Using SwiftView ICS Commands

There are over 200 commands in the Image Command Set listed in the Technical Reference Manual. ICS commands can be used in many different ways which require different formats. Rather than provide a general introduction, this page is intended to give some useful examples of how they might be used.

Examples of reconfiguring the SwiftView user interface for specific applications
ICS commands for SwiftPublish or SwiftStamp user interface
Browser-Based SwiftView ICS examples
Standalone SwiftView ICS examples

ICS commands for SwiftConvert

SwiftConvert is based on the same technology as SwiftView Viewer. See the Conversion Quick Start Guide for examples of conversion ICS commands.

ICS commands for SwiftPublish or SwiftStamp user interface

The user interface for SwiftPublish and SwiftStamp contains a edit box into which a user can type ICS commands to insert into the output file. Commands issued this way require no special format. Simply use the commands as given in the manual, seperating multiple commands with the pipe character. For example:

Create a Fast Print button in any viewer that opens the file

   gui button label "F-print" icon print info "Fast Print menu" command "gui dialog fastprint" | gui controls update

Set pagesize of ambiguous-size file to A4 and cause Unix text to display as Windows text

   pcl pagesize 26 | set hpfiletype unixtext

Display a pop-up message box whenever the file is opened

   message "This file provided courtesy of SwiftView, Inc."

Put a markup/watermark/annotation/redline on a file (the following is one long line)

   set ldocinit "onpage all markup attributes display yes | 
   onpage all markup text rxloc 0 ryloc 0 string \"UNCONTROLLED COPY PRINTED $strftime(%X %x )\""

Set the color and width of HPGL pen #1 in your HPGL file

   hpgl pen 1 red 255 green 0 blue 0 width normal

Most of the other example commands below can be used, however any "ldoc" commands are superfluous; since the ICS commands are being put into a file, there is no need to load a file (which is what ldoc does).

Browser-based SwiftView ICS examples

ICS Files

A plain text file which begins with the letters "ICS" on the top line can contain a series of ICS commands. This file can be given any filename suffix, however because Outlook 2000 claims the suffix ".ics", we advise against using the filename suffix .ics if any client systems have Outlook 2000 installed. We recommend the suffix .zhp for use with ICS files. The commands are executed when the file is opened in the browser. Here is an example of such a file which will produce a 2-page "virtual document" using single-page files:

   ICS
   onpage 1 use sourcename http://www.swiftview.com/tech/5x7plate.tif
   onpage 2 use sourcename http://www.swiftview.com/tech/1page.hpg
   draw all

Browser-based Configuration File

Npsview.ics is an ICS file which is used to configure browser-based SwiftView. This file is placed in the root of the web server to configure all users who visit the website, or on the local drive to configure a single client. We provide an example npsview.ics which demonstrates the most popular features, such as fast printing, direct printing, HPGL pen colors and markup. Simply comment out any undesired features using the # character. The file had to be renamed to npsview_ics.txt so that it could be viewed, otherwise, with its original name of npsview.ics it would simply be processed by browser-based SwiftView and would not show on screen.

Standalone ICS examples

Windows Standalone Configuration file

A plain text file called sview.ini allows automatic configuration of SwiftView at startup. Sview.ini is placed in the same folder as the SwiftView executable (sview.exe) and allows configuration via ICS commands. Sview.ini must begin with [SwiftView] on the top line, and each ICS command line must begin with ICS#=, in the format ICS0=firstcommand, ICS1=secondcommand, ICS2=thirdcommand, etc. Only sview.ini for standalone Windows SwiftView uses this ICS# format. We provide an example sview.ini which demonstrates the most popular features, such as fast printing, direct printing, HPGL pen colors and markup. Remember- you can comment out lines using the # character, but you must renumber the remaining ICS commands so that there are no missing numbers.

Unix Standalone Configuration file

The file svstart.ics has the format of a normal ICS file and is used to configure printers and other functionality. An example svstart.ics comes with the product at installation.

Command line

The sview executable (sview on Unix, sview.exe on Windows) can be sent ICS commands at the command line. To utilize batch mode (no user interface) use the parameter -c, to bring up the user interface use the -ics parameter. Follow the parameter with the ICS command in quotes, with multiple ICS commands separated by the pipe character in the following format:

   sview -c"first ICS command here|next ICS command here"

Note that in some examples below, to place quotes within quotes it is necessary to remap the quote character to the carat:

Darken the contrast, load a file and display it

   sview -ics"set bitonalgamma absval 4 | ldoc c:\file.pcl | draw"

Open a file and highlight a certain text string

   sview -ics"ldoc svm.zhp|set quotechar 0x5e | select string ^if the end^"

Print a single HPGL file without displaying it (example customized for Windows)

   sview -c"set quotechar 0x5e| ldoc ^c:\my documents\plotfile.hpg^ | plot 99 all"

Print all .pcl files in the current directory (example customized for Windows)

   FOR %i IN (*.pcl) DO c:\progra~1\swiftview\sview -c"ldoc %i|plot 99 all"

ICS files

A plain text file which begins with the letters "ICS" on the top line can contain a series of ICS commands. This file must be given the filename suffix ".ics". To execute the commands, open the file using SwiftView. For example, this illustrates the message command:

   ICS
   ldoc "L:\Quarterly Reports\report4.pcl"
   # Comment: quotes needed when the file path contains spaces.
   draw widetop
   message "This pops an OK dialog for the user to click on."

We also provide an example npsview.ics which demonstrates the most popular features, such as fast printing, direct printing, HPGL pen colors and markup.