@database "Icon Deluxe" @width 75 @node Main "Icon Deluxe documentation" Icon Deluxe Version 1.10 by Brian Tietz Copyright 1995 @{" Overview " link Overview} @{" Installation " link Installation} @{" Loading Icons " link LoadIcons} @{" Icon Size " link IconSize} @{" Window Size " link WindowSize} @{" Drawing Tools " link DrawTools} @{" Undo Feature " link Undo} @{" Gadgets " link Gadgets} @{" Menus " link Menus} @{" Keyboard Shortcuts " link Shortcuts} @{" Dealing with errors " link Errors} @{" Copyright " link Copyright} @{" Why Icon Deluxe? " link Why} @{" Registering " link Registering} @{" Plea for help!!! " link Plea} @{" History " link History} @endnode @node Overview " Overview " OVERVIEW: The Icon Deluxe screen has a few prominent features. The most obvious is the editing area. In the editing area, the icon is drawn. If the image will not fit entirely within the drawing area, Icon Deluxe draws as much as possible. The hidden portion can be seen and edited by scrolling the view using the arrow keys or the move view gadgets. A border is drawn around the image to show exactly where the drawing area ends given the current icon size. The border may be turned off using a button if available or the Hide border menu item. In the lower right corner of the border is a handle which allows you to change the size of the icon. The size may also be changed using the icon size numeric string gadgets. Next to the drawing area is the palette. It allows you to choose the current drawing color. The number of colors may be changed using the depth menu item. Below the palette are the move view and move image button arrays. Move view is represented by an image of an eye. It moves the location of your view if the icon won't fit entirely on the screen. Move image is represented by an image of a disk, and it scrolls the image within the drawing region. Be careful, as it cuts off the edge of the image as it moves out of the drawing area. Any number of subsequent moves may be undone using the undo button. There are other buttons and gadgets, all of which are documented below. @endnode @node Installation " Installation " INSTALLATION: IconDeluxe can be installed using the install icon. However, you must have Commodore's Install utility for the script to work. If you don't have the Install utility, you can still install Icon Deluxe by placing the files IconDeluxe and IconDeluxe.guide wherever you want them (I recommend SYS:Tools). @endnode @node LoadIcons " Loading Icons " LOADING ICONS: There are a number of ways which Icon Deluxe supports for loading icons to edit. The most obvious is the Load menu item. Less obviously, Icon Deluxe's window is an AppWindow, which means that you can drop icons from the workbench into IconDeluxe's window, and Icon Deluxe will automatically load the icon for editing. Furthermore, you can click select an icon to edit when you start Icon Deluxe. That means that when starting Icon Deluxe, if you select Icon Deluxe's icon and then hold down the shift key and double click on any icon, Icon Deluxe will open its window and the icon you double clicked will be loaded so you can edit it. Finally, Icon Deluxe accepts an icon name as a command line argument from the CLI. Most people use the workbench, and if so, this still helps you, because there are many programs out there, such as ToolsX, which allow you to add programs to the workbench's tools menu. In ToolsX, if you select an icon and then select an item from the tools menu, you can have ToolsX pass the name of that icon to the program as a command line argument (in ToolsX, this is done by entering "run >NIL: Path/IconDeluxe %s" in the command string. Other tools menu managing programs probably have similar features.) @endnode @node IconSize " Icon Size " ICON SIZE: Commodore's user interface guidelines state that icons should be no larger than 80x40 pixels. Icon Deluxe does not enforce this limit, since many icons already exist which are larger than that which you may wish to edit. It does, however, try to discourage you from creating icons which are larger than this limit. If you resize or create an icon such that it becomes larger than the limit, Icon Deluxe will warn you that you have exceeded the limit, but will allow you to continue if you wish. For normal users that's no problem, but for commercial developers, I strongly recommend that you adhere to these guidelines. Icon Deluxe's actual size limit is 400x400 pixels, which is far more than enough. @endnode @node WindowSize " Window Size " WINDOW SIZE: Icon Deluxe's window setup is dependent on the size of the workbench screen. For screens which are too small to fit the normal one, it opens a window small enough to fit on the screen, which lacks the border on/off, zoom grid on/off, and tool types buttons. It also has a smaller drawing area. All of the missing features are still available in the menu, regardless of window size. To have all of these features available through gadgets, you must open on a larger workbench. Icon Deluxe is completely font-friendly, so if you are using a high-resolution workbench and choose to use a larger system default font for readability, Icon Deluxe will accept and use it. @endnode @node DrawTools " Drawing Tools " DRAWING TOOLS: @{" Freehand and lines " link Freehand} @{" Rectangle, ellipse, and polygon " link Rectangle} @{" Flood, block, and text " link Flood} @endnode @node Freehand " Freehand " FREEHAND DOTS: The freehand dots tool is used to set single pixels to the current color. When the left mouse button is clicked, a single pixel is set. If the mouse button is held down and the mouse moved, dots appear as the mouse is moved, however they are not connected. This continues until the mouse button is released. FREEHAND CONNECTED: The freehand connected tool is a lot like the freehand dots tool, but instead of individual dots, a line is drawn from the last dot to the next, so that all of the dots