Release Notes

The following is a short synopsis of the major features that have been added to xv since Version 3.00. See the CHANGELOG file in the xv source directory for complete details, and up-to-the-minute information.

Image cut and paste capabilities.
Minimal image editing (line drawing, text annotation, and smudging).
Additional choices in the Algorithms menu. Also, algorithms now operate on the selected region of the image, if any.
Image padding.
Added a Print command.
Additional file formats: XPM files and 24-bit Targa files can both be read and written, as can a variety of the Amiga ILBM formats (commonly called 'IFF' files). xv can read (but not write) the XWD (X Window Dump) format. Also, xv can now read 16-bit greyscale 'pgmraw' files, however, the low-order 8-bits will be discarded.
Much improved Grab command. It is now possible to grab pull-down menus in other programs.
Much improved selection rectangle handling.
Image 'panning' when zoomed in.
Improved 24-to-8-bit algorithm.
Filename completion in the load and save windows.
Changed command-line handling. All the 'flag' arguments ('-perfect', '-smooth', etc.) are forced 'on' if you start them with a '-', and are forced 'off' if you start them with a '+'. (They used to toggle the state, which could lead to unpredictable results.)
Support for 'gzip'ed files.
Sniffs out the 'best' visual type to use, rather than simply using the default visual.
New versions of Sam Leffler's libtiff TIFF i/o library (version 3.3) and the Independent JPEG Group's JPEG i/o library (version 5a) have been merged in.
When viewing 24-bit images (in 24-bit mode) on an 8-bit display, xv now uses a 4*8*4 standard RGB colormap, rather than the 6*6*6 colormap it used in 3.00. This colormap uses fewer colors, and produces better looking results, on average.

Of course, there have been plenty of bug fixes and minor enhancements. It would probably be safe to say that there's some exciting new bugs, too!

Roy Johnson