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PICTURETHIS (TM) "SHAREWARE" VERSION RELEASE 4.00 DECEMBER 31, 1991 USER MANUAL, PART 5 OF 7 PARTS Copyright 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 by Patricia Y. Williams and Gregory Williams, All Rights Reserved. HortIdeas Publishing, 460 Black Lick Road, Gravel Switch, KY 40328 U.S.A. 18.6. TYPESETTING CODES Typesetting codes can be embedded in a text block to change its text parameters "locally." For example, the font of a single word or phrase can be changed (perhaps to italic) without exiting the editor. A typesetting code consists of a filled-in less-than character (signifying "turn on the code," and obtained by pressing Ctrl A or Ctrl a), followed by some letters and numbers (the code itself), and ending with a filled-in greater-than character (signifying "turn off the code," and obtained by pressing Ctrl Z or Ctrl z). For example, if the text block you are editing has a point size of 20 and you want to write "x subscript 1 + y superscript 2," you might type the following: "x" Ctrl A "PS10" Ctrl Z Ctrl A "DP6" Ctrl Z "1" Ctrl A "PS20" Ctrl Z Ctrl A "UP6" " + y" Ctrl A "PS10" Ctrl Z Ctrl A "UP12" Ctrl Z "2" Ctrl A "PS20" Ctrl Z Ctrl A "DP12" Ctrl Z (where Ctrl A can be replaced by Ctrl a and Ctrl Z can be replaced by Ctrl z). Key this into the editor to see: x<PS10><DP6>1<PS20><UP6> + y<PS10><UP12>2<PS20><DP12> (well, almost -- the less-than and greater-than characters are FILLED IN SOLID in the editor). (Note that there is an automatic subscript and superscript feature that makes this operation much easier.) What do the codes do? See the table below. CODE MEANING <PSnnn> Change current text point size to nnn = 1 to 999 <FTnnnn> Change current font number to nnnn = 1 to 9999 <LSnnn.n> Change current line spacing (in points) to nnn.n = 0 to 999.9 <GRnnn> Change current text gray percentage to nnn = 0 to 100 <PCnnn> Change current text point size to nnn times previous text point size (rounding to nearest point) (nnn = .1 to 100) <FPnnn> Move forward nnn points (nnn = 1 to 999) 67 <BPnnn> Move backward nnn points (nnn = 1 to 999) <UPnnn> Move up nnn points (nnn = 1 to 999) <DPnnn> Move down nnn points (nnn = 1 to 999) <FUnnnn> Move forward nnnn units (nnnn = 1 to 9999) <BUnnnn> Move backward nnnn units (nnnn = 1 to 9999) <UUnnnn> Move up nnnn units (nnnn = 1 to 9999) <DUnnnn> Move down nnnn units (nnnn = 1 to 9999) <MKn> Mark position n (= 0 to 9) in text for subsequent go to <GOn> Go to position n (= 0 to 9) previously marked and insert the following text <GOX> End text to be inserted with go to; text following this code begins at the position just before the <GOn>; <GOX> isn't needed if all of the text following <GOn>, to the end of the text block, is to be inserted <TK[+][-]nnn> Turn on track kerning with spacing between all character pairs reduced (if nnn is negative) or increased (if nnn is positive; the + sign is optional) by nnn units, with nnn = -999 to 999 <TKX> Turn off track kerning <PKO> Turn on pair-wise kerning <PKX> Turn off pair-wise kerning <SBO> Turn on subscripting with default settings for subscript character size and baseline positioning (that is, settings in the current font's width information file, which can be altered by using the utility program MODFONT.EXE (see Section 18.10)) <SBmmm,nnn> Turn on subscripting with subscript character point size mmm% of current character point size (mmm = 1 to 100), and with subscript character baseline position nnn% of current character point size below current baseline position (nnn = 0 to 100) <SBX> Turn off subscripting <SPO> Turn on superscripting with default settings for superscript character size and baseline positioning (that is, settings in the current font's width information file, which can be altered by using the utility program MODFONT.EXE (see Section 18.10) 68 <SPmmm,nnn> Turn on superscripting with subscript character point size mmm% of current character point size (mmm = 1 to 100), and with superscript character baseline position nnn% of current character point size above current baseline position (nnn = 0 to 100) <SPX> Turn off superscripting <HYO> Turn on automatic hyphenation <HYX> Turn off automatic hyphenation Note: In each case, the code letters can be upper (as shown) OR lower case. Note: If text to be inserted with a go to code is not ended with <GOX> before a carriage return or a wrap, the results are unpredictable, and marks within go to text don't always work correctly, especially if the justification is full, right, or centered. Note: Subscripts and superscripts can be nested to several levels. To make repeated use of some codes easier, and to facilitate the use of keyboard macro programs for "automated" input of text, the following codes also can be used: CODE MEANING <PSD> Use current text block's default point size (that is, the point size specified when the editor was entered) <PSP> Use immediately previous point size <FTD> Use current text block's default font number (that is, the font number specified when the editor was entered) <FTP> Use immediately previous font number <LSD> Use current text block's default line spacing (that is, the line spacing specified when the editor was entered) <GRD> Use current text block's default text gray percentage (that is, the text gray percentage specified when the editor was entered) <TKD> Set track kerning to 0 <TKP> Turn on track kerning and use immediately previous setting (= 0 if not set previously) <SBD> Turn on subscripting and use default settings of current font <SPD> Turn on superscripting and use default settings of current font 69 No doubt