═══ 1. PM Camera ═══ The PM Camera is a tool by which you can take pictures of OS/2 PM windows, screens or screen parts. The pictures may be o put into the Clipboard for use by other applications o saved as OS/2 Bitmap files o saved as PSEG38PP or PSEG3820 files for inclusion into BookMaster files o saved as PostScript files for color or b/w printing on (color) PostScript devices. The most important facts about using PM Camera are described in a how to use section. The menus of PM Camera are ordered by the following main topics: o Grab o Options o Help ═══ 1.1. How To Use PMCAMERA ═══ Selecting Output Formats There are four output formats supported ( OS/2 Clipboard , OS/2 BMP Bitmap , PSEG38PP/PSEG3820 and PostScript ). For each one checked, the system will generate the appropriate output into the clipboard or into a file. Files have the extensions '.BMP', '.PSE', '.PS' or '.EPS'. Automatic Numbering of Files PM Camera was designed to be used like a camera, allowing to capture a sequence of images. In this case the system automatically takes the first six letters of the filename and appends a 2 digit number. The number is automatically increased after a picture is taken. This mode can be turned off, allowing you to enter an 8 letter filename. Note: PM Camera writes over existing files without warning. Grabbing Fullscreen and Active Windows Select the Grab item in the grab menu (fullscreen only), or press the PrintScreen key. Grabbing Partial Screens Upon pressing the PrintScreen key a large cross-hair cursor and a rubberband box at the location of the last partial grab (default full screen) is displayed. To select a new box, move the cursor to a corner of the desired screen part, press button 1 and drag it open to the size desired and release button 1. Pressing button 2 inside the box allows the box to be dragged around. The cross-hair cursor will also display the size of the current box. Pressing grabs the selected part, pressing cancels the grab. Using PSEGS in Publications Once you have grabbed a binary '*.PSE' file, you must upload this file binary to the host (using e.g. almcopy, this is favored over using the native communication manager file transfer ). On the host the binary PSE file must be converted into a real PSEG38PP file. The PBIN2PSE EXEC from the PBRUSHUT PACKAGE on PCTOOLS does this for you. The resulting PSEG38PP file can now be imbedded into a script file with the '.si' command, or into a BookMaster file with the ':artwotk' tag. Note: PSEG38PP and PSEG3820 files are identical, they can be converted into each other by renaming. Scaling PSEGS To generate nice black and white pictures from colorful PM screens, a halfetoning process has to be applied to the images. PM Camera allows the images to be scaled during this halftone operation. The scaling factor is applied to the pixels. That means for the usual 92 pixels per inch (ppi) on a screen a scale factor of 2.6 would have to be applied to obtain a page segment the same size as the image on the screen on a 240 ppi printer (like 3820, 3812 ...). A default of 2.0 was chosen, as in my experience this has lead to the most useful illustration size for publications. Scaling PostScript The default scale for PostScript is 0.7 as this gives approximate the same size pictures as onscreen (92 ppi on screen -> 72ppi postscript mapping). Optionally you may specify fit to page, which scales the picture to fill the page (currently only A4 supported) as well as possible by retaining the aspect ratio. ═══ 1.2. Save File Path ═══ The directory where the file should be saved. Default is the current directory where PM Camera is started. ═══ 1.3. Save File Name ═══ The filename which is used to saved the grabbed images. When automatic file numbering is used, the file name consists of up to 6 letters and 2 digits. The digits are incremented automatically in this case. If file numbering is inactive, the file name may consist of up to 8 characters. ═══ 1.4. Save File Number ═══ This controls whether or not files are numbered automatically and allows the setting of the current file nbr. Automatic numbering is similar to a camera, where each picture you take increments the film counter. ═══ 1.5. Grab Type ═══ PM Camera allows three types of screen shots: Full Screen An image the size of the display