home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Shareware Extravaganza - Disc 1
/
ShareWare Extravaganza 1 of 4 (The Ultimate Shareware Company).iso
/
grprogs
/
artmastr.exe
/
ARTMASTR.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1986-04-21
|
31KB
|
571 lines
▒▒▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒
▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒▒▒ ▒▒
▒▒
▒▒▒▒
▒▒▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒
▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒ ▒▒▒ ▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒ ▒▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒ ▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒ ▒▒
▒▒ ▒▒
G R A P H I C S
C R E A T I O N
S Y S T E M
By τÆ, 1985
Version 3.00
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------
INTRODUCTION 01
GETTING STARTED 02
THE MENU SCREEN BASICS 03
THE CANVAS 04
MORE ON THE MENU 06
ADVANCED CANVAS FUNCTIONS 08
MACROS 14
FONT FILE SPECIFICATIONS 15
SCREEN DIAGRAM 16
01
I N T R O D U C T I O N
Welcome to Art Master. The goal in making this
program was to make it:
* Powerful. Supporting many unusual but useful
features.
* Flexible. Many "little" things can be altered.
This adds to the programs power.
* Easy to use. Though the drawing functions
aren't menu-driven, the program has two help menus which
describe each keystroke understood by Art Master.
Art Master was designed for an IBM PC system with
the CGA, 128K, and a keyboard or joystick. To make this
program different than other drawing programs, I added
many unusual features. These features or functions aid
in making a drawing in two minutes where most drawing
programs would take 10 minutes.
02
G E T T I N G S T A R T E D
To start Art Master, load "HIGHMEM.COM" in DOS and
then load BASICA and load "ARTMASTR.BAS". You must load
"HIGHMEM.COM" otherwise the computer will crash when Art
Master is run. If you are a proud PCjr user then you
will want to merge the PCjr file to the ARTMASTR file.
To do this, just load ARTMASTR, then type ``MERGE
"PCJRKEYS.MRG"''. After this, type ``SAVE "ARTMASTR''.
When the program is loaded and run, you will see the
title screen with an underlining of the title. Then the
disk drive will run. If you see a message at the top of
the screen saying, "NOTE: ``MACROS.DAT'' and
``MACROS.LEN'' not found," don't panic. Whenever Art
Master is run, it tries to load a set of macros for the
program. Obviously, if you've never used Art Master,
then you've not saved any macros. Therefore, you will
get this message. You may also get this message if there
is a disk error (drive open, bad disk, etc...). If you
get a a "NOT ENOUGH MEMORY" message, then guess what, you
don't have enough memory.
03
T H E M E N U S C R E E N B A S I C S
If everything works right, then you will get a
menu screen. You have many choices. If this is your
first time using Art Master, then about all you'll need
to do, is go to the C)anvas by pressing ``C''. All menu
functions must be in Caps unless otherwise said. The
following is a description of the basic menu commands:
C)anvas = The canvas is your drawing screen. All
drawing functions are preformed here.
G)et picture = This recovers a previously saved
picture. Type in the file name of the picture saved.
S)ave picture = This saves the current picture you
have in memory onto disk. Type in a file name for this
picture.
L) print picture = This displays the current
picture and issues a Print Screen. To have your printer
print the graphics instead of a great big mess, you
should have loaded a program such as DOS's GRAPHICS.COM
before entering Art Master. The difference between this
menu option and just pressing Shift-PrtSc while in
Canvas mode, is that this option displays the picture
without the status and arrow, therefore printing just
the picture.
J)oystick mode on/off = With this on, you'll be
able to use a joystick in the canvas. When you turn this
mode on, make sure the joystick is centered. The
joystick will be alligned at that moment. You can still
use the keys in the canvas while in joystick mode.
04
T H E C A N V A S
You now see a large box. This is your drawing
area. Above and to the right of it are the status. In
the top-left corner of the box is an arrow. This is
basically your drawing tool. To move it, press one of
the four arrow keys. The Home, PgUp, PgDown, and End
keys move the arrow diagonally. Do not go into Num Lock.