are connected. FREEHAND FILLED: The freehand filled tool is available when the fill button is selected. This drawing tool behaves a lot like the freehand connected drawing tool, but when the mouse button is released, the area outlined is filled in. HORIZONTAL/VERTICAL LINE: This horizontal/vertical line drawing tool is used to draw lines which are aligned horizontally or vertically. Click on the starting point, then click on the ending point and the line will be drawn. While drawing is in progress, the zoom and move view gadgets or the corresponding keys may be used without terminating the operation. NORMAL LINE: The line drawing tool is used to draw lines in the current color. Click on the starting point, then click on the ending point and the line will be drawn. While drawing is in progress, the zoom and move view gadgets or the corresponding keys may be used without terminating the operation. @endnode @node Rectangle " Rectangle " For any of these tools, while drawing is in progress, the zoom and move view gadgets or the corresponding keys may be used without terminating the operation. RECTANGLE: The rectangle drawing tool is used to draw unfilled rectangles. Click where you want one corner to be, then click where the opposite one should be and the rectangle will be rendered. FILLED RECTANGLE: The filled rectangle drawing tool is used to draw filled rectangles. Click where you want one corner to be, then click where the opposite one should be and the filled rectangle will be rendered. ELLIPSE: The ellipse drawing tool is used to draw unfilled ellipses and circles. Click where you want the center to be, then move the icon until the ellipse looks right. Click again to render. The mouse position relative to the center determines the x and y radii. FILLED ELLIPSE: The filled ellipse drawing tool is used to draw filled ellipses and circles. Click where you want the center to be, then move the icon until the ellipse looks right. Click again to render. POLYGON: The polygon drawing tool is used to draw filled polygons in the current color. Click on the starting point, then click on subsequent vertices. When you click on the starting point again, the polygon is closed and rendered. @endnode @node Flood " Flood " FLOOD FILL: Click where you want to perform a flood fill operation. All adjacent pixels of the same color will be set to the current drawing color. BLOCK CUT AND PASTE: To cut out a block, click where you want one corner to be, then click on the opposite corner. While this is in progress, the zoom and move view gadgets or the corresponding keys may be used without terminating the operation. The block will be copied to the paste buffer and the cut out area will be cleared to background color. The drawing tool will then be set to paste tool. Click where you want the upper left corner of the image to be, and it will be drawn. The image can be pasted as many times as you want until another action is performed. TEXT: The text insertion drawing tool allows you to type text into the image. Click where you want to insert the text and the editor will allow you to enter text until you hit return or escape. The only arrow key that has an effect is the left arrow, and it works just like backspace, moving back a space and deleting the last character. The zoom gadget may be used while text entry is in progress, and the color may be changed without interrupting the operation. @endnode @node Undo " Undo feature " UNDO FEATURE: The undo feature allows you to undo the last action pertaining to the image, for example drawing something. If by selecting complement or backfill selection you lose the selected image, the undo feature can be used to set the select mode back to image and restore the lost image. Undo may not be used to undo changes to the size of the image, nor may it be used to undo changes to non-image aspects of the icon. Undo remembers the last undo-able action even when switching image views or scrolling. @endnode @node Gadgets " Gadgets " GADGETS: Palette: Select the color you wish to draw in. Move view: Moves the the view so you can work on an icon that does not fit completely on the screen. (Usually when in zoom mode) Move image: Moves the icon image within its frame. Normal/selected: Selects which icon image you wish to edit. Border: Selects whether you wish to have the work area border showing. Zoom grid: Selects whether you want a grid to show where each pixel is. (Only in zoom mode) Tool types: Allows you to edit an icon's @{"tool types" link ToolTypes}. (See "Using the System Software" which came with your Amiga) Width/height: Allows you to set the size of the icon image. It applies to both images if highlight is set for image. Size handle: Allows you to set the size of the icon image by dragging the corner of the image border. Default tool: Allows you to set this icon's default tool. (Only for project and disk icon types) Stack: Allows you to select the stack size to use with the program which this icon will run. (Only for tool and project icon types) @endnode @node ToolTypes " Tool Types " TOOL TYPES: The tool types window contains two gadgets and a list. The add gagdet adds a new tool type to the list and selects the list's text entry gadget. Once the text has been entered, hitting return updates the list. The add gadget can be accessed via the keyboard by hitting a. The delete gadget deletes the currently selected tool type. @endnode @node Menus " Menus " MENUS: @{" Project " link Project} @{" Icon " link Icon} @{" Image " link Image} @{" Miscellaneous " link Miscellaneous} @endnode @node Project " Project " Project New Resets the icon back to the default icon. Open... Brings up a requester to select an icon to open. Save Saves the icon's to disk as a .info file. Save as... Brings up a requester to save the icon with a new name. Note that for disk icons, the icon should be named Disk.info and saved in the disk that you want to have the