i . M a g e

This is a alpha version just to get things rolling and get some of your feedback. i.Mage is a simple graphics editor inspired by the late great Deluxe Paint II for Amiga and PC's. This program is a result of my frustration with main stream editors like Photoshop and Corel Photopaint's ability to do simple tasks in a timely manner. To start such an application can take 30 seconds or more... for what? Just cropping a screenshot? Well there has to be a better way I thought. So I started coding and heres my fruits of my labour, not finished by any means but it is starting to be really useful to me for a variety of tasks.

Contents

Installation

Installation mainly consists of unzipping the files in the distribution archive to a new subdirectory somewhere on your hard disk. Remember to maintain the paths inside the zip file. If you don't then the help won't work and the i.Mage directory will be a big mess of files. Once you have unzipped the software you can plonk a shortcut to image.exe in the start menu or on your desktop as you prefer.

Then start image.exe and click Tools -> Register File Types. You will be displayed a list of file types that image can handle. Select the ones you want associated with i.Mage and click Register and Ok.

Thus i.Mage is installed.

Uninstallation
From i.Mage's menu select Tools -> Register File Types. Select all the items, select Unregister and Ok.

Delete the directory you unzipped i.Mage into.

It's as simple as that... no messy registry settings, no dll's clogging up your windows directory, no mucking about. Thats what i.Mage is.

Concepts
i.Mage has only one "document" open at a time. This document is a linear array of pixels of a given bit depth, either 8 bit indexed colour or 16/24/32 bit true colour. The same document is displayed in both the right and left panes at different zoom levels. The left pane shows the pixels zoomed to a specified level and the right pane shows pixel for pixel.

When you select part of an i.Mage it is copied into whats known as the "brush". The brush is just another bitmap which attaches itself to the mouse cursor as it travels over the document. If you click while holding the brush over the document the brush is combined with the document using the current opererator. The brush is not the windows clipboard. Although it can be easily copyed and pasted to and from the clipboard.

The current operator is the method of combining source colours with the document. The default mode is just to overwrite the document with the source but you can also use binary operators and an alpha operator.

Tools
Tools that use the current colour will use the foreground colour on a left click and the background colour on a right click.

The primitive tools can either be filled or outline. You can select which behaviour using the icon.

Brush Tool

This tool is currently pretty much just like the freehand tool. But what is of interest is it's properties (accessed by right clicking) allow you to set the operator.
Select/Paste Tool
When there is no brush this tool allows you to select a rectangular region from which a new brush is created. Selecting the tool always clears the brush.

Once a brush is created this tool alows you to paste the brush on to the document.

Eye Dropper Tool
The eyedropper will pick up the colour when you click on the document and place it in the current foreground colour (left click) or current background colour (right click)
Magnify Tool
Will center the zoomed view around the location clicked in the normal view.
Text Tool
Is currently still in development. Check in out in the next version.
Flood Fill Tool
Fills with the current colour till the boundry of the colour clicked on.
Freehand Tool
Draws a freehand line in the current colour.
Line/Circle/Ellipse/Square/Rectangle Tools
Draws a primitive in the current colour and fill setting.
Polygon Tool
Draws a polygon in the current colour and fill setting. Place each point in the polygon using the left mouse button. Use the right mouse button to complete the object.
Colour cells and the Palette
Next to the tools palette is the colour selection and palette. This control allows you to see and edit the current foreground and background colours and the documents palette.

The foreground colour (upper left) and background colour (lower right) can be set by left clicking. A colour selection dialog is opened with various methods of colour selection displayed on different tabs.

You can drag and drop the foreground or background colour to append that colour to the palette by right clicking a dragging to the palette control. Typically this only is useful when editing a true colour document because a paletted document already has a palette. I'm thinking of having two palettes under different tabs for the document palette and another "scratch" palette of your own colours.

The palette control shows the current palette. True colour images can have a palette as well, except that it isn't saved with the graphic and doesn't effect the look of the document at all. To edit a colour, double click on it. To select it into the foreground colour, use a single left click. Hold the ctrl button down to select into the background colour. Right clicking on the palette brings up the palette menu. This allows you to set a range of colours, make gradients, swap ranges, load and save the palette and set the palette to some useful defaults. The copy and paste options don't use the system clipboard but are internal to the palette control itself. You can select a range of entries by clicking and dragging. You can resize the palette using the bottom-right hand corner. The colours reflow to fit the window. This is useful if you want to view the palette in a certain dimension.

Views
Zoom (left pane)

The left pane contains the zoomed view of the document. To adjust the zoom level click on the icon. Left click magnifies and right click zooms out. The icon toggles the grid. Right clicking on it brings up the tiling settings. Tiling is drawing a grid line of a different colour every often across the zoomed view. This is useful for drawing icons and other similarly sized objects.

Normal (right pane)

The right pane contains the 1:1 view of the document. Both panes will scroll to keep the portion of the document under the cursor in view. This means when you click and drag outside the visible section of the document the view will scroll in the direction of the mouse.

Donation-ware
i.Mage is donation-ware. If you like it then donate... if not then delete it. There are no nag screens or crippled functions.

All paying users will receive generous support and priority bug fixes / features. Email me of you want details on how to donate :)

Contact Information
Requirements
© 1996-1999 Matthew Allen