The AGA Experience 2/agavol2.iso/software/utilities/demos/xidemok/manual

Text File | 1995-02-28 | 28KB | 750 lines

Dear XiPaint 3.1 Tester!

In this package, you will find a demoversion of XiPaint 3.1. You can copy
it as long as all Files are unchanged and togehter. If you use e. g. only
pictures, so name the author or/and XiPaint 3.1!


Where does it run?
==================

* 256 Colors AA
* HAM 6
* HAM 8
* Cybergraphics
* Framemaster
* VD2001
* PicassoII
* EGS
* Omnibus
* Merlin (with ProDev Update)
* Retina

This version requiers a 68020 cpu or higer and a minimum of 2 MB RAM. Also
a Harddisk is recommended.

The demoversion has the following limits:
- it can't save
- it only loads IFF-DEEP-pictures and TARGA-pictures
- it makes every some-times a line through your picture.

The full-version has the following loaders/savers:

Saver:            Load:
-----------     ------
* IFF-ILBM      * IFF-ILBM                * BMP
* IFF-DEEP      * IFF-DEEP                * Datatypes
* PPM           * PPM                     * ...
* PGM           * PGM
* SUNRASTER     * SUNRASTER
* TARGA         * TARGA
* SGI           * JPEG (extrem fast!)
* JPEG          * IFF-YUV


Installation:
=============

This version runs as it is. If you want to move it to your harddisk, no assignment
etc. is required. Only start before using XiPaint the program XiPrefsE to say
XiPaint which Output it should use.


First steps:
============

For easier operating, here are some texts from the manual:

[..]

16.9          Help



Shortcut:  HELP



Pressing HELP will give you information for the most important
functions of Xi-Paint.  Just place the pointer on the icon or other
item  you  need  information  about  and  press  help.  Immediately  a
requester with the information will open.  You can scroll the text
with the scroll bars.  You can close the help requesters by pressing
the close gadget.


[..]


5.1        The  Xi-Paint  Window


 Xi-Paint uses windows and menus.  A window might include pain-
tings  (worksheets)  or  requesters  with  several  options  (color  set-
tings,shades, etc.).  All windows are placed on a background (desk-
top).  It is not possible to work on the desktop itself.  Any window
can be activated by mouse click.  The activated window is shown by
a changed frame color. Even if the mouse pointer leaves the window,
it will remain activated until you mouse click another window.



5.1.1       The Windows Utilization


The window frame includes some buttons which allow varied ma-
nipulations for arranging your desktop the way you'd like it.  The


                                          23
24                                                    CHAPTER 5.   BASICS



following screenshot shows you such a window.  Not every windows
offers all the options.  The headline of a new worksheet contains the
text "project X".  X refers to a number of your painting.  If your
worksheet has already been saved before,  the headline shows you
the entered name.

The headline of a requester shows you the requester's name which
also tells you its function.  The headline also allows you to move the
currently activated window by clicking and holding the left mouse
button pressed.  While moving a window just its frame is shown.
It will be completely redrawn in its new position.  In the top right
corner there are two buttons.  The right one is for straightening up
the  windows.  If  you  want  to  put  a  window  into  the  background
or  foreground,  use  the  depth  button.   To  put  a  window  into  the
foreground, the concerned window can also be doubleclicked.

[..]

18.2          Background


menu:  background
shortcut:  <right Amiga> <2>
This feature allows you to "trace" parts of a "behind placed" pro-
ject.  Of course you need not place the background picture exactly


                                         143
144                                      CHAPTER 18.   PAINT MODES



behind your project.  Xi-Paint offers you special features to do so.
You  can  assign  to  each  project  any  background  you  want.   The
size is not important.  The background project can be sized larger
or  smaller.  But  notice  that  you  just  can  choose  ONE  picture  as
background.  Activate the project you want to use as background.

Thenchoose the menu feature "H-window?" (<right Amiga> <g>).
The feature will be marked and the chosen window can now be used
as background.  It can be used as background until you close the
background  window  or  until  another  project  is  defined  as  back-
ground.

If  you  manipulate  a  project  to  which  you  have  assigned  a  back-
ground, notice that you CAN'T paint in another window.  In this
case nothing will happen and you need to deactivate "background"
first.

[..]


