The Displayable Creator

You have a big image and you want to see it on your iPhone or iPod Touch in its full glory ? Create a Displayable using this convenient application on your Desktop or Laptop computer, and use the Displayator iPhone app to see it on your mobile device.

A Displayable is a special file that stores a transformed copy of image in an manner that allows the Displayator app on an iPhone or iPad to display the image at its original resolution while allowing fast zooming and scrolling. This has been tested with up to 21000x10800 pixels images. Details about the implementation can be found in the Displayables page.

The Displayable Creator is a Java Application, thus it runs on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X (provided the Java is already installed).

Learn more about :


Launching the Displayable Creator

If Java is installed on this computer, you can start it by clicking on the launch button bellow. Otherwise, please install Java

Start creating Displayables now!

The first time you will run the application, you will have to:

Installing Java

On an Apple Mac

On a Windows PC

On a Linux or Free BSD computer

Creating Displayables

Done !

By default the displayables are created in temporary files that are removed when you quit the program.

If you want, you can save it to a permanent location on your computer. The following optional steps can be taken :

Viewing Displayables

You can of course use the Displayator iPhone app.

If you want to see the Displayables on your computer, you can use the Displayable Creator.

  1. Click on “Choose Displayable”
  2. Browse to your Displayables
  3. Select “open”
  4. Click on the magnifier in the “View” column.

If you want to see the displayable full screen, click on the button with the 4 arrows extending outward in the toolbar. When in full screen mode, this button will change to four arrows pointing inward, and clicking on it will allow you to leave fullscreen mode.

Transfering Displayables to your iPhone

You can transfer a Displayable from your computer to your iPhone or iPod Touch. in these ways:

Loading Displayables using iTunes file sharing

Warning: this only work on devices with iOS 3.2 installed or newer (it can’t work on the original iPhone or iPod Touch).

In iTunes:

On your iPhone / iPod Touch:

The Displayable(s) should now be visible in the list of Displayable on your device.

Loading Displayables using the Displayable Creator application

For this method to work, your computer and your iPhone need to be connected to the same Wifi network.

On your computer:

On your iPhone/ iPod Touch:

Once the download is completed, you can view the Displayable on your device.

Sharing Displayables on the internet

You can export your Displayables as a web page and allow anyone to download them on their iPhone. The web page will display a list of your Displayables, their thumbnails as well as links to see their miniature and links which can launch the Displayator app to open the list in-app. The web page will be similar to this one.

The directory you selected will then contains all the Dispayables you want to share, as well as their miniature and thumbnail. It also contains an html file, a json file and a css file. The html which list the Displayables, for viewing in a web browser. It needs the CSS file to not be too ugly. The json file is for the Displayator app. The html file contains links with special prefixes (displayator-list: & displayator-image). If the html page is opened on an iPhone, the user taps on these links and they have the Displayator app installed on their device, the Displayator app will launch and offer the user :

Here is how to generate the web page and associated files for th displayables loaded in the Displayable Creator:

  1. Select “open”
  2. Click on the “Export…” button at the bottom of the application.
  3. Select the directory in which all your displayables will be copied.
  4. Click save.

You can then upload this directory to a website and share the link with your friends :-)

Credits and License

This app is licensed under the GPL v3. The source code is available on github.

It depends on the following libraries, which have their own licenses:

It also uses icons from multiple icon sets, packaged into a single font file using icomoon.io. Here is a list of the used icons and their origin.

If you have any trouble or question with the Displayator or the Displayable creator, you can send @Displayator a tweet or drop me a line at nicolas@displayator.com. Otherwise, I hang out in the google group for Displayator and the Displayable Creator.

— © Nicolas Hoibian, 2011 —