Zgv v3.3 - a picture viewer for Linux systems with VGA/SVGA.
Copyright (C) 1993-1999 Russell Marks.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.


Roadmap
-------

The COPYING file contains a copy of the GPL described above.

README.fonts contains the copyright/license details for the bitmap
fonts (which are from X). It's pretty GPL-ish though, don't worry. :-)

The NEWS file describes the changes made since the last version - it
describes changes between versions all the way back to 1.3, in fact -
so if you're upgrading from an old version of zgv, be sure to read the
relevant parts of that.

ChangeLog is similar to NEWS, but more hacker-orientated. :-)

sample.zgvrc (in the `doc' directory) is a simple example
configuration file.

See INSTALL for installation details. (Or, in the binary distribution,
README.bin.)


Description
-----------

`zgv' is an svgalib-based viewer which views GIF, JPEG, PNG,
PBM/PGM/PPM, BMP, TGA, PCX, mrf, XBM, and XPM files, with a
full-screen file selector front-end. (It can also view TIFF files if
netpbm's `tifftopnm' is installed.) It can be used as a simple
command, with `zgv filename(s)', which bypasses the front-end. There
are many options; try (when zgv is installed) `info zgv' or `zgv -h'
for details.


About `newzgv'/`sgiv'
---------------------

A modified version of zgv 3.0 called `newzgv' (it may have been
renamed `sgiv' by the time you read this) is maintained by Matan
Ziv-Av <zivav@cs.bgu.ac.il>. I have had nothing to do with the
development of this variant.

With Matan's permission, I have added some of his changes to zgv.
However, I did not add them all, as I have a certain `philosophical'
difficulty with a few of the changes.

Of course, I consider *this* zgv the *real* zgv. But then I would. :-)


The mrf format
--------------

`mrf' is a format I devised (which zgv supports) for storing certain
kinds of 1-bit mono pictures. For suitable images (line-art and most
other high-contrast pictures) it compresses better than GIF and even
PNG - yet it uses a far simpler compression algorithm than either of
those. There are public domain convertors to/from mrf on
metalab.unc.edu in /pub/Linux/apps/graphics/convert, both in the
pbmtomrf tgz. You can find further information on the format in the
documentation there.

A note for anyone interested in adding support for mrf to image
viewers etc. - you won't believe how easy it is. (And even if you
don't agree, you're perfectly welcome to just base a file reader on
mrftopbm.)

Er, sorry for the gratuitous advert... :-)


Contacting me
-------------

You can email me at rus@forfree.at but since I'm not on the net, mail
received there is just posted to me at regular intervals by a friend
(and similarly I post responses back to be emailed). It could take as
long as six weeks for you to get a response - if that's a problem,
then you could write to me directly instead (more hassle, but usually
quicker).

You can write to me at:
		Russell Marks,
		3 Rapley Close,
		Camberley,
		Surrey,
		GU15 4ER,
		United Kingdom.


Share and enjoy! 

-Rus.