Pressing an arrow key in Num Lock is the same as pressing
one of the number keys in the middle-top of the keyboard.
These keys are used for macro numbers zero through nine.
You'll notice that the arrow seems to move
awfully slow. To make it move ten times faster, press
the <+> key. This key was chosen so that you could
easily hit it with you pinky. To make the arrow move
slow again, press the <+> key again. You'll notice that
when you hit this key, a right arrow appears and
disappears on the top-left corner. If the arrow is
there, then the first number is how many pixels are
jumped over when you move the arrow once. If there is no
arrow then the second number is how many pixels are
jumped over when you move the arrow once. These two
numbers are abbreviated MS1 and MS2 for Move Speed 1,
and Move Speed 2, appropriately. MS1 and MS2 can be
changed as will be explained later.
If you've selected the joystick mode option in the
menu, you can now use the joystick to instead move the
arrow, etc. The first button when pressed issues a menu
at the top of the screen. Each option has a key
equivalent. To select an option move the stick left or
right until the arrow points to the option, then press
the first button. The following is a list of the options
and there key equivalents:
P1 - F5 (Define point one)
P2 - F6 (Define point two)
LN - F10 (Draw line)
BX - F9 (Draw box)
FB - sF9 (Draw filled box)
DC - F3 (Change drawing color)
PC - F4 (Change painting color)
PT - F2 (Paint)
See ADVANCED CANVAS FUNCTIONS for more detail on these
keys.
05
Art Master uses two points to define how a line,
box, etc. will look. To define point number one, press
F5. F6 defines point two. Now, to draw a line, for
example, pick the start of the line with the arrow and
press F5, defining point one. Then move the arrow to the
end of the line and press F6, defining point two. Now
press F10 which draws a line between point one and two.
Of course, if you want to draw another line that connects
with the first line, then move the arrow to the
non-connecting end of the second line and press F5 and
then F10. To draw a box, define the upper-left corner
with F5, and the lower-right corner with F6. It should
always be F5 for the upper-left, and F6 for the
lower-right. If it is not, things may get screwed up.
You can now press F9 to draw the box. Shift-F9 will draw
a filled in box.
Many functions, like move mode, will need to
"get" a portion of the screen. In order to define the
portion, make an imaginary box around the portion. In
other words, act like you're going to draw a box around
the portion but just don't press F9 or Shift-F9. This
"imaginary" box is very important. It's abbreviated Pbox.
Whenever you draw a line or box, it will be
drawn in the Drawing Color (abbreviated as DC). To
change this color, press F3. You have a choice of four
colors.
To paint a portion of the screen, position the
arrow to where you want the painting to start and press
F2. This will paint in the Paint Color (abbreviated as
PC) until it reaches a closed in border that is the
drawing color.
06
M O R E O N T H E M E N U
Art Master allows you to load text fonts into
memory. How to use these fonts is explained in the next
chapter. To load a font, press T and type in the drive
which the font is placed (usually on the Art Master
disk) and the name of the font including the .FNT which I
put at the end of my font file names. You may create
your own fonts by exiting Art Master and Running
"NEW-FNT.BAS". Here you can sculpt each character
starting with the space - character number 32. You must,
however, make sure that the character is number 128 in
the program. In other words, draw a space character at
number 128.
Art Master also allows you to paint with patterns,
not just solid colors. You can create patterns with
"PATMAKER.BAS". Just load it up and run. To load a
pattern set, press P. Now type in the drive and name of
the pattern set.
07
When you have created one or more macros in the
canvas, you can save them to disk by pressing M in the
menu. This saves them in two files - MACROS.DAT and
MACROS.LEN. Both files must be present on the default
drive when Art Master is run in order to recover them. As
said, the macros are automatically recovered when the
program is run. If you want to have more than one set of
macros, then just go into DOS and rename the macro files
to something else. Then save another set of macros.
