Reports crash when using gifs 1

[finsys]

Wondering if anyone else has come across the problem of VFP reports bombing out (taking the VFP app with it!) when trying to disply a gif image on the page. I've tried it in VFP6 and VFP7 and also on 2 different PCs. There's no mention of it (that I can find) on MSDN. It's a right pain as it means I'll have to revert to much larger files sizes of .bmps to display my charts. Tried .jpgs, but the artifacts were too intrusive.

 

[rgbean]

The Report Preview capability is mostly a function of your video and printer drivers - failures can often be traced back to these. Check on updates for these drivers, see if another printer driver can be substituted. Also see if a different video resolution / color depth helps - many video drivers are only optimized for basic settings. Since there are at least 4 different versions of the GIF format (87a / 89a and non-interlaced / interlaced), not including number of colors, you may need to change the format of your GIF files.

Rick

 

[finsys]

Hi Rick, it happens at design time so I don't even get as far as preview!! Put an ole picture control from the Report Control toolbar onto the form, give it the filename of the gif to open, press ok and boom, VFP crashes. I've tried resaving the gifs in different formats and used 3 different PCs now, 2 of same spec with all the latest video drivers and one completely differnt spec. It won't even preview when you are selecting the file from the common dialog box!

It's either VFP or the file - I'll keep plugging away...

 

[DEDMOD]

I don't know. Is it possible you're trying to print gifs which are too large for your paper size? You might want to make sure you've got the thing scaling rather than trying to print full-size. I just tried a sample and had no problem getting a .gif to work nicely in preview and print. [FVP 7]

Dave Dardinger

 

[finsys]

Dave, as per my previous post, this is a *design time* problem - I've not even got the GIF on screen let alone anywhere near a printer!

Not to worry, I'm happy to report I think I've sussed it. Rick got me thinking on the GIF formats again. Took a methodical approach this time, used PSP to reformat the GIF into each of the 4 formats (87a/89a,interlace/noninterlace) and this time they all work.

Ok so whats up with the original? Took a look at what's generating the GIF - TeeChart. On reading deeper into the helpfile I find the authors of Teechart don't want to be ripped off by Unysis for royalties for using LZW compression (the standard compresion algorithm for the GIF format) so they use RLE compression. Guess what - VFP can't interpret RLE encoded GIF files! Unless you have an app that can produce RLE encoded GIFs, you ain't gonna be able to reproduce the problem, but it's definately there waiting to catch the unwary!

 

[chpicker]

That's a good tip, Finsys, and something to keep in mind.

I love PSP )

 

[rgbean]

Interesting, I knew about FoxPro's problems with RLE .BMP files, but was unaware that GIFs also might have this problem. So technically these are CompuServe RLE files that have been rename .GIF! Very strange.

Rick