you're still wondering what the codes REALLY do... and what "units" are. Look again at the "x subscript 1 + y superscript 2" example above. Initially, the text point size is 20, so the "x" is a 20-point character. Then <PS10> changes the point size to 10, and <DP6> moves down 6 points, so the "1" is a 10-point character (smaller than the "x," as a subscript should be) placed with its baseline 6 points lower than the baseline of the "x" (also as a subscript should be). The <PS20> and <UP6> codes restore the initial settings so that the " + y" has the same baseline and point size as the "x." And similarly for the (superscript) "2." You can use typesetting codes to change fonts for only a few characters (allowing italicized phrases and special symbols, for example), to make a few characters gray, to change the spacing between certain lines, etc., etc. If you use PictureThis much, you'll probably soon become proficient at using the codes. Now, what are "units"? They allow us to measure distances RELATIVE TO THE CURRENT TEXT POINT SIZE: for PictureThis, there are 1000 units per em width. In typesetting, a dash or hyphen which is as wide as the text point size is known as an emdash. So an emdash for 10-point text is 10 points wide, and an emdash for 30-point text is 30 points wide. (An aside: typically, most fonts have capital letters which are about two-thirds as tall as their point sizes, so an "A" in a 100-point font is likely to be around 60 to 70 points tall. That gives you an idea of how big characters REALLY are when their font has a certain point size, even though some fonts have characters "large" for their point size, and others have characters "small" for their point size) By extension from the emdash, the em width of a font is equal to the font's point size. So, for a 10-point PostScript font used in PictureThis, there are 100 units per point (1000 units per em width divided by 10 points per em width); for a 30-point PostScript font, there are about 33 units per point (1000 units per em width divided by 30 points per em width); for a 100-point PostScript font, there are 10 units per point; for a 300-point PostScript font, there are about 3 units per point; and for a 1000-point PostScript font, there is 1 unit per point. In other words, the ABSOLUTE size of a unit is PROPORTIONAL to the current text point size. One unit for a 100-point font is 10 times as big (as measured in points, inches, centimeters, etc.) as one unit for a 10-point font. The proportional relationship between units and text point size is useful for positioning characters relative to one another "the same way" (proportionally!) REGARDLESS OF TEXT POINT SIZE -- just use units instead of points in the typesetting codes used for the positioning. For example, suppose you want to set a "P" followed by a 3-point space and then a "T" at a 10-point text size. One way to do this is to key in "P" Ctrl A "FP3" Ctrl Z "T" in the editor. That's fine if you need ONLY 10-point text. But what if you also want the same output at, say, 20 points? (Yes, you could scale the PostScript output, or you could scale the text block as an object (as described in Section 17.3) but we're concerned only with the editing operations here.) You could change the point size to 20 and key in "FP6" instead "FP3," but you also could have BEGUN (at the 10-point size) by keying in "FU300" instead of "FP3," and then, just by 70 changing the text point size to 20, you would get what you wanted at the bigger size (because for the 10-point font, there are 100 units per point, and <FU300> means "move forward 3 points," while for the 20-point font, there are 50 units per point, and <FU300> means "move forward 6 points"). Units also are convenient because of their small size relative to text point size, allowing extremely fine adjustments in character placement. 18.7. SCREEN FONTS Consider the characters as represented on the drawing screen when you set a text block by pressing F5. The default setting for how the characters are shown is "text," meaning that each character on the drawing, view, and Quickshow screens is shown using a screen font: an APPROXIMATION to the actual PostScript output; however, the POSITION and WIDTH of each character, if not always its FORM, are shown quite accurately. PictureThis Release 4 screen fonts are vector-mapped, not bit-mapped, so they can be scaled as needed. To change the setting for how characters are shown, press J (mnemonic: "jabber"), which cycles among the following settings: "text" on drawing, view, and Quickshow screens (the default, as described above); "greeked" (text represented by dotted ascender lines (showing the height of h's and k's) and baselines) on drawing, view, and quickshow screens; and "greeked" on drawing and view screens, but "text" on the Quickshow screen. Drawing is slower with the "text" setting than with the "greeked" setting, but, of course, the former provides more information. When you are doing a full text page, especially for a small point size text and especially when viewing on the 50% screen (which is the only screen on which you can see a full 8-1/2 by 11 page), we recommend using the "greeked" setting since it is much faster and you can't read the small text anyway. (It also uses much less pixel memory - see Section 31.) In such a case, view the "text" only on the Quickshow screen, or when you need a closeup of a section of a page. Standard-encoding PostScript fonts (those sometimes referred to as having an "International" character set) shown with the "text" (screen font) setting all are represented with the same simple "block character" screen