SpecView SE
v.2.1.5 (unstable)

FREEWARE - DISTRIBUTED AT NO CHARGE

Program code © Copyright 1999-2000 Sergei N. Dubarev AKA Heaven Aeroplane
Images © Copyright 1999-2000 Pro Hackers' Dynasty

IMPORTANT NOTES

  This program is a freeware and must be distributed in an original form at no charge. Neither Sergei N. Dubarev, nor Pro Hackers' Dynasty are responsible for the possible loss/damage of data, hardware, etc as a result of using this software. You're running it at your own risk.

What is SpecView SE?

  SpecView SE is a free gift for all ZX Spectrum fans. It is a Speccy screenshot viewer for Win9x (and possibly NT/2000 but this wasn't tested). It reads standard screenshots produced by various emulators (6912 and 6144 bytes long) and Hobeta archives (this files include an additional 17-byte header which stores a description of a file for TR-DOS). More functions are described below.

Highlights

  These are main SpecView SE highlights:
  - standard and Hobeta type files support;
  - picture scaling;
  - full-screen mode;
  - picture printing;
  - color palette tuning;
  - export to BMP and JPEG files;
  - Windows wallpaper setup;
  - highly customizable interface;
  - support for different languages;
  - more ...

System Requirements

  SpecView SE requires:
  - a 486DX-based PC (Pentium-based PC is recommended);
  - 8 Megabytes of RAM;
  - about 400 Kilobytes on your hard disk;
  - Windows 95/98 (NT/2000 compatibility wasn't tested);
  - 640x480x256 colors VGA card (16bit HiColor card is recommended);
  Note, that...
  ...SpecView SE usually runs slowly on 486s, although now its code is a little bit optimized.
  ...you'll probably get corrupted colors on a 256 color card. If it happens, try to tune color palette (see "Hotkeys").
  ...some image distortions can happen when using full-screen mode in 640x480 or 800x600 resolution modes. The 1024x768 resolution gives no distortion.
  ...there is no interface description files (translations) for this version of SpecView SE. I hope to release Belarusian and Russian descriptions soon. If you want to send me a translation of interface in some other languages then click here.

Changes Since v. 2.1.4

  There are some new things in SpecView SE v. 2.1.5 in comparison with v. 2.1.4. This is a list of all that was added([+]), changed([x]) or removed([-]).
  - [+] Windows wallpaper setup;
  - [x] picture output algorythm;
  - [x] configuration file format;
  - [x] interface description file format;
  - [x] preferences panel;
  - [x] documentation;
  - [-] slideshow (*.shw) files support;
  - [-] docs in other (than English) languages;
  - [-] additional (non-English) interface translation files.

Hotkeys

Hotkey
What it does
Ctrl-O Open Speccy picture
Ctrl-E Save picture to BMP or JPEG file
Ctrl-Alt-P Tune printer
Ctrl-P Open print dialog
Alt-X Exit SpecView SE
Ctrl-C Tune color palette
Ctrl-D Discard attributes
Ctrl-B Discard brightness
Ctrl-N Start new SpecView SE session
Ctrl-R Relocate SpecView SE window to the left if new one is opened
Ctrl-Z Zoom in
Ctrl-M Zoom out
Ctrl-1 Original picture size (256x192)
Alt-U Full-screen mode
Alt-H Hide (show) toolbar
Ctrl-Alt-I Hide (show) progress bar
Ctrl-G Register file types
Ctrl-S Save settings
Shift-F1 Show 'About' box
F1 Show readme file (Web browser is required)


Tips & Tricks

Here are some useful tips you can use while running SpecView SE:
  - double-click image to enable (disable) full-screen mode;
  - select 'Preferences/Wallpaper' from main menu to set current image as centered or tiled Windows wallpaper;
  - press Ctrl-G to open 'Preferences/File types' tab, then click 'Add desktop shortcut' button to add SpecView SE shortcut to Windows desktop;
  - use only 'Register file types' function of SpecView SE to associate it with Speccy pictures 'cos Windows does this incorrectly;
  - set 'WindowLeft' and 'WindowTop' parameters in 'specview.conf' file equal to 65535: it will force SpecView SE to center its window at startup;
  - do not forget to add an extension to a filename when using 'Export to...' function;
  - you can run SpecView SE from a console: just type in something like 'specview picture_name'; note that DOS PATH environment variable should point to the SpecView SE installation directory at this case.

Bugs

  Known problems currently include:
  - ACDSee 2.41 problem (ACDSee 2.41 frequently shows BMPs created with SpecView SE improperly);
  - if your COMCTL32.DLL file version is earlier than 4.72.2106.4 then the 'Hide toolbar' function will work improperly;
  - Windows registers file types incorrectly, so, use only SpecView SE 'Register file types' function;
  - SpecView SE will probably not work properly under Wine (Windows emulator for Linux).

Contacts

E-mail: webmaster@heaven.4all.cc
FidoNet: 2:450/156.24
WWW: http://heaven.4all.cc

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