6.2        Important  Drawing  Functions



After  having  chosen  the  size  of  the  new  worksheet  a  new  paint
window will open.  First we want to use some simple drawing tools.
Try to copy this easy line graphic.  As a new tool is explained in
the following pages for the first time, the shortcut will be shown in
brackets.  Decide for yourself if you prefer working with the mouse
or  on  the  keyboard.   Using  the  keyboard  will  require  more  time
to learn, but it will allow you greater speed and more fluency.  If
you need more detailed information during certain steps, i.e.  for a
certain requester, please look in the appropriate chapters.



6.2.1       A House Made of Rectangles and Lines



Let's start with the house.  First choose the rectangle tool(<r>).
Now you can draw the rectangle needed for the outline.  Place the
mouse pointer to the position where the left top of the rectangle
should be positioned, then press left mouse button.While pressing
the mouse button you can pull the rectangle to the desired size.
30                                           CHAPTER 6.   FIRST STEPS




A rubber band will show your mouse moving and also the size of the
rectangle.  Release the button at the desired size and the rectangle
will be drawn.  The color will depend upon the settings in the -
Paint color requester.  These color settings will be explained later
in this chapter.  Now we can draw the windows and the door of our
house.  This should be done in the same way we did the outline.



6.2.2       Correcting a Mistake by UNDO


If a mistake happens you can correct it by clicking the Undo button
(<u>). By pres sing it once, the last step will be undone,by pressing
it twice also the last but one step will be undoneand so on.  The
number of possible undones just depends to theavailable memory.
If pressing undo is a mistake itself you can"undo" the undone by
6.2.   IMPORTANT DRAWING FUNCTIONS                       31



clicking Redo button (<U>).  Just try thesefunctions by yourself
by removing and "re-removing" the windowsof our line house.  But
there also has to be a roof for our house.  For drawing it we need
the line tool (<v>).  But toposition the mouse pointer exact to the
right position is notvery easy.



6.2.3       Precise Mouse Control by Keyboard


The mouse pointer can be controled by keyboard.  First move the
pointer by mouse as near as possible to the position where you want
to draw.  Keep both amiga keys pressed and use the cursor keys to
move to the exact position you want the pointer.  This will happen
in one point steps.  After having positioned the pointer, keep the
left mouse button pressed (otherwise the exact position will be lost
again) and then stretch the line.
You  can  also  simulate  the  left  button  press  by  keyboard  (<left
Amiga>and <ALT>).  Keep both buttons pressed and use the cur-
sor keys to stretch the line.  By releasing ALT the line will be fixed.
The chimney can be made in the same way.  The smoke and the
cloud on the side can be made by freehand tool.  (<d>) as well as
the horizon in the background.  The sun is a simple circle (<c>).



6.2.4        Saving the Project


Now we have produced our first work of art.  Before we continue,
we need to save it.  Make certain that this window is activated (the
frame  has  a  different  color  than  the  deactivated  windows).  Now
choose  from  project  menu  "picture  save  as  : : :"(<right  Amiga>
<a>).  A requester will open and you can type the path and name
for your picture.  Xi-Paint uses the IFF DEEP format, but you also
can use different formats which can be chosen in the file requester
(menu bar).

[..]


9.1.2        Making  Your  Work  Easier  by  Brush  Manipu-

            lation



The parts we need can be created by Xi-Paint's brush manipulation.
First cut out the line as a rectangular brush then press <z>.  This
rotates the brush abouts 90O .  Now we've got the element for the
vertcal line.  Take care that each brush is exactly 20x20 and the
element  is  situated  in  the  middle  of  the  brush.   That's  not  very
easy, but by using the magnifier it should not be a problem.  If you
aren't careful, you will not be able to use the positioning help we
are going to use.

Now  we  need  the  four  arrows,  for  allowing  curves  to  bend  in  all
directions.  There are two different ways to get this result.  First
you can use the <z> key for rotating the brush four times about
90O .  And second you can use two other tools Xi-Paint offers you,
which  are  the  reflections.   After  taking  the  brush,  press<y>.   It
reflects the brush by its vertical axis and you can insert the result
to your painting.  Now rotate the brush about 90o again and you
will get the third arrow to use.  At least you just need to press <x>
which reflects the brush this time to its vertical axis.  Then insert
this part on the worksheet. After finishing the worksheet, save your
object collection.

