PrintPartner
PrintPartner is a desktop publishing program for MS-DOS. It was developed by Acropolis Software, and released mainly as freeware. It has a native .GPH graphics format.
Contents |
GPH format details
This information is based on reverse engineering and guesswork. It may not be correct.
File:
| Field name | Type | Details |
|---|---|---|
| ID/comments | char[] | ASCII text |
| ID terminator | byte | = 0x1a |
| image_sequence | Image[] | See below |
Image:
| Field name | Type | Details |
|---|---|---|
| name_len | byte | Expected to be from 1 to 20. |
| name | char[20] | ASCII text, padded with spaces |
| cmpr_type | byte | 1=uncompressed, 2="RLE8", 3="RLE4" |
| height | byte | Image height in pixels |
| rowbytes | byte | width = rowbytes×8. The width is always a multiple of 8 pixels. Unused columns are expected to have all-white pixels. |
| image_data | byte[] | The size of this element must be calculated, in order to locate the next image. The way to do that depends on cmpr_type (see below). |
Uncompressed format
1 bit per pixel, white is 0. There is no header, or row padding. The size of the image_data element is height×rowbytes bytes.
RLE8 format
This is a byte-oriented compression scheme. It has a 2-byte header containing the number of compressed bytes. Add 2 to this value to get the size in bytes of the image_data element. After decompression, the data is in the "uncompressed" format described above.
| Code byte (N) | Instructions |
|---|---|
| N ≤ 127 | Emit the next N bytes literally. |
| N ≥ 128 | Emit the next byte N−128 times. |
RLE4 format
This is a pixel-oriented compression scheme. There is a 2-byte header containing the number of 4-bit "nibbles". Each nibble encodes a run of white or black pixels. To calculate the size of the image_data element, divide the number of nibbles by 2, rounding up, and add 2.
Start with an all-white canvas.
| Code nibble (N) | Instructions |
|---|---|
| N ≤ 7 | Leave the next N pixels white. |
| N ≥ 8 | Make the next N−8 pixels black. |
Identification
GPH files apparently start with some ASCII text that begins "PrintPartner Art".
Software
- PrintPartner
- PRNTPTNR.ZIP - v1.1
- PP20.ZIP - v2.0-1992-08-03
- PP20.ZIP - v2.0-1992-08-18
- Deark
Sample files
- Some of the files at http://cd.textfiles.com/powerpakgold/GRAPHC_F/, such as PP_ANML1.ZIP - See the index.
- Some graphics are included with the PrintPartner software listed above.
- dexvert samples — archive/printPartnerGraphics
