Fish 'n' More 2/fishmore-publicdomainlibraryvol.ii1991xetec.iso/dirs/shadowmaker_460.lzh/ShadowMaker/SHADOWMAKER.doc

Text File | 1991-02-17 | 47KB | 1,079 lines

Copyright 1991 L&V Productions  SHADOWMAKER Version 1.5

*****************************************************************
**THIS IS A COMPLETE WORKING DEMO OF A COMMERCIAL PROGRAM********
**THE ONLY PROGRAM RESTRICTION IS A LIMIT OF 39 PIXELS***********
**FOR THE HEIGHT OF THE CONVERTED FONT AT SAVE TIME**************
**ALL OTHER PROGRAM FUNCTIONS ARE ENABLED************************

**THIS ARCHIVE MAY BE FREELY DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS THE *********
**FOLLOWING 2 CONDITIONS ARE MET*********************************
**1. THIS ARCHIVE MUST CONTAIN ALL OF THE FILES LISTED BELOW*****
**2. IT MAY ONLY BE SOLD FOR PROFIT IN PD DISK COLLECTIONS*******
*****************************************************************




WHAT CAN SHADOWMAKER DO FOR YOU?
If you produce Video titles or any type of Video Text generation then
you need SHADOWMAKER!
Are you forever creating Video shadows for your letters in DPAINT(tm)?
Disappointed in the lack of Text handling features of the current
Multimedia/Authoring packages on the market?
Do you need consistent professional Antialiased FONT generation across all of
the software packages you use in your production work?

SHADOWMAKER is an Intuition based Font Shadow generator. In seconds
you can convert your favourite Fonts into ColorFonts with Professional
Video Shadows and Antialiasing built right in!
ColorFonts are now BUILT IN to Workbench 2.0. Many of your favourite
compatible programs can now share the same Professional Video Shadows
and Antialiasing.

For non-ColorFont compatible programs:
The included program ON-TOP allows SHADOWMAKER Fonts to be used in any
program that uses the Amiga Graphics Library Text routines. This includes
the majority of Amiga software. The exceptions are high end
Desktop Publishing programs and certain Video Titlers that take over
the entire TEXT generation process.
------------------------------------------------------------------------


SHADOWMAKER PROGRAM DOC FILE

Include on the Distribution disk are the following Files:
SHADOWMAKER         -Add Shadows & Antialiasing to Amiga Fonts
SHADOWMAKER.doc     -This file
Arp.library         -Public Domain Library
SHADOWMAKER.info    -Icon file for Workbench 1.3 palette
SHADOWMAKER2.0_ICON -Icon file for Workbench 2.0 palette

ON-TOP              -Patch to operating system. Makes sure that
                    -shadows never overlap characters face.
                    -Aways prints Face ON-TOP of Shadow.
                    -User control of Face,Shadow,Antialiase color selection
                    -Allows NON-ColorFont compatible programs to use
                    -SHADOWMAKER converted Fonts.
ON-TOP.info        -ICON for ON-TOP




An ICON with colors remapped for WB 2.0 is included.You must rename this to:
SHADOWMAKER.info to have it work properly.
The file SHADOWMAKER2.0_ICON is only an .info(icon) file. There is not
a seperate SHADOWMAKER program for WB 2.0.
The included file SHADOWMAKER will run under either WB 1.3 or WB 2.0

Execept for the Arp.library,this material is the property of
L & V Productions Reg'd. Copyright 1990
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

**REQUIRES**
AMIGA 500 or 1000 or 2000 or 3000 with 1MEG and 1 Floppy.(1.3 WB)
Arp.library in your currently ASSIGNed libs: directory
Colortext program under 1.3(Included with your Workbench 1.3 Disks)
*NOTE* Under Workbench 1.3 you MUST run the COLORTEXT program before
you run SHADOWMAKER or any other ColorFont compatible software!!!!!

Workbench 2.0 Compatible
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

***PLEASE NOTE***
Throughout this doc file DPaintIII is referred to continuously in any
explanation of using SHADOWMAKER converted fonts in actual working
examples.



***GENERAL OVERVIEW***
What is SHADOWMAKER and what can it do for me?

SHADOWMAKER was originally designed to overcome the limited Text functions
of DeluxePaintIII and similiar paint programs. During the course of daily
video production work in a University setting, DeluxePaintIII was called on
continually to generate simple text overlay screens. Though various software
packages were tried and tested(TV TEXT etc.), the production team always
came back to DPaintIII for the bulk of the work.
    In video work, text to be genlocked over live video must have a
background surrounding shadow in order to keep the FACE of each character
from blending into the backgound video. Just watch your local Newscast and
you will readily see what I mean.
To produce this same result in DPaintIII required the following steps:

Set the BACKGROUND Color to white or gray

Press F2 to set MODE= Color

1. Type in a line of text with the desired foreground color selected for the
   characters FACE.
2. Pick up the entire line as a brush.
3. Select BLACK as the background color with the right mouse button(RMB).
4. Select the 'CIRCLE' tool with the left mouse button(LMB)
5. Draw a small diameter circle using the line of text as a brush via the RMB.
6. Select Color0 as the background color using the RMB
6. Pick up this "rounded outline" as a brush
7. Select black as the background color using the RMB.
8. Select the straight line tool.
9. Using the "rounded outline" as a brush draw a line at a 45 degree angle
   say 5 or 6 pixels long with the RMB.
10.Finally, stamp the original colored FACE on top of the "Shadow outline".