The files on the disk can be displayed by pressing
F. This option is pretty self-explanatory.
The canvas can be shown in two graphics modes -
High Resolution and Medium Resolution. To switch between
these, press H in the menu. It will show which mode
you're in at the bottom of the menu screen.
Whenever you are in canvas mode and you press ESC
or F1, if the saving feature is on, then Art Master will
automatically save the screen before exiting. This can
be toggled on or off by pressing R. You can also toggle
the Auto Save feature which saves the screen every eighty
keystrokes by pressing A. Both these have indicators at
the bottom of the screen.
To clear the current canvas, just press K. This
and the Quit command both have safety features.
08
A D V A N C E D C A N V A S F U N C T I O N S
The following is a detailed list of all canvas
fucntions controled by function keys and letter keys.
All keys in parenthesis are the PCjr equivalents.
F1 - Help Menus
F2 - Paint with PC
F3 - Change DC.
F4 - Change PC.
F5(-) - Define Point One (P1)
F6(=) - Define Point Two (P2)
F7 - Copy Mode. Gets the Pbox (area defined
by imaginary box) and then allows you to move a
copy of the image around the screen with the arrow
keys. To "lay down" the image, press F7 for a Xor
copy (Xor is Boulean function. It kind of mixes
the two images together), F8 for an exact copy of
the original image, F9 for a transparent copy, and
F10 for a reverse video copy of the original
image.
F8 - Move Mode. Same as above except it
leaves a blank space where the image was.
Therefore moving it.
F9 - Draw a hollow box between P1 and P2.
F10 - Draw a line connecting P1 and P2.
09
sF1 - Joystick draw mode. This mode is the
same as the trail-copy mode described below except
that it uses the joystick instead of the cursor
keys.
sF2 - Paints with a pattern. The current
pattern is in a box in the lower-right corner of
the screen.
sF3 - Change CLStyle. The CLStyle is the
current line style. This allows you to draw
dotted lines, etc. There are five different
styles including solid. The style is used in all
modes that draw lines.
sF4 - Change Paint Pattern. There are five
patterns to choose from. A new set can be loaded
with menu command P.
sF5 - Moves the arrow from its current position
to point P1.
sF6 - Same as above except its P2.
sF7 - Trail-Copy mode. This gets Pbox and then
asks you how you want the copies of the image to
look like - Exact, Reverse, Xor (mix), Or
(transparent), or And (screwed up). Its hard to
tell what And does with graphics. It is an option,
though. Once you've selected the copy type, you
can then move the picture around the screen. It
will leave a trail of the image behind it. To
select the distance traveled by each keystroke,
use the function keys. The value of the function
keys are multiplied by MS1. Hit the space bar if
you want to move the image without leaving a
trail. sF7 exits the mode. In the joystick
version, the function keys control the resistance
of the joystick. Button one, held down, draws,
otherwise you may move about freely. sF1 exits.
sF8 - Reverses the current screen. This will
not save the screen.
sF9 - Draws a filled box in the DC between P1
and P2.
sF10 - Turns double line mode on and off. With
this on, all lines drawn are double. The only
exception to this is the mirror image (if a mirror
is on). This was left out because it made the
program too slow.
10
cF1 - Saves Pbox into a reserved image buffer.
Just a little less than the whole screen can be
saved. With copy, move, trail-copy, joystick,
and magnify mode, the whole screen can be saved.
Originally, only half the screen could be saved,
but I was able to make a machine lanuage
subroutine that saves the screen image outside of
BASIC. That's why you must load HIGHMEM.COM
before running Art Master. This program is what
saves the screen image.
cF2 - Saves the current screen into the screen
image buffer. See Return From Canvas Save and
Auto Save in the menu. These both use the same
buffer.
cF3 - Change Line-Eraser Width. Enter a two
digit number for the step between each line. See
below.
cF4 - Restores the image saved by cF1. You
have five choices for how to copy the image. Just
like in trail-copy mode and joystick mode.
cF5 - Change MS1. Enter a two digit number
for the number of pixels to move over each time
the arrow is moved in move mode one (when the
arrow is there).
cF6 - Change MS2. Same as above except it's
for move mode two (when the arrow is not there).