9.2.1        The Brush Manager


To produce the tube system in a such an easy way, make sure that
the brush is exa ctly sized, in this case, to 20x20.  You need not cut
out  the  brush  each  time  you  need  it,just  use  Xi-Paint's  fantastic
feature, the brush manager.
48                      CHAPTER 9.    WORKING WITH BRUSHES



9.3         Multiple  Brushes


 Xi-Paint  enables  you  to  manage  up  to  128  brushes,  depending
upon  what  number  you  set  in  the  "settings"requester.   The  pro-
gramm stores them and offers them after starting Xi-Paint.  Call
from"menus" menu the comand "brush..." (<right Amiga> <B>).
A  new  requester  will  open.   Use  the  scroller  for  finding  the  area
where your tube parts are situated.  Xi-Paint saves each brush you
take in this "list".  Therefore you will also see some older brushes,
for example from our fence.



9.3.1        How the Brush Manager Works


If the list is complete, Xi-Paint starts to overwrite the old brushes,
beginning with the oldest one.  So you might find the tubes some-
where  in  the  middle  of  the  list.  If  you  click  the  free  part  of  the
scroller the list will move further for one page.

[..]


11.1.1         A  Multicolored  Rectangle  for  Our  Experi-

             ments


We  need  a  rectangle  about  10  to  15  points  length.  But  its  sides
need not have the same size.  For painting this small of a rectangle
use the magnifier.  If the rectangle does not appear with the chosen
shade, check if you've set the paint mode to "shade".  The correct
rectangle  could  be  cut  out  by  the  brush  tool  (<b>).   Take  care
not to cut out the background around your rectangle.  Turn off the
magnifier.   The  small  rectangle,  filled  with  shade,  sticks  on  your
pointer.  Now activate the tool for filled freehand lines (<W>) and
activate  the  paint  mode  "as  it  is"  (<right  Amiga>  <8>).   Now
paint an outline, similar to the one shown below:



After releasing the mouse button, Xi-Paint starts to work.  Depen-
ding on size and re solution, Xi-Paint will need up to a few minutes.
This fill also depends on the capacity of you computer.  After finis-
hing you'll like the result.  It will be much more interesting than
the picture in the manual shows.  You'll see a filled object, green on
the right and, if visible, blue on its left.  This causes a pseudo 3D
effect, which is used very often, especially by broadcasting stations.
Try the different effects by yourself.
11.2.   THE RELATED THEORY                                       59




11.1.2         Finishing Touches


Set the shade requester to "2colors, vertical" and activate the filling
tool (<f>).  Do not forget to use the one point brush (<.  >) and
to set the paint mode to "shade".  Now fill the red area to get a
much more beautiful effect.  Sometimes a five point shade can also
be beautiful, just try it.



11.2         The  Related  Theory


The above described effects look quite nice. But to really know how
to use it,  it's ne cessary to learn some of the theory.  As already
mentioned  Xi-Paint  doesn't  always  use  the  one  point  pen  to  fill
areas.  It can also use the currently selected brush.  This isn't used
like one piece of a mosaic, but rather each single point of the area
to  be  filled  will  be  drawn  separately.   This  means  that  for  each
point of the related area, the entire brush will have to be displayed.
This explains the relatively long calculating time required, even for
filling a small area.  Xi-Paint always starts with the top left and
fills towards the bottom right.
60         CHAPTER 11.   SPECIAL EFFECTS WITH BRUSHES



Using  this  method  you  can  create  a  pseudo  3-D  effect.   This  is
because the right and left border will always display the rest of the
brush.  If you understand the methodology involved, you'll be able
to understand this aspect of Xi-Paint.

Set every setting once again in the same manner as before in the
freehand area set tings.  This time select a filled ellipse (<E>).  If
you draw an ellipse this time you'll notice there is no 3-D effect,
but the lower half is filled with blue and the upper half is filled with
red.



