How to open .pct files

Post by Wade Smart
I have a folder of about 250 images that Im editing for a client. They
are in .pct format. Is there any program that will allow me to open this?

ImageMagick is a very good Swiss Army Knife for image files, and should
be able to open .pct/.pict files and convert them to other formats if
required. It won't be installed by default, but can be obtained from
the official repositories. It isn't that easy to drive I'm afraid, but
part of it is called 'display' and gives a way of looking at files
quickly before editing. Some editing and correction can be done within
ImageMagick, but I haven't got it installed at the moment - I'm using
Gimp and Photoshop depending on what I'm doing.

Neil

PS My first response was that the Gimp would do the job, but .pic
and .pict don't seem to appear in the file menus for my copy. There may
be a plugin to do the job.
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john levin

2005-11-07 14:44:27 UTC

Post by Wade Smart
11072005 0730 GMT-5
After taking the jump to Linux - completely - Im still figuring out how
to do some of my work.
I have a folder of about 250 images that Im editing for a client. They
are in .pct format. Is there any program that will allow me to open this?
Thank you.
Wade

.pct is the file format used by Macintosh QuickDraw. Doesn't look like
either the Gimp or Image Magick can open them - perhaps because it's a
propriatory format.
After a bit of googling, it looks like StarImpress and XnView can deal
with these files.
(And also Scilab Image Toolbox: http://siptoolbox.sourceforge.net/ )

HTH

John

Duncan Lithgow

2005-11-07 16:09:47 UTC

Post by john levin
.pct is the file format used by Macintosh QuickDraw. Doesn't look like
either the Gimp or Image Magick can open them - perhaps because it's a
propriatory format.
After a bit of googling, it looks like StarImpress and XnView can deal
with these files.
(And also Scilab Image Toolbox: http://siptoolbox.sourceforge.net/ )
HTH
John

XnView installed fine for me under CrossOver office - therefore should
work under wine.

Duncan

neil woolford

2005-11-07 16:09:50 UTC

Post by john levin

Post by Wade Smart
I have a folder of about 250 images that Im editing for a client. They
are in .pct format. Is there any program that will allow me to open this?

.pct is the file format used by Macintosh QuickDraw. Doesn't look like
either the Gimp or Image Magick can open them - perhaps because it's a
propriatory format.

Gimp certainly can't in the default install, there *may* be plugins to
handle the task but my googling was inconclusive.

However, I've just installed ImageMagick from the Breezy repositories,
made a simple .pic format image with Photoshop on my Windows system,
copied the file across to my Ubuntu sytem and opened it for editing in
ImageMagick. I was able to make and save a small (drawing) edit to the
image without problems. You should also be able to apply transforms,
resize and convert to many other formats.

I invoked ImageMagick as 'display' which gives a basic gui. It isn't
very intuitive, lots of use of right clicks to get to utterly hidden
menu trees...

Neil

PS ImageMagick seems to have been able to do this since 1992, if the
following header from their pict.c file is anything to go by...

/*
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% %
% %
% %
% PPPP IIIII CCCC TTTTT %
% P P I C T %
% PPPP I C T %
% P I C T %
% P IIIII CCCC T %
% %
% %
% Read/Write Apple Macintosh QuickDraw/PICT Format. %
% %
% Software Design %
% John Cristy %
% July 1992 %
% %
% %
% Copyright 1999-2005 ImageMagick Studio LLC, a non-profit organization %
% dedicated to making software imaging solutions freely available. %
% %
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ulrich steffens

2005-11-07 16:41:10 UTC

Post by john levin

Post by Wade Smart
I have a folder of about 250 images that Im editing for a client. They
are in .pct format. Is there any program that will allow me to open this?

.pct is the file format used by Macintosh QuickDraw. Doesn't look like
either the Gimp or Image Magick can open them - perhaps because it's a
propriatory format.

i also was curious and first thought gimp could do this...
i then fiddled around with 'convert' and it seems it can handle
pict-files rather well. i did
convert png > pct
convert pct > jpg/whatever
and the output looks like the original file.

so maybe a small bash-script which converts all the files in a usable
format will do the trick?
and better NOT ask me about scripting :)

ulrich

neil woolford

2005-11-07 18:44:33 UTC

Post by Wade Smart
I have a folder of about 250 images that Im editing for a client. They
are in .pct format. Is there any program that will allow me to open this?

I invoked ImageMagick as 'display' which gives a basic gui. It isn't
very intuitive, lots of use of right clicks to get to utterly hidden
menu trees...

Correction! And left clicks for the drawing tools and other things!
The F1 key does bring up quite a lot of information about the user
interface.

