Contents

1. Introduction
2. Using Bitmap Images
3. Using Pictures
4. Captions and Gradients
5. Buttons
6. Images bigger than 64K

1. Introduction

One thing to keep in mind is that is not possible to have images which are greater than 64K in a bitmap. See "Images Bigger than 64K" for techniques to work around this.

Let's get started. Open a new project, and add a Bitmap object to it:

You will see there are quite a few properties that can be set in the Bitmap object. Don't worry about trying to understand them all right now. As we work through the Tutorial, you will see what each one can do. If you are in a hurry to find out about one in particular, use the Seach function on this page to find it.

2. Using Bitmap Images

Pictures offer more flexibility. You can stretch or shrink the image to a precise size. Read more about them in the next section, "Using Pictures".

The first step is to add the image to the project.

Select Dino160wide8bit.gif and click on Open. Images can be gif, jpg, bmp or ico.

Now the bitmap is added to the project. Notice that it has several paths. Regular paths (the ones that do not say "Hi Res") are images designed for screens that are 160x160. HiRes images are designed for 320x320. If the actual screen size is something else, the pictures will be appropriately scaled at Runtime.

The Bit Depth (8 and 16 in this case) determines how many colors are displayed. Most devices can handle 16 bit color these days. However, a lower bit depth image will use less memory. A Bitmap may have multiple images, each optimized for devices of different screensize and bit depth: this is useful if the application requires that you be fussy about appearance.

Depending on whether you're running on a Symbian or Palm device, you may have a different set of path options.

The images for one bitmap consitute a family. The total size of all the images in a family must be less that 64K. See "Images Bigger than 64K" for techniques to work around this.

With this particular image, we know (from the name) that it is 160 pixels wide with a bit depth of 8. Let's set it up in the "Path, 8-bit" property.

Next, we have to associate the bitmap image (Bitmap1006) with the Bitmap Object on the screen (Bitmap1005). To do this, we click on the bitmap on the Design Screen, and change its Bitmap property to 1006.

(You may need to close the Design Screen and reopen it, by clicking on the form name in the Project Explorer, to get the image to show.)

You now see the image, as well as the area it will take up on the form. The Design Screen normally displays double size, so it is easy to see. The image does not get scaled, so it does not fill the whole area in the Design Screen. On an actual device, it will. For the same reason, the "Image Size" shown at the bottom left of the IDE is not correct in this case. (Yes, Support at NS Basic says they are working on this.)

That's it for using Bitmaps.

3. Using Pictures

You can see, on the bottom left of the IDE, the size in bytes of the image. Take care that it does not exceed 65,512 bytes: it will not compile. See "Images Bigger than 64K" for techniques to work around this.

Also, notice that the quality of the picture has gone down. There just isn't enough information in the original photo to have higher quality. The solution is simple: Start with a bigger picture. The size of the picture you start with doesn't matter. It is the final Image Size that counts.

When working with Pictures, there are a couple of other properties which can be useful. BorderStyle lets you specify a 1 pixel wide black border around the edge of the picture: the default is no border. Appearance, normally flat, allows you to create a 3D appearance to the picture. In both cases, setting Stretch to true allows the image size to be adjusted for the additional pixels that are needed for these options.

4. Captions and Gradients

5. Buttons

6. Images bigger than 64K

	width * height * bitdepth + 23 < 65535