>To avoid loading an entire image, it would be useful to have a browser to
>show image information first (type, size, number of colours and more for
>TIFF and Exif format) and, when available, then to give access to thumbnail.
>
>Claude
Yes I shall provide a separate BASIC toolkit to interrogate such info in image
files. Without it of course you wouldn't know what size window channel to open
for an image first (I guess a HTML page would define the object). Though it
would not be as simple as just using the image X and Y size from the file, you
need to consider the scaling used to maintain the aspect ratio in anything other
than a 4:3 QL display.
JPEG files have a marker section (JFIF) which allows small thumbnails to be
included (as raw 24 bit RGB). But I haven't encountered any, though it would be
easy to add them to files. Most viewers I have seen just do a reduced image
using only the DC component of the IDCT (1/8th size). I guess thumbnails were
thought up when PC's were only equipped with 386/486's and slow modems (much
like Progressive JPEGs - images that increase with accuracy in several passes,
now being less often created/found).
Regards,
Dave.
