Mac PICT to Toaster
26 messages in this thread
Dear Fellow Toastmasters:
I've had a Toaster 'Workstation' since January & use it in my post suite.
Haven't yet upgraded to T2.0; haven't yet added an accellerator.
My ONLY Amiga experience is with the Toaster, and I am unfamiliar with
Amiga-specific standards (since the unit does not come with any Amiga docs
at all).
Does the Amiga read/write (IBM-type) DOS discs? My reason for asking is
that I also have a Mac IIci, which I use for graphic layout. The Mac is
capable of formatting & writing files to DOS-readable discs.
What I am getting at is this: Is there any way that I can create a graphic
on my Mac (perhaps a PICT file), copy it to a DOS-formatted disc & then
import it somehow into Toasterpaint? Anybody here ever do this?
I'd really appreciate any and all responses and assistance! Thanks!
Bob Vann
Sounds like you need to stop by your local Amiga dealer… They'll have
magazines that will help you locate other Amiga products that might enhance
your Toaster experience.
As for PC disk compatibility, there's an inexpensive ($30) program called
CrossDOS that comes highly recommended. In fact, it's described in Appendix
12 of the Toaster manual.
Check out that appendix for PICT support, too. (I know, I wrote the PICT
reading and writing programs for the Toaster, along with Appendix 12.)
Yes, you can make a PICT bitmap image on the Mac, move it to a PC disk with
Apple File Exchange, read it on the Amiga, and load it into ToasterPaint's
buffers. Also see the file called "PICT.Readme" in the Toaster directory
on your hard disk, it says more about the PICT process.
You forgot to mention that the PICT loading is in Toaster v2.0 only…
Thanks for the info…looks like I need to get the 2.0 upgrade asap!
J. Foust – Thanks for your suggestions
HEY NewTek!!! How's about getting a NewTek Dealer here in the Albany, NY
area?? Hmmmm..???? My local Amiga dealer doesn't seem to keen on the
idea, for some reason (I guess they are into the Amiga for games more than
anything else, and haven't a CLUE as to what's happenin' in the world of
real video). I had to go to NYC to get my 'Workstation' (Audio
Techniques), and they were very helpful, tho over 160 miles away!
Bob Vann
Bob–
You might remember me, we talked on CIS briefly…Jonathan Hirschman, I
work for Newkirk Products, Inc….
Give me call if you have any Amiga questions. My friend Steve and I do
Amiga consulting (under the name Videograph); we probably know more about
the machine than anyone in the Capital District.
Our number is 463-5317. Caught your booth at the Ad Fax Business Expo,
but you weren't in it; did you see our electronic bulletin board, by any
chance?
Give me a call…
Jonathan
– via Whap!
I just tried this.
Created a graphic in Freehand 3.0 on the MAC and Exported it as EPS.
Read the EPS into Adobe Photoshop 2.0.1 and converted it to Amiga format.
Wrote this out to an MS-DOS format disk (using a MAC 'DOS' disk program).
Read the file in on the Amiga using Cross-DOS .
Loaded this into Toaster Paint.
I also read a commercially purchased EPS graphic into photoshop and
succesfully transferred it into toaster paint.
Only three problems .
1) Fonts dont't make the trip from Freehand (convert to paths if you're a
freehand user
2) I got very strange results with the color image. I will try white pens
on black background next time.
3)You have to watch the drawing size .
I will probably try the PICT format soon, also.
Also, If you are going to upgrade to WB2, Another message says that it
included CrossDOS (figures since I just bought CROSS DOS today and ordered
a 2.0 upgrade.
Brian
Alternatives to moving your Mac stuff to DOS disks and then to Amiga are
communicating your files via serial cable; Mac2Dos which allows you to
attach a Mac disk drive to your Amiga and (best of all) Double Talk, an
Amiga board that lets you network the two over localtalk. Folders published
from your Mac show up as drives on the Amiga. There's an article (which i
wrote) on all the Mac/Amiga combinations in the NAB (last month) issue of
Video Technology.
Bill Dwyer
Bill,
Could you give me a subscription dept phone or address for this mag, the
one I have is wrong.
–Paul
Whappin' from the Wine Country
Its TV Technology, PO Box 1214, Falls Church VA 22041-9808 – Free for
qualified readers (seems just about anyone involved with video is
qualified) Bill Dwyer
How can I buy a copy of the Mac/Amiga article you wrote? If not from you,
please tell me how to get in touch with Video Technology magazine, a rare
creature indeed in the island world of the Florida Keys. Does your article
also cover the Toaster workstation for the Mac?
