Look'n See

It's tempting to describe Look'n See as a file viewer because it can recognise and display dozens of image, text, sample and other file formats. After a quick play it's clear Look'n See is a seriously powerful application which defies pigeon holing as a mere file viewer!

Look'n See provides a modular interface which enables the combined efforts of module programmers to be accessed through the main program. The plug-in modules are divided into groups which can be loaded into memory as required. Even a bare bones setup takes over 500Kb memory so Look'n See is really only practical on machines with at least 2Mb memory.

If memory is tight it's better to install Look'n See as a file viewer for your desktop which is loaded as required. This works especially well with Neodesk which only supports a single file viewer.

Look'n See runs as a program or desktop accessory under single TOS (by renaming the file extender) or in parallel under a multitasking OS which means other applications can call Look'n See directly via the AV protocol.

Import modules are called to load and display files which can be manipulated using the processing modules. Other module groups are available to actively acquire data, dither and adjust image palettes and export images and sound samples.

A mixed bag of modules offers hours of exploration. Some modules are indispensable, others are amusing for a while and more than a few are thrown in to make up the numbers but with around 100 to play with there's no cause for complaint.

A comprehensive illustrated ST-Guide format context sensitive hypertext is included. This retains the humour of the German original, covers the nitty gritty of using the program, the modules along with an A to Z glossary of terms and straightforward explanations of tricky topics. ASCII documentation is also included.

The unregistered version of Look'n See randomly adds a shareware reminder overlay to images and only displays a single colour image per session -subsequent images are greyscaled. Registration costs œ20 for a Master disk, registration letter and key to unlock the restrictions. <BR>

  We've had to use full screen shots for this review as that's the only 
  way to show Look'n See at its best. 

Look'n See is supported in this country by InterActive. Send £20 to:
      InterActive, 65 Mill Road, Colchester. CO4 5LJ. England

Look'n See, Sound Modules

Samples can be played using one of the sample output options, at least one will work on your machine. Support for HSN, SMP and AIF sample formats is also included.

Look'n See, Text modules

Using an external font selector allows a different GDOS font to be selected for each window. The processing modules include 'Sulz' mir' which reads text aloud,<I>[it's aimmed at readimg German text, so don't expect perfect English - FFF]</I> a word list generator, uudecode tool and many others.

Look'n See, Graphics Modules.

In addition to the popular image formats shown here Look'n See supports IFF, Doodle, PhotoCD, PostScript and other formats. Separate export modules can be used to convert between formats.

Look'n See, Odds and Ends.

Some modules fall outside the mainstream topics including RSC file display, to reveal the hidden depths inside GEM applications, ZIP directory listings and the ability to turn images into jigsaws!