Write animated / cycling GIF's

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Andrew Thompson - 03 Aug 2005 16:50 GMT

I am writing a small 'screenshot' task for animated components
(screensavers).

So far I have managed to grab images of the component and
save them to disk as a *series* of images, but I was wonderring
if there is anything in the standard API that will write
them to a single 'animated GIF'*.

[ Note, there are other ways we can go to present them,
including a JS or Applet slideshow, so I am not too keen
to install something like JAI for this task, I just
thought I would check if I missed something in the
standard API. ]

* Yes, yes 'burn all GIFs' ( yada, yada.. )

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Andrew Thompson
physci.org 1point1c.org javasaver.com lensescapes.com athompson.info
A By-Product Of The TV Industry

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Andrew Thompson - 04 Aug 2005 14:03 GMT

> I am writing a small 'screenshot' task

[1]

>...for animated components (screensavers).
>
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
> * Yes, yes 'burn all GIFs' ( yada, yada.. )

[1] vis.
<http://www.physci.org/codes/display.jsp?fl=/test/codejs/ScreenShot.java>

[ Note that while this code extends org.apache.tools.ant.Task,
I have not got the hang of creating Ant tasks yet. It
does not work as I expected, and thus far I have only
managed to invoke it as a java task. More delving into
the Ant docs is required.. ]

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Andrew Thompson
physci.org 1point1c.org javasaver.com lensescapes.com athompson.info
Fun For The Whole Family (Except Grandma and Grandpa)

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Andrew Thompson - 15 Aug 2005 15:06 GMT

A follow up to my own question..

(wonderring)

> ..is anything in the standard API that will write
> ..a single 'animated GIF'*.

No. Most probably because of that bothersome Unisys
patent[1] on the LZW compression algorithm.

> [ Note, there are other ways we can go to present them,
> including a JS or Applet slideshow, so I am not too keen
> to install something like JAI

No point. JAI can *read* Gif's, but cannot write them.

[1] My investigations led me to check the source of
this patent nonsence, Unisys. I was sure the patent
had expired, which this page suggests..
<http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw>

Unfortunately, Unisys clouds the waters by continuing to mention,
"Unisys Corporation holds and has patents pending on a
number of improvements on the inventions claimed in
the above-expired patents. .."

..they offer an email address from which to request information
on the new patent(s and applications) but so far, 3 requests
to the email provided (from two separate addresses) have
resulted in 0 information from Unisys.

> * Yes, yes 'burn all GIFs' ( yada, yada.. )

..hmmmm.

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Andrew Thompson
physci.org 1point1c.org javasaver.com lensescapes.com athompson.info
"I got a raw deal, so I'm lookin' for a steel.." Tricky 'Black Steel'

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Roedy Green - 15 Aug 2005 23:25 GMT

>No. Most probably because of that bothersome Unisys
>patent[1] on the LZW compression algorithm.

has not that patent expired? In any case there is no ImageIO gif
writer builtin.

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/gifencoder.html

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Andrew Thompson - 16 Aug 2005 08:35 GMT

>>No. Most probably because of that bothersome Unisys
>>patent[1] on the LZW compression algorithm.
>
> has not that patent expired? In any case there is no ImageIO gif
> writer builtin.

(trimmed, reinstated..)
[1] My investigations led me to check the source of
this patent nonsence, Unisys. I was sure the patent
had expired, which this page suggests..
<http://www.unisys.com/about__unisys/lzw>

Unfortunately, Unisys clouds the waters by continuing to mention,
"Unisys Corporation holds and has patents pending on a
number of improvements on the inventions claimed in
the above-expired patents. .."

..they offer an email address from which to request information
on the new patent(s and applications) but so far, 3 requests
to the email provided (from two separate addresses) have
resulted in 0 information from Unisys.

______________
..Do you want to try that email they offer, Roedy,
or do you have a FAX that can reach their 'Welch
Patent Licensing Department'?

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Andrew Thompson
physci.org 1point1c.org javasaver.com lensescapes.com athompson.info
"Give me a ticket for an aeroplane, ain't got time to take a fast train.."
The Box Tops 'The Letter'

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Write animated / cycling GIF's

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