screen is generated. Partial Screen This is the most soffisticated option. It allows the selection of a a screen part. A large cross-hair cursor and a rubberband box at the location of the last partial grab (default full screen) is displayed. To select a new box, move the cursor to a corner of the desired screen part, press button 1 and drag it open to the size desired and release button 1. Pressing button 2 inside the box allows the box to be dragged arround. The cross-hair cursor will also display the size of the current box. Pressing grabs the selected part, pressing cancels the grab. Active Window Grabs the currently active window. ═══ 1.6. Sound ═══ The system generates per default audio feedback about the grabbing process. A short beep is emited a the begining of the save thread and indicates that the screen was grabed succesfully and that svaing to a file has started. Two short and one longer beep indicate the succesful save of the image. Theis audio feedback may be turned off. ═══ 1.7. Grab Mouse Pointer ═══ Per default the mouse pointer is grabbed along with the image. It may be turned off, such that the mouse pointer is hidden before the grab is taken. ═══ 1.8. OS/2 Clipboard ═══ A grab can be saved to the OS/2 Clipboard in a 1.1 OS/2 BMP format with 1, 4 or 8 bit(s) per pixel depending on the display capabilities. ═══ 1.9. OS/2 Bitmap (1.1) ═══ These files have the extension *.bmp. OS/2 Bitmap files are saved in a 1.1 format with 1, 4 or 8 bit(s) per pixel depending on the display capabilities. ═══ 1.10. PSEG38PP, PSEG3820 ═══ These files have the extension *.pse. PSE files are binary equivalent to PSEG38PP or PSEG3820 files on the host. They are especially useful for inclusion into BookMaster Documents. To include them into host documents, upload the .pse files binary to the host and convert them into a real PSEG38PP or PSEG3820 by using the PBIN2PSE EXEC (PSEG38PP and PSEG3820 files are identical, they can be converted into each other by renaming). To generate a PSE file, a halftoning process has to be applied. It is possible to select among o three sizes (4x4, 6x6 and 8x8) and o 4 types (Diagonal, Diamond, Circle and Square) of dither matrices. The output may be scaled by an aribtrary factor between 0.1 and 10.0 during the halftone operation. Default is a factor of 2.0. Note: This process may take quite some time. ═══ 1.11. PostScript ═══ These files have the extension *.ps, or *.eps. PostScript files are either generated as color-images, black and white images or by using a special technique which prints on either color or black and white PostScript printers. The special technique maps each pixel to a colored square. This method is used to generate pictures when it is not known whether a color printer is available or not, however printing such pictures is extremly slow and can take up to several hours!!! for larger pictures. PostScripts file can be generated in two flavors: o PS which is printable and o EPS which is for inclusion into other PostScript files (e.g. via Page Maker). The pictures may be scaled by an arbitrary factor between 0.01 and 10.00 or fit to the page (the program determines the scaling factor). Default is a factor of 0.7. Optionally the pictures can be rotated (Landscape) by 90 degrees if needed. ═══ 1.12. Command Line Syntax ═══ PMCAMERA [/option] [/option] ... The options are: /PATH=... to choose the path for the file to be saved /FILE=... to choose the filename of the file to be saved (a file name of the form XXXXXXnn will take XXXXXX as the name and nn as the initial file number) /NONBR supresses incremntal file numbering /FULL or /PART or /ACTive grab the full screen, a part of it or the active window /CLIPboard or /NOCLIPboard enable/disable save of picture to clipboard /BMP or /NOBMP enable/disable save of picture as OS/2 bitmap /PSEG38pp or /NOPSEG38pp enable/disable save of picture as PSEG /PSEGSCale=... choose scaling factor between 0.1 and 10.0 /PS or /NOPS enable/disable save of picture as PostScript /PSSCale=... choose scaling factor between 0.1 and 10.0 /PSFIT or /PSNOFIT enable/disable fit to page /PSPS or /PSEPs save as printable (PS) file or as one for inclusion into other PostScript files (EPS) /PSLAndscape or /PSPOrtrait enable/disable rotation of picture by 90 degrees /PSCOlor, /PSBW