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authorgiraffedata <giraffedata@9d0c8265-081b-0410-96cb-a4ca84ce46f8>2006-08-19 03:12:28 +0000
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+
+                              NETPBM
+
+
+THIS IS THE PRIMARY DOCUMENTATION DISTRIBUTED WITH NETPBM.  SEE THE doc
+DIRECTORY IN THE SOURCE TREE FOR OTHER INFORMATION, SUCH AS INSTALLATION
+INSTRUCTIONS, AND SEE <http://netpbm.sourceforge.net>.
+
+Netpbm is a toolkit for manipulation of graphic images, including
+conversion of images between a variety of different formats.  There
+are over 300 separate tools in the package including converters for
+about 100 graphics formats.  Examples of the sort of image
+manipulation we're talking about are: Shrinking an image by 10%;
+Cutting the top half off of an image; Making a mirror image; Creating
+a sequence of images that fade from one image to another;
+
+For more information on what the package does, see
+<http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc>.
+
+The package is intended to be portable to many platforms. It has, at
+least at one time, been tested under various Unix-based systems,
+Windows, Mac OS X, VMS and Amiga OS.  The maintainer uses and builds
+it on a platform that consists (in relevant part) mainly of GNU
+software (you probably know this kind of system by the name "Linux").
+
+The goal of Netpbm is to be a single source for all the primitive
+graphics utilities, especially converters, one might need.  So if you
+know of some freely redistributable software in this vein which is not
+in the package yet, you should bring it to the attention of the Netpbm
+maintainer so it can be included in the next release.
+
+Netpbm does not contain interactive tools and doesn't have a graphical
+interface.
+
+Netpbm replaces the widely spread Pbmplus package (last released
+December 10, 1991).  A lot of improvements and additions have been
+made.  After the latest release of Pbmplus, a lot of additional
+filters began circulating on the net, which was a fairly novel state
+of affairs at the time.  The aim of Netpbm was to collect these and to
+turn them into a package, hence the name "Netpbm."  This work has been
+performed by programmers all over the world.  If _you_ have some code
+to add, please contact the Netpbm maintainer.
+
+
+USING NETPBM IN A WEBSITE
+-------------------------
+
+Many people use Netpbm to perform graphics functions in a web site.  They
+have CGI scripts that invoke Netpbm programs to process images for display
+on a web page.  Gallery and 4Images are two web site software packages
+that rely on Netpbm for graphics manipulation.
+
+Installing Netpbm requires different skills and system access than 
+installing most other web site software.  You must be able to compile
+C code for the web server machine and have a basic understanding of 
+how files are organized and programs run on the web server.  Diagnosing
+inevitable problems usually requires shell access to the web server.
+
+Netpbm is basic graphics software that ought to be supplied by any
+web hosting service.  If it isn't on your web server already, you should
+request that the system administrator add it.
+
+The Gallery project provides an easy install package for the parts of
+Netpbm that Gallery needs, and provides technical support at:
+
+    http://gallery.sourceforge.net/forums.php
+
+
+DISTRIBUTION
+------------
+
+You'll find the latest release of Netpbm source code at
+<http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/netpbm/>.
+
+The user manual is not in the source code package.  It is available online
+at <http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc> and you can download it from there.
+See the file doc/USERDOC for details.
+
+A list of prebuilt Netpbm distributions is on the Netpbm
+website, <http://netpbm.sourceforge.net>.
+
+
+PREREQUISITES
+-------------
+
+Don't sweat the prerequisites too much.  In most cases, if you're
+missing something, the build of the programs that depend on it will
+bomb, but the rest of the Netpbm programs will build just fine.  And
+you may not need the more demanding programs.
+
+If you have trouble getting, building, or installing the
+prerequisites, the Netpbm maintainer wants to know.  Since he uses
+them himself, he can help you.  And if there is a problem with a
+prerequisite package that its own maintainer cannot fix, it may be
+possible to ship a fix with Netpbm.
+
+To build and install Netpbm, you need GNU Make and a Perl interpreter.
+You can get GNU Make from http://www.gnu.org/software and Perl from 
+http://www.cpan.org.  It's possible to get around the Perl requirement
+by running some of the steps on a different machine that has Perl and
+doing others manually.  There is no practical substitute for GNU Make.
+
+To build pnmtotiff or tifftopnm or pnmtotiffcmyk, you need the Tiff
+library.  You can get it from http://www.libtiff.org.
