Automating Win Picture & Fax Viewer--GRRRR!

[Gail Schipper]

Has anybody found a good way to deal with Windows Picture
and Fax Viewer? Is there a patch out that will let it
support more verbs than Open and PrintTo?

I'm working on an app that has many linked OLE .tif files
that the users want to print when they print certain
reports. Prior to Win ME this was easy because Kodak's
Imaging for Windows was fully functional through
automation or Shell.

Unfortunately Microsoft's Windows Picture and Fax Viewer
is mostly a dead end for developers. It doesn't seem to
offer any sort of automation interface and limited Shell
functionality.

Have I missed some info on this App? Will it do more than
just lie there and play dead? Anybody know where there is
a complete and thorough treatment of how to use PrintTo
instead of Print?

 

[Wei-Dong Xu [MSFT]]

Hi Gail,

Microsoft Windows XP enables users to view, rotate, print, and zoom images.
It provides some of these features through the Windows Shell, and others
through the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer application. So far as I know on
this issue, you can use GDI+ to print the TIF file. GDI+ is the portion of
the Windows XP operating system or Windows Server 2003 operating system
that provides two-dimensional vector graphics, imaging, and typography.
GDI+ improves on Windows GDI by adding new features and by optimizing
existing features. TIFF format is supported by GDI+. You can find more
information about GDI+ from MSDN.Microsoft.com. Please go to:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/gdicpp/gdiplus/gdiplus.asp?frame=tru
e
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/gdicpp/GDIPlus/usingGDIPlus/printing
.asp?frame=true

In addition, you can build your own image preview tool to replace the
windows image and fax viewer. There is one article from MSDN.microsoft.com
which may provide some assistance on this topic. Please go to:
Replacing the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer Application Using the Preview
Verb
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/shellcc/platform/shell/programmersgu
ide/shell_basics/replacepicturefaxviewer.asp?frame=true

Does this answer your question? Thank you for using Microsoft NewsGroup!


Wei-Dong Xu
Microsoft Product Support Services
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Wei-Dong Xu [MSFT]]

Hi gail,

Thank you for replying and the detailed information about this issue!

From my understanding to your issue now, you may need one image control to
replace the Kodak image control for your product. I'd suggest you'd better
develop your own new component for the handling of TIF or other image
formats as your product needs. Furthermore, you can also use 3rd party
control to substitude Kodak image edit control. You can find a lot of 3rd
party Image edit control from internet.

Furthermore, for your convenience, I'd suggest you can reuse the Kodak
controls in the new windows platform, but which is not supported by
Microsoft because these controls are not provided with the new operating
system so that they may affect the OS or other application. You can use
dependency tool to check the Kodak control file to find the related dll
files. Then you can copy them into new operating system and register the
ocx file in the new OS. After that, you can reuse the control there. But it
is rcommended that you perform a fully test before you release your
application based on these re-used components.

For example, if you want to reuse the Kodak Image edit control which is
provided in "imgedit.ocx", you can find the ocx file from
%windir%\system(%windir% is c:\system by default) of Windows Me and copy it
to a directory of new OS(call this directory: dest). Then use Dependency
tool to check the file linkage. You can directly open the ocx file in the
dependency tool so that the tool will tell you which Dlls are lost. The
lost dll will be highlighted in red color. Then you can copy these dll from
%windir%\system of Windows Me to "dest" in the new OS. Then check the
dependency again until all the dll is found. Then you can use "regsvr32
imgedit.ocx" to register the control in the new OS. Please remember after
the registration, you can't move or delete the control and any related
files. You can also un-register the control with the command "regsvr32
imgedit.ocx /u".

The Kodak Image Edit Control has six files in all. You can find them all in
%windir%\system direcotry of Windows ME. Their names are listed below:
imgedit.ocx
OIGFS400.DLL
OIFIL400.DLL
OIDIS400.DLL
OIADM400.DLL
IMGCMN.DLL

The dependency tool can be obtained from Visual Studio and platform SDK.
The platform SDK update is available from Microsoft.com. Please go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sdkupdate/

If you want to re-use the Kodak control, please perform a full test and
this re-use is not supported by Microsoft.

Thank you for using Microsoft NewsGroup!

Wei-Dong Xu
Microsoft Product Support Services
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.