I create HTM Picture Gallerys and HTM Slideshows of jpg and png image
files on CDs ... which are displayed with which ever browser my
clients are using.
Because people use many different browsers this has caused some
problems. So, I have been looking for a very small browser that I can
include on the CD with the htm image pages. OffByOne,
http://offbyone.com/,is just about perfect. It lacks one feature that
I need however.
I am looking for a mini browser that can display image files "full
screen"... where the browser just disappears. This can be done with
the F11 key in both the Opera and Internet Explorer browsers, and
hitting F11 again brings back the browser.
Is there a stand alone "mini browser" that can do this? I would be
happy to pay a nominal fee for this cabability.
Actually, I think such a feature could make a valuable commercial
program ... a program that has the capability of displaying "off line"
htm files "full screen". It could be a very small program with very
few features. It must have the capability of starting on a particular
page of course...so that it can be run automatically when the CD is
inserted into the drive bay.
If you know of a mini browser which will allow "full screen" displays
of image files, or if OBO can be made to do this, I would very much
appreciate hearing from you. Thank you. |
Request for Question Clarification by
seizer-ga
on
18 Dec 2002 16:36 PST
Hi there hazen!
Could you let us know:
1) What the maximum acceptable browser size would be (I have a 15mb
potential candidate in mind)
2) Whether it is acceptable that the browser leave some of its data on
the hard drive and/or in the registry, once it has been run for the
first time.
Regards,
--seizer-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
hazen-ga
on
18 Dec 2002 17:08 PST
thanks...that was quick!
the browser that almost fits the bill, OffByOne, http://offbyone.com/
is only about 1.5 m.
i think i could use any browser less than 5m
it definitely should not leave anything in my client's registry.
think small.
hazen
|
Request for Question Clarification by
skorba-ga
on
18 Dec 2002 21:59 PST
Dear Hazen -
Would you be interested in anything else than a browser ?
The reason I ask is that both Flash and Quicktime are common platforms
for displaying slideshows, they have the ability to go fullscreen -
and they both are able to download data across the net.
I am more than willing to go into details if this solutions fits your
needs.
|
Clarification of Question by
hazen-ga
on
19 Dec 2002 08:51 PST
Hi Skorba
I guess it does not have to be a browser, but I'm not sure what the
definition of a browser is.
I am looking for a small stand alone program that I can put on a CD
with
HTM Thumbnail Gallerys of image files which, when clicked, display the
images full screen. It must be a stand alone program that does not
have to be installed on the users computer, and does not make any
changes to the users registry. I would rather my client users not have
to install anything, which I think would be required with Flash and
Quicktime.
It does not have to be able to access the internet, or read any URL's,
just htm files. Thanks for the thought.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
lot-ga
on
19 Dec 2002 17:32 PST
Hello hazen-ga
would java browsers be out of the question?
I assume you are looking for a small footprint because you are
publishing to those business sized card CD's? I know a European
company which provides a small footprint java browser and records the
CD card on a per card basis (xx cents per card) if that is suitable or
not? Unfortunately they don't license the browser itself.
Alternatively if it was netscape (bigger I know) but if it was
configured it so it didn't leave anything on the users hard disk would
that be acceptable?
regards
lot-ga
|
Request for Question Clarification by
sublime1-ga
on
19 Dec 2002 19:19 PST
hazen...
I wonder if you couldn't use this little gem.
It's called VuePrint, from Hamrick software,
and the installed program takes up less than
1MB, and changes nothing on the system at all.
I never tried to run it from CD, but don't
know why you couldn't. You could set it up to
run a slideshow or display thumbnails, both
in fullscreen.
http://www.hamrick.com/upg.html
Another such graphics program is ACDsee, which
also has a small* footprint, and can probably
run from the CD. It has its own thumbnail
browser, and you can click on the thumbs for
fullscreen images, then click again to go
back to the thumbs. It may be a bit more
entwined with an operating system than
VuePrint, if installed on the system.
The problem I perceive with your browser
concept is that the HTM files will already
be associated with the default browser on
the users' computers. Installing another
one that steals the association would have
to be corrected before your CD was removed.
VuePrint is shareware, and has a 14 day free
trial. ACDSee also has a trial version, here:
http://www.acdsystems.com/English/Products/Downloads/ACDSee?LAN=EnglishX50
*Oops! It seems ACDSee's gotten swollen with
features in the past few years, since the
download is now 10MB!
Let me know what you think. It would mean skipping
the HTM files, and just using the images and the
viewer to show them.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
seizer-ga
on
20 Dec 2002 05:37 PST
Hi hazen.
I've managed to find a small browser which may do what you want. The
install file is around 550kb, and it unpacks to 1.1mb. It supports
HTML 2 and most of HTML 3, it views GIF, JPG, PNG, and BMP, and has
the capability to run in almost full screen mode. I say "almost",
because it leaves the Windows title bar (the one with the
minimize/maximize/close buttons), and it also leaves the Windows
taskbar visible. The rest of the screen is devoted to the browser.
It's shareware, but seems to run just fine. They say that a full
version lets you disable the shareware reminder screen, but I've run
it for the last 10 minutes without encountering one of those.
If you choose to register, single user registration is $35, and a 500
user registration is $355.
Let me know if this is of interest to you.
