home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
GIF-GALAXY 1
/
gif-galaxy1.iso
/
programs
/
neopaint.doc
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-11-10
|
21KB
|
625 lines
NeoPaint - Version 1.1
(C)1992 OSCS Software Development, Inc.
* IMPORTANT INFORMATION *
--------
CONTENTS
--------
* About NeoPaint
* New Features in Version 1.1
* System Requirements
* Supported Video Cards
* Starting NeoPaint
* Command Line Options
* NeoGrab Screen Capture Utility
* Optimizing NeoPaint
* Acquiring Additional Fonts
* Microsoft Windows Considerations
* Problem Images
* Customer Services & Technical Support
* Registering NeoPaint
--------------
ABOUT NEOPAINT
--------------
NeoPaint is the ultimate image editing program for DOS!
Until now sophisticated image editing has required
spending hundreds of dollars on software and hardware. At
$45 (US), NeoPaint sets a new standard in
price/performance. NeoPaint is as simple to use as any
paint program, yet with many powerful features usually
found only in high-end picture publishing systems. Better
still, NeoPaint is NOT a Microsoft Windows program, so
it's easy to install, set up and use. NeoPaint's state of
the art GUI interface allows you to edit and view
multiple images at the same time in resolutions as high
as 1024x768.
When you compare NeoPaint with high end graphics packages
costing hundreds of dollars we think you'll discover that
NeoPaint gives you tremendous power at any price!
NEOPAINT FEATURES:
-----------------
o File Formats: PCX, GIF and TIFF
o Video Modes: Hercules (720x348x2), EGA (640x350x16),
VGA (640x480x2, 640x480x16), Super VGA (640x480x256,
800x600x16, 800x600x256, 1024x768x256) *
o Multiple Images: View and Edit multiple images in
adjustable on-screen windows
o Drawing Tools: Brush, Air Brush, Eraser, Color
Eraser, Flood Fill, Tile Fill, Color Convert, Text,
Line, Bezier Line, K-Line, Rectangle, Rounded
Rectangle, Ellipse/Circle, Polygon, Freehand Polygon,
Editable Polygon, Grid, 3D Cube, 3D Pyramid, Magic
Marker, Stamp Pad, Solid and Transparent Patterns
o Fonts: Multiple Styles and Sizes with Bold, Italic,
Underline, Outline and Shadow effects; Additional
fonts available from OSCS and third party vendors
o Selection Tools: Rectangle, Polygon and Freehand
Polygon (Lasso)
o Effects: Invert, Flip, Rotate, Scale, Stretch,
Smudge, Screen, Smear, Pixelize, Border, Lattice,
Blur, Darken, Lighten, Fade,
o Zoom: Multilevel Zoom allows precise editing;
Scrolling and most drawing tools also work in Zoom
Mode.
o Color Control: Works with 2, 16 and 256 Color Images;
Color Balance, Brightness, Contrast and Color
Reduction is supported
o Output: Produce high quality halftones on HP DeskJet,
HP LaserJet and Postscript or compatible printers;
Scaling and Orientation controls; also supports
Epson/IBM compatible Dot Matrix Printers
o Memory Management: Supports Expanded (EMS), Extended
(XMS) and Virtual Disk Memory for working with very
large images
------------
NEW FEATURES
------------
The following features are new to version 1.1 and were
added after the manual had gone to press.
1.) In the Color Palette you will notice two small
icons marking the currently selected fill and line
colors. The "F" icon marks the fill color and the
"L" icon marks the line color.
2.) The Picture Info option has been expanded to show
additional information. Original file size, memory
size and the type of memory being used by the image
are now displayed. Possible memory types include:
conventional (DOS), expanded (EMS), extended (XMS)
and virtual (Disk).
-------------------
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
-------------------
To use NeoPaint you will need the following:
o IBM PC, XT, AT, PS/2 or 100% compatible computer. A
286 or better CPU is highly recommended.
o EGA, VGA, Super VGA, Hercules monochrome or
compatible graphics card and monitor. See Supported
Video Cards below for information on compatible Super
VGA cards.
o 640K minimum RAM
o A hard disk
o MS-DOS, PC-DOS 3.1 (or higher) or DR-DOS
o Microsoft, Logitech or compatible pointing device
o Printer (optional) Epson/IBM dot matrix, HP DeskJet,
HP LaserJet II/III, Postscript and 100% compatibles.
