Welcome to the PPT Home Page
Current PPT Release: 6.18 ("Descartes-2")
Last updated 22-Oct-2002
The purpose of this page is to function as a fixed point (not a
floating point, hee hee) in netspace
for the development of the PPT Image Processing Package. You are
welcome to try it out, but remember:
THIS IS FREE SOFTWARE. BY DOWNLOADING IT YOU AGREE THAT I CANNOT BE HELD
RESPONSIBLE IN ANY WAY OF ANY POSSIBLE DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER. THERE IS
NO WARRANTY, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE.
There. I feel much better now.
What's new?
[09-Aug-16] PPT source code is now on Github. If you enjoy seeing really
old code, please enjoy :-). I also fixed a 15-year old layouting bug on this page. Better late...
[22-Oct-02] Changed the actual archive files to an another
computer. Unless you're referring to them directly, this should have
no effect on you. It will, however, give me a better idea on who
actually uses PPT these days =).
Table of Contents
PPT is an (yet another) image processing program for the Amiga microcomputers and
compatibles.
Oh, BTW: Please always refer to this page as
http://www.iki.fi/~jalkanen/PPT.html even if your browser claims
differently. This is because IKI
provides me with permanent HTTP redirection and a permanent e-mail
address and should I ever have to resign this HUT address (being a
student and all) you may have difficulty in refinding this place
unless you use the IKI address.
Features
The niftiest feature of PPT is a multithreaded core, which means that
you can continue working on other images, while the previous one is
being processed. You can even do work while there is a batch
processor chewing away in the background!
Other, cool features are:
- Modular construction - the main program is quite small and
everything else comes from external libraries. There are over
thirty effects!
- Built-in Virtual Memory - for those really big files.
- All processing is done in 32, 24 or 8 bit.
- PPT imposes no limit on the number of image buffers you can
have. Your machine will run out of memory before PPT chokes
;-)
- TRUE transparency info. Yes, you can make cool PNG images with
transparency settings for Web graphics!
- One of the coolest features of the Amiga: AREXX. 'nuff said.
- CyberGFX support
- Progressive JPEG support, both loading and saving.
I have some screen shots for you right here.
See the readme for more information!
PPT is a modest program, it does not require much (however, it'll
be very happy, if you have lots of resources):
- An Amiga microcomputer or compatible.
- Workbench 2.04 or later (asl.library V38 is required for some
features). V39 (Workbench 3.0) is supported and utilized
wherever applicable. PPT also uses CyberGFX for accelerated
graphics performance, if available.
- A hard drive (theoretically you could work with a floppy, but I
haven't tried. If someone has, I'd like to know the results.)
- Enough memory. (Image processing can consume huge amounts of
memory. Even if PPT does have its own virtual memory system,
more is always better.) You can probably do much in 2
megabytes, but it's gonna be sloooowwwwww...
- BGUI.library v41.10 or better. You should download it from here.
Installation is handled by the standard AT Installer. If you do not
have the latest version, go check your nearest Aminet site for a package called
"Installer_43.lha" or something similar.
Other than that, just de-archive the contents of the distribution
archive onto your ramdisk, floppy, or hard drive and click on "Install".
NOTEZ-BIEN: The format of PPT modules may change until the API
has been frozen. Always make sure you've deleted all of the old
versions before updating to a new version.
Here's a small list of bugs that have not been mentioned in the docs
(i.e. I have just found them or someone has notified me of them):
- Text.effect won't start!
- Get a fix here.
- Dragging and dropping an image on each other hangs the machine!
- This is a known bug in BGUI 41.8 and will be fixed. Either use
BGUI 41.10 (download here)
or just use Cut/Copy/Paste. Though it is possible that the
41.10 release may crash also (I've seen it!), it is also
possible that it is slightly better on your system.
The following files are available in this area (shift click or do
something else to your browser so that it understands that these files
are not to be shown, but downloaded. Some browsers have difficulty
understanding the lha format):
- The README file, containing more
detailed information about the capabilities and limitations of
the program. (7kB)
- PPT Release notes (~1kB) and
HISTORY for those who want to know exactly
what has been happening lately. (16 kB)
- The most recent PPT beta release
(PPT_Dist.lha, 968 kB)
- Text.effect v3.2, fixing a problem
in the current release.
- The previous PPT release.
- The security addition to the most
recent PPT release. (PPT_security.lha, 12 kB). Note
that if your country has made it illegal to own strong
cryptographic software, you will commit a felony by downloading
this archive. Also, it is illegal to export this file from the
United States, if this somehow winds up on a US site. Complain
to your local congress member, if you find this stupid.
-
The developer archive, for the bold and curious. This is
currently BETA, so treat it with care... But if you want to
write your own modules, check it out! Rudimentary PowerPC
support is included, and I'd like to welcome people who
can compile and run PPC program to try it out.(74 kB)
The README and ReleaseNotes are of course available in the main
archive, as well.
Here's a small selection of links somehow related to image
processing or PPT.
PPT is (C) Janne Jalkanen 1996-1999. All rights
reserved.