11.2.1         Understanding Area Filling


This continues where the previous chapter left off.  You can easily
recognize how  Xi-Paint  generates a filled ellipse.  The upper half
will be filled from the top left to the bottom right.  The lower half
will be filled from the bottom left to the upper right.  We encourage
you to test the other drawing tools.  You'll notice right away that
the results depend on the manner that Xi-Paint uses to generate
specific objects. An unfilled ellipse (<e>) will be put together using
4 parts.  Both of the upper sections will be drawn from the top to
the bottom, and the lower will be drawn from the bottom to the
top.



11.3          Some  Tips



To get used to the brush results choose the freehand tool (<d>).
By drawing some outlines, you'll recognize the different possibilities,
depending upon if you start your line on the bottom or on the top.
The 3D effect will be disturbed by changing the direction.  It's even
more visible if you use the line tool.  Draw the following four lines
(use the shaded rectangle as brush and the paint mode "solid"):
11.4.   NEW SHAPES USING BRUSHES                              61




A physically impossible figure will appear.



11.3.1         Getting Experience



The result will be different which each setting and with different
drawing directions.  Most of the time the 3D setting will be lost.
Using the brush effects will need some planning and experience.



11.4         New  Shapes  Using  Brushes



 Xi-Paint offers rectangles with angular corners.  Normally that will
be enough, but in certain cases you'd like to get a rectangle with
rounded corners.  Let's deal with how to do that.  Let's create a
filled, unicolor rectangle with rounded corners.
62         CHAPTER 11.   SPECIAL EFFECTS WITH BRUSHES




11.4.1         A Rectangle with Rounded Corners


Set the color requester the color you want your rectangle to appear.
Then set the paint mode to "solid" and activate the one point brush.
For a painting tool choose the filled ellipse.  Now draw a circle or
an  ellipse.  Each  quarter  of  it  will  be  one  angle  of  our  rectangle.
Make sure that your ellipse does not become too big.  The diameter
should be around 20 to 30 points.  Later on you'll understand why.
After drawing the ellipse cut the whole ellipse, not just parts of it,
out.  It is unavoidable not to cut out the ellipse together with some
parts of the background.  That's the reason to mask it.

To do so, just click, as you did with the fence, the background color
in the color requester. After that the background parts can be made
invisible by pressing < / >.  This brush we be used to construct the
rectangle with rounded corners.  Select the filled rectangle tool and
draw a rectangle.  Dependent upon the size of the rectangle and the
speed of your computer this may last up to a few minutes.



11.4.2         A Frame Instead of the Filled Rectangle


Let's  not  use  the  unfilled  rectangle  tool  as  the  frame  will  be  as
thick as the ellipse is - an undesirable result.  Before painting the
frame,  call  the  grid  requester  (<rightAmiga>  <G>).  There  you
can  set  the  desired  thickness  of  the  frame.   Set  X  and  Y  to  the
11.4.   NEW SHAPES USING BRUSHES                              63



desired values.  You can even set the horizontal and vertical lines to
different thickness.  Let's choose "3".  Activate the grid by pressing
"on".  Do you have the ellipse brush from the prior selection?  No?
Then  deactivate  the  grid  again  and  "regenerate"  it  by  using  the
brush manager.

Now activate the filled rectangle tool and draw a rectangle in the
desired size.  A filled rectangle with rounded corners will appear.
Now  call  the  color  requester  and  set  one  of  the  color  box  to  the
background color.  Activate it as current color and choose the paint
mode "solid" (<right Amiga > <1>).  For a painting tool reuse the
filled rectangle.  Position the pointer in the left top corner, where
you've started with the previous rectangle.  Before drawing the new
rectangle, move the mouse pointer exactly one grid position to the
right and one position down.  This will be easier using the keyboard
by pressing <left Amiga> and using the cursor keys.

After  having  reached  the  desired  position  press  the  <left  ALT>.
This simulates a press of the left mouse button.  Keep both keys
pressed  and  drag  the  rubber  band  using  the  cursor  keys  for  the
desired size. After releasing all the keys, Xi-Paint paints this second
rectangle.  The result will be a frame with the desired width.  If you
do not like the result, use "Undo" (<u>) and try it again.
64         CHAPTER 11.   SPECIAL EFFECTS WITH BRUSHES



11.4.3         A Rectangle with Sloped Edges


Use a rhomboid brush instead of the ellipse shaped one. This rhom-
boid shape is easy to get in the grid requester.  Set the grid width
to 10 points.  Paint again with the one point brush and now use
the polygon tool (<W>).  Paint a rhomboid as it is shown above.
The corners should be distanced one grid position from each other.
After doing that, deactivate the grid and cut out the rhomboid as
brush.  Mask again the background color as you did it before.  The
result will be a rectangle with sloped corners.  If you use this brush
together with very small ellipses, the result will be a strange look
alike.  These suggestions are just some ideas for your experimenta-
tion.  Play with the shades.