---------------------
SUPPORTED VIDEO CARDS
---------------------
NeoPaint will run on any computer system equipped with a
100% compatible EGA, VGA, Super VGA or Hercules graphics
card. To operate NeoPaint in 256 color, 800x600 or
1024x768 modes you must have a super VGA video card
equipped with one of the following chipsets (or a close
compatible):
Tseng ET3000
Tseng ET4000
Paradise/Western Digital
Video Seven
ATI
Trident
VESA *
NOTE: Due to severe limitations inherent in their design,
CGA video cards are not supported. This includes many
Tandy 1000 systems which are essentially CGA.
* For instructions on using a VESA compatible chipset see
Command Line Options below.
-----------------
STARTING NEOPAINT
-----------------
For the steps below, we assume that you have installed
NeoPaint in the directory C:\NEOPAINT. If you installed
NeoPaint in a different DOS subdirectory, then substitute
that name for C:\NEOPAINT below.
o Your mouse driver (usually MOUSE.COM) must be loaded
before running NeoPaint. Please refer to your mouse's
user manual for more information.
o To change to the NeoPaint directory, at the DOS
prompt (C:\), type CD\NEOPAINT and press Enter. This
places you in the NeoPaint subdirectory.
o Once you have switched to the proper directory,
NeoPaint can be started from the DOS command line by
typing NEOPAINT followed by the Enter key.
--------------------
COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
--------------------
You can specify several command options when starting
NeoPaint. An option consists of a slash (/) followed by
an option letter and information about that option.
LOADING NEOPAINT'S OVERLAY INTO EXPANDED MEMORY
-----------------------------------------------
USAGE: /E
EXAMPLE: NEOPAINT /E
PURPOSE: NeoPaint's overlay file (NEOPAINT.OVR) can be
loaded into expanded memory, thus speeding up
execution of some NeoPaint functions. When
exiting NeoPaint the overlay is removed from
memory. This option requires approximately
256K of expanded (EMS) memory.
USING A VESA COMPATIBLE VIDEO CARD
----------------------------------
USAGE: /V
EXAMPLE: NEOPAINT /V
PURPOSE: NeoPaint has the ability to use a VESA
compatible video card. Without the /V option
NeoPaint will attempt to autodetect the
chipset employed by your video card.
Generally, directly detecting the chipset is
preferable to using VESA emulation. VESA tends
to be extremely slow and compatibility between
VESA cards can vary widely. This option is
included for compatibility reasons, however,
we do not recommend using VESA for the reasons
stated above.
NETWORK SETUP FILES
-------------------
USAGE: /S[file]
EXAMPLE: NEOPAINT /Sf:\users\cindy.set
PURPOSE: Normally NeoPaint stores its setup information
in the NEOPAINT.SET file in the NeoPaint
directory. This file contains information
about the default settings such as video mode
and memory usage options. In a multi-user
environment with PCs of vastly different
configurations it is necessary to specify
setup files for different users and/or
different machine types. The /S option allows
users to load NeoPaint with their own
personalized setup file.
For example: if Cindy keeps her personal files
in the PAINT directory on her C: drive then
she might start NeoPaint by typing:
NEOPAINT /Sc:\paint\cindy.set
LOADING IMAGES FROM THE COMMAND LINE
------------------------------------
You can also load images into Neopaint directly from the
DOS command line. Simply run NeoPaint with the names of
the files you wish to load as parameters. For example:
NEOPAINT C:\PCX\VANGOGH.PCX C:\GIF\IRISES.GIF
You may load as many files as will fit on the DOS command
line.
------------------------------
NEOGRAB SCREEN CAPTURE UTILITY
------------------------------
Included as part of the NeoPaint Package is a simple
screen capture utility called NeoGrab. NeoGrab will
capture graphics displayed on your monitor and convert
them into PCX format files which may be used in NeoPaint.
To load NeoGrab, at the DOS prompt type:
NEOGRAB [Options]
To capture a graphics screen, press <Ctrl> <Print
Screen>. Two short beeps means the screen was captured
successfully. One long beep means an error occurred and
the screen could not be captured. An error will occur if
you are in text mode, an unsupported graphics mode, or if
your disk is full. NeoGrab supports all standard video
modes and most super VGA modes so you shouldn't have any
trouble using it with popular software. NeoGrab will not,
however, work with Microsoft Windows.
Screen captures are stored as PCX files and placed in the
directory where the NEOGRAB.EXE file is located. Files
are numbered sequentially starting with 00000001. For
example the first captured screen will be named
00000001.PCX the second 00000002.PCX and so on. NeoGrab
will not delete files to make room - it simply selects
the next available file name in the sequence. Deleting
files is up to you.
NEOGRAB COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
----------------------------
You can specify several options when starting NeoGrab. An
option consists of a forward slash (/) followed by an
option letter.
ALTERNATE HOTKEY
----------------
USAGE: /K
EXAMPLE: NEOGRAB /K
PURPOSE: Changes the hotkey from the default <Ctrl>
<Print Screen> to <Alt> <Scroll Lock>. This is
useful if another program is already using the
default hotkey.