Post by neil woolford
Neil

i also was curious and first thought gimp could do this...
i then fiddled around with 'convert' and it seems it can handle
pict-files rather well. i did
convert png > pct
convert pct > jpg/whatever
and the output looks like the original file.
so maybe a small bash-script which converts all the files in a usable
format will do the trick?
and better NOT ask me about scripting :)
ulrich

The best way to deal with this is going to depend on what kind of
editing needs to be done to the images; an action like resizing for
thumbnails, changing mode (eg colour to monochrome) or changing file
format would almost certainly be best done from the command line or a
script. Actual manual editing could either be done in the 'display'
invocation of ImageMagick or by batch converting into something that
(say) the Gimp can handle, then batch converting back afterwards.

Although I'm no fan of the user interface of ImageMagick, there is no
doubt that the underlying programs are of high quality and provide
excellent conversions and manipulations. I wouldn't expect noticeable
quality loss even with repeated conversions between formats. (Providing
sensible settings are used for lossy compression, eg. jpegs.)

Neil
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Wade Smart

2005-11-07 18:56:51 UTC

11072005 1253 GMT-5

Hey, I want to thank all of you who have posted so quickly. I went to
see my client this morning. I did some basic computer maintenance on
their network and while I was at it, I worked quickly on some of those
pictures.

So Gimp will convert to pct but not from? Interesting.

Since I have some time now Ill check out that ImageMagick.

Basically what Im doing with these pictures is, its for their catalog so
they all have to be proofed. I go over them to make sure they look good
for the most part. If I see any odd thing on the image I usually edit it
out.

Wade

Post by Wade Smart
I have a folder of about 250 images that Im editing for a client. They
are in .pct format. Is there any program that will allow me to open this?

I invoked ImageMagick as 'display' which gives a basic gui. It isn't
very intuitive, lots of use of right clicks to get to utterly hidden
menu trees...

Correction! And left clicks for the drawing tools and other things!
The F1 key does bring up quite a lot of information about the user
interface.

Post by neil woolford
Neil

i also was curious and first thought gimp could do this...
i then fiddled around with 'convert' and it seems it can handle
pict-files rather well. i did
convert png > pct
convert pct > jpg/whatever
and the output looks like the original file.
so maybe a small bash-script which converts all the files in a usable
format will do the trick?
and better NOT ask me about scripting :)
ulrich

The best way to deal with this is going to depend on what kind of
editing needs to be done to the images; an action like resizing for
thumbnails, changing mode (eg colour to monochrome) or changing file
format would almost certainly be best done from the command line or a
script. Actual manual editing could either be done in the 'display'
invocation of ImageMagick or by batch converting into something that
(say) the Gimp can handle, then batch converting back afterwards.
Although I'm no fan of the user interface of ImageMagick, there is no
doubt that the underlying programs are of high quality and provide
excellent conversions and manipulations. I wouldn't expect noticeable
quality loss even with repeated conversions between formats. (Providing
sensible settings are used for lossy compression, eg. jpegs.)
Neil

neil woolford

2005-11-07 19:00:22 UTC

And I've just found the ImageMagick Studio, which is a web interface,
example at
http://studio.webbyland.com/MagickStudio/scripts/MagickStudio.cgi

Hours of fun here! Start at the homepage
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php perhaps.

Neil
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Wade Smart

2005-11-07 19:26:49 UTC

11072005 1317 GMT-5

Ok. I found imagemagick now. I used the display and tried to open
Purple.pct and just got a black screen. So I tried another one. No good.

I did try that online one below but I just received errors for the pct
picture.

Wade

Post by neil woolford
And I've just found the ImageMagick Studio, which is a web interface,
example at
http://studio.webbyland.com/MagickStudio/scripts/MagickStudio.cgi
Hours of fun here! Start at the homepage
http://www.imagemagick.org/script/index.php perhaps.
Neil

Wade Smart

2005-11-07 20:27:48 UTC

11072005 1426 GMT-5

I found that convert and looked up how to use it. When I do: convert
Blue.pct Blue.jpg I get a black image. I dont know why. Maybe it cant do
a pct file. Or maybe there is something with these pictures. They looked
fine on my XP install though.

Wade

neil woolford

2005-11-07 20:47:28 UTC

Post by Wade Smart
11072005 1317 GMT-5
Ok. I found imagemagick now. I used the display and tried to open
Purple.pct and just got a black screen. So I tried another one. No good.

Bummer. I don't know what to suggest, as it 'just worked' here, with no
configuration or tricky stuff. If the image(s) aren't confidential,
perhaps you might send me one or two attached to off list emails to try
here?

Neil

Post by Wade Smart
I did try that online one below but I just received errors for the pct
picture.
Wade

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Wade Smart

2005-11-07 19:05:42 UTC

11072005 1304 GMT-5

I installed image magick through synaptic but... there is no icon for it
under the Graphics submenu and when I do a system wide search for
image magick I get nothing. Am I missing something here?

Wade