Re: Viewer for large images

[Toralf Lund <toralf procaptura com>]

> toralf procaptura com (2003-01-27 at 2210.39 +0100):
> > Does anyone know of a freeware image viewer, preferrably with a
> > GNOME/Gtk interface, that will handle large images (or should I say
> > *real* image data, as opposed to desktop backgrounds, icons or other
> > decorative stuff)? - The ones I've tried all make the assumption that
> > the all data from the file will fit into memory, which simply won't do
> > for the images I'm working on.
>
> I do not have any serious reply other than GIMP. It can load using OS
Well I just tried gimp (which I've also tested in the past, og course) on 
a couple of TIFF images; see info below.

I could actually do something with the first one, even though it took 
several minutes to open (which isn't really acceptable), while loading the 
2nd (after the 1st was closed) rendered the application more or less 
unusable.

> swap and or app swap,
We'll I'm pretty sure OS swap is not the answer as it is simply too 
general, but app swap may be just what I need. Maybe what I really want is 
a way to tell gimp not to try to fit the image into virtual memory, but 
rather use it's internal swap mechanism directly.

> it uses a tile based system to allow big images
> and undos, but is not a simple viewer. Some people have been using
> GIMP to edit big images latelly, check


> https://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/lists/gimp-developer/2003-January/thread.html
> I would be interested in knowing the size (pixels) and kind of images
> (RGBA 16 bit per channel and so on) or some idea about it
Images are mainly scanned data. The ones below represent fairly typical 
originals, but they may be scanned at a higher resolution (typically twice 
the one indicated below, but sometimes even higher) and thus be larger in 
terms of number of pixels. Most are 8-bit grayscale or 24-bit RGB these 
days, but in the past we've also worked a lot with binary images. We've 
also produced 48-bit RGB data on occasion.

> What total
> size are you talking about? 400MB?
I guess typical images are around that size, but I've also worked on 2 or 
3 Gbs ones - and they could be viewed quite easily on *my own* image 
viewer (well, obviously I have one, but it's not very complete or well 
structured, has a somewhat dated GUI etc. - which is why I'm looking for 
an alternative.)

> Sorry if not what you need and for
> the curiosity. :]



> GSR

Info on images:

TIFF Directory at offset 0xbd00008
  Image Width: 8000 Image Length: 8192
  Tile Width: 128 Tile Length: 128
  Resolution: 254, 254 pixels/inch
  Bits/Sample: 8
  Compression Scheme: None
  Photometric Interpretation: RGB color
  Artist: "Truls Arnesen"
  Date & Time: "03 Jan 2003 13:47  "
  Software: "KS fbfile"
  Make: "Kongsberg Scanners"
  Samples/Pixel: 3
  Planar Configuration: single image plane


TIFF Directory at offset 0x17e80008
  Image Width: 10240 Image Length: 13000
  Tile Width: 128 Tile Length: 128
  Resolution: 254, 254 pixels/inch
  Bits/Sample: 8
  Compression Scheme: None
  Photometric Interpretation: RGB color
  Artist: "Truls Arnesen"
  Date & Time: "06 Jan 2003 14:09  "
  Software: "KS fbfile"
  Make: "Kongsberg Scanners"
  Samples/Pixel: 3
  Planar Configuration: single image plane