NOTE: I have found that it is helpful to make a
macro that changes this to a high number for
moving across the screen quickly and another macro
that changes it back to ten or whatever.
cF7 - Restore the saved screen. See cF2.
cF8 - Trace mode. Wherever the arrow moves, a
line follows. cF8 turns off the mode.
cF9 - Move Box mode. Wherever the arrow moves,
a box is drawn between the position of the arrow
when this mode was turned on to the current arrow
position. Striking cF9 turns the mode off.
cF10 - Line-Eraser. This mode takes the
opposite color of the DC and draws evenly or
increment lines inside the Pbox. With this you
can make something like the IBM sign easily. I
would suggest you experiment with this mode since
its difficult to explain.
11
aF1 - This mode draws random dots/circles
inside the Pbox. If you use circles, some edges
may be out of the Pbox.
aF4 - Magnifies the Pbox. The size of the
magnified pixels are determined by the size of the
Pbox. When in magnify mode, use 0-3 for their
corresponding colors. The arrow keys move the
pointer around. Q exits without changes while W
exits with the changes. The size of the image you
get is up to about 60x60. Of course you make it
200x1 or 1x200, etc. Also, if you wish to exit
Magnify mode before it finishes drawing, press any
key.
aF5 - Flip Pbox horizontally or Vertically.
aF7 - Move P1 and P2. P1 will be set to the
arrow position and P2 will be set to the same
distance from the arrow as it was from the
original positon of P1. This is helpful if you've
defined a box around one object, copied it, and now
want to work on the the new copy. You just move
the arrow to the left-hand corner of the new copy
and press aF7. Now the Pbox will be around the
new copy.
aF8 - Write the current circle onto the screen.
This is useful for drawing the same circle in
many places quickly. Great for the Olympic sign.
aF9 - Search and Replace. Searches for the DC
and replaces it with PC in the Pbox.
aF10 - Mirrors. You can now draw lines and
watch them be draw on the opposite side of the
screen. Multiple mirrors can be used.
12
<C> - Circle mode. < and > without a shift(,
.) control the size of the circle. [ and ] allow
you to create elipses (ovals). You can move the
circle up/down/left/right with the arrow keys.
The circle can be a partial circle by moving the
start and end of the circle away from each other.
To move the start of the circle, use Home and PgUp
while End and PgDn control the end. The circle
you create is remembered as the current circle.
The current circle, when Art Master is first run,
is not quite full. Press F at any time in circle
mode to make the current circle completely full.
<C> in circle mode changes the circle's color.
This is not remembered and is the DC when first
entering circle mode. For drawing lots of copies
of the circle, use aF8 - also in DC. To exit,
press W to write the circle or Q not to. You'll
notice that creating the circle doesn't destroy
the background. By pressing Q you can exit
without any change what so ever. The largest
circle size is 80 pixels radius. See <S> below.
<S> - Set circle radius in pixels. This allows
you to change the current circle size quickly
without pressing < or > many times. The circle
size entered here is a three digit number. Even
though the largest size circle mode can use is 80,
aF8 can support any size greater than or equal to
1 and less than or equal to 999.
<T> - Text mode. Use the cursor keys to move
the cursor around. All Alpha keys dislpay there
character. F4 changes the character color. F1
through F3 are used to select the character set.
13
<P> - Set character set pointers. When a text
font is loaded, its first character is always
128. If the first character of the text font is a
space (Chr. 32), then either setting F2 or F3 to
128 and pressing F2 or F3 in Text Mode will issue
character 128 when the space bar is pressed. If
the first character of the font is an A for
example, then you should set F2 or F3 to 95 and
press F2 or F3 in text mode. Now when ever you
type an A, character 128 will be produced. The
problem with is, pressing the space bar will issue
character 95 (_). All fonts on the Art Master
disk are the latter way except for FREEHAND.FNT.
