Instructions for KoalaVert graphics converter by Spike Dethman.
@KoalaVert
By Spike Dethman.
@KoalaVert
is a utility that allows you to convert between the
@Koala Painter
graphic file format and the GEOS
@Photo Scrap
standard, with relative ease and clarity.
To begin, open the program by double-clicking its icon on the deskTop. The screen will clear, and a menu bar will appear.
All keyboard shortcuts that are available for options are shown next to those menu items. The shortcuts are used by holding down the Commodore key, and pressing the alphabetic key for the shortcut. They will only operate when the menu bar is visible, and perform exactly like their menu counterparts.
The menu options are:
@geos
@" menu:
@About KoalaVert...
displays the obligatory author information box.
@desk accessories
up to 10 desk accessories may appear in this menu. The list changes when you select a different current drive or insert a new disk in the current drive while opening a Koala file. Since KoalaVert uses GEOS Photo Scraps, and there can be only one per disk, you will probably want to have a copy of BSW's photo manager handy.
@file
@" menu:
@open Koala...
displays a dialog box showing up to 16 NOT_GEOS files on the currently selected disk. As usual, the
@DISK
icon will allow you to insert another disk in the current drive. (unless it is a RAM drive, in which case the icon will not appear) The
@DRIVE
icon will poll your next available disk drive ("A" through "D") and check if there is a disk inserted in it. If there is, that will become the current drive and disk. If not,
@DRIVE
will simply skip over it and check the next drive. This is the only method in the program to change the current drive, the desk accessories that will be accessed, and the location for the photo scrap.
If you are loading files from a Koala Painter disk, their filenames will be preceeded by a few extraneous characters and "PIC #", where # is the letter of the Koala picture. Don't worry about these extra characters-- the files are OK, and will load normally when you select them.
Once you have selected a Koala file, the
@OPEN
icon will load it into KoalaVert's buffer and display it in its native Koala format. When you are done viewing the file, click the mouse to return to the GEOS screen with the menu bar.
If you should accidentally select a file that is not a Koala format graphic, the program will attempt to load and display it anyway. This does no harm to the program or the system.
If you have already converted a file to Koala format, but have not saved it, you will see a dialog box warning you. Click
to overwrite the buffer with the new file, or click
@CANCEL
to abort the load, leaving the previous buffer contents intact. You can then go back to the menu bar and save the buffer.
@file
" menu continued.)
@open scrap
will load a photo scrap from the current
@file
" menu continued.)
@open scrap
will load a photo scrap from the current disk into the GEOS buffer and display it. It has two sub-menus: "
@in color
" and "
@in B&W
". If you wish to use color data as stored in the photo scrap, select "
@in color
", and that data will be loaded. If you wish to ignore the scrap's color data, select "
@in B&W
", and the scrap will be displayed using the default screen colors. When you are done viewing the loaded scrap, click the mouse to return the menu bar.
If you have already converted a file to photo scrap format, but have not saved it, you will get a dialog box warning you. Click
to overwrite the buffer with the new scrap, or click
@CANCEL
to abort the load, leaving the buffer unchanged. You can then go back to the menu bar and save the scrap.
@save Koala...
will allow you to save the contents of the Koala buffer to the current disk, in Koala Graphic file format. You will be presented with a dialog box asking for the filename to use for the save. No characters are added to the name before saving.
If you have not converted a file to Koala format, you will see a dialog box warning you. If you wish to save the buffer anyway, click
, otherwise click
@CANCEL
and you will return to the menu bar without saving anything.
@save scrap
will allow you to save the contents of the GEOS buffer to the current disk as a photo scrap. This will overwrite any photo scrap already on the current disk.
If you have not converted a file to GEOS format, you will see a dialog box warning you. If you wish to save the scrap anyway, click
, otherwise click
@CANCEL
and you will return to the menu bar without saving anything.
@quit
exits to the deskTop. If you have any unsaved converted graphics in the buffers, you will see dialog boxes warning you, and have the opportunity to
@CANCEL
the "quit" so that you can go back to the menu bar and save the graphics.
@"convert" menu:
@Koala to GEOS
has two sub-menu options.
"
@color table...
" will present you with a dialog box so that you can select how each color in the Koala graphic will convert to the GEOS screen. Each color can convert to any one of the 32 GEOS system patterns. Simply click on the box next to the color, and it will change to show the new conversion pattern that will be used for that color. When you are done with your selections, click
. Since the system patterns are used, you may customize your conversions by using a pattern editor utility before running KoalaVert.
("convert" menu continued.)
"
@conver
("convert" menu continued.)
"
@convert
" sub-option will do the actual conversion from the Koala buffer to the GEOS buffer, according to your settings in the color table. You will see the graphic on screen in GEOS format as it is being converted. When the conversion is done, the menu bar will return. Converting does not save the graphic to disk. If you wish to save the graphic, select "
@save scrap
" from the "
@file
" menu.
If you do not like the converted graphic, you can go back to the "
@color table
", try some other values, and convert the graphic again. If you did not save the old conversion, you will see a dialog box warning you. You may overwrite the old conversion by selecting
, or
@CANCEL
back to the menu bar with the old scrap intact in memory.
@GEOS to Koala
also has two menu options:
"
@in color
" will attempt to make a Koala format graphic using the color data as displayed from the photo scrap currently in memory.
"
@in B&W
" will make a Koala format graphic from the photo scrap currently in memory, using the colors Dark Grey, Medium Grey and Light Grey, resulting in a "Black and White" Koala image. I have found that most non-color photo scraps convert best this way.
Again, converting does not automatically save the Koala graphic to disk. You must do that from the "
@file
@save Koala...
" menu.
If you try to re-convert a scrap without saving the Koala created by the first conversion, you will see a dialog box warning you.
@CANCEL
will return you to the menu bar, with no harm done, so that you may save your previously converted graphic.
@"view" menu:
@Koala screen
Will display any Koala graphic currently in the buffer. Click the mouse to return to the menu bar.
@GEOS screen
Will display any photo scrap (with color) currently in the buffer. Click the mouse to return to the menu bar.
Background information:
@KoalaVert
uses two buffers that work independently of each other. One holds a Koala format graphic, and its associated color data. It is always displayed in the video chip's multi-color mode, so that you can see it as the actual Koala graphic. The other buffer holds a full-screen size GEOS photo scrap with color data, and is displayed in normal GEOS mode. Either buffer may be loaded, saved or converted without affecting the other. This allows you to quickly make several "trial" conversions-- immediately seeing the results-- before actually saving anything out to a disk.
Koala graphics files are similar to GEOS files, with some exceptions:
1) a Koala graphic is always exactly one screen full, (8000 bytes plus 2001 bytes of color) and uses no data compression.
2) Koala format uses a different display mode of the video chip, which allows a possible 4 colors for each "card" instead of the 2 color limit of GEOS, but each "card" has only 32 individual dots, instead of GEOS's 64. This difference in resolution causes some detail loss during conversions.
he GEOS buffer and display it. It has two sub-menus: "
@in color
" and "
@in B&W
". If you wish to use color data as stored in the photo scrap, select "
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