There are many different ways to accomplish the above steps but basically
some form of the above 10 steps is used. In addition, this process is further
complicated in a professional environment where KEYBOARD controls are used
to obtain precise measurements/locations.

Each video production in this University facility required hundreds of lines
of Video text. Again TV TEXT and other Titlers were tried to help reduce
production times/cost. But DPaintIII was required for many small
graphic/animation creations and it became a pain of continually switching
back and forth.
    One day a Professor was watching the creation of a text screen in
DPaintIII. He could not understand why the background Shadow was not built
right into each Font. This way he said, anyone could sit down with DPaintIII
and produce completed video text overlays quickly and easily. Well the earth
shook and SHADOWMAKER was born.
    Working with the Video Production manager, the specifications were
developed for SHADOWMAKER. In addition it was decided early on to add
ANTIALIASING so that the finished result would be of broadcast quality.
The resulting converted Font was saved as a ColorFont to allow maximum
compatibility across all of the Amiga software packages. As ColorFont
capability is built directly into Workbench 2.0 this seemed to be the best
approach.
    Unfortunately, problems would arise if a large/deep shadow was selected.
These 2 problems (A) and (B) are detailed below.

(A)
Depending on the intercharacter spacing and the direction of the shadow,
this is what would happen:
1. You type the first letter of the line - no problem
2. You type the second character and it appears properly drawn.
   BUT the shadow of this second letter extends back over the first letter
   partially obscuring the FACE of the first letter.

There would also be color mapping problems because of the overlay of the
bitplanes. The above problems could be worked around if you restricted
SHADOWMAKER to using the Upper Left and Lower Left light sources and kept
the Shadow depth to a minimum. But the color mapping problem still would
show up in NON PAINT programs.

(B)
Color selection was forced upon the user. Color0-Color4 were used by the
SHADOWMAKER converted Fonts and could not be altered by the user. This would
lead to problems if you were trying to overlay text on top of an existing
IFF picture.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

TO overcome both of the above problems would require a rewrite of the Amiga
Graphics library TEXT routines. This was not a feasible option as it would
lead to gross incompatabilities. The solution was then to follow in the
footsteps of the       "COLORTEXT"
Wedge that enabled the ColorFont standard to become widely accepted and
established. Colortext works by intercepting all of the Graphics library
Text calls. It examines the current Font and then decides whether to allow
normal processing or do its ColorFont magic.
The included utility "ON-TOP" follows this same path. ON-TOP is compatible
with the Colortext wedge as long as the Colortext wedge is run BEFORE ON-TOP
is activated. This only makes sense as ON-TOP wants final control before
any text is generated.
    ON-TOP does not require that the Colortext wedge be active. It is a
replacement for Colortext for SHADOWMAKER converted Fonts only!. Actually
it will try to perform its magic on any font name that ends in "_SH", which
is the standard suffix SHADOMAKER adds to all fonts converted by it.
This means that SHADOWMAKER fonts can be used in programs that do not
support the ColorFont standard under WB 1.3.
    ON-TOP can be run/rerun as many times as you wish. AS well it can be
turned OFF/ON from within most Amiga applications. Therefore for the most
transparent use of ON-TOP and ColorText, simply run the ColorText
wedge FIRST, then run the ON-TOP wedge.
   ON-TOP removes most of the palette restrictions from SHADOWMAKER
converted fonts running under the normal ColorText wedge. Please see the
section *Color Selection* for a detailed explanation.

In summary, SHADOWMAKER fonts require the ColorText wedge to be active if
you do not have ON-TOP active or currently have ON-TOP turned off. But again,
ColorText is NOT required if ON-TOP is active for the session.
On-TOP's palette handling features alone are probable enough reason to have
it active wherever you want to use SHADOWMAKER converted Fonts.

ON-TOP means that the character's FACE will always be drawn "ON-TOP" of
the shadow, regardless of the light source direction and shadow depth.
**********************************************************************



***INSTALLING SHADOWMAKER***
To copy SHADOWMAKER onto your Workbench Disk, Hard Disk or wherever,
simply DRAG the SHADOWMAKER Icon over to the appropriate Window. Besides
the file ARP.library, there are no support files to copy other
than the main program file SHADOWMAKER.



***INSTALLING the ARP.LIBRARY***
The included file Arp.Library must be in your currently assigned
libs directory.
To install the Arp.library into your libs directory do the following:
Open a CLI window and type:

assign


The CLI Window will now show you a list of the FULL Paths of the
current assignments. We are interested in the ":libs" PATH and the
"SYS:" PATH. If these two paths are the same then you simply type

copy DF0:Arp.library sys:libs


If the "SYS:" PATH and the "libs:" PATH are different then you must
change the above CLI command accordingly. For example if the
"assign" list shows "BOOT:libs" then you would type

copy DF0:Arp.library BOOT:libs

The above series of CLI commands assumes the file Arp.library
is in the Root directory on a disk in drive DF0:. Please adjust
this as necessary.





***STARTING SHADOWMAKER***

To start SHADOWMAKER simply double-click on its ICON or open a CLI window
and type   SHADOWMAKER  . The CLI mode requires you to be logged on to the
directory containing SHADOWMAKER or have previously "SETPATH"ed to the
proper directory.

In a moment a Window will open containing various Gadgets. The Window's
"CLOSE BUTTON" may be used to quit SHADOWMAKER at any time.

