Bitmap Converter Help

Overview

The bitmap converter is a very straightforward program. You open a bitmap file using the file menu. The bitmap will be displayed in the window so you can be sure you have opened the correct one. Then you save the bitmap as a Euphoria include file. That's all there is to it.

Requirements

This program requires you to have Euphoria for Windows and some version of Windows that is supported by Euphoria. You also need to have the following include members in your standard include folder, or copied into the same folder as this program:

win32lib.ew (from the Win32Lib library)
misc.e (from the standard Euphoria distribution)

Options

The Option menu allows you to specify a palette to use when saving the bitmap as a Euphoria include file. The default option is for the palette to contain only the colors in the bitmap. This option saves the palette as 8-bit RGB values which are commonly used in Windows.

The last two options allow you to use the standard system palette from DOS with either 16 or 256 colors. These palettes are saved as 6-bit RGB values that are commonly used in DOS applications. If colors are encountered that don't exist in the standard palette, the colors will be converted to the nearest color in the palette.

Purpose

I wrote this program because I don't like to distribute all of the graphics the program needs as individual bitmaps. I think a distribution with a folder full of bitmaps looks cluttered. Converting the bitmaps into Euphoria include files allows the graphics to be stored entirely within the source code. And if you bind the code, as I often do, the graphics are totally within the executable.

Support

I don't offer any support for this program, but I'm open to receiving bug reports. You can report problems to me at mewever@hotmail.com. I won't respond to individual problems, but I will try my best to fix the problems that are reported and post new versions of the program in the Euphoria archive.

Version History

Version 1.1.0
- Added DOS palettes.
Version 1.0.1
- Added requirements to the help file.
- Used progress bar to indicate when program was working.
- Fixed problem opening bitmap files with extensions in upper or mixed case.

Euphoria

This program was written in the Euphoria programming language, which I have become very fond of. If you are using this utility, you probably already use Euphoria yourself. If you don't, you should check it out at http://www.rapideuphoria.com.

Donations

There is no charge for using this software, but I'm more than willing to accept donations if you are one of those people who like to support programmers even when they don't try to make you. Donations can be sent to my PayPal account, mewever@hotmail.com. And thank you so much, you kind person.