4.2 File select dialogs

On most platforms you can drag files from your file manager directly to nip2’s main window. Alternatively, if you select File / Open in the main window, nip2 will pop up a file dialog, see Figure 4.4. The open dialog has the following extra features:

Pin up button

Normally the file dialog closes after you have opened something. If this item is checked, the dialog will stay up instead — this is useful if you want to load or save a series of objects.

Image type select

Use this menu to select the type of file you want nip2 to display. There’s a preference option to set the default image format. The VIPS file format is fast and accurate, but sadly not very widely supported (joke). You can also load and save images in TIFF, JPEG, PNG, HDR, CSV and PBM/PGM/PPM formats. You can usually load in many more formats, it depends how your nip2 has been configured.

Image info

This displays a one-line summary of the selected image, plus a large thumbnail.

The save dialog adds one extra feature: Increment filename.

If pin up and increment are both selected, then after a save nip2 will attempt to add one to the selected file name. For example, if you save a file called fred001.v, after the save nip2 will put the name fred002.v into the selected file name box. Again, this is useful if you want to save a series of images.