Graphic Workshop self-displaying picture
Graphic Workshop self-displaying picture is a family of raster graphics formats associated with the Graphic Workshop lines of image processing software from Alchemy Mindworks.
It is in the form of a DOS or Windows 3.x EXE file that displays the image when executed. Quite possibly there are newer formats as well, but more research is needed.
The DOS format was introduced in Graphic Workshop 6.0.
The Windows 3.x format was introduced in Graphic Workshop for Windows 1.1h. Note that Graphic Workshop for Windows also supports the DOS format.
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Format details
Compression scheme
In DOS EXE format, the image data is compressed by default. It uses what appears to be a simple byte-oriented RLE scheme.
To decompress: Read a byte (N), follow the instructions for the corresponding table row, repeat.
| Code byte (N) | Instructions |
|---|---|
| N < 0xc0 | Emit byte N literally. |
| N ≥ 0xc0 | Emit the next byte N−0xc0 times. |
The compression scheme is probably given by the 2-byte integer at offset 531: 1=uncompressed, 2=RLE.
Identification
Undetermined. For DOS EXE format, a software name like "GraphicWorkshop 7.0" or "GWS/Windows 1.1u" appears at offset 541.
Software
- Graphic Workshop (read/write)
In Windows versions of the format, the image may be stored as a standard BITMAP resource, so it can be read by any suitable resource viewer software.
Sample files
DOS EXE:
- BGI20.ZIP → most EXE files
- INFODSK3.ZIP → most EXE files
- HERBAGE.ZIP → *.EXE
- dmenu2.zip → DALOGO.EXE
- MTRCYCLE.ZIP → README.EXE
Windows 3.x EXE:
- GWSWN11U.ZIP → gwswn11u.exe → CLICKME*.EXE
