <</S Transparency /I true /CS /DeviceRGB>>}\fi

  in the document preamble (suggested by J. Quirk in the pdftex mailing list).
  Note: This \pdfpageattr{} instruction probably overwrites PDF page attribute settings previously made. Use with care.

###### Bounding box

No settings are necessary to produce bounding box files.

#### Running a conversion

You can use a menu entry or the "Run a conversion" button from the button bar to start the conversion process.

While the conversion is running the main window shows the status "Running:" and the name of the file currently processed.
After the conversion is done the status returns to "Ready".

If an error message

    ERROR: Failed to run the command shown in the line below!

is shown in the log window the bmeps GUI failed to run the bmeps (or bmeps.exe) program. Make sure the bmeps (Linux/Unix...) or bmeps.exe file (Windows) is in a directory listed in the PATH environment variable.

#### Exit the program

A menu entry or the "Exit the application" button from the button bar can be used to exit the application.

#### Adjusting GUI settings

The "Setup -> GUI" menu entry can be used to set up the GUI.

- Look-and-feel
  The look-and-feel can be set to "System look-and-feel" (the program attempts to look and behave like any other program on the desktop) or "No specific look-and-feel" (the program uses Java-internal default settings for styles).
- Component border
  Empty space between GUI components.
- Minimum font size
  Set the minimum font size here. At program startup all styles are inspected, the font size is corrected if necessary.
- Replace font family
  For some look-and-feels on some systems not all styles are corrected to use the fonts set up for the system (i.e. there are still some component styles using Dialog font when using the system look-and-feel). This option can be used to replace font family Dialog by the font family used in the system settings.
- Original fonts / Fonts in use
  Here the program shows the fonts as configured by the look-and-feel and the fonts used after font size correction and font family substitution.
- Use settings for all applications
  Here you can decide to use the settings from the dialog box not only in the Bmeps GUI but also in other applications using Dirk Krause's GUI controller class (i.e. the Tracecc GUI) having the GUI not yet configured.

After confirming changes in this dialog box ("OK" button) you should exit the application and restart it to apply the changes.