font (adjusted, of course, to show correct character widths), and that screen font is SLANTED (at 10 degrees, unless the font has been slanted with the MODFONT.EXE utility program, as described in Section 18.10) for italic fonts and DOUBLE-WRITTEN for bold fonts. With the "text" setting, if the appropriate screen font files (STANDARD.SFT, SYMBOL.SFT, and/or ZAPFDB.SFT) cannot be accessed by PictureThis or do not fit in available memory, characters are represented as boxes; each box extends from the baseline to the ascender height (actually, an APPROXIMATE ascender height for the Symbol and ZapfDingbat fonts, since their AFM files don't provide "official" ascender heights) and has the width of its character. Boxes also are used in screen fonts when a character has a valid width (in the font's width file), but there is no corresponding screen character in the screen font file (an example is given by the Symbol font, in which 71 the character associated with Alt 240 prints as a (trademark) apple-with-a-bite-out-of-it on a few PostScript printers (you can guess which ones!), but as NOTHING on other PostScript printers; the Symbol font width information file FONT81.FIN on one of the PictureThis distribution disks includes a width for the character, since it is given in the Symbol AFM file, but we decided, given the extremely litigious stance of a certain computer company with respect to its intellectual properties, NOT to make an apple screen character in the screen font file SYMBOL.SFT -- thus, a box, not an apple, appears on the drawing screen). You can see what your PostScript-compatible printer shows as the character associated with Alt 240 by sending the file ENCODING.PS, included on one of the distribution disks, to the printer. The Symbol and ZapfDingbat fonts have their own special screen fonts, since their encodings are special. Drawing files showing the standard, Symbol, and ZapfDingbat screen fonts (at 50-point size) are on one of the PictureThis distribution disks, as listed below. FILE NAME FONT(S) STANDARD.DRW standard-encoding SYMBOL.DRW Symbol ZAPFDBLO.DRW ZapfDingbats (typewriter keys: [space] through ~) ZAPFDBHI.DRW ZapfDingbats (high-order keys: Alt 161 through Alt 254) If, when setting text, you see the error message "NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO DRAW TEXT" and/or "OUT OF MEMORY: PRESS J OR SAVE DRAWING," press any key and then press D (redraw screen) or J (jabber). Redrawing frees up some memory. One alternative when memory is low is to "greek" the text, using the J key. "Greeked" text requires significantly less memory than does text shown with screen font characters. (You can still use the "jabber" setting that shows the characters on the Quickshow screen, since these use no memory.) Other alternatives are to turn off the Background-save for text (see Section 31.) or save and get (export then import) the drawing. 18.8. CUTTING TEXT BLOCKS FOR RE-EDITING Now that you can put text on the drawing screen, what if you want to edit it again? The text menu (accessed via F8) allows (prompted) deletion of entire text blocks, but if you have less drastic editing in mind, press C (for "cut") at the edit menu. The cursor STAYS WHERE IT IS, the text (or greeking lines) of a nearby block become dashed (if on the screen), and an information box containing the text parameters of the dashed text block appears at the bottom of the screen. To edit the dashed block, press Enter; the text is "cut" from the drawing, and placed back in the editor. If you want to edit a different text block, press + (same as Space) and/or - to cycle through all of the text blocks on the drawing, then choose one with Enter. The chosen text is returned to the editor, as you can see by pressing E or Enter or F8. If there already was text in the editor, then the cut text 72 goes AHEAD OF it, and a "quit set text" marker is placed between the cut text and the original text (this allows you to quickly remove, edit, and replace text without affecting existing text in the editor). WARNING: IF THE CUTTING OPERATION BRINGS IN MORE TEXT THAN THE EDITOR CAN HOLD, THE END OF THE EXISTING TEXT IS LOST IRRETRIEVABLY! Note: An easy way to move existing text blocks around is to place the cursor where you want a text block to start, cut the text block from its old position, enter the editor, and press F5 to set the text block at the new position. A text block that is moved in this way draws on the screen faster than one that is moved by the object moving operation. During the cutting operation, if the cut text block has a different margin than the current margin, you are asked whether you want to change the current margin to that of the cut block; if the cut text block has different text parameters than the current ones, you are asked whether you want to change the current parameters to those of the cut block. 