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Beginner's Guide to Painter's Apprentice
The easiest way to learn Painter is to browse through the program.
Install your mouse driver. You only need to do this once after
booting the computer. Run painter by executing 'pa'.
To comprehend what the program is doing, imagine that you are a
painter. You have a canvas (the largest rectangle), a tool
(indicated by the shape of the pointer), and a paint color (indicated
by the pattern at lower left).
We need to define a few terms first, though. _Click_ means to
position the pointer, press and release the mouse button. _Drag_
means to position the pointer, press the button, move the mouse, and
release the mouse button. Unless otherwise stated, use the &dleft
button. The right button is reserved for advanced functions.
To use the current tool, drag on the canvas.
To use the menus at top, drag the menu title. Release the button
when the desired command is highlighted.
To change the icons at left, click to select a new tool. The current
tool is highlighted, and the pointer is in the shape of the tool.
To change the current pattern used by various tools, drag in the box
at lower left to select a new pattern. Release the button when the
desired pattern appears at the lower left. The pattern is initially
black.
Press the Home key for an explanation of the tools.
Commands:
Only those commands that are not obvious are listed below.
File-Restore will reload the image from disk if it was originally loaded from
disk otherwise it will Scratch.
File-Select Drive shows the current default drive outlined. Click on a letter
to select a new default drive. The default drive is used for all file
operations.
File-Load... gives you a menu of images on the default drive. Click on the
desired name, click in the arrow boxes to scroll it into view, or click on
cancel.
File-Save will simply save the current image. If you haven't given the image a
name yet (name is NONAME), you will be asked for one.
File-Save as... will always ask you for the file name to save it under.
File-Print will print the image with the selected printer driver. A
printer driver (.PRI) is selected by copying it to a file called
PAINT.PRI before running painter.
All of the Edit menu commands except Undo and Paste require a selection box,
created using the upper left tool.
Edit-Cut is identical to Edit-Copy followed by Edit-Clear.
Edit-Copy will copy the contents of the selection box to a file called
SCRAP.SCR.
The function key shift-F1 will Copy to a file called SCRAP01.SCR, likewise for
key shift-F2 which copies to SCRAP02.SCR, all the way through shift-F10.
Edit-Paste will copy the contents of the file called SCRAP.SCR to the screen
and put a selection box around it.
The function key F1 will Paste from a file called SCRAP01.SCR, likewise for key
F2 which pastes from SCRAP02.SCR, all the way through F10.
Edit-Clear will remove the selection box and its contents from the screen.
Assist-Grid, if on, will restrict the following tools to eight by eight grid
points: Select, Scroll, Text, Line, Circle, Rounded Rect, Rect
Printing:
To configure Painter's Apprentice to a particular printer, copy the
desired printer driver (*.PRI) to PAINT.PRI. Note that many printers
are compatible with the Epson MX, so if in doubt, try EPSONMX.PRI.
When Painter's Apprentice starts up, it looks for PAINT.PRI on the
default drive and loads it into memory. Not all printers can print
the entire page, so Painter establishes margins for your printer.
When Assist-Margins are turned on, you are restricted to that part of
the page that your printer will print.
Expert's Guide to Painter's Apprentice
Pressing the right button while also using the left button to move a
select box around causes the select box to become transparent. Very
useful for abutting two items.
The pattern with the fewest dots has those dots aligned with the grid
points. If you paint the entire screen with that pattern, each dot
will be a grid point. This is useful for designing a library
component that will later be connected to other components on grid
points.
If you never use a font, or don't use a certain size in a font,
delete that file from your working disk and Painter's Apprentice will
start up that much faster. If you don't use any fonts, delete them
all.
When you run painter from MS-DOS, you may specify an image name on
the command line.
When you are entering text using the Text tool, press enter to cause
the current line of text to be frozen in the current size, font, etc.
Press return to do the same and also move down a line.
If you want a library of shapes that you can paste in at will, use
the shifted function keys to cut them, and unshifted function keys to
paste them back in. Each function key xx is associated with a scrap
file called SCRAPxx.
Double clicking on the select icon causes the entire window to be
selected.
The three files INTRO.SCR, HELP.SCR and QUICKIES.SCR are just scrap
files. You may rename one of them to SCRAP.SCR, paste it, modify it,
select the entire window by double-clicking on the select icon, copy
it, and rename SCRAP.SCR to whichever one you were modifying.
---------------
Many of the commands on the menus may be typed directly from the
keyboard using a single key. In most cases this is the control key
that appears to the right of the command in the menu. Some of the
other commands are executed with other non-control keys. Still more
commands are executed by double-clicking on the appropriate icon. A
double click is two clicks in quick succession without moving the
pointer. The following table gives a list of all the quickies.
Table of Quickies
Command Double-Click Key
Files-Change Drive Alt-C
Files-Load Pg Up
Files-Save Pg Dn
Files-Save As Ctrl-Pg Dn
Files-Quit Alt-X
Edit-Undo Ctrl-Z
Edit-Cut Ctrl-V
Cut 1 sF1
Cut 2 sF2
etc. etc.
Cut 10 sF10
Edit-Copy Ctrl-X
Edit-Paste Ctrl-D
Paste 1 F1
Paste 2 F2
etc. etc.
Paste 10 F10
Edit-Clear Del
Edit-Outline Ctrl-E
Select entire window Select
Assist-Magnify Pencil
Assist-Preview Page Scroll
Assist-Brush Shape Brush
Assist-Clear Window Eraser
Assist-Help Home
Assist-Quickies Ctrl-Home
up Font Uparrow
down Font Downarrow
up FontSize Leftarrow
down FontSize Rightarrow
Style-Plain Ctrl-P
Style-Bold Ctrl-B
Style-Italics Ctrl-I
Style-Underline Ctrl-U
Style-Outline Ctrl-O
Style-Shadow Ctrl-S
Style-Align Left Ctrl-L
Style-Align Center Ctrl-C
Style-Align Right Ctrl-R
Key quickies:
The keys described under Paint Quickies are in effect at all times.
Other keys are ignored except:
In Letter mode:
Ctrl-H and BACK SPACE remove the rightmost letter. Ctrl-M and RETURN enter
the text and moves the blinking cursor down a line. ENTER enters the
text and starts anew at the blinking cursor.
In prompt mode:
Ctrl-H and BACK SPACE remove the rightmost letter. Ctrl-M and RETURN enter
the text.
---------------
Button quickies:
Several of the tools (Pen, Brush, Air Brush, and Eraser) allow scrolling by
using the right button. Pressing the right button is identical to selecting
the Scroll (fingers) tool and scrolling with the left button. You may also
quickly enter Magnify mode by the following sequence: right press, left press,
right release, left release.
Right button:
Several of the tools (Pen, Brush, Air Brush, and Eraser) allow scrolling by
using the right button, as described above under Button quickies. The Select
tool uses the right button to stretch or shrink a selection box. Position the
pointer just inside the box outline and press the right button. Now move the
pointer to a new position and wait. Eventually you will see the selection box
resized. Release the button when the image is at the desired size.
The right button causes the rubber band tools (Line, Square, etc.) to draw the
border using the current pattern instead of white.