YZiForm is an ASCII based graphics format created by Steven Stanek to work with the YZ-Windows system. Although YZiForm was designed for YZ, it could easily be implemented for any of a variety of applications. It uses the somewhat arrogant file extension ".iff".

Note: The YZiForm system has recently been redesigned to take advantage of ASCII bitmapping and compression. Also the yziform and yziformutil libraries have been rewritten, resulting in radical initial load time improvements. These are extension of the original yziform specification.

YZiForm Information
Notes on bitmapping and compression
Version History
The specifications for YZiForm 0.0.0a. (the original release)

The features of YZiForm Follow

• Infinitely scalable palatte (though the present implementation is not recommended for photographs)
• ASCII base allows for easy readability in text editors
• It is easy to compile multiple images in one file (see YZChess)
• My present implementation is quite memory efficient and results in programs with smaller memory requirements
• Is platform independent-none of this little/big endian junk

Some YZiForm Source Files (all written in C by Steven Stanek)

• The YZiForm library-for displaying, openning, closing YZiForm images
• The YZiForm libraries-contains three important yziform libraries, yziform, yziformutil and yziformgzwrap.
• The YZBufferedDraw library-allows for buffering of an image before putting on screen. Great for action games where flicker and transparency present problems
• The YZiForm Viewer-Simple YZ Viewer for YZiForm images (includes YZiForm library)
• The YZiForm Editor-A relatively simple editor for YZiForm images (includes both libraries). Contains a few lines of Mac only code.
• The YZiForm Utility-For converting between bitmap and YZiForm. Future version will do more. (both libraries)
• YZChess-A two player chess game. Also includes a header file for AI extensions for later version.
• YZTetris-An implementation of Tetris which allows users to create their own levels including sidebar, victory and defeat YZiForm images. (includes YZiForm library)
• YZRescuer-A game where you take a craft to rescue those in trouble and avoid evil stuff. YZiForm images can be changed to alter the environment. (includes YZiForm library & YZBufferedDraw library)
• Everything-All sources, Mac OS Apps and examples

Future Plans
YZiForm may eventually contain vector based images (YZivForm perhaps) and RLE compression. However, these are not priorities at present.