18.9. TRANSFORMING TEXT BLOCKS In PictureThis, text blocks can be treated as objects: they can be subjected to any of the operations accessed via the object menu, including grouping with other objects (text blocks and/or trails), ungrouping, erasing, layering, moving, copying, scaling, rotating, flipping, and inclining. Use the object menu (via F7, see Sections 16 and 17) to perform any of these operations on any text block which has its beginning on the current drawing screen. Also note that text blocks can be saved (as objects) as clip art, for importing into other drawings. After a text block has been moved, copied, scaled, rotated, flipped, and/or inclined (several operations can be performed in succession), it has a new margin appropriate to the transformation(s) applied to it -- in other words, you can end up with non-rectangular margins! The old margin is DELETED, unless it happens to be the default margin or the current margin. Because the scaling, rotating, flipping, and inclination operations generally result in altered text size, shape, and/or orientation, not just altered position, when text transformed by any of these operations is cut back to the editor, "T" (for transformed) appears at the lower left of the editing screen to remind you that the editor's counting applies to the text as it was PRIOR to being transformed. Yes, you can still edit an upside-down, rescaled, inclined, and even flipped (so the letters are backwards!) text block -- but what you see in the editor will most definitely NOT be what you get on the drawing! The editor's "counting" WILL be PROPORTIONAL to the transformed result's dimensions, since all of the transformations are linear. Enough said. You can "play around" with transformations to discover exactly what all of this REALLY means, if you want. We do recommend that you spend at least a few minutes trying out text block transformations prior to trying them in a "real" drawing. That way, (most of) the surprises you find (when what you thought would happen DOESN'T!!) will be more instructive than catastrophic. Finally, note that DRAWINGS WITH TEXT CANNOT BE SCALED VIA 73 THE MISCELLANEOUS MENU. If you try, you'll get an error message. Sorry, but we don't think users would enjoy working in fractional text point sizes! It is sometimes important to scale a drawing to the desired dimensions BEFORE adding any text (see Section 22.2). DRAWINGS WITH TEXT STILL CAN BE SCALED WHEN AN ENCAPSULATED POSTSCRIPT FILE IS WRITTEN. 18.10. MODIFICATION OF FONTS The MODFONT.EXE utility program (included on one of the distribution disks) allows you to begin with a particular set of "old" font information files (previously made with AFMTOPT.EXE (see Section 18.1), and having an identification number between 1 and 9999), and make a new set of font information files with various modifications (also having an identification number between 1 and 9999, which can be the same as that of the files to be modified, in which case the new files WRITE OVER the old files WITHOUT WARNING). The new font information files are written to the directory containing the old font files. Using MODFONT.EXE is self-explanatory. You can use the program to create modified fonts with any combination of the following: 1. Characters slanted between -60 (counterclockwise) and +60 degrees (clockwise) from vertical, with the same height as the unmodified font characters. The slant angle is shown on-screen when "text" is toggled on (see Section 18.7); this slant angle does NOT add to the default 10 degree slant angle when an italic font is slanted. 2. Outlined characters with the (black) outline thickness adjustable between 0 and 100 units. Note: Because of the way the PostScript language specifies outlined characters, a "limitcheck" error can occur if you attempt to print several outlined characters in sequence; a workaround is to make sure that there is a typesetting code (even one that effectively does nothing) after every few words having outlined characters. Also because of PostScript idiosyncracies, you cannot use non-zero track kerning (see Section 18.6) with outlined characters -- you'll see an error message if you attempt this. One use of outlined characters is to make bolder than normal characters (with text gray = 100%); too bad track kerning can't be used with these characters to space them a bit further apart! If you want to see an outlined character with a different color interior than exterior, set the text gray to the desired interior color (e.g., for white interior, text gray should be 0%). The outline is always black. 3. Width of characters = 0.1 to 10 times base width 4. Altered default settings for superscript character point size (1 to 100% of normal point size -- if you don't alter this, it is 70%) and for superscript character baseline position (0 to 100% of normal point size above the normal baseline -- if you don't alter this, it is 50%). 5. Altered default settings for subscript character point size (1 to 100% of normal point size -- if you don't alter this, it is 70%) and for subscript character baseline position (0 to 100% of normal point size below the normal baseline -- if you don't alter this, it is 20%). 6. Altered default settings for positioning of parts of accented (composite) characters. 74 19. FILE OPERATIONS AND DOS SHELL All file input/output operations and the "shell" to the operating system are accessed by pressing F10. The state changes to "FILES," and a menu appears at the top of the screen, with eight options: GetDRW, SaveDRW, ImportCLP, ExportCLP, ReadTMP, WriteEPS, DOS, and UseDAT. 