Version: 1.0

By Matthew Hershberger
www.macsoftware.net/users/mjh

What does it do?
PICT Compare takes two images, and clears every pixel from the first image that is the same color as the corresponding pixel from the second image, sometimes making some very strange effects.

And this is useful for...?
Anyone making animated gifs. Since animated gifs can have transparency in each frame so that you see the previous frame beneath it, there is no reason to include pixels that are the same color in the previous frame. PICT Compare filters out these pixels, making gifs that can be much smaller. Although in some cases, filtering gifs in this manner might make them slightly bigger, so test it with and without PICT Compare to get the absolute smallest gif. PICT Compare is most effective on complicated gifs, which don't have many solid colors. Since the gif format is not designed for to compress that kind of image well, it can help a lot to clear the complicated sections that are the same as in the previous frame, thus making that are a solid color, which compresses very well.

How do I use it?
Select "New Comparison..." from the "File" menu. You will be asked to open an image. This image is the one that will be filtered. After you choose that image, you will be prompted to open a second image. The second image will be used to compare the first image (the one that will be filtered) to. After you choose both, you will see this window:

In the main window, you can change either of the images by clicking the buttons underneath the thumbnail versions of them. You can also select the background color, which is the color that will be used to replace pixels. You have a choice of which bit depth you want to filter the images as. This is by default on 32 (millions of colors). You can also have it time the comparison, and automatically save over he original file when the comparison is done. When you've set these, click "Filter", and PICT Compare handles the rest. When it finishes, it will open a window with it where you can choose to save over the original file, save it as a different file, or discard all changes.

Since PICT Compare is meant for animated gifs, there is also a batch comparison feature. Select "Compare Folder..." from the "File" menu, and you will be prompted to select a folder. This folder should contain all the frames of the gif you want to filter, in alphabetical order (eg: the first frame is called "001", the second "002", and so on). When you select a folder, a window will appear that is very similar to the one above:

The only difference between this window and the single file comparison window is that now files will ALWAYS save automatically (so you might want to make copies first). When you click filter it will go through the images one by one, and bring up each in a window when it finishes.

Contact information:
Please send any feedback regarding this product to mhershberger@mac-addict.com.

Disclaimer:
In no event will the author of this software be liable for any special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from possession, use, or malfunction of this product.

Original file name: Read Me - converted on Wednesday, 21 August 1912, 17:56