SPECIFY CAPTURE PATH
--------------------
USAGE: /P[path]
EXAMPLE: NEOGRAB /Pc:\pcx
PURPOSE: This option allows you to specify a drive and
directory for captured PCX images. By default
captured screens are stored in the directory
that contains the NEOGRAB.EXE file.
UNLOADING NEOGRAB
-----------------
USAGE: /U
EXAMPLE: NEOGRAB /U
PURPOSE: Use this option to unload NeoGrab from memory.
This will only work if NeoGrab is the last TSR
loaded in memory.
-------------------
OPTIMIZING NEOPAINT
-------------------
NeoPaint has been designed to run acceptably on a wide
range of DOS based systems and will automatically try and
take optimal advantage of all supported hardware
resources available to it. Some machines have processing
speed, disk space, and memory limitations which will
affect how NeoPaint can perform. Graphics programs by
their nature are demanding of system resources. Some
images, particularly 256 color pictures in larger sizes,
can easily use more than 1 megabyte of memory and storage
space.
If you have a system with speed and memory limitations,
one or more of the following suggestions may offer
relief:
o If you have a choice between configuring your
system's memory as either EMS (expanded memory) and
XMS (extended memory) on your system, use EMS for
NeoPaint. Using EMS memory can dramatically speed up
many NeoPaint functions including rotating, flipping
and special effects.
o Turn off the UNDO command under the SET PREFERENCES
selection in the OPTIONS menu. UNDO keeps a record of
the image prior to the last change you made. This
takes up memory. If your system has limited RAM and
disk memory available, you may want to disable this
in any case. If your system is limited to 640K of
RAM, then UNDO may use your hard disk to store
changed items. Using hard disk storage is slower than
using RAM, and turning off UNDO will increase
NeoPaint's performance.
o Do not run NeoPaint as a DOS application under
Windows. Windows will slow NeoPaint's execution, as
Windows will still be using up your system's
resources while NeoPaint is running.
o If disk storage space is a problem (and in many cases
even if you have plenty of disk space) turn off the
CREATE BACKUP FILES function in the PREFERENCES
selection of the OPTIONS menu. Graphic files tend to
take up a large amount of disk space, and creating a
backup file (.BAK) each time you SAVE a picture can
rapidly deplete the free space available on your
drive. You might want to turn this feature back on,
however, when working with particularly important
images.
o Try using the 640x480 VGA resolution in 16 colors as
your default. Some video cards use a TSR program to
display VESA compatible higher resolutions. Using a
TSR program is a much slower method of interacting
with your hardware.
o When using the 3-D OBJECT icon, use the Wire Frame
mode.
o Turn the PREVIEW option off for STAMP PAD images.
If none of the above seem to help, you may wish to
consider upgrading your system's hardware. Four hardware
options are listed below, in ascending order of cost:
o Add 2 or more megabytes of (RAM) memory to your
system. NeoPaint supports both the XMS and EMS
specifications.
o Use a graphics card containing a chipset supported by
NeoPaint. Cards containing chipsets compatible with
ATI, Trident, Hercules monochrome, Paradise/Western
Digital, Tseng (ET3000 or ET4000), or Video Seven can
be addressed directly by NeoPaint.
o Add a larger, faster hard drive.
o Upgrade your CPU.
-------------------------
ACQUIRING ADDITIONAL FONTS
-------------------------
NeoPaint comes with a variety of fonts. Additional fonts
are available on OSCS' electronic bulletin board. You may
download these via modem at no charge. The number for the
bulletin board is (503) 383-7195.
Third party software that can generate GEM screen fonts
(used by the DOS version of Ventura Publisher) may also
be used to create fonts for NeoPaint. Simply follow the
program's instructions for generating screen fonts. Copy
the fonts to your NeoPaint directory and rename them so
that they use the .GFT extension.
--------------------------------
MICROSOFT WINDOWS CONSIDERATIONS
--------------------------------
NeoPaint may be run as a DOS application under Windows
3.1, subject to certain limitations. We are not
recommending that you use NeoPaint under Windows, and
believe you will prefer using the program under the
quicker DOS environment. However, should you need to work
from within Windows:
o NeoPaint does not support the Windows clipboard, OLE,
etc. If you need to bring an image from NeoPaint into
a Windows program, this will best be done by
importing the saved NeoPaint image file directly.