or /PSBOth save in Color PostScript, PostScript (black and white) or a special form which uses squares to represent pixels and prints on either color or black and white printers (however very slow) /SOUnd or /NOSOUnd enable/disable beep when picture is taken /MOUse or /NOMOUse enable/disable capturing of mouse pointer /DSIze=... select size of dither matrix: 4, 6 or 8 /DMAtrix=... select type of dither matrix: DIAGonal, DIAMond, CIrcle or SQuare /PRIority=... select the priority of saving the image IDLe or NORmal /MIN minimize PMCamera after start the default settings are: /PATH='current directory' /FILE=PMGRAB00 /BMP /FULL ═══ 1.13. The Grab Menu ═══ The grab menu can be used to stop an ongoing grab, or to exit this program. o Grab o Stop Saving o eXit this program ═══ 1.13.1. Grab ═══ Alternate form to the key to start the grabbing action. ═══ 1.13.2. Stop Saving ═══ Stops the saving of the current grab. The files are deleted. ═══ 1.13.3. eXit ═══ Quits this program. ═══ 1.14. The Options Menu ═══ The options menu allows the selection and setting of several general attributes, reset to defaults and the saving and loading of the options. o Defaults o Dither Matrices o Save Priorites o Save Options o Load Options ═══ 1.14.1. Defaults ═══ Sets all the options of PM Camera back to the following defaults: PATH current directory NAME PMGRAB00 NBR on, starting with 00 GRAB full screen CLIP off BMP on PSEG off, scale 2.00 PS off, scale 0.70, PostScript, Landscape, Color BEEP on MOUSE on ═══ 1.14.2. Dither Matrices ═══ To generate a PSE file, a halftoning process has to be applied. It is possible to select among o three sizes (4x4, 6x6 and 8x8) and o 4 types (Diagonal, Diamond, Circle and Square) of dither matrices. ═══ 1.14.3. Save Thread Priorities ═══ The grabing off a screen or part takes only a short amount of time and is done immediately. Saving this grabbed image to disk however may take quite some time, especially for PSEG's and PostScript files. During this time no other grabs can be invoked. To allow for other activities during this saving period, the priority of the save thrad may be varied: Idle Saving takes only place only when there is unused processor type. The use of other programs and user activites takes precedence and allows users to do their work uninterrupted. This is the default setting. Note: If there is enough activity on the system, the save thread may not be working at all. Normal The save thread has a normal priorty and gets thus his normal share of processor time. This is much faster than idle saves, may however limit the responsiveness of the system to users requests. ═══ 1.14.4. Save / Load Options ═══ Save All the options and settings of PM Camera may be saved in a PMCAMERA.INI file and read back to be taken as defaults whenever a PM Camera session is started. The file will be saved in the current directory. Load The options are restored to the saved settings. ═══ 1.15. The Help Menu ═══ The help menu contains choices for fast access to special sections of this help information. The following choices are available: o Help for help o Extended Help o Keys Help o Help Contents o About ═══ 1.15.1. Help for help ═══ Explains how to use the help facility. ═══ 1.15.2. Extended help ═══ Explains the working of this program, its options and how to use PM Camera. ═══ 1.15.3. Help for Keys ═══ Accelerator for getting help about this program Accelerator to exit this program Accelerator for starting the capture of a window, the screen, or part thereof ═══ 1.15.4. Contents of the Help Document ═══ Displays the contents of this help document. ═══ 1.15.5. About PM Camera ═══ This choice shows a panel with information about the version of PM Camera and its author. ═══ ═══ The communications manager file transfer is quite cumbersome, and its defaults often lead to undesirable side effects. Especially the default of using fixed record length to upload binary files adds undesired padding bytes to the last record. This in turn leads to an error message of the PBIN2PSE EXEC, which states that there is invalid data in the file (which is true: the padding bytes are superfluous). The output PSEG38PP file however is usually correct (despite the error message). ═══ ═══ The PBIN2PSE EXEC can be obtained from the PBRUSHUT PACKAGE from PCTOOLS.