19.1. GETTING A SAVED DRAWING At the file menu, the GetDRW option (for retrieving a PictureThis-format drawing file previously saved with the SaveDRW option (see Section 19.2)) is accessed by pressing G. A prompt appears at the top of the screen. The first line of this prompt states: "Enter filespec for DRW retrieval." The second line is a file specification using your current directory as the path, "*" for the filename and "DRW" for the file extension. (We strongly recommend using the file extension "DRW" for your drawing files.) If you press Enter, you see a directory list of all files matching the specification in the second line of the prompt. Press the cursor keys to highlight the drawing file which you want to retreive. Press Enter and that file is retrieved. If you want to view the directory for a different file specification, instead of pressing Enter at the file specification prompt, key in the desired file specification (with a "*" or "?" to indicate a "wild card"). If you want to retrieve a specific file without viewing the directory, key in the filename (with extension and the appropriate path specification if necessary) of a drawing file saved previously with the SaveDRW option, then press Enter. PictureThis saves the path you enter and uses it as the path for your next drawing retrieval. Within a short time, the saved drawing should appear. If not, pay heed to any error messages and try again. Note: Drawings saved using PictureThis 1, 2, or 3 are retrieved correctly. Your current drawing is cleared when you bring in a new drawing; SAVE THE OLD DRAWING FIRST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO LOSE IT. 19.2. SAVING A DRAWING At the file menu, the SaveDRW option (for saving the current drawing to disk for subsequent use in PictureThis) is accessed by pressing S. If you have previously retrieved or saved a drawing, a prompt appears asking if you want to use the most recent file specification. If you answer Y, the current drawing is saved with the file specification shown. If you answer N, or if you have not previously retrieved or saved a drawing, a different prompt appears at the top of the screen. The first line of this prompt states: "Enter filespec for DRW save." The second line is a file specification using your current directory as the path, "*" for the filename, and "DRW" for the file extension. (We strongly recommend using the extension "DRW" for your drawing files.) If you press Enter, the screen changes to a directory list of all files matching the specification in the second line of the prompt. Press the cursor keys to highlight the drawing file specification which you want to save the current drawing as and press Enter. The current 75 drawing is saved with the selected specification. If you want to view the directory for a different file specification, instead of pressing Enter at the file specification prompt, key in the desired file specification (with a "*" or "?" to indicate a "wild card"). If you want to save your drawing file with a particular specification without viewing the directory, at the file specification prompt, key in the desired specification (with extension and the appropriate path if necessary), then press Enter. PictureThis saves the path you enter and uses it as the path for the next drawing retrieval or save. If a file with the specification which you keyed in already exists, a prompt appears, asking if you want to write over the existing file. If you do, press Y; if not, press N and you will be able to enter a different file specification. The saved drawing includes all of the curves and text blocks on the current drawing, not just those curves and text blocks visible on the current screen. It also includes the trail, object, and drawing sequence information. Along with the actual drawing, the current frame (see Section 22.1), the current units (see Section 20.1), the current grid (see Section 21.2), the positions of all noted points (see Section 23.1), the scale of the drawing (see Section 22.2), the slow and fast cursor speeds (see Section 21.1), the dash patterns (see Section 15.2), the margins (see Section 18.4), the text parameter sets (see Section 18.3), text block information (see Section 18.4), and the background save setting (see Section 31.) are all saved. The file saved DOES NOT include template information. Try to save the file again if you get an error message (after attempting to correct the problem). Note: Saving a drawing deletes from the drawing file all erased curves, endpoints, trails, text blocks, and objects (which have been erased directly or by various other operations). This can be useful when memory limits are being approached (see Section 31.). To free up some memory, save the drawing and bring it back in. WE RECOMMEND FREQUENT SAVING WHILE DRAWING, FOR SAFETY!!! 19.3. IMPORTING CLIP ART At the file menu, the ImportCLP option for importing into the current drawing a PictureThis-format clip art file previously saved with the ExportCLP option (see Section 19.4) is accessed by pressing I. A prompt appears at the top of the screen. The first line of the prompt states: "Enter filespec for CLP retrieval". The second line is a file specification using your current directory as the path, "*" for the filename, and "CLP" for the file extension. (We strongly recommend using CLP as the file extension for your clip art files.) If you press Enter, you see a directory list of all files matching the specification in the second line of the prompt. Press the cursor keys to highlight the clip art file which you wish to import and press Enter. That file is retrieved. If you want to view the directory for a different file specification, instead of pressing Enter at the file specification prompt, key in the desired file specification (with a "*" or "?" to indicate a "wild card"). If you want to retrieve a specific file without viewing the 76 directory, key in the filename (with extension and the appropriate path specification if necessary) of a clip art file saved previously with the ExportCLP option, then press Enter. PictureThis saves the path you enter and uses it as the path for the next clip art retrieval. When a clip art file is retrieved, the previously saved clip art object is added to your current drawing (without endpoints) and the prompt "OK? (Y/N)" appears. If you are satisfied with the imported object, press Y; the object is drawn with endpoints, and the state