LODRAW is a low resolution draw and paint program that uses virtually all the alphanumeric and graphic characters of the C64 character set, as displayed on the keyboard. Includes a character editor so you can redesign characters and create your own character sets, with which to draw designs. You can also design and use extra large QUADE characters.Your designs and character sets can then be saved to and loaded from disk.
RUN LODRAW and a flashing, rectangular pen will appear at center of a drawing pad that occupies all of the screen except for the bottom two lines.
The pen is moved around the pad (up, down, left, right) with a joystick in port 2 or by pressing the cursor keys (by themselves or with <SHIFT> held down). The comma key and the dot key can be used to move the pen left and up respectively without having to hold down <SHIFT>. If the pen is moved past the screen border, it will appear on the opposite side of the screen.
Pressing <RETURN> will move the pen to the left side of screen and down one line.
BACKGROUND AND BORDER COLORS: The black background of the pad can be changed to any of the 16 colors available on the C64 by pressing <INST DEL> until the background you want appears. Hold down <SHIFT> and press <INST DEL> to cycle through the 16 border colors.
The bottom screen line is the MODES INDICATOR, indicating the status of several dual-modes of LODRAW. The line above it is the pen color indicator.
The five dual-modes of LODRAW are GRAF/ALFA, REVERSE OFF/ON, SHIFT/CMDRE, DRAW/KEEP and EDIT OFF/ON.
Initially,LODRAW is in GRAF, REVERSE OFF, SHIFT and DRAW modes, as shown on the MODES INDICATOR. The number to the left of each mode indicator is the function key that switches between the dual modes. LODRAW is also in EDIT OFF, indicated by the rectangular shape of the pen.
Moving the pen in DRAW mode will draw the current pen character and pen color. The initial pen character is the pen rectangle, which has been assigned to screen code 0. Press <f7> or press fire button on joystick to switch between DRAW and KEEP. In KEEP the pen can be moved around the pad without erasing the characters it passes over or their colors: the pen neither draws nor paints. By holding down <SHIFT> and pressing <RETURN> you can switch to PAINT only mode: in PAINT the pen will not draw the pen character, but will change the color of those characters it passes over to the pen color. Press <f7> to quit PAINT.
The number that appears on the left side of the pen color indicator is the screen character code of the character under the pen.
In GRAF mode you can redefine the pen character to be any one of the graphic characters on the keyboard without having to hold down <SHIFT> or <CMDRE> (the logo key at bottom left of keyboard): simply press a key on which a graphic character is imprinted. The new pen character will appear in the middle of the MODES INDICATOR. In SHIFT mode, the new pen character will be the graphic character imprinted on the right side of the key. In CMDRE mode, the new pen character will be the graphic character on the left side of the key you pressed. Alternatively, you can select a graphic character for the pen by holding down <CMDRE> or <SHIFT> and pressing the key on which the graphic character is imprinted. With REVERSE ON, the newly defined pen character will be the reverse form of the character.
PEN COLOR: Still in GRAF mode, the number keys <1> to <8>, pressed by themselves or with <CMDRE> held down, select the pen color from the 16 colors available. The pen color is shown in the pen color line above the MODES INDICATOR.
GRAF/ALFA: Press <f1> to switch between GRAF and ALFA. In ALFA mode, pressing a key, by itself or with <SHIFT> or <CMDRE> held down, will define the corresponding alphanumeric or graphic character as the pen character. Since pressing a number key <1> to <8> by itself now defines the corresponding number character as the pen character, the first eight colors are now selected for pen color by first pressing the left arrow key in upper left of keyboard (this is the SELECT key) and then pressing a number key <1> to <8>. Do not hold down the SELECT key. In ALFA mode, <,> and <.> are not cursor keys.
You can define the pen character by screen character code: press the SELECT key, then press <=> and you will be prompted to enter a screen character code (0 to 255); the character assigned to that code will now be the new pen character.
You can also define the pen character by placing the pen over any character on the pad, then hold down <SHIFT> and press <SPACE>: the pen character is defined as the character under the pen.
<f3> switches between REVERSE ON and REVERSE OFF. With REVERSE ON and a normal pen character, the pen will draw the current pen character in reverse form. If pen character is reverse then, with REVERSE ON/OFF, the pen will draw the normal/reverse form of the character.
CLEAR SCREEN: hold down <SHIFT> and press <CLR HOME> to completely erase the draw pad. But don't despair if you have been too quick to get rid of your current design: you can recover your design from a buffer used by LODRAW by pressing the SELECT key (left arrow) and then pressing the up arrow key (to the left of the RESTORE key). This UNDO function can also be used to recover a design after many of the design altering operations yet to be described have been carried out.
USER BUFFERS: You will have noticed a number 1 at the far right of the MODES INDICATOR. If you press <CLR HOME> by itself, this number will switch between 1 and 2. The number indicates which of two USER BUFFERS is currently available for storing and retrieving a design along with its color and the character set used by it. So, in addition to the current design on screen, and perhaps an older design in the LODRAW BUFFER, you can have a further two designs stored in the two USER BUFFERS.
PUT: to store the on-screen design and its color and character set in the current USER BUFFER, hold down <SHIFT> and press the second function key from the top (<f4>).
GET: to retrieve a design/color/character set from the current USER BUFFER, hold down <SHIFT> and press the top function key (<f2>).
HORIZONTAL SHIFT: you can displace a row of characters left or right away from the pen: simply place pen on start character of row and press <:> to move row left or press <;> to move row right (in ALFA mode or EDIT ON mode, press SELECT key first). Each press of one of these keys will shift the row one position. The number of characters shifted (the length of the row) is the number that displays in the middle of the pen color indicator line See below for an explanation of this (PROJECTION) number and how it can be changed. If the projection number is 0, as it is when LODRAW is first run, then all characters up to the first space character will be shifted. These SHIFT facilities wrap-around the screen.
VERTICAL SHIFT: you can likewise displace a column of characters up or down away from the pen. Press </> (key left of right SHIFT key) to move a column down or hold down <SHIFT> and press </> to move a column up. Further details as for HORIZONTAL SHIFT.
QUADES: a quade is a pattern of four successive characters in the character set which can be drawn in a square to the right of the pen by pressing <9> (or <SELECT> then <9> if in ALFA or EDIT ON mode). The first character in a quade is the current pen character. To get the idea of the arrangement of a quade, define the pen character as 'A' or '1' and then press the quade draw key. Now define the pen character as the back-slash character on the 'M' key and draw the graphic quade that results from that. By using the CHARACTER EDITOR to redesign groups of four characters with successive screen character codes, you can design quade characters twice as tall and twice as wide as commodore characters.
SELECT ON/OFF SWITCH: there are many LODRAW facilities which are accessed through the SELECT (left arrow) key. Press SELECT key to switch