The reason they are is that they were created for
a different drawing program that I made earlier.
This program wasn't that great so I decided to
make a better one. Thus, Art Master was born.
I highly recommend that you make the first
character of your own fonts a space character.
If this whole thing really confuses you, then just
look at the FONT FILE SPECIFICATIONS chapter.
This tells you what each pointer should be for
each file. Also, by the time you read this, I
or one of my friends might have made a new font
file which will be included on this disk. I will
update the FONT FILE SPEC. chapter but maybe not
the above, so don't get confused.
<B> - Blank Pbox. This is equivalent to
changing the drawing color to black and pressing
sF9 - draw filled box between P1 and P2.
<L> - Erase last line. This is like changing
the DC to black and pressing F10 - draw line
between P1 and P2.
<+>(Bkspc) - Switch from MS1 to MS2 or vice versa.
<,> - Change background color.
<.> - Change background color moving in
opposite direction as above.
</> - Change palette color.
<enter> - Enter macro creation/Terminate macro
creation/Terminate play.
<0> thru <9> - Play corresponding macro.
<space> - Show where P1 and P2 are.
14
M A C R O S
To make a macro, press enter. Then pick which
number key will play the macro. After doing this, just
strike the keys you want to be in the macro. Making a
macro is the same as just doing things in the canvas
except your keystrokes are recorded. Each macro holds
eighty keystrokes. The macro will automaticaly end when
the eightieth key is pressed. To end the macro before
that, press enter. You can not play a macro while making
a macro. When playing a macro, you can stop it early by
pressing enter. All keystrokes are recorded except ESC
and F1 which will terminate the macro recording. Also,
any function that asks you to strike a key to stop
something at any time will not be recorded. The function
itself will be, its just that striking that key to stop
the function will not. For example, search and replace,
if you strike a key to stop the searching early, this
keystroke will not be recorded. This is because the
macro can not record time.
15
F O N T F I L E S P E C I F I C A T I O N S
Name F2 Ptr. F3 Ptr. Description
---------------------------------------------------------
FREEHAND.FNT 128 * Letters that look like
someone wrote them in
print.
CURSIVE.FNT 095 * Capital cursive letters.
I had too much trouble
with the lower case.
COMPRESS.FNT 095 126 Skinny characters. F3 has
a digital type font.
OLD-TYPE.FNT 095 * An old-English type font.
IBMIMP.FNT 128 * A slight veriation of the
the IBM Generic Font.
16
MS1 MS2 S C R E E N D I A G R A M
| /
1,10 F1 for Help, ESC for Menu -- Prompt Display
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐T--If trace mode on
│ █ │B--If move box on
│ █ │2--Line eraser width
│ █ │
│ █ █ █ │████
│ █ █ █ █ │████--Draw Color(DC)
│ █ █ ██ █ █ █ │████
│ █ █ █ █ █ █ │
│ █ █ █ │████
│ █ █ │████--Paint Color(PC)
│ █ █ █ │████
│ █ █ █ █ ██ │ │---CLStyle
│ █ █ █ █ █ █ │ │
│ █ █ █ █ │__ --Double line
│ ^ █ █ █ │░░░--Mirrors on
│ █ \ | / █ │░░░
│ █ █<--picture --> █ ██ │┌─┐
│ ││ │--Current Pattern
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘└─┘
This disk copy provided as a service of
The Public (Software) Library
the software library of
The Houston Area League of PC Users
Program disks are available for as little as $2 each and a
20-page monthly newsletter reviewing all the latest public
domain and shareware software plus a listing of all the
disks in our library is available for just $12 a year.
For a copy of the latest monthly software library newsletter
and program directory, send a self-addressed, stamped (with
two stamps), legal-size envelope or send $1 to
The Public (Software) Library
P.O.Box 61565
Dept. D
Houston, TX 77208
