This is bmv.README for the program: BMV version 1.0 alpha copyright by Jan Kybic, 26th July 1994 Jan Kybic, Prosecka 681, Praha 9, Czech Republic, or temporarily BMV is a very simple viewer of images in the pbm(5)-raw format and front end for GhostScript based on Svgalib library for Linux BMV is distributed under GNU GPL (General Public License), you can obtain a copy from many FTP sites if you are interested in details **************************************************************************** NAME BMV stands for BitMap Viewer, which was the original task for the program. (But you obviously can make a link to something like PSV, if you like it better -:) OVERVIEW The main purpose of the program is to serve as a front end for GhostScript, a public domain GhostScript interpreter distributed under GNU GPL. It performs simillar task as well known GhostView, but it does not need X. It handles bitmap scaling both up and down, so once a bitmap is generated by GS, you can zoom in and out very quickly. It was targeted mainly for previewing PostScript files generated by Dvips from TeX dvi files, but it can be used for any other PostScript files. As a by product it can also display graphic files in a rawPBM format. See PBM(5) for details. PLATFORM BMV runs currently under Linux (a free Unix for PCs) and it uses a SVGAlib graphics library. If there were any ports of this library, PBM could be ported as well. If you run X Windows, you are probably already using GhostView. But many people cannot run X, because of memory or processing power limitations and BMV is meant for these people, to enable them view their PostScript comfortably. You must have Ghostscript installed to use BMV for previewing PostScript. INVOKING BMV Simply type 'bmv myfile.ps' for previewing PS files and 'bmv -b myfile.pbm' for previewing PBM files. The available options are: -h : display all the options plus some additional help -v : use VGA mode . For all the modes see . Good choice is 4, it means 640x480x16 colours and it should work on every VGA. If you do not specify any mode, BMV asks SVGALIB for default, and if there is no default, it uses the precompiled value. If the desired mode is not available, BMV tries to find another. -b : Display rawPBM file. Default is to display PostScript -m : Sets initial magnification to . If is negative it means reduction. Try 'bmv -h' to find the limits for . -r : The string is passed to GhostScript to set the initial resolution. The format is same as for GS, e.g. you can say 'bmv -r300x300 foo.ps'. The default is 72dpi, which is enough to see the shape of the text. You will have to increase it to see the the details. 150dpi is fine and 300dpi is about the most what you will need as your printer will probably not be better. Do not set it too high if you do not need it, as it increases processing time dramatically. INTERACTIVE COMMANDS If you have some PS file, try 'bmv myfile.ps' now. If everything goes well you should see your file within a few seconds, depending on your computer. Then you can use the following commands: q : quit the previewing h,j,k,l : move left, down, up or right respectively f,r : increase/reduce step size for h,j,k,l commands +,- : increase/decrease magnification n,p : go to next/previous page g : go to page , where stands for three digits. For example, to go to page 10 you press <0><1><0> If you press a key which has no meaning, it is silently ignored. Also if you press a non digit after 'g', the command is discarded. DSC PBM works best with PostScript documents conforming to Document Standard Convention, such as produced by Dvips. These files begin with '%!-PS-Adobe-' and they contain additional information. You can preview non DSC PostScript files with BMV, but you will see only the first page ! But most files you meet are DSC ones anyway. SUPPORT I can promise no regular support at the moment but, nevertheless, any feedback will be more than welcomed at the above mentioned address. This is an alpha release, so I expect it to contain some bugs. If you find any and you do not feel like correcting it yourself, send me a report and I see what I can do. Happy PostScripting ! Jan