--seizer-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
hazen-ga
on
20 Dec 2002 09:38 PST
Hello lot
No, I just want to publish to regular sized Cd's, so the European
company
that records a browser on individual cards is not appropriate.
If Netscape could be configured as a "stand alone" browser that could
be placed on a Cd, and could be kept smaller than say 10 mg, and could
be switched to
a full screen mode with one key stroke, like Opera and newer versions
of Internet Explorer,...then it would work. Can it really be
configured to do those things?
|
Clarification of Question by
hazen-ga
on
20 Dec 2002 09:57 PST
Hello sublime1
There are several good stand alone picture viewers, like VuePrint,
which I
use, and ACDsee which I have heard good things about.
I am pretty much locked into displaying my photos via the htm format
however,
because I have already invested a lot of time and energy creating
"thunmnail gallerys" and htm slideshows. The options availabale in the
Web Gallerey creator software I'm using, Arles Image Web Page Creator
5.0, http://www.digitaldutch.com/arles/ are very extensive, and
include the capability to resize the original image, at various
compressions levels, by several different methods, and dozens of other
display options that I have come to rely on.
With regard to the probelm of a stand alone browser on CD not being
able to display the htm files because "HTM files will already be
associated with the default browser on the users' computers". That
turns out to not be a problem.
With both the mini browsers that I have tried, which lack only the
ability to dispaly images full screen or I would use them, they have
the ability to be configured to start on a specific page. So, instead
of clicking on a htm file, which would call up the browser installed
on the system, you start the browser first and it opens with an htm
file on the cd.
thanks for your thoughts
|
Clarification of Question by
hazen-ga
on
20 Dec 2002 10:23 PST
Hello seizer
It is the "almost" full screen mode which is the problem.
It is purely an personal aesthetic thing, but once I say images
displayed without any other distracing stuff on the screen, such as
can be done with Opera by simply hitting F11, I decided thats what I
would go for. The mini browser that I first ran across, OffByOne,
http://offbyone.com/ is an elegant little bugger, and is even
freeware, but it displays a thin control bar with the browsers
functions, and that just does not cut it. I think a programmer could
probably easily solve the problem but so far they have not answered my
email asking if we could work something out.
I should mention that I just ran across another browser an hour ago,
Browse and View, http://www.pc-shareware.com/browser.htm, which sounds
promising, but it is going to require some set up and I won't have
time to mess with it until this evening. If someone has time to
determine that Browse and View can display images full screen, and
will tell me which settings to set, I will consider that an answer to
my question. Thanks
|
Request for Question Clarification by
lot-ga
on
20 Dec 2002 11:44 PST
'Netscape' 'might' be configurable under 10mb and running off the CD
should not be a problem if configured in a rather unconventional way.
With Explorer there are licensing, distribution and configuration
restrictions involved I believe.
I need to check if I can shrink Netscape down to size.
regards
lot-ga
|
Clarification of Question by
hazen-ga
on
20 Dec 2002 12:20 PST
Hello skorba
Thanks for your comments. Flash sounds like a fine solution to my
problem,
if I had a wee bit more energy and talent. I don't have a programmers
bone in my body, however, so Flash sounds like work and somewhat
overkill. I visited the macromedia website and I could not even tell
which of their many programs I should use to accomplish what I am
trying to do, which is really very simple....it seems to me.
I don't expect you to answer this but I would be curious to know if I
would have to "throw away" all of the htm gallerys and htm slideshows
that I have already created if I were to use Flash to display them. As
I mentioned above "I am pretty much locked into displaying my photos
via the htm format because I have already invested a lot of time and
energy creating "thumbnail gallerys" and htm slideshows. The options
available in the Web Gallery creator software I'm using, Arles Image
Web Page Creator 5.0, http://www.digitaldutch.com/arles/ are very
extensive, and include the capability to resize the original image, at
various compressions levels, by several different methods, and dozens
of other display options that I have come to rely on." It is also very
easy to use and creates completely linked pages, etc., etc. If I can
use the stuff I have created and Flash can display the htm pages full
screen I might be interested in Flash as the solution to my problem
... particulary if I can hire you to help set it up so that it would
be easily transferrable to a CD. I would buy the required program of
course. I know, sounds complicated. Just a thought.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
seizer-ga
on
20 Dec 2002 13:20 PST
Hazen - We're struggling here, but I do have one last proposal which
actually feels quite neat compared to your alternatives.
Use two programs: A browser, and an image viewer. I do have two in
mind. I can make the browser launch the image viewer automatically
when the user clicks on your link, and the image viewer will go full
screen immediately. But the user then has to press ESC twice to get
out of the image viewer and back to the browser.
The browser is shareware as described above. The image viewer is
freeware.
Both programs come in under 3mb.
How does this sound?
--seizer
|
Clarification of Question by
hazen-ga
on
21 Dec 2002 14:30 PST
Seizer
The two program idea is an interesting way to go. Unfortunately the 2
ESC click requirement sounds a little clunky. I appreciate your
efforts.
As mentioned above I ran across a mini browser that sounded pretty
good,
Browse and View, http://www.pc-shareware.com/browser.htm, but after
playing with it discovered that it does not display images full
screen.
I have contacted the author, however, and he has agreed to attempt a
custom modification for an estimated $200. Thats pretty expensive for
my budget but I think I'll ask him to give it a try. So I guess I'll
have to cancel this question until we see if he can do the job. Thanks
to all for your brain work.
Hazen
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