The Window is subdivided into 4 quarters. Each quarter or Section contains
Gadgets that define/perform SHADOWMAKERS various functions.
Each Gadget's Function is explained in the following sections.

There are 3 Menu Items to select from. These are explained in the
section ***MENU***
************************************************************************




***SECTION SHADOW TYPE***
This section contains the 4 Gadgets that are used to select the TYPE
of shadow that you desire.


*GADGET CLEAR*
To clear out any previously made Shadow Type selections.

*GADGET CAST*
Selects CAST as the current Shadow Type. Letter FACE and SHADOW appear
physically separated on the screen. Cannot be used in conjunction with
any other Shadow Types.

*GADGET DROP*
Selects DROP as the current Shadow Type. Letter FACE and SHADOW appear
physically joined on the screen. Can be combined with ROUNDED by simply
clicking/selecting ROUNDED after selecting DROP.

*GADGET ROUNDED*
Selects ROUNDED as the current Shadow Type. Letter FACE and SHADOW appear
physically joined on the screen. Letter appears OUTLINED in a 3 pixel border.
Can be combined with DROP by simply clicking/selecting ROUNDED
after selecting DROP.
************************************************************************




***SECTION SHADOW DEPTH***
This section contains the 2 Gadgets that are used to select the DEPTH
of the shadow that you desire.


*GADGET ARROW UP*
To increase the current Shadow Depth variable.
Maximum = 25. Minimum = 0.

*GADGET ARROW DOWN*
To decrease the current Shadow Depth variable.
Maximum = 25. Minimum = 0.



**MINI SECTION FONT**
This subsection contains the 2 Gadgets that are used to select the
FONT file you wish to work with.

*GADGET LOAD*
To select the current working FONT. Uses the standard ARP library
File Requester.
The File Requester will appear in the top left hand corner of the Window,
prompting you to select the FONT you wish to use. Here the
File Requester will go directly into your currently assigned FONTS directory.
This is the DEFAULT BUT you may go to any Disk or Directory you wish.
Once you get there go right into the actual directory of the Font you
want to use. For example if you wanted DIAMOND 15, you would enter the
DIAMOND directory and double click on the file   15   (MAX SIZE=99).
Please make sure you have selected a FONT FILE. If by mistake a non FONT file
is selected, the File Requester will reappear prompting you:
"Not a Font File! Please try again".
Read the Section  ***HINTS,TIPS*** for an explanation of the FILE Requester.
Font file sizes under 10 points or over 99 are not supported!

*GADGET SAVE*
To SAVE the converted Font to a Colorfont in Ram:Fonts/(name)/size.
For example if you had loaded Times 24 and added a 10 point Drop Shadow,
then your new converted Font would be saved to ram:fonts/Times_SH/34.24.
The letters  _SH are appended to the Fonts original name to signify that
this is a SHADOW(_SH) converted ColorFont. The final converted height
of the Font is equal to the original height + Shadow Depth. So in this
case 24 + 10 = 34. The actual Font file is named 34.24 to show you that
this was originally a 24 pixel tall Font and has a 10 pixel Shadow added
to it.
Maximum = 99 including the Shadow Depth & manual positioning of Letter FACE.
*Note* the actual conversion process begins when you click on this "SAVE"
gadget. This process can not be interupted until it is completed. One
modifier is available, the SPACEBAR key. If this is pressed while you
click on the SAVE gadget, only the characters below $7f will be converted.
Explantation to follow:
Certain fonts intended for Desktop publishing or those coming from
the Professional type houses, may contain a full character set. This
means that in addition to the normal printable ASCII character set,
Higher/Control characters are included in the Font. These extra
characters can include most of the ACCENT modifiers and misc. Alt/Ctrl Key
characters. Needless to say this can double the size of the Font
in comparison to say a JDK or ZUMA Font. Simply hold down the "SPACEBAR" key
while you click on the "SAVE" gadget. This will limit the converted Font to
the high character of $7f. This is generally the highest character in a
regular video Font, encompassing all of the regular printable characters
on your standard keyboard.



************************************************************************




***SECTION LIGHT SOURCE***
This section contains the 8 Gadgets that are used to select the DIRECTION
and displacement of the light source/shadow.


The 4 Arrows that form the tight square select the Light Source Direction.
These are mutually exclusive, meaning only 1 of the Arrows can be active at
a time.
*GADGET ARROW UPPER-LEFT*
Light Source is from Upper Left corner.

*GADGET ARROW LOWER-LEFT*
Light Source is from Lower Left corner.

*GADGET ARROW UPPER-RIGHT*
Light Source is from Upper Right corner.

*GADGET ARROW LOWER-RIGHT*
Light Source is from Lower Right corner.



*GADGET ARROW UP*
To Increase the Letter Face displacement along the Y axis UP.
Maximum = 25. Minimum = 0.

*GADGET ARROW DOWN*
To Increase the Letter Face displacement along the Y axis DOWN.
Maximum = 25. Minimum = 0.

*GADGET ARROW LEFT*
To Increase the Letter Face displacement along the X axis LEFT.
Maximum = 25. Minimum = 0.


