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!