11.5         Escaping  a  Running  Routine


If you suspect Xi-Paint may need too long for an operation or if
it's crashed, simply press <ESC>.  A small requester which shows
the  work  in  progress  will  open  and  will  ask  you  if  the  you  want
to cancel the currently running operation.  If you have called the
requester to get some information, just press "No".  Pressing "Yes"
11.5.   ESCAPING A RUNNING ROUTINE                          65



will  cancel  the  current  project.  To  undo  the  changes  completed,
simply remove them using "UNDO."

[..]

Working   with   Fonts



By using the different Xi-Paint tools and paint modes you can get
several  effects,  which  eclipse  a  lot  of  very  expensive  video  titling
programs.  The following pages will give you an overview of some
possible experiments. Remember to try all the possibilities by your-
self.



12.1         Text  with  Shade


This  is  a  very  effective  trick.   Call  the  color  requester  (<right
Amiga>  <C>)  and  assign  red  (255,  0,  0)  and  yellow  (255,  255,
0) to the first two colorboxes.  DON'T FORGET TO CLICK "AS-
SIGN".  Now open the shade requester (<right Amiga> <U>) and
set  a  "two  color  -  vertical"  shade.   Next  call  the  style  requester
(<right  Amiga>  <T>)  and  set  a  big  script  size.   Click  the  disk
symbol and choose from the font requester a font you know to be
relatively thick (try one ending with "bold" or "_B").  Set the size
to a minimum of 50 points (depending upon your resolution you can
also choose larger sizes).  50 point fonts are optional for 640x480 or
800x600.


                                          67
68                         CHAPTER 12.   WORKING WITH FONTS




Do  not  change  the  values  for  xdpi  and  ydpi  and  set  antialiasing
to "on".  That's especially important for non   compugraphic but
common Amiga formatted fonts.  Now open a new worksheet.  Set
the paint mode to "shade"(<right Amiga> <3>) and use the text
tool <t>.  It is important to use the one point pencil.  A text input
requester will appear.  Finish your input with<enter>.  The tipped
letters or signs will stick as brush on the pointer and can dragged to
the position you want.  By pressing the left mouse button you can
fix the text to your worksheet.  You'll be amazed with the result.
Of course you can use each possible shade. Try for example the four
point shade.  But how to use the shade for each individual letter or
sign?



12.1.1         Shades for Individual Letters


Clear the old worksheet.  Set the worksheet paint mode to "solid"
(>right Amiga> <1>).  Now insert your text again (use the brush
requester  or  the  text  tool).   Now  as  sign  to  your  color  requester
the  first  four  boxes  with  red  (255,0,0),  yellow  (255,255,0),  green
(0,255,0) and blue (0,0,255).  In the shade requester choose 4 color
shade.  Check it using the preview.  Now use the one point pencil
and choose the paint mode "shade".  Painting tool is "fill" (<f>).
Now click each letter of your text.  The shade will be assigned to
each letter.
12.2.   SCRIPTS AND BRUSHES                                       69




12.2         Scripts  and  Brushes


To get the most beautiful results you need a lot of practice and ex-
perimentation.  Copy the following methods exactly for exercising,
otherwise the text might appear a little bit ugly.



12.2.1         Dealing With Text


Open the color requester and assign the first four color boxes again
with red, yellow, green and blue. Activate a 4 color shade. For pain-
ting mode use"shade"and as tool "filled rectangle" (<R>).  Then
activate  the  magnifier  because  our  rectangle  should  have  exactly
8x6 points.  Then choose the tool for cutting out rectangular brus-
hes  (<b>)  and  take  that  rectangle  as  brush.   Avoid  cutting  out
parts  of  the  background.  Turn  off  the  magnifier.  Choose  a  very
fat font from the style requester - a size of at least 75 points.  Set
the  paint  mode  to  "solid"  and  activate  the  text  tool.  Insert  any
short  text.  Try  inserting  a  space  between  each  letter  because  of
the fat letters.  Finish your inserting with <enter> and insert the
text at any place in your worksheet.  The text will appear with a
70                         CHAPTER 12.   WORKING WITH FONTS



very effective 3D effect.  The result will be even more astounding,
if you choose a "2 color, vertical" shade and activate the one point
pen cil, the filling tool and as Paint mode "shade".  Now click each
letter.  Well, how do you like the result??