returns to "FREE." (Note that the imported object is placed wherever it was on the screen when it was exported. It can be moved easily (see Section 17.1).) If you are not satisfied with the imported object, press N in response to the prompt, and you can key in a different file specification. Notice that your current drawing is NOT cleared when you import a clip art object. The imported clip art object is placed at the front of the current drawing, but it can be relayered (see Section 16.4). If you import a clip art object which contains text and was saved when the scaling was different than the current scaling (see Section 22), the text might be of slightly different size than the original. This is because the text must be scaled, and the point size of the text cannot be fractional. This is quite noticeable with long text blocks and small point sizes, so try to avoid it in this case. 19.4. EXPORTING CLIP ART While at the file menu, the ExportCLP option (for saving a clip art object to disk for subsequent importing into a PictureThis drawing) is accessed by pressing E. The cursor jumps to the closest initial point of an outermost object, trail, or text block, and that object is dashed. An instruction box appears ("Next: +, Space"/"Previous: -"/ "Select: Enter"). Press +, Space, and/or - repeatedly until the object which you want to save is dashed. Then press Enter. Pressing Esc returns the files menu. If only one object is available, it is chosen automatically. If you have previously retrieved or saved a clip art object, a prompt appears asking if you want to use the most recent file specification. If you answer Y, the selected object is saved with that file specification. If you answer N or you have not previously retrieved or saved a clip art object, a different prompt appears at the top of the screen. The first line of this prompt states: "Enter filespec for CLP save." The second line is a file specification using your current directory as the path, "*" for the filename, and "CLP" for the file extension. (We strongly recommend using the extension "CLP" for your clip art files.) If you press Enter, you see a directory list of all files matching the specification in the second line of the prompt. Press the cursor keys to highlight the desired clip art file specification and press Enter. The selected object is saved with the selected specification. If you want to view the directory for a different file specification, instead of pressing Enter at the file specification prompt, key in the desired file specification (with a "*" or "?" to indicate a "wild card"). 77 If you want to save the selected object as with a particular file specification without viewing the directory, key in the filename (with extension and the appropriate path specification if necessary), then press Enter. PictureThis saves the path you enter and uses it as the path for the next clip art retrieval or save. If the file with the specification which you keyed in already exists, a prompt appears asking if you want to write over the existing file. If you do, press Y; if not, press N and you will be able to enter a different file specification. 19.5. READING A TEMPLATE FILE At the file menu, the ReadTMP option (for retrieving a template previously captured with the CaptureThis or Alternate CaptureThis programs, as discussed in Section 26.1) is accessed by pressing R. A prompt appears at the top of the screen. The first line of this prompt states: "Enter filespec for TMP retrieval." The second line is a file specification using your current directory as the path, "*" for the filename and "TMP" for the file extension. (We strongly recommend using the file extension "TMP" for your template files.) If you press Enter, you see a directory list of all files matching the specification in the second line of the prompt. Press the cursor keys to highlight the template file which you want to retreive and press Enter. That file is retrieved. If you want to view the directory for a different file specification, instead of pressing Enter at the file specification prompt, key in the desired file specification (with a "*" or "?" to indicate a "wild card"). If you want to retrieve a specific file without viewing the directory, key in the filename (with extension and the appropriate path specification if necessary) of a template file saved previously with CaptureThis or Alternate CaptureThis program, then press Enter. PictureThis saves the path you enter and uses it as the path for the next template retrieval. The template is placed at the center of the 50% screen unless a previous template was moved. Templates can be moved around the screen easily (see Section 26.2). Note that templates saved from a CGA screen can ONLY be used when you are in CGA screen mode. Templates saved from EGA and VGA screens CANNOT be used in CGA screen mode. EGA and VGA templates can be used interchangeably, however if you use an EGA template in VGA mode or a VGA template in EGA mode, the template's aspect ratio will be wrong and it will either look streched or squashed. Also the bottom will lost off a VGA template in EGA mode. Importing a template in VGA screen mode ONLY requires some memory. If that memory is not available, you will only be able to see the top portion of the template. Even if you turn off the template by pressing "T" (see Section 25.3), this memory is not freed. If you no longer need the template, and you need extra memory, save your drawing, exit PictureThis, restart PictureThis, and import your drawing. 