+
+To build ppmtojpeg or jpegtopnm, you need the JPEG/JFIF library from
+the Independent JPEG Group (IJG).  You can get it at
+ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg.  See http://www.ijg.org for more
+information.  You need Release 6b or better.  With earlier releases, Netpbm
+build fails with undefined jpeg symbols.  The basic JPEG library installation
+procedure installs only the runtime part of the package -- you nee the
+development part as well, so run 'make install-lib'.  The JPEG library 
+documentation erroneously calls this installing "the library itself."
+This apparently was written before shared libraries.  With shared libraries,
+"the library itself" is part of the runtime installation, but install-lib
+still installs the compile-time stuff you need.
+
+You may also need the JPEG library to build the Tiff converters.  If
+your Tiff library references a shared JPEG library, then you do.  The
+Tiff library may also include a static copy of the JPEG library, in
+which case you won't need a separate JPEG library.  Or it may have
+been built without any JPEG compression capability, in which case you
+won't need a separate JPEG library, but the Tiff converters won't be
+able to handle Tiff with JPEG compression.
+
+The same goes for Ppmtompeg.  You need the jpeg library if you want to
+create MPEGs from JPEGs (without the loss of quality that comes with
+converting from JPEG to PPM first), and if you don't have the JPEG
+library and don't say so in Makefile.config, you won't be able to
+build Ppmtompeg at all.
+
+To build or use Pnmtopng and Pngtopnm, you need the Zlib compression
+library and the PNG library (libpng).  You can get Zlib from
+ftp://quest.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/zlib or
+ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs.  You can get libpng from
+http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html or
+http://libpng.sourceforge.net.  Older libpng won't work -- you get
+unresolved external references to png_sig_cmp and png_set_sig_bytes.
+
+You may also need the Zlib library to build the Tiff converters, in
+the same way as the Tiff converters require the JPEG libraries, as
+explained above.
+
+Pstopnm (the Postscript to PNM image converter) requires Ghostscript
+(installed with the name 'gs' in your command search path).  And it 
+requires in particular that Ghostscript be built with the relevant 
+PNM device drivers.  See http://www.ghostscript.com/doc/GPL/ .
+
+The Utah Raster Toolkit is not a prerequisite because Netpbm includes
+a subset of it that meets the needs of Pnmtorle and Rletopnm.
+However, you can also substitute the real package by properly
+configuring Makefile.config.  You can get it from 
+ftp://ftp.cs.utah.edu/pub/dept/OLD/pub/urt-3.1b.tar.Z.  There's a 
+patch at ftp://ptolemy.berkeley.edu/pub/misc/urt/urt-3.1b-3.1b1.patch
+
+You generally need a compiler other than Gcc 2.96.  Gcc 2.96 has a bug
+in its inlining optimization.  It generates incorrect code.  Netpbm
+source code takes advantage of inlining and you normally build Netpbm
+with inlining enabled.  Therefore, if you use Gcc 2.96 you will get
+broken Netpbm programs.  The usual symptom is bogus syntax error
+messages when you run the program.  You can avoid this compiler bug by
+using a -O0 compile option instead of the usual -O3.  The automatic
+configuration program will usually detect that you need this and set
+it up for you.  This will make some programs noticeably slower,
+though.
+
+Netpbm requires about 3.5 MiB of disk space, not including documentation.
+The documentation is 1.1 MiB, but you don't necessarily have to install
+it; you can just access the public copy.
+
+
+INSTALLATION
+------------
+
+See doc/INSTALL.
+
+
+SUPPORT
+-------
+
+The maintainer of Netpbm, since September 1999, is Bryan Henderson:
+
+  bryanh@giraffe-data.com.  
+
+If for some reason that email address doesn't work, you can reach
+Bryan at giraffedata@yahoo.com as a backup.  Please don't mail to 
+both at the same time.  Bryan doesn't need two copies of your email.
+
+Bryan actively maintains the package and wants to know about any bugs
+or problems people have with Netpbm or suggestions for improvement.
+
+There is no bug reporting database or mailing list.  These would not
+be very useful with Netpbm because Bryan personally responds to all
+bug reports and requests for help immediately.  All known bugs in the
+"latest" release are listed in its release notes on Sourceforge
+(updated as the bugs are reported) and the "stable" release is
+generally maintained so as not to have known bugs for more than a few
+days.  The doc/HISTORY file in the package may be useful if you want
+to find out whether upgrading to the current release would solve your
+problem.  The information in that file, on a per-release basis, is 
+also in the change histories on Sourceforge.
+
+
+
+MORE INFORMATION, DOCUMENTATION
+-------------------------------
+
+For more information about Netpbm, see <http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/doc>.
+
+The 'doc' directory in the source tree has more information.
+
+A good place to start for information about the wide world of computer
+graphics is http://www.faqs.org/faqs/graphics/  .