Bug 143330

Summary:	Cannot "save as" GIF format
Product:	[Unmaintained] kdelibs	Reporter:	Yuval Hager <yhager>
Component:	kimgio	Assignee:	kdelibs bugs <kdelibs-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED DUPLICATE
Severity:	normal	CC:	caulier.gilles
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Gentoo Packages
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Yuval Hager 2007-03-22 08:38:10 UTC

Version:           0.3.2 (using KDE KDE 3.5.5)
Installed from:    Gentoo Packages
Compiler:          gcc (GCC) 4.1.1 (Gentoo 4.1.1-r1) 
OS:                Linux

I am opening a file in PNG or JPEG format, and try to save-as GIF.

I get  a laconic error that the operation failed, with no additional information. I don't have the exact error since it is translated.

* Showfoto is version 0.3.1 (or 0.3.2 as the splash screen shows).
* digikam version 0.8.2
* Hebrew locale.
* amd64 (x86_64) gentoo system

Here's some (gentoo specific) information about my system, it might help:
Portage 2.1.2.2 (default-linux/amd64/2006.1/desktop, gcc-4.1.1, glibc-2.4-r4, 2.6.18-gentoo-r2 x86_64)
=================================================================
System uname: 2.6.18-gentoo-r2 x86_64 AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 2800+
Gentoo Base System release 1.12.6
Timestamp of tree: Tue, 20 Mar 2007 06:00:01 +0000
ccache version 2.4 [enabled]
dev-java/java-config: 1.3.7, 2.0.31
dev-lang/python:     2.4.3-r4
dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r5
dev-util/ccache:     2.4-r6
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.2.17
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.61
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.6.3, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10
sys-devel/binutils:  2.16.1-r3
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.3.13-r4
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.22
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.11-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64"
AUTOCLEAN="yes"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=athlon64 -msse3 -O2 -pipe"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/share/X11/xkb /usr/share/config"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/gconf /etc/java-config/vms/ /etc/php/apache1-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/apache2-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cgi-php5/ext-active/ /etc/php/cli-php5/ext-active/ /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/terminfo"
CXXFLAGS="-march=athlon64 -msse3 -O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="autoconfig ccache distlocks metadata-transfer sandbox sfperms strict"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://mirror.hamakor.org.il/pub/mirrors/gentoo/ "
LANG="he_IL.UTF-8"
LC_ALL="he_IL.UTF-8"
LINGUAS="he"
MAKEOPTS="-j 2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --delete-after --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages --filter=H_**/files/digest-*"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X a52 aac aalib acpi alsa amd64 apache2 arts asf avi berkdb bidi bitmap-fonts cairo cddb cdparanoia cdr cli cracklib crypt cups curl dbus divx4linux dri dv dvd dvdr dvdread eds emacs emboss emul-linux-x86 encode esd fam fame firefox foomaticdb fortran ftp gdbm geoip gif gpm gstreamer gtk gtk2 gzip hal iconv imagemagick imlib isdnlog java jpeg kde ldap libg++ mad midi mikmod mimencode mp3 mpeg mplayer msn mysql ncurses nls normalizemime nptl nptlonly nsplugin ogg opengl oss pam pcre pdf perl png ppds pppd python qt qt3 qt3support qt4 quicktime readline reflection sdl session sockets spell spl ssl subtitles svg symlink tcpd tiff truetype truetype-fonts type1-fonts unicode usb vorbis wma wmf xine xml xorg xv xvid yahoo zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="he" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="via vesa"
Unset:  CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LDFLAGS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY

Comment 1 Gerhard Kulzer 2007-03-22 09:06:40 UTC

Am Thursday 22 March 2007 schrieb yuval hager:
> I am opening a file in PNG or JPEG format, and try to save-as GIF.
>
> I get

Comment 2 caulier.gilles 2007-03-22 09:15:41 UTC

To be more explicit, GIF format is supported by Qt or KDE libs (not digiKam itself directly). Duing pattents over GIF, there is no code to write on file format (or it have been removed).

For this pattents problem, there is no plan to support GIF in digiKam core.

I recommend you to use PNG instead. It an open source file format dedicaced to remplace GIF.

Gilles Caulier

Comment 3 Yuval Hager 2007-03-22 09:45:17 UTC

As far as I know, GIF patents are expired for a long time (2003/2004/2006 - depending on location), which means they are public property by now.
See the footnote here: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html

I prefer PNG for most of my uses, but some times I am required to send GIFs to other people. 

I don't think this bug is invalid, since I still have the choice of GIF in the file formats list on the save-as dialog. Either remove this from the list, or use the code to convert to GIF (I am using Imagemagick, which IS a free software, to save GIF files when showfoto breaks on me).

I believe this bug should be reopened.

Comment 4 Gerhard Kulzer 2007-03-22 11:01:20 UTC

Am Thursday 22 March 2007 schrieb Gilles Caulier:
[bugs.kde.org quoted mail]

Seems that "...GIFs that are based on the 87a or 89a standard are acceptable" 
from last october onwards 
(http://www.gnu.org/server/fsf-html-style-sheet.html#UseofGraphics)

Comment 5 Yuval Hager 2007-12-18 08:11:49 UTC

It looks like on version 0.6.0 of Showfoto (digikam 0.9.2) 'GIF' does not appear in the option list for save-as.
Since there are NO patent issues according to the FSF (see above), I think it should be put back in the list.

I am reopening this bug, but can't edit the subject. Should I open another one for this?

Comment 6 caulier.gilles 2009-10-26 15:04:43 UTC

I move this file to KDELibs component from bugzilla, to see if something can be done over all graphics applications using KDE to support GIF

Gilles Caulier

Comment 7 Christoph Feck 2009-12-09 21:35:59 UTC


*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 196491 ***