19.6. WRITING A POSTSCRIPT FILE At the file menu, the WriteEPS option (for saving an 78 encapsulated PostScript file to disk for subsequent delivery to a laser printer, imagesetter, or page layout program) is accessed by pressing W. PictureThis allows a great deal of flexibility in specifying how PostScript output appears. One or multiple ("tiled") pages are allowed. The printed drawing can be small or large, and it can be scaled irregularly. Also, the drawing can be placed anywhere on the page, in "portrait" or "landscape" orientation (see below). To specify these parameters, several prompts appear in succession. These prompts all have current values which are acceptable in many cases. If the current value is acceptable for a prompt, just press Enter. Changes to any parameter are made by typing a new value in. Esc backs out to the previous prompt (with its current value), so you can reset a parameter without starting from the beginning. When you press W at the file menu, a query appears: "Use current settings? (Y/N)." If you press Y, ALL current settings (see below for descriptions of each type of setting) are used for saving an EPS file, and a prompt for a file specification appears. The default current specification is *.EPS in the current directory. We strongly recommend that you use the extension "EPS" for PostScript files created using PictureThis -- some desktop publishing programs REQUIRE this extension to read an EPS file. If you previously saved an EPS file, the current specification is that of the last-saved EPS file. Either press Enter to see a list of files matching the current specification and then move the block cursor to the desired filename and press Enter to use it for saving, or key in a new specification and press Enter to use it for saving. Pressing any key (INCLUDING Esc) other than Y at the use current settings query shows the first in a series of prompts which allow changes to each setting, as described below. The first four prompts request information about the size and margins of the physical page on which you are printing. Initially, the size is set to 8.5 inches by 11 inches, and the margins are set to .25 inches all around. It is important to note that changing these parameters does NOT alter your output device (printer or imagesetter) to accept a different size paper or have different margins; those adjustments must be done independently, and the procedures vary with output device (see your output devive owner manual for more information). PictureThis uses the parameters to position drawings on individual pages, and to determine the printing area for multiple page drawings. The initial settings are acceptable in many cases, even if the margins of the printer you are using are slightly different. If you change any of these four parameters, the new values remain for the rest of your PictureThis session, unless they are changed by accessing the prompts again. Next a menu appears showing the current orientation (Portrait (the default) or Landscape). Press Enter to accept the current orientation or P or L to change it. "Landscape orientation" means that the printed output has the drawing's WIDTH (WHETHER OR NOT IT IS LONGER THAN THE DRAWING'S HEIGHT) oriented PARALLEL to the paper's height. The WIDTH direction always corresponds to the HORIZONTAL direction on your monitor screen, and the HEIGHT direction always corresponds to the VERTICAL direction on your monitor screen. "Portrait orientation" means that the drawing's 79 WIDTH is oriented PARALLEL to the paper's width. See the diagrams below. LANDSCAPE ORIENTATION PORTRAIT ORIENTATION _____________________ _____________________ | _________ | | _____________ | || | | || | | || | | || | | || | | || DRAWING |___ | || DRAWING | | || | / | || |______ | ||_____________| / | || | / | | \ / | ||_________| / | | WIDTH HEIGHT | | \ / |<-PAGE | | | HEIGHT WIDTH | EDGES->| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |_____________________| |_____________________| NOTE: THE DEFAULT DRAWING WIDTH IS LONGER THAN DRAWING HEIGHT. The next prompt requests the drawing width in inches. The first line of this prompt shows the current drawing width. Initially, it is set from your drawing's frame (see Section 22.1) and scale (see Section 22.2). (Remember that parts of your drawing outside of the frame do NOT print.) If you have not changed the frame or the drawing's scale, the width is 8.00 inches. If you want to change the drawing's width, key in a new value greater than 0 inches and less than 7500 inches. Obviously, you seldom will want to scale the drawing near either of the two extremes! If you do change the width of the drawing, another prompt appears: "Scale line weights with width? (Y/N)"; otherwise, a box with instructions for changing the height appears (described in the next paragraph). Scaling line weights means that the thicknesses of curves on the printed output are scaled proportionally to the width; they have the values assigned when they were originally drawn if the width setting is not changed. To scale line weights with width, press Y. To use the line weight values originally assigned when the curves were drawn, regardless of width setting changes, press any other key. Next, another prompt appears, requesting you to set the height of the drawing. The first line of the prompt ("Height if scaled uniformly: XXX.XX"), shows the height of the drawing if it is scaled uniformly with the current width. (This depends on the drawing's frame (see Section 22.1) and the aspect ratio (see Section 24).) If you want to change the height setting for the printed drawing output (thus altering the proportional scaling of width to height), key in a new height. (Note: if you come back to this