*GADGET ARROW RIGHT*
To Increase the Letter Face displacement along the X axis RIGHT.
Maximum = 25. Minimum = 0.
**********************************************************************





***SECTION UPPER RIGHT QUADRANT***
This unlabeled section contains the Text Gadget that has the current
Letter that is used in setting up/displaying your Shadow preferences.
You may Click in this Gadget and change the Displayed letter at
any time that the program is not in the process of generating a new
font. Your new choice is made current as soon as you press the
"RETURN" or "ENTER" key.
*********************************************************************




***SECTION MENU***

**Project**
*ABOUT*
Under the Project Menu there are 2 selections. The first Item is "ABOUT",
this brings up a text window listing product information and the
full company address and phone/fax numbers.
To close this window simply click on either of your Mouse Buttons.

*Quit*
Selecting this Item will quit SHADOWMAKER, returning you to the
Workbench or the CLI window you started SHADOWMAKER from.

**Font**
*Antialiase*
    ON  -Turns Antialiasing ON.(default)
    OFF -Turns Antialiasing OFF.
These two menu items are mutually exclusive, meaning you cannot select
both at the same time. Only one may be "active" at a time.
Antialiasing is performed on any Pixel that is interpreted as being
"Jaggie". If you own an Amiga you are probably very familiar with
the Blocky appearance of lines drawn at certain angles. SHADOWMAKER
Antialiases with 1 color only, current FG color+1 of the palette.
Many of the popular programs perform Antialiasing with 2 or more colors.
While this produces excellent results, it limits the availabilty of
your color selections for your palette. More importantly, under
Workbench 2.0 and the new ECS video chips, a new Super Hi-Res display
mode is available. Resolution is 1280*400(non-overscan) but is limited
to a 2 bitplane, 4 color palette.
For those of you that have not seen an AMIGA displaying the Super Hi-Res
mode, rest assured you may want to use it for much of your basic Titleing
chores.


This one color Antialiasing turns a bad Font into a good Font, and a
good Font into a GREAT Font!. You will be very surprised with the results.
Please read the section *Color Selection* for a further discusion of
SHADOWMAKER's use of the palette.
*CAVEAT* SHADOWMAKER saves ANTIALIASED Fonts as 3 bitplane ColorFonts.
This results in a very large file. Please see the section
*Program Limitations/Bugs* for a detailed explanation.
**********************************************************************



***HINTS,TIPS***

*DPAINT!!!(tm)
Remember when you load DpaintIII under 1.3WB then you must have previously
run the ColorText program supplied on your DpaintIII disk or with WB 1.3.
When DpaintIII is loaded click with the RIGHT-MOUSE-BUTTON on the TEXT gadget.
A File Requester will appear, defaulting to the currently assigned
FONTS: directory. You will have to manually type in   ram:fonts   in this
requester to set it to the proper path for your SHADOWMAKER converted
FONTS, if you have just run SHADOWMAKER.

When multitasking DPaintIII and SHADOWMAKER please keep the following in mind:
1. SHADOWMAKER and DPAINTIII are both memory intensive programs. While
   DPaintIII's memory requirements do not fluctuate that much once it is
   loaded(doing minor Text work), this is not true of SHADOWMAKER. You can
   easily have both programs running in memory at once on a 1 meg machine
   but will soon run into low memory situations once you start to
   Load/Convert/Save Fonts. SHADOWMAKER's memory requirements are directly
   proportional to the size and number of characters contained in the
   current Font being converted.
2. When a new Font is saved out of SHADOWMAKER it will not instantly
   appear in the DPaintIII Font file requester if you are already
   displaying the Fonts in RAM:. Simply bring up the Font file requester
   and click in the text box that holds the current Font path(ram:fonts).
   Now press the "RETURN" or "ENTER" keys. Your newly converted Font
   should be available.

BACKSPACING to correct a mistake in TEXT mode requires a small modification.
For example:
Type the letters   Pre
You see that the "e" is wrong cause you were trying to spell Producer.
You would normally simply press the BACKSPACE key and erase the "e".
You would then type the replacement "o" and keep on going. If you do
this when ON-TOP is active only the SHADOW gets erased when you
BACKSPACE. This leaves the letters FACE still there. To get around this
you would now press the SPACEBAR key once and then press the BACKSPACE
key again. This erases the entire letter.
So you really just repeat the BACKSPACE operation twice to completely
erase the letter.
BACKSPACE
SPACEBAR
BACKSPACE

The above sequence also applies if you backspace to the first character
of a line. You will need to
BACKSPACE
SPACEBAR
BACKSPACE
to completely remove the letter. I am looking into the problem!

In a twist to the above matter, when backspacing  more than just
the previous character is sometimes affected. You may have to back up
over an extra character or 2 in order to re-establish the proper
FACE/SHADOW releationship. I believe that this is because of the internal
text handling setup of DPaintIII, but I also do not believe in
the pot calling the kettle black.

As you probably know, DPaintIII does not handle tabs very well. This
means that you will experience the very same problems with either
SHADOWMAKER or normal Fonts when you tab/backspace etc.

DPaintIII has the annoying habit of Permanently ASSIGNing the FONTS:
directory/disk assignment to the path you choose via its Font requester.
Nothing you can do about this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

*FONTS*
SHADOWMAKER works best with AMIGA compatible fonts 99 points and under.
The FONTS do not have to be in the currently ASSIGNed FONTS: directory.
You may load Fonts from any Disk or Directory as long as the
accompanying .FONT file is in the proper directory.

SHADOWMAKER can even convert the standard WB Fonts(Times, etc.) into
useable Video Fonts! Make sure Antialiasing is turned ON!

Please remember that the finished Font file must be 99 pixels or under
in height. To determine the finished Height apply the following formula:

Original Height     44
Shadow Depth        14
Manual Displacement  0
Rounded          6(3 pixel deep outline at both top/bottom of letter)
----------------------
    TOTAL       64
If ROUNDED is selected as part of the Shadow Type then the constant
of 6 pixels is added to the FINAL Height of the Font.
The manual displacement value is only used if you move the FACE of the
letter Higher or Lower then the Shadows edges. For every pixel that you
manually move the FACE of the letter, that is ABOVE the background shadow,
you must add #1 to the Fonts finished height!. If your FINAL
height is greater then 99 you will not be able to access the Font.
(Note:actually the internal logic supports up to 124 pixels, but the
filename LOAD/SAVE logic is limited to 99 pixels).

The converted FONT is saved in ram:FONTS/Fontname_SH/Newsize.Oldsize.
IE:  Original Font =                Times 24
     Add 4 pixel deep Drop Shadow          4
-----------------------------------------------
                       ram:FONTS/Times_SH/28.24
As well the required   ".font"  file is generated. If you wish to copy
this to a disk for permanent storage make sure this  ".font" file is
copied as well. As an example, with the file ram:fonts/Times_SH/28.24
sitting in the  ram: disk and you wish to copy this to a disk in drive
DF0:(your internal disk drive):
1.  For ease of explanation please make a SUBDIRECTORY called DF0:FONTS
    Open a CLI Window and type  Makedir DF0:FONTS
2.  Then type  Copy ram:FONTS DF0:FONTS all

This will copy any and all Fonts presently in the ram: disk. This will
result in the   ".font" file being copied to DF0:FONTS. As well a new
SUBDIRECTORY named Times_SH will be created--DF0:FONTS/Times_SH.
Remember ALL Font files presently in ram: disk will be copied. If you
wish to only copy a certain Font file then you will have to be more
selective as in:   Copy ram:FONTS/Times_SH/28.24 to DF0:FONTS/Times_SH
           Copy ram:FONTS/Times_SH.font to DF0:FONTS

If you copy your converted SHADOWMAKER Fonts to another Disk/directory,
and they don't seem to appear in a Font file requester, you may have
a missing/damaged .font file. The system contains a command to
fix/build this .font file. It is called "FixFonts" and generally resides
in the SYSTEM directory. Remember though, FixFonts only seems to work
on the currently "ASSIGN"ed FONTS: directory/disk. You must therefore
type from the CLI window:

ASSIGN FONTS: DF0:fonts
FixFonts

The above commands assume that the Fonts you want to "FIX" are on a
disk in drive DF0: in a subdirectory named fonts. You must change
this path "DF0:fonts" to the path you require in order for the
"ASSIGN" command and the "FixFonts" command to find the right Fonts.

If you are running WB1.3 then remember to run the COLORTEXT program
before you try to use any of the SHADOWMAKER generated FONTS.
When your application loads these FONTS it should ask you if you
would like to load the suggested Color values into the current
Color palette. Answer yes to see the suggested values from SHADOWMAKER.
You of course may choose to load/alter your color palette as you wish.
*********************************************************************


*COLOR SELECTION*
Color selection defaults to the Workbench 2.0 palette.
These values may be changed/remapped according to the capabilities
of the software program you are using with the SHADOWMAKER Fonts.

Reading the color palette from Left to right
Color 0      Color0 - Background
Color 1      Color1 - Front Face
Color 2      Color2 - Shadow
Color 4      Color4 - Antialiasing
Remember not to overdrive the WHITE! For video NTSC output the WHITE
RGB values should generally be at/under 13-13-13. I have also lowered
the RGB values of the Background grey vs WB Background grey to allow
the reduced RGB White values to have sufficient contrast.

Antialiasing of the Face and Shadow is accomplished with Color4 of
the palette. Take the time to experiment with different color values
and see what gives the best end results. This will vary according to
the finished media of your production. Remember what looks great on
your Hi-res RGB Amiga monitor may show up poorly on a NTSC television.
We find that Proportionally larger amounts of BLUE tend to produce
excellent results, especially if the final viewer is NTSC bound.

Antialiasing of the Shadow and the Background is not performed by
SHADOWMAKER. Because LIVE video varies constantly in brightness
and color, Shadow antialiasing can actually produce a bright
ghosted outline at times. The viewers eye is constantly drawn to the
Letter Face so any "jaggies" on the Shadow are generally missed. The
Rounding and Drop shadow algorithms are tweaked to reduce these
jaggies to a minimum.
If you are supplying a solid color for the Background, simply pick
a color that will naturally Antialiase the black of the shadow.
Again a large Blue component seems to work well!
SHADOWMAKER originally Antialiased both Face and Shadow, so there
will be a utility forthcoming to allow you to set the level of
Antialiasing to include the Shadow if you wish!
----------------------------------------------------------------------


*COLOR SELECTION* for *ON-TOP*
Because we write from Left to Right certain Shadow directions
cause overlapping of the current characters Shadow and the previous
characters Face.
A utility to overcome this situation is included on this disk.
The programs name is ON-TOP. This is a small patch to the operating system
that makes sure the characters Face is always drawn ON-TOP of the Shadow.
ON-TOP can be started at any time. When it is run one of 2 things happen:
May be run from Workbench or CLI. Does not require an output window
so you can RUNBACK it in your Startup-Sequence if you so choose.

1.  The screen flashes through a rainbow pattern for 1 second.
2.  The screen fades to black for 1 second.

The rainbow pattern signifies that ON-TOP is now active and properly
installed.

The screen fading to black signifies that ON-TOP is now disabled.

You may run/rerun ON-TOP as many times as you wish in one session.
Also ON-TOP may be turned ON/OFF from within the software that you are
using. Simply press the "-"(MINUS KEY on SEPERATE NUMERIC KEYPAD). A space
will print and ON-TOP is now disabled until you press the
"+" or "."(PLUS KEY or PERIOD KEY on the SEPERATE NUMERIC KEYPAD).
Because the routine to READ your typed input is done from within the
system TEXT routine, I must unfortunately go to the
Keyboard hardware register directly. This means if you type one of
the above KEYS(- + .) REALLY fast, it may get missed. Just strike the
KEY again for proper reults.


Color selection when ON-TOP is activated is as follows:

Current FG color -1     = Characters Background Shadow
Current FG color        = Characters Face
Current FG color +1     = Characters Antialiasing info(if any)
For example if your currently selected color is Color2(third color in
palette, starting from 0), then your Shadow will be in Color1, and your
Antialiasing will be drawn in Color3. This gives you maximum flexibility
in designing your palettes. If because of your FG color selection, a color
that is outside of the palette boundaries is generated, the Default of
Color2 will be used. TO change the current color of your text, simply
select a new Foreground color and begin typing. Remember we are talking
about palette positions, not the actual value in each palette slot.
  Unfortunately this color scheme requires that the Font be saved as
3 seperate bitplanes. I am working on a compression scheme to
alleviate this problem.

**IMPORTANT**
YOU MUST RUN ON-TOP when you want to use SHADOWMAKER generated
Fonts in any other program that the Fonts shadow may cause overlap.
------------------------------------------------------------------------



************************************************************************
**FILE REQUESTER**
For those of you not familiar with the ARP File Requester I suggest
you spend a few minutes getting aquainted with its features. Once
the Requester is active, if you CLICK on or in the REQUESTER
with your RIGHT mouse button, a LIST of the
attached System devices appears in the File Selection Window.
This enables you to easily jump from Disk or device to wherever
you desire. Thanks to the people behind ARP!
*********************************************************************

**CONVERSION TIMES**
To convert a Font originally 30 points, 96 characters,
with an 8 point Drop shadow
with Antialiasing ON, takes approximately:
25 seconds on an AMIGA 1000
12 seconds on an Amiga 3000(25mhz)

The above conversion times are reduced by about 50% if Antialiasing
is set to "OFF".

SHADOWMAKER does not "take over" the Amiga, so if you are running a
task in the background your conversion times will increase.
If you are experimenting with various Font sizes, turn the
Antialiasing OFF until you select your final size. Then again if
you are lucky enough to own a 3000(I do! hehe) who cares!
-----------------------------------------------------------------

The newer updated ZUMA Fonts and the AMIGA Compatible
JDK fonts(Modern etc.) work extremely well. The JDK fonts in particular
give CHYRON like, broadcast quality results with the SHADOWMAKER added
Antialiasing and Shadows.If you find any Fonts that
SHADOWMAKER cannot handle please send a sample to the office.
-----------------------------------------------------------------

If you hold down the LEFT SHIFT key while you click on any of the
UP or DOWN arrows, the selected value will increase/decrease by 4 instead
of 1.
*********************************************************************

**END Section HINTS,TIPS**





**PROGRAM LIMITATIONS/BUGS**
There is nothing worse than wasting your time tring to guess if a
program BUG/LIMITATION is:
1.  Your own fault
2.  Program BUG
3.  Amiga's fault
To help you out, this section contains EVERY SINGLE noticeable
BUG/FEATURE/ABBERATION that was recorded during BETA testing.



Where is the FILE REQUESTER at SAVE time??
I did not see the need for a file requester at SAVE time
until I started getting some reccomendations from people using
the Public Domain version of SHADOWMAKER. By then it was getting too
close to the first release to make any major changes to program logic.
The initial idea was to try to keep SHADOWMAKER as easy as possible
to use. Also I did not really think that people would want to SAVE the
converted Font files to disk because of their large size. I stand
corrected and the file requester will appear in a version shortly.


Where is the Screen Front/Back gadget?
Unfortunately the screen was designed at the pixel level so I could not
add a Depth gadget without changing all of the Intuition imagery. I simply
did not notice until all of the screen imagery and layout was finished.
Please use the AMIGA-M(AMIGA-N) commands until this gets fixed.


Why did you design all of the gadgets with single line borders?
The resulting Flicker is very annoying.
This was my first attempt at creating a 3D effect for gadgets. By the
time I learned right  from wrong, the imagery was already 80% completed.
I was too far along the path to turn back. In addition, this program was
designed on an AMIGA 3000- so I never noticed the flicker until early
Beta testing.


The original Versions of SHADOWMAKER(1.0-1.3) saved their ColorFonts
as 2 bitplanes. In order for ON-TOP to work better, it was decided
to save the SHADOWMAKER fonts as 3 bitplanes if the ANTIALIASING
feature was selected. I realize that this makes for extremely LARGE
sized fonts, but I really never envisioned saving these to disk. It
is so quick to generate them those people without Hard drives can just
regenerate before they start a production session.
This is not a solution. What is needed is a standard form of file
compression. Since the Fonts are really bitmaps(bitplanes) the IFF
employed compression schemes would do fine. I have found that this
route will result in over 50% savings in file storage. The problem is
to link any compression strategy into the Amiga system. I am working
on the idea of a patch to the OPENFONT and OPENDISKFONT routines. We'll see!


Certain Fonts, notably the older ZUMA Fonts, will sometimes produce less than
desirable results under SHADOWMAKER. This is due to improper values in the
Character-Width, Kerning, etc. tables of the fonts.


After you run SHADOWMAKER and load a new Font, Convert it and then quit
the program, you will notice that you will have less FAST memory than
when you started. Obviously the converted Font is saved into RAM:, but
even after subtracting that amount you will still be missing some Ram.
AmigaDos does not free memory used to load FONTS until it really runs
into a Low-memory situation. At that time it will purge any unused
libraries, fonts etc. from memory and you finally reclaim your missing
memory. Sorry, but as many programmers like to say--"It's the Operating
systems fault.. not mine!


SHADOWMAKER can sometimes have trouble with NON-PROPORTIONAL FONTS.
SHADOWMAKER will Load/Convert/Save properly but the finished Font may
not show anything but a SPACE when you try to type. This problem has
only happened TWICE, and only on 1 machine out of the 4 used for
Final Testing. It was an Amiga 2000 HD, 1 meg CHIP/2 Meg Fast/1.3 Kickstart
in ROM, WB 1.3.2. If anything like this happens simply run SHADOWMAKER
again to convert the same Font. Everything seems fine the second time.
NON-PROPORTIONAL Fonts are not used heavily in the Amiga world. The system
font TOPAZ is such a font.
The above problem may happen to the Font converted immediately after
the NON-PROPORTIONAL is converted.


Font sizes under 10 points are not supported.


If ROUNDED is selected as Shadow Type then a 3 pixel outline is drawn
around each letter. With some Fonts this can result in a 1 pixel shadow
overlap as the letters are being printed. This can be remedied by using
the Manual positioning gadgets to PULL the Face of the letter to the
LEFT 1 extra pixel. This will result in a 2 pixel outline border on the
The BEST solution is to run the included program ON-TOP.


IF ROUNDED is not selected, certain Shadow directions can cause the
Text.Baseline to be out by 3 pixels. This will show up in DPAINTIII as
the Text Bounding box Baseline being 3 pixels higher than it should be.
This is not serious but will be fixed shortly. The program is NOW
shipping its first COMMERCIAL Revision and I do not want to start the
Beta testing over again just to accomodate this bug.


I was having a problem with the Workbench Fonts 24 pixels tall and under.
It seems an extra pixel was showing up at the very bottom of certain
WB Fonts. Unable to trace the problem I added a small BUG to SHADOWMAKER
to get rid of this extra pixel. Therefore all Fonts under 24 pixels
in height will be missing the very bottom row of pixels. As long as the
Shadow extends BELOW the Face you probably will not notice the missing
row. BUT if you use just CAST or DROP, with no outline, then the bottom
row of the characters Face of the letters j,p,q will be missing. This
bug cost me a lot of time, and unless someone complains REAL LOUD,
I never want to think about it again!(Sorry, I really HATE this bug!)


If you hold down the LEFT SHIFT key while you click on any of the
UP or DOWN arrows, the selected value will increase/decrease by 4 instead
of 1. If you hold down this key while a font is being generated all
of the increment/decrement variables will increase/decrease by 4
instead of 1 until you press the Left SHIFT key again. During
Font generation all input events are discarded except for this
LEFT SHIFT key UP/DOWN FLAG. Fixed in next revision.
--------------------------------------------------------------------


If you bring up a system Font requester you may notice that if the
shadow of the one letter overlaps the shadow of the previous letter,
Color4 of the palette will be the result.

The "QUICK" fix is to decrease your shadow so there is no overlap and/or
increase the amount of spacing between each letter being drawn.

The "BEST" fix is to run the program ON-TOP.
--------------------------------------------------------------------


Remember, in most programs that do run time Text generation(AmigaVision etc)
the underlying palette may change from screen to screen. If you wish
to perform Text generation across multiple screens, then you must
adjust the palette in each of the screens where SHADOWMAKER fonts
will appear.
If for some reason ON-TOP is not compatible with your runtime Multimedia
software, you can still use SHADOWMAKER fonts to a certain degree.
First convert the Font without Antialiasing and a small Shadow depth.
The palette position normally occupied by the Antialiasing information,
Color4 must be changed to the identical contents of Color2(Face). This
is done within your Multimedia software.


--------------------------------------------------------------------


SHADOWMAKER must use "NEGATIVE KERNING" to allow the wedge ON-TOP to do
its magic. Therefore when you are at the beginning of each line the actual
starting position you select must be adjusted. The amount of
"NEGATIVE KERNING" is equal to the width of the Shadow. For example, if you
positioned the Text box in DPAINTIII at coordinates 5,10(x,y), the first
letter that you type may be 'clipped' along the left edge if the amount of
Shadow that you added via SHADOWMAKER is greater than 5 pixels.  Simply put,
each character will JUMP
back to the left, the number of pixels equal to the current shadow width,
and then the letter will be printed. This seemingly BIZZARE practice will
make sure that the actual FACE of the letter begins exactly where you
position the text box.

Conversely, character positioning at the extreme right edge of the screen
can be equal to the maximum X coordinate plus the amount of shadow width.
Again this is because the character positioning will actually JUMP back to
the left prior to the actua printing of the character.
--------------------------------------------------------------------


Garbage, in the form of overwritten characters may appear in the
Font file requester within DPaintIII. This is a result of contention
between ON-TOP and the OS and DPaint. Simply click on the "SHOW"
button again to refresh the display.
Also if garbage appears in the Font requester and then appears when you
try to actually use this Font, simply reload the Font from the Font
requester. The problem is a contention between DPAINT and ON-TOP over
the color mapping of the current FG and BG colors, which DPAINT tries
to remap to the highest colors in your palette every time the
requester pops up.


ITALIC mode is not supported when ON-TOP is active(SHADOWMAKER fonts only)
*Note* It does seem to work on Fonts with small Shadow depths and
certain light source directions. Remember though, any Antialiasing
information will not be processed correctly by the system ITALIC
routine. It is better to use the BRUSH-Warp or BRUSH-Rotate feature of
your software package.


If the SHADOW of your SHADOWMAKER font extends backwards more than 1
character than you have a problem. ON-TOP only redraws the single previous
character.


You will lose under 1000 bytes of memory every time ON-TOP is installed.




If you find that ON-TOP is not functioning:
1.  You may have inadvertently struck the "MINUS"(-) key on the numeric
    keypad. Simply press the PLUS or PERIOD(+ or .) keys to reinstate ON-TOP.
2.  You may have run the ColorText wedge AFTER starting ON-TOP. This steals
    Text routine away from ON-TOP. You must rerun ON-TOP. In some cases
    the address to the Text routine may get mangled or called too many times
    recursively, so you will have to REBOOT!
3.  The program you are using DOES NOT use the Amiga Graphics Library Text
    routines. Sorry, there is no fix for this.
4.  Remember that ON-TOP uses the current color and the colors directly
    BEFORE and AFTER this color for the SHADOW and ANTIALIASING.
    If you have 2 of these colors identical or they match the current
    background color then obviously some component will not show up
    properly.
5.  If you have Color1(DPaintIII DEFAULT) selected as the current
    foreground color then You will only see the FACE and Antialiasing
    bitplane information. Simply select a new foreground color with
    the left mouse button.
6.  You may have run the ColorText program again. This steals the control
    of the system TEXT routines away from ON-TOP. Try to run ON-TOP
    again. You may have to reboot because there is no way to turn
    off the ColorText Wedge.

Even though the docs say the maximum Font size is 99, this is not
completely truthfull. Loading Font size is RESTRICTED to 99 MAX
simply because the loading logic stops at 2 digits. The "SAVING"
logic correctly handles up to max=256, but the filename creation routine
breaks down after 2 digits(99). Therefore you could save a Font out
no problem but the Filename would be mangled. You could still load
these converted 99+ Fonts in DPaintIII even with the damaged names.
BUT the real restriction is the upper right quadrant of the
SHADOWMAKER control screen where each letter is built. The maximum
Font height here is restricted to around 132 before you start overwriting
Screen title bars and background graphics. Also the current Binary Font
file creation routine can only handlce file sizes of max=262140 bytes.
    A coming revision will allow much larger Fonts/Bitmaps. If you
are wondering why you would ever want letters this BIG??, it is because
you might want to store say extra large bitmaps in FONT format, so that
you could recall to the screen individual windows VIA the keyboard.
Anyway, what's life without an update.

*********************************************************************



**COMING UP!**

SPECIAL EFFECTS! Perspective, mirroring and rotation, patterns etc.

Load any Font into a your paint program for retouching/enhancing etc.

Professional Video Font Sets. Hand crafted Bitmaps for Video Production.

Animate your text



SHADOWMAKER is the first part of the Flip'n Scroll project.
Flip'n Scroll will be released in the next few months. It is
an inexpensive Page Flipper/Scroller with many professional
features.


**VBHI**
L&V Productions also produce the program VBHI. This is a low
cost TEXT SCROLLER suitable for Titleing and/or Teleprompting.
Retail Price is $29.99 US includes shipping/handling.



TRADEMARKS
DPaintIII is trademark of Electronic Arts
SHADOWMAKER is a trademark of L & V Productions Reg'd
Flip'n Scroll is a trademark of L & V Productions Reg'd
AmigaVision is a trademark of Commodore Business Machines
TV*TEXT is a trademark of the ZUMA group


*COPY PROTECTION*
NONE

*NUMBER OF BACKUP COPIES ALLOWED*
1,235,642

(Anyone exceeding these numbers will be prosecuted to the FULL
 extent of the LAW!)
(These backup copies must be for your own personal use!)



***REGISTRATION***
Special Introductory Offer!
Regular Price $24.99+Shipping/Handling
** SALE PRICE $19.99 ** Includes Shipping/Handling in the continental US
Offer good until May 1, 1991

To purchase the commercial version simply send a cheque in the amount of
$19.99 US funds to the address below.

Visa/Mastercard are also acceptable.





L & V Productions
110 Columbus Ave
Moncton, New Brunswick
Canada   E1A-5E4
PHONE:  [phone]
FAX:    [phone]

Note We are on the EAST Coast!!



Please feel free to report any bugs/suggestions to:

Stephen Lebans

ONLINE  Handle
PLINK   SLEBANS


Thank you for TRYING or BUYING this program!



Thanks Norbert!

Dedicated to my daughters Alyssa and Samantha
(I guess you know "WHO's the Boss"