DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

Search: Section:  

RLATORLE(1)            DragonFly General Commands Manual           RLATORLE(1)


NAME

       rlatorle - convert a Wavefront "rla" or "rlb" image file into an RLE
       image file.


SYNOPSIS

       rlatorle [ -b ] [ -h ] [ -v ] [ -m ] [ -o outfile ] [ infile.rla ]


DESCRIPTION

       This program converts Wavefront image files (rla or rlb formats) into
       Utah RLE(5) image files.  Wavefront image files store RGB data as well
       as a matte channel.  They also define a "bounding box" containing non-
       background pixels which is in many cases smaller than the total image
       area.  Only this non-background area is run length encoded.  When
       converting to an RLE file, the matte channel is stored as an alpha
       channel and the "bounding box" dimensions are ignored.  It is for this
       reason that in general the RLE version of the file will be larger than
       its Wavefront counterpart.

       The RLE file will contain a "true color" image (24 bits).  These RLE
       files may then be viewed using any RLE image viewer.  When they are
       displayed on an 8 bit display, the image will be dithered.  In order to
       produce a better looking image (on 8 bit displays), it is recommended
       that the image be quantizing (to 8 bit mapped color) prior to its
       display.  This may be done by piping the output of this program into
       the Utah mcut(1) or rlequant(1) utilities.  An example of this is shown
       later.


OPTIONS

       -b     This option will cause rlatorle to convert from a Wavefront
              "rlb" image rather than use the default "rla" conversion.

       -v     This option will cause rlatorle to operate in verbose mode.  The
              header information is written to "stderr".

       -h     This option allows the header of the wavefront image to be
              dumped to "stderr" without converting the file.  It is
              equivalent to using the -v option except that no file conversion
              takes place.

       -m     This option will cause rlatorle to ignore the RGB data and use
              the matte channel information to produce a monochrome image.
              The resulting RLE image file will contain only one color channel
              instead of the usual four (RGB + alpha).

       -o outfile
              If specified, the output will be written to this file.  If
              outfile is "-", or if it is not specified, the output will be
              written to the standard output stream.

       infile.rla
              The name of the Wavefront image data file to be converted.  It
              is not necessary to supply the ".rla" or ".rlb" extension as it
              will be added to the supplied name if not already there.


EXAMPLES

       rlatorle -v test.0001.rla -o test.rle
              While running in verbose mode, convert test.0001.rla to RLE
              format and store resulting data in test.rle.

       rlatorle test.0001.rla | mcut >test.rle
              Convert test.0001.rla to RLE format and convert to 8 bit mapped
              color before storing data in test.rle

       rlatorle -h test.0001.rla
              Dump the header information of the Wavefront file called
              test.0001.rla.

       rlatorle -b test.0001 | get4d
              Convert test.0001.rlb to RLE format and display the resulting
              image.


SEE ALSO

       mcut(1), rlequant(1), rletorla(1), urt(1), RLE(5).


AUTHOR

       Wesley C. Barris
       Army High Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC)
       Minnesota Supercomputer Center, Inc.

1                                May 30, 1990                      RLATORLE(1)

Search: Section: