ViewPaint is a utility to manipulate Paint and StartUpScreen documents. It allows you to open, view, convert and print documents of either type. Version 1.7 adds the ability to view PICT files.
Initially created just to display MacPaint images, ViewPaint is a definite example of "Creeping Featurism" with StartUpScreen capability added as an afterthought to ViewPaint 1.0. The ability to print a document, handling of large screen displays and the ability to display a group of files in sequence for presentations have been added since then.
I intend to continue adding features to ViewPaint so I'd appreciate your feedback on what you think is lacking or could be done better. You can contact me by writing:
Steve Dagley
c/o SSA Designs
P.O. Box 360096
Melbourne, FL 32936-0096
For E-Mail my CompuServe ID is 76174,2661 and my GEnie mail address is MACDISNEY.
Paint Documents
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A Paint style document is a 576 by 720 pixel image - 8" by 10" at 72 dots per inch. Paint style documents are created by MacPaint, FullPaint, SuperPaint and probably several other programs. The nice thing is that all the programs that create Paint style documents use the same basic file format defined by Apple so we don't have to contend with several different file formats. Paint style documents begin with 512 bytes of header information that can vary depending on what program created the file but for display purposes this header can be ignored. Following the header is a compressed representation of the 576 by 720 pixel image. If the image wasn't compressed each Paint file would occupy just over 51K and you would quickly run out of disk space. Typical Paint documents compress to about 15 to 20K.
StartUpScreens
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A StartUpScreen is a 512 by 342 pixel image that is saved in an un-compressed format that occupies 21888 bytes of disk space. Since all Macs prior to the Mac II have a standard screen that displays 512 by 342 pixels it's fairly obvious where this size came from. At boot time the system looks for a file named 'StartUpScreen' (capitalization doesn't matter) in the system folder. If it finds a file by this name, even if it isn't really a StartUpScreen, it opens the file's data fork and reads the first 21888 bytes into the video memory. On a Mac II the image will be centered on the screen.
PICT Files
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A PICT file is Apple's preferred method of transferring graphic images from one application to another. There are two types of PICT files which are referred to as PICT1 and PICT2. PICT1 was introduced by MacDraw with the Save As… PICT format option and several other applications have similiar options. PICT2 is an enhanced format introduced with the Mac ][ to support color as well as to provide for future expansion. With System 4.1 or later the Mac 512E and above have the capability to display PICT2 files.
The major difference (besides color support) between a PICT file and a Paint or StartUpScreen file is that PICT images aren't a specific size so a single PICT file could be several pages. Since a PICT file doesn't have a specific size and color pictures tend to be quite large ViewPaint might not be able to load the entire file into memory before displaying it, if so the image is 'spooled' from disk as it is drawn. This allows the display of large pictures but it also slows down the drawing process and makes for pretty slow scrolling. To allow quicker scrolling, primarily to address the slow drawing problem, the maximum scroll rate has been increased to 32 pixels at a time.
If you are running under MultiFinder and viewing color PICT files it is suggested that you increase ViewPaint's Application Memory Size (use the Get Info command from the Finder) from 256K to 512K or more. This should allow most PICT files to be loaded into memory for display instead of having to be spooled.
Version 1.7 of ViewPaint only supports viewing of PICT files - no printing or converting between file types.
Scrolling
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When a file is opened, the visible portion is set to the upper left-hand corner. Unless you are using a large screen display you will not be able to see an entire Paint document at one time - StartUpScreens by definition are the same size as the pre Mac II screen so what you see is what you got. So that you can see the entire image, ViewPaint allows you to scroll the visible portion several ways.
To scroll with the mouse, press the mouse button with the cursor within one inch of the edge of the visible image in the direction you want to scroll. While pressing the button you can move the mouse to change the scrolling direction. If you release the button with the cursor more than an inch away from the edge of the image you will be prompted for the next image to display. If you are working with a group of files (groups of files are discussed later in this document) the next image in the group will be displayed.
From the keyboard the 'I', 'J', 'K', & 'M' keys scroll up, left, right and down respectively. On the newer keyboards the cursor keys can also be used.
With the numeric keypad the numbers around the '5' are considered as compass directions and scroll appropriately. The '5' key is a 'home' key - it sets the visible portion of the image back to the upper left-hand corner.
Pressing the 'Option' key before you begin scrolling will take you to the edge of the image in the scroll direction you selected. This option (no pun intended) doesn't work with the 'I', 'J', 'K' & 'M' keys.
The scrolling rate defaults to 16 pixels at a time. The maximum scroll rate is 32 pixels and minimum is one pixel. This can be adjusted with the '1' thru '0' keys on the main keyboard and the '+' and '-' keys on the keyboard and keypad. The numbers on the keyboard will set the scroll rate to the number pressed - '0' selects the default. The '+' and '-' keys will respectively increment and decrement the scroll rate. If you press the 'Option' key in conjunction with the '+' or '-' the scroll rate will set the maximum or minimum respectively.
*** PICT scrolling note ***
Since an image saved in a PICT file can be of any size you can scroll the visible portion as described above if the image is larger than your screen. On large screens the visible portion is constrained to the size of a Paint document (576x720) even if your monitor is large enough to show the PICT file in it’s entirety.
Saving
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To save a file press 'S' or the 'Enter' key on the keypad. If the current image is a Paint style image, a StartUpScreen file will be created from the upper-left 512 by 342 pixels of the visible image. If you want to create a file of the same type as the current image hold the 'Option' key down when you press 'S' or 'Enter'.
*** NOT SUPPORTED FOR PICT FILES IN VERSION 1.7 ***
Printing
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To print, press 'P' or '.' on the keyboard or numeric keypad. A single copy of the currently open file will be printed on whatever printer was selected before launching ViewPaint. Print quality corresponds to MacPaint's Print Draft quality. Printing may not work with a software print spooler.
*** NOT SUPPORTED FOR PICT FILES IN VERSION 1.7 ***
Selecting another Image
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To select another image, click the mouse button with the cursor more than one inch away from the edge of the image, press the space bar or press the '0' key on the numeric keypad.
Help
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You can bring up this help display when viewing an image by pressing '?' or '/' key on the numeric keypad. To print a copy of this text make a copy of the ViewPaint application and change it's file type to 'TEXT'. You can then open the copy with a text editor for printing.
Viewing or Printing a Group of Images
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From the Finder, if you have a group of files selected when you open the ViewPaint application the files will be shown one after another. Their order will be according to their order in the Finder's View by Icon mode - left to right and top to bottom. To show the next file click the mouse button with the cursor more than one inch away from the edge of the image, press the space bar or press the '0' key on the numeric keypad. To back-up while displaying a group press the 'Backspace' or 'Delete' on the keyboard or the '*' key on the numeric keypad.
The Finder allows you to select a group of files of a different type and Open them but it won't allow you to Print them. To get around this limitation hold down the 'Option' key when you open a group of files. Each file in the group will be printed.
*** PRINT NOT SUPPORTED FOR PICT FILES IN VERSION 1.7 ***
***** MultiFinder 1.0/Finder 6.0 Note *****
With Finder 6.0 you can't select a group of files to open unless they were all created by the same application and that application is the one you have selected with the files. Hopefully Apple will fix this in a later System release. To work around this problem in the meantime run ViewPaint under MultiFinder. When MultiFinder is turned on you can select a group of files of any type just like you could on earlier Finders. The only drawback to this is that ViewPaint isn't exactly MultiFinder friendly yet and if you switch from ViewPaint to another application without quitting you may get some strange results on screen.
Quitting
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To quit ViewPaint from the file selection dialog click the 'Quit' button. While viewing an image, you can quit by pressing 'Q' or 'Clear' on the numeric keypad.
History
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(Or - The Chronology of ViewPaint)
ViewPaint 0.5 was written in Lisa Pascal around August 1984. It's only function was to show the upper left-hand corner of a MacPaint image. Since it was just a quickly cobbled up utility it was given 0.5 as a version number. This wasn't intended to be an indication of completeness but since most programs for the Mac at the time seem to have been shipped half done I thought it was appropriate
Between versions 0.5 and 1.0 the program was converted from Lisa Pascal to Consulair C. The interim versions were never released. The big reason for the delay between releases was that I was still learning Pascal when I had to convert to C and start the learning process again, not to mention the fact that ViewPaint 0.5 was my first Mac program.
ViewPaint 1.0 was written in Consulair C and released in April 1986. Added in this release were the capability to scroll a MacPaint image, display StartUpScreens, and to convert between MacPaint and StartUpScreen formats. This release was also ViewPaint's debut as a ShareWare product.
ViewPaint 1.1 was released about a week later. A problem in the help dialogs that only occured on the 64K ROMs was corrected.
ViewPaint 1.2 and 1.3 were never publicly released. They were interim versions created during the conversion from Consulair C to Lightspeed Pascal to MPW Pascal.
ViewPaint 1.4 was written in MPW Pascal and was released in August 9, 1987. New features added since version 1.1 were: printing, ABD keyboard compatability on the SE and Mac II, better operation on large screen displays, the ability to select a group of files to view or print.
ViewPaint 1.5 was released August 25, 1987. It fixes a problem with the help system in 1.4 which could cause a crash on any Mac but the Mac II. The moral to this story is that you should test your program on all machines you expect to run it on.
ViewPaint 1.6 was released December 15, 1987. The only change between 1.5 and 1.6 was error checking when un-compressing a Paint style image. Previous versions could crash if the Paint document was corrupted. This version was only distributed to the local users group & a few registered users that sent disks requesting the newest version.
ViewPaint 1.7 is being released April 1, 1988 (Trivia Question: What important event occured 12 years previously on this date?). Changes since 1.6 include making the left & right arrow keys scroll in the proper direction, maximum scrolling rate increased from 16 to 32 pixels, quickly setting the scroll rate to maximum or minimum by pressing the 'Option' key in conjunction with '+' or '-', scrolling to the extreme edge of an image by pressing 'Option' before scrolling, and the ability to view PICT files has been added. My thanks to Eric Newman for suggesting the scrolling 'Option' options, James West for the report on the arrow key scrolling error & Rick Blair of Apple for the example on how to display large PICT files by spooling pictures from disk.