icon. Revert Reverts the icon to the last saved version Make default Allows you to make this icon the amiga's default icon for files of this type. (i.e. tool, project, disk) About... Gives you information about Icon Deluxe. Help... Brings up this help window. Quit Exits Icon Deluxe. @endnode @node Icon " Icon " Icon Type Sets the icon to one of the following types: Disk, Device, Drawer, Tool, Project, Garbage, Kickstart Select mode When you click an icon to select it, one of three methods is used to indicate that it is selected: Image The icon has a second image for when it is selected. Backfill Backfills the icon image. Complement Inverses the icon image colors. (Most one-image icons use this by default, but Backfill actually looks better a lot of the time) Tool types... Allows you to edit an icon's @{"tool types" link ToolTypes}. (Same as tool types gadget; see "Using the System Software" which came with your Amiga) Frame height-1 Some icons (for example, the default drawer icon under 2.04) have the frame height reduced by one pixel to make them look better. This option will reduce the frame height by one when saving. @endnode @node Image " Image " Image Load IFF Allows you to load an IFF file and use it as the normal image or selected image. For images smaller than 400x400, they are loaded and used as-is, but for images larger than that, they may be loaded and scaled down to the current icon size. Save IFF Allows you to save the icon's normal image or selected image as an IFF file. Load icon image Allows you to load the normal image of another icon and use it as the normal or selected image for this one. Load icon sel image Allows you to load the selected image of another icon and use it as the normal or selected image for this one. Swap images Exchanges the normal and selected images. Copy to other Copies the currently displayed image to the other one. Clear Clears the currently displayed image. Resize Perform various resizing and flipping operations on the icon's images. Arbitrary Allows the image to be stretched to any size. If the size drag handle is visible, move the mouse until the box is the size you want, then click. You may also click the width gadget to abort the drag operation and enter the new size directly. If the size drag handle is not visible, then the numerical size gadgets are activated. Swap colors... Exchanges every instance of two colors. You will be asked to click on the colors within the palette which you wish to swap. Hit escape before selecting second color to abort. Replace color... Replaces every instance of one color with another. You will be asked to click the color in the palette which you want replaced, then the color you want it replaced with. Hit escape before the second color to abort. @endnode @node Miscellaneous " Miscellaneous " Miscellaneous View Selects which image you want to view and edit. Colors Selects how many colors you want this icon to have. You cannot edit an icon with more colors than the workbench screen, so the 8 and 16 color items may me disabled. To enable them, exit Icon Deluxe and use the ScreenMode preferences tool to give the workbench screen more colors. Palette... Allows you to edit the workbench palette. Set text font... Selects the font which you want to use for drawing text into the image. Hide border Selects whether you wish to have the work area border showing. (Same as border gadget) Zoom grid Selects whether you want a grid to show where each pixel is. (Only in zoom mode; same as zoom grid gadget) Black grid Selects whether you want the grid drawn in black or grey. (Only in zoom mode) Load brush... Allows you to load an iff brush and paste it Brush handle Allows you to select where the mouse holds the brush @endnode @node Shortcuts " Keyboard Shortcuts " KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS: Arrow keys - Move the view area (See move view gadgets) Shift-arrow keys - Move the view area a full screen width or height Alt-arrow keys - Move the view area all the way to the corresponding edge of the image R - Rectangle drawing tool E - Ellipse drawing tool L - Skew line drawing tool H - Horizontal and vertical line drawing tool P - Filled polygon tool D - Freehand drawing tool F - Flood fill drawing tool B - Block cut/paste drawing tool T - Text insert drawing tool Z - Zooms in on the image U - Undoes last action I - Toggles between normal and selected images Amiga L - Load icon Amiga S - Save icon Amiga Q - Exit Icon Deluxe Amiga H - Cut the image size in half Amiga D - Double the image size Amiga F - Change text fonts Amiga B - Selects whether you wish to have the work area border showing (Same as border gadget) Amiga G - Selects whether you want a grid to show where each pixel is (Only in zoom mode; same as zoom grid gadget) @endnode @node Errors " Dealing with errors " ERRORS: Don't worry, Icon Deluxe doesn't have any major bugs. However, it does not currently work under 3.0+, though I'd like to fix that. It does not work on OS revisions earlier than 2.04. Most users will not encounter any errors, but just in case, I've included explanations for the ones you might run into. I can be reached at btietz@ucsd.edu to answer any questions and help resolve any problems which might arise. Error: Window won't fit on Workbench Your screen font and/or system default font are too big. The largest font I've been able to use and fit Icon Deluxe on a 640x400 workbench is Courier 18. Note that the window needs to fit both vertically, and horizontally, so even an 8-pt font might result in this error if it is a really wide font. Error: Couldn't allocate memory for image Error: Couldn't allocate undo bitmap memory Both of these errors will arise if you are almost out of chip memory. This should only happen if you're loading a really big icon, since even an 80x40, 16 color, double image icon only uses 4800 bytes, including the undo bitmap. There are many other instances where Icon