12.3          New  Script  Styles


Sometimes you'll need one or two very big letters as background,
for example.  In this instance you'd like to get rounded off letters.
Unfortunately you may not have the right font.  So, what to do?



12.3.1         Letters with Rounded off or Sloped Corners


By using the brushes together with text, a desired corner shape can
be created.  No tice that this is useful for very big letters (bigger
than 150 points).  Draw a circle or a rhomboid.  It's size depends on
the chosen letter size.  For a 150 point letter use a rhomboid with
4 points or a circle with a diameter about 8 points.  Cut out this
brush and mask the background color (choose the background color
from the color reque ster and press </>).  Now set the desired font,
enter your text and write it to your worksheet.  You'll get your text
12.3.    NEW SCRIPT STYLES                                          71



and the desired rounded off corners.  Of course you can arrange the
corner shapes however you want.  You can brighten up the letters
for example with a shade to add an extra touch.

[..]



News for XiPaint 3.1
====================

* If you have a WACOM-Touchsensitive tablett, XiPaint 3.1 supports this
  via the wacom-driver from Roland Schwingel (Shareware). Please use
  Version 1.17. Activate the driver by selecting it in the XiPrefs-Menu.

  Swicht on in the mainprogram under "misc" - "Pressure-Menu" the
  button "Use Tablet ?". For temporary disabeling it is possible to
  switch the tablet off via 'ALT P' or in the "Pressure-Menu". It switches
  the intensity to the value from the slider. This works also with the
  mouse.

  FOR FASTER PAINTING: Set the "Pixel-Current" to a number between a
  quarter or a third of the pixels of a brush. Pixel Current is set
  in the parameters-menu. Exapmle: Your pen is 30 pixels. Set the
  Current to 9. This makes drawing with freehand draw "shift D"
  very fast. Also switch off Antialias when using a touch-sensitve tablet.
  The pixel-current should be an odd number because of drawing ellipses.

* New Menus in the brush-queue-requester:
  You have now the following menus:
  * rotata
  * slant
  * bend
  * perspective
  * size

  This menus are selfexplaining. Please try them. The actual brush will
  be converted. If a brush has after manipulating a black border, so
  click on a black color-register in the color-menu and press '/',
  the brush will be masked to black.

* Loading TARGA
  In the filerequester is a menu, which let you choose the file-format
  between multipic.library or xi-paints own formats. To load TARGA,
  choose it here. To load an other format, try multipic.library. In next
  versions XiPaint will have more formats to load.

* Saving TARGA, SGI, JPEG, PPM
  In the filerequester is a menu, which let you choose the file-format
  between multipic.library or xi-paints own formats. To save TARGA,
  choose it here. To save an other format, try multipic.library. In next
  versions XiPaint will have more formats to save.

* Printing out now with Studio V2.0 and Turboprint Professional 3.0

* Frame to Fields
  Makes from one Frame (actual project) two projects (fields).

* Fields  to Frame
  XiPaint asks two times for the Field-projects - and converts them
  to one Frame.

* Lighttable-Menu
  You can choose the relation between the two pictures which are connected
  via a lighttable

* Magnify
  Moving is possible with cursor keys (and shift cursor)
  Zooming in/out is possible with +/-

* Antialiasing (Parameter-menu)
  * Now for one-pixel-lines, Line-Aliasfactor gives the intensity
  * Sizing of brushs is with or without antialiasing

* New RGB-Triangle. This is CCITT conform and easier to use

* To rotate pictures 90° take the shortcut <Amiga><Z>

* To rotate pictures 180° take the shortcut <Amiga><Y>




Have fun - and sorry for my bad english

Herbert Beilschmidt
&
Thomas Dorn