Most Windows programs which can display graphic
images will support one or more of NeoPaint's image
file formats (i.e., PCX, TIFF, or GIF).
o The NeoGrab screen capture utility is not designed to
capture Windows screens.
o Occasionally, using some keyboard shortcuts will
cause Windows to corrupt the NeoPaint screen. You
will need to exit NeoPaint to be able to continue.
o Windows limits the memory resources available to the
DOS programs it runs. This may cause problems in such
operations as converting an image to a higher
resolution or working with very large images.
o NeoPaint under Windows will tend to run noticeably
slower than when run as a DOS application.
--------------
PROBLEM IMAGES
--------------
NeoPaint is designed to read and write the popular PCX,
GIF and TIFF file formats. We tested literally hundreds
of images during the design phase of NeoPaint. However,
even with the best testing, it's entirely possible that
there are some images that either don't follow the rules
or employ a compression algorithm that is not supported
by NeoPaint.
During our research we discovered, much to our surprise,
that there is no real consensus or standard among
programs that use 16 Color TIFF images. Images created by
one program frequently cannot be loaded by another
program. With NeoPaint we employed what we believed to be
the most popular format for 16 color TIFF images. If you
have problems using 16 color TIFF images with other
programs, try saving them as PCX or GIF files instead. 2
color and 256 color TIFF images are not effected by this
problem.
If you happen to run across an image file in either PCX,
GIF or TIFF format that you are unable to load with
NeoPaint upload the file to our BBS (503) 383-7195
(N/8/1/300-9600) or place the image on a diskette and
mail it to:
OSCS Software Development, Inc,
Customer Support
354 NE Greenwood Avenue, Suite 108
Bend, Oregon 97701-4631
Include a brief note describing the image, where it came
from and if possible what program was used to create it.
-------------------------------------
CUSTOMER SERVICES & TECHNICAL SUPPORT
-------------------------------------
OSCS provides its registered software customers with free
technical support. We also provide limited technical
support to persons evaluating our products during the 30
day evaluation period.
We do, however, strongly encourage people to register.
Software development and support is very expensive and we
need your help if we are to continue to provided quality
programs at affordable prices. If you haven't already,
please take a few moments to register. This will assure
you of eligibility for technical support, product update
notification, special discounts, announcements, etc.
If you should encounter a technical problem or question
not covered in the manual, you may use one of the
following avenues to obtain technical assistance:
MAIL POSTAL CORRESPONDENCE TO:
------------------------------
OSCS Software Development, Inc.
Customer Support
354 NE Greenwood Avenue, Suite 108
Bend, OR 97701-4631
U.S.A.
TELEPHONE SUPPORT:
------------------
Technical support and product update information are
available between the hours of 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM
(Pacific Standard Time), Monday through Friday.
Please have the following information available for the
support staff when you call:
o Brand name and model of your computer system, mouse,
video adapter and monitor.
o Operating system (DOS) version number.
o A listing of the contents of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and
CONFIG.SYS files.
o A description of the problem, how it occurred, and
how to reproduce it.
Telephone support may be obtained by calling (503)
389-5489. You may also FAX your questions to (503)
388-8221.
ELECTRONIC BULLETIN BOARD SERVICE:
----------------------------------
Up to date product information, evaluation programs and
supplements may be obtained via modem from our BBS. The
telephone number is (503) 383-7195. The bulletin board
operates using N/8/1/300-9600 Baud.
--------------------
REGISTERING NEOPAINT
--------------------
If you purchased NeoPaint in a shrink wrapped box with an
OSCS logo on the back, a registration card was included
in the package. Please take a moment to fill out the
lower portion of the card and mail it to:
OSCS Software Development, Inc.
Customer Registration
354 NE Greenwood Ave. Suite 108
Bend, Oregon 97701-4631.
This will enter you as a registered user in our records
and insure that you receive technical support, upgrade
notices and information about future products.
If you received NeoPaint from a friend, BBS, catalog or
anywhere other than from OSCS or an authorized commercial
software dealer or distributor, you may try the program
for a trial period of up to 30 days before registering.
To obtain a complete commercial package including
registration number and typeset manual call OSCS at (503)
389-5489. We can process your order with VISA or
MasterCard over the phone. The purchase price of NeoPaint
is $45 + $7 ($21 outside United States) shipping and
handling. If you prefer, FAX your order to us at (503)
388-8221. If you would like to mail a check or money
order, make sure it's drawn against a U.S. bank in U.S.
funds. Our address is:
OSCS Software Development, Inc.
354 NE Greenwood Ave. Suite 108
Bend, Oregon 97701-4631.
You may also purchase NeoPaint from any one of our many
dealers world wide. For a list of dealers see the
DEALER.DOC file accompanying this program.
If you would like to give a copy of this program to a
friend or associate please do so, but you may NOT give
anyone your registration/serial number. We hope you enjoy
the program and share it with your friends.