Thanks,
Tim Wilson
Its TV Technology, PO Box 1214, Falls Church VA 22041-9808 – Free for
qualified readers (seems just about anyone involved with video is
qualified)
I'll upload a copy of the article to Amiga Arts. It didn't talk about the
Mac Totaster 'cause it didn't (?doesn't) really exist at that time. Also,
I've doubts about the wisdom of tying up my Mac as a "dumb" front-end. Bill
Dwyer
Does text make the trip to the Amiga using the PICT format??
Which Mac pieces of software are you using? Thanks, Brian
No, the PICT loader in the Toaster only handles bitmaps, and none of
the structured or text-oriented info that can be in PICT files.
Instead, you'd be better off in a program such as PhotoShop that
turns everything into a bitmap, including anti-aliasing all those
structured entities.
Well, text in PICT on the Mac can be "vectorized" that is, it retains its
identity as text and contains data aboput fonts, sizes etc. On the Amiga
however everything I'm using is bit-mapped so I assume the conversion
program would use the screen-res image of the text not the text per se. I
have sent large text bit maps for conversion to 3D models of text using
Pixel 3D. I use about everything available on the Mac and have successfully
moved Photoshop, Persuasion etc to the Amiga. Mostly, for backgrounds and
such I'm using Photoshop
Bill,
I have tride moving images from Adobe Photoshop by saving them in Amiga
format and then moving them across on Dos format disks. When I read them
into an ILBM viewer, I get a format error. When I open RGB in Tpaint, the
image is there, but the colors are all screwed up. The graphics were read
into Photoshop as GIF files. I have transferred EPS stuff and except for
size problems, they come across with varying degrees of success, some are
useable, some not. How do you save pix in Photoshop? I don't know much
about grahpics formats so I just use the defaults. Any suggestions? Does
ADPro read PS and EPS format files? Thanks…Brian
While I think Photoshop is a terriffic program , I've never been able to
get their "Amiga formats" stuff to work. What I was doing was saving the
the Mac images as PICT, moving them to the Amiga elcetronically (originally
serial cable, now Double Talk network). I then convert the PICTs with Image
Link from Active Circuits (201) 223-5999. An alternative I haven't used is
to save the PS files as TIFF and then use the add-on package to ADPro that
reads TIFF. These days you could save the conversion step by using the
Toasters PICT conversion which shipped with version 2. Its a little wierd
and clunky but it does seem to work.
Bill
Brian,
The reason your IFF images saved from PhotoShop don't work in Paint is
because TPaint doesn't accept 256 Color IFF's (which is how PhotoShop
saves) A better way is to save them as PICT's and use the ReadPict command
that comes with TOaster 2.0. The image will be loaded into TPaint. -JG
\Exit
Brian,
You can also save it as HAM or up to 5bit IFF image in PhotoShop. This
will also work. I have heard a rumor that new version of PhotoShop also
supports IFF24, so that would be even better.
– THANX R.SATOH ->via Whap!
could you give me version numbers of Photoshop, thanks,Brian
Brian its PhotoShop 2.0 that supports HAM. 2.1 or 2.01 is suppose to
support IFF24, but I have not yet confirm this. The earlier
version(pre2.0) will support standard IFF 1->8 bit. Amiga can only read up
to 1->5bit since the standard displaying capability are restricted. The
other 6->8bit IFF are for IBM, they also have DeluxePaint.
– THANX R.SATOH ->via Whap!
Pardon me for just diving in here, but does PhotoShop allow you to save to
JPEG format?
If so, you should export to JPEG format (I got a plug-in to Acquire JPEG,
but I don't know if you can save in JPEG from PhotoShop), this would result
in image files that are around 75-125K and thus much more easily moved to
the Amiga platform.
The amount of distortion added by the compression process will probably not
show up on the composite output of the Toaster. To decompress the files you
will have to use ADPro (or a PD JPEG compresser/decompresser available in
the AmigaTech section [search for a JPEG keyword to find the filename]) on
the Amiga side.
Good Luck, Erik Flom
Thanks again for your help. I don't recall if it is available, but I think
it may be. I'll try that. Brian
I'm afraid I don't know my way around Amigaarts and couldn't find
your article. If you could favor me by telling me where to find it,
I'd appreciate it. I'm a Mac-based video producer looking seriously
into Toasting, and I can't wait to download your article. I share
your scepticism about the "Toaster Workstation for the Macintosh,"
and wonder if the sum won't be more annoying than its parts…
I can't find it either – I tried to put it in DL14, Graphic Utilities. I
try to E-Mail you a copy
As to the Mac Toaster, one issue is I can't find a desk big enough for a
Mac, Amiga, 4 monitors, 3 VCRs etc.