prompt via one or more presses of Esc or if you accept the current width in the previous step, the first line changes to "Current height of drawing:" followed by the height which you entered or accepted previously.) (Note that the drawing width and height are not saved as such, rather, a scale factor is saved for each, relating the default width/height 80 to the entered width/height. Thus, if you change the frame or rescale the drawing between EPS saves, the new width/height is its scale factor times the width/height of the frame. If you don't change the frame or scaling, the width/height doesn't change.) The next two prompts allow you to specify where the top left corner of the drawing's frame will appear on the paper. The first prompt requests the "horizontal indent": how far the left edge of the drawing's frame will be from the left edge of the paper. The initial value is the left margin of the paper (as set above). You can change this value to be anywhere between the left and right margins. The second prompt requests the "vertical indent": how far the top edge of the drawing's frame will be from the top edge of the paper. The initial value is the top margin of the paper (as set above). You can change this value to be anywhere between the top and bottom margins. (Note that if you indent too much, a drawing which normally would fit on one page extends to two or four pages.) From the settings, PictureThis calculates how many physical pages will be required for the drawing. If the result is more than one page, two more prompts appear. The first prompt asks if you want to overlap the page margins. If you answer Y, the separate page outputs have a .25 inch overlap -- the last 1/4 inch of the page also is the first 1/4 inch on the next page, both horizontally and vertically. If you press any other key (except Esc), there is no overlap. Experiment to find which method is preferable for assembling multiple page drawings. After this prompt is answered, another prompt appears stating how many pages wide and high your output will be. It also warns you that the file to be saved is NOT an Encapsulated PostScript file. Only drawing outputs fitting on a single page are made into EPS files which can be incorporated into other programs. Drawings requiring multiple pages are simple, but not Encapsulated, PostScript programs which can be sent to PostScript-compatible printers. (Of course, you can make a single-page EPS file from any drawing, by proper scaling.) Now you are asked if you want to continue. If the number of pages is satisfactory, press Y. Otherwise, press any other key, and you will be taken back to the drawing width prompt, so you can respecify the parameters. Finally, a prompt for the specification for the file to be saved appears. If you have previously saved an EPS file in the current PictureThis session, you are asked if you want to use the last entered file specification. If you answer Y, that specification is used. If you answer N, or if you are saving an EPS file for the first time in this PictureThis session, you see a prompt asking you to enter a file specification. The second line of this prompt is a file specification with the current directory, "*" for the filename, and "EPS" for the extension. (We strongly recommend using the extension "EPS" for Encapsulated PostScript files created with PictureThis.) If you press Enter, a directory appears for the file specification on the second line. Use the cursor keys to move the block cursor, and press Enter when the filename which you wish to use is highlighted. If you press Esc, you back out to the previous prompt. To see the directory for a different "wild card" file specification, key in that specification at the file 81 specification prompt; an appropriate directory appears. The new specification becomes the current specification for the next EPS file save. Alternatively, at the file specification prompt you can key in the desired filename (with an extension and the appropriate operating system path specification if necessary) for saving. If this file already exists, you are asked if you want to write over it. An Esc from the file specification prompt backs out ALL THE WAY TO THE FILES MENU. After the file specification is selected in one of the above ways, two more prompts appear. "Created by?" is the first. Key in an appropriate response, then press Enter (or just press Enter). "Title?" is the next prompt that appears. Key in a title for your drawing, and press Enter (or just press Enter). These last two prompt answers have no effect on your printed drawing. They are put in the "comments" section at the beginning of the file you are saving (along with the date of file creation, as indicated by the operating system clock); they sometimes are used by page layout programs to aid in file identification. Wait until disk activity has stopped before you continue. (If you get an error message, attempt to correct the problem, then try again.) Encapsulated PostScript files (EPSFs) produced by PictureThis contain only ASCII characters, so they can be viewed with the operating system "TYPE" command, and they can be edited with most word processing programs; also, they can be merged with other PostScript files (see Section 19.8), such as those produced by page layout programs (some of which have the ability to recognize EPSFs for positioning and scaling). PostScript files created by PictureThis can also be delivered directly to PostScript-compatible output devices to produce printed output. If you know how to program in PostScript, you can modify the output by appropriate editing of the PostScript files. 82