What good are color screens without pictures to view on them? And what good are pictures without a picture viewer? Larry Garfield looks at Red Mercury's answer, AcidImage.
One of the many reasons many people have looked towards color screens over grayscale is that they want to look at pictures on their handhelds. Image viewing software is still a big market in the Palm OS world, and one of the most technically advanced viewers is Red Mercury's AcidImage 2.4. We'd prefer a more traditional interface, however.
 | AcidImage uses a slightly unconventional interface by exposing card-based directories
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AcidImage is a 265 KB bundle of very fast code. Red Mercury has optimized much of the rendering system for ARM processors, so users of Palm OS 5 handhelds will get a very large speed boost over their 68k-bound fellows. The speed is not terrible on 68k devices, however, just bound by a 33 MHz or 66 MHz processor rather than a 150 MHz processor.
The main view is in essence a file manager type list. Images stored on a storage card or in RAM are classified into "Image Groups". Image Groups are not categories in the traditional sense, but correspond to directories on a storage card. At start-up AcidImage scans the whole card and then offers a list of all directories and sub-directories where supported image types are found. If there are any images stored in RAM, they are put into the "-INTERNAL-" group. Taping on a group will open it in a new form, or checking the box next to a group will flag it for the Slideshow feature. More on that later.
Images in any given group can be displayed in a checkable list view or in one of three thumbnail views, 1-up, 4-up, and 20-up. The 1-up and 4-up thumbnail views include the image name, but the 20-up does not. The list can be sorted by name or date by tapping on the appropriate headers. Tapping on the name or thumbnail of any image will display that image. Each image also has a checkbox for the Slideshow feature, which we will address in a moment.
As previously stated, the time to render an image varies widely depending on the device as well as the file format. AcidImage supports bitmap, JPG, PictureGear Pocket, MGI PhotoSuite, SplashPhoto, and GIF image formats, although GIF support is present only in the registered version for legal reasons. Given the legal concern regarding GIF, we're surprised that it does not support PNG files. It also supports Red Mercury "Background" images, available from the Red Mercury web site for the company's AcidSolitare and AcidFreecell games. Ironically, "Background" images have the fastest render time but have no creation tool available, making them of limited use.
The most difficult image type to render is JPG images, due to their heavy compression. On 68k-based devices, the rendering time can be anywhere from 5 seconds to 45 seconds, depending on the size of the file. On ARM-based devices, the rendering time is rarely more than 3 seconds, and for JPG images that are already the same size as the screen the rendering time is almost instantaneous.
In addition to its speed, AcidImage contains a good set of features when viewing images. Images can be rendered scaled to the screen or at their actual size, assuming there is enough free RAM to do so. If there isn't, AcidImage will automatically scale the image down as much as it needs to in order to fit. Hidable corner-controls allow for rotation and zooming of an image, and the user may pan the image by dragging the stylus. All three operations are almost instantaneous, and the zoom feature scales from around 0.6% to 1600% with ease. It also has quick 100% and "fit to screen" buttons. In all, it has the most flexible image viewing options of any program we've tested.
AcidImage also has a slideshow feature, although it is not as clean as we would like. In any given Image Group, the user may check off one or more images to queue them up for a Slideshow. When the user taps the Slideshow button, the program will ask the user for a slide delay in seconds and whether or not to randomize images or loop, then begin displaying the checked images in the current Group in either random order or the order in the current list, as specified. Because images are rendered on-demand, however, the delay speed is the time until the program begins processing the next image. If it's a large image on a slow device, it may be another 45 seconds before the image actually appears.
 | AcidImage has excellent image manipulation features, like the zooming controls here
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While there is no online help command, throughout the program various commands will trigger help dialogs explaining what is about to happen or how the user can access a certain function that can be disabled via dialog-specific "Don't show this again" checkboxes. While a bit unconventional, this system does help new users learn the application very easily while being relatively unobtrusive for experienced users who have turned them off after reading them. There does not appear to be a way to turn such dialogs back on, however.
Tapping and holding on any image or Image Group will call up a pop-up list offering a variety of commands including renaming, checking one or all images, viewing one or all images, and so on. Users can also add an image to a custom group that way. In fact, that is the only way to create a custom group. We prefer a more traditional category-based setup, although the ability to have images in more than one group is nice.
AcidImage runs on color and grayscale devices at 106x160 pixels or on devices supporting Sony's HighRes and HighRes+ screens or PalmSource High-Density displays. On HighRes+ screens, the program takes full advantage of the extra screen space if the user wishes. The user can also specify whether the scroll wheel on Sony CLIE devices will page to the next or previous image, the way the up and down buttons do, or zoom the image. There is no special support for the Palm Tungsten T's NavPad.
AcidImage has no desktop component, as it reads primarily unconverted formats such as GIF and JPG and Palm-converted formats from other viewers that have their own conduits. HotSync 4.0 and above can install GIF, JPG, and similar files directly to expansion cards automatically, however. On most devices it will place them in the /DCIM/ directory, as per the card specification for the Palm OS, but on Sony CLIE devices it will place them in /Palm/Images/ for unknown reasons.
Conclusion
AcidImage is technically the fastest and most-featured image viewer we've seen on the Palm OS. It's rendering speed on ARM devices is second to none, and still respectable on 68k devices. Image manipulation features are also well-rounded and quick. The interface is a bit quirky compared to more traditional list/category-based programs, and we'd prefer more organizational control than Image Groups. We would also like to see a desktop component for pre-rendering images to the Red Mercury format for quicker rendering, such as in Slideshows. Still, for users primarily interested in viewing desktop-style images such as JPG, GIF, and BMP, AcidImage is hard to beat.
AcidImage is available now from the Red Mercury web site for $19.95 USD. A demo version is also available.
- What's positive: Fast rendering, good feature set, multiple format support
- What's negative: Non-standard interface, no PNG support, limited slideshow
Overall: 
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