Friday, May 15, 2009

Image to ZX Spec Released

Image to ZX Spec is now available for download

Before reading further, 1.1 has been released and 1.2 is on it's way, see here for Image to ZX Spec 1.1

Many thanks to Viperfang Networks for the hosting

Image to ZX Spec allows you to:

- Convert JPEGS or GIFs to a ZX Spectrum slideshow (tap file).
- Convert JPEGS or GIFs to a ZX Spectrum SCREEN image (.scr file).
- Create retro art work, any size image can be "Spectrumized" (.png file).
- Convert an entire directory of images, with previews.
- Choose from numerous processing optionsas to how the images will be converted.
- Change all processing options on-the-fly.

Here's a screenshot from 1.0.3 showing a comparison preview between the original image and the Spectrum image:





Downloads:

Download Image to ZX Spec 1.0.5

Download the Image to ZX Spec 1.0.5 (GPL 2) source code

4 comments:

userbarna said...

Hello from Spain.

First of all, I'd like to congratulate for taking into Java platform an ZXSpectrum image converter. I love how spectrum screens look like. Congrats!! : D

I'm a Mac OSX (10.5.7) and I downloaded binaries files: Img2ZXSpec.jar and when I double click on it, there's a message error coming up saying it can't be run.

I double check that I had Java installed. I downloaded mpowerplayer (a .jar runner) and when I try to open Img2ZXSpec.jar it says to me:
"The application data is missing the required properties:"
"MIDlet-Name", "MIDlet-Version", "MIDlet-Vendor".

I guess I'm doing something wrong, I don't mean Img2ZXSpec.jar has any errors. But could you please help me out in this one? 'Cause I don't know what else to do? Do I download the source code and try to open it with Eclipse to make myself the executble file?

Thank you and keep it up making some applications for ZX Spectrum.

Best regards.

Benjamin said...

Hi,

It looks as if mpowerplayer is treating your Image to ZX Spec as a mobile phone program (a midlet).

If you install the official Java virtual machine it should work. I'm not a Mac user but this seems to be the right link:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/application_updates/javaformacosx105update1.html

Once Java is installed on Windows jars can be started just by double clicking the jar file - so it should be similar on OSX.

If you notice any odd behaviour please post and I'll try to fix it.
On a related note I'm releasing 1.0.1 this evening too - so you might want to try that instead - notable changes are improvements to Floyd Steinberg dithering and a Half-colour FS mode :)

Benjamin

userbarna said...

Thank you Benjamin!

I'll try to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I'm quite busy right now and I can't spend the time I'd like to spend looking for the solution. I let you know when I get something in this OSX (I'm new with OSX).

Regards from Spain.

userbarna said...

Hello again Benjamin.

I finally found out what I was doing wrong (after several "break times" while studying). My OSX Tiger was not using last Java version (as you told me). I had to look for "Java Preferences" in Spotlight and then in the window coming up, I had to drag to the top of a list the line which said Java 6. Now, I can double click on it without any trouble.
I've been doing some conversions and I really love "Full Colour Floyd-Steinberg Converter", you can even find those square colorfull pixels that bring me back to my old TV and my ZX Spectrum +2A (Now I used Fuse instead).

Your page is already bookmarked, I'll drop by here every week. Keep it up, u did awesome app!.

Regards from Alicante, Spain.