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A: "Invalid ProgID" usually means that the DLL
hasn't been registered with windows correctly. If the installer
for some reason failed to register the COM object then you
must do it manually. A detailed description can be found in
the help file.
A: It should be found at Start>Programs>SfImageResize.
If not there, the .chm file is located in the directory you
choose when installing (standard is c:\program files\SfImageResize\
) .
Nothing to see here, the patent has expired. The original
answer is kept just to remember the bad old days.
A: The reason other image manipulation components don't
support GIF loading is because UNISYS has the patent on the
LZW compression algorithm, which is used to load GIF images.
Unisys states that they hold patents in United States,
Japan, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and United Kingdom.
But since silberfish is based in Sweden, where software can't
be patented, LZW decompression is included.
SfImageResize only uses LZW when opening GIF images, for
saving the RLE algorithm is used. That means you can save
files in the GIF format even in countries where UNISYS have
patents.
For more info on UNISYS and the LZW patent, here are a
few tips, but a lot more information is available on the web:
UNISYS
official information about the patent
The
GIF Controversy: A Software Developer's Perspective
If you can't or won't use the GIF format, you should follow
the W3C recommendation and use the free PNG format or JPEG.
There's no need to support the GIF format considering how
UNISYS has handled the whole case. Except we all have users
to care about!
From version 1.3, GIF loading can be disabled by executing
the DisableGIF method. You can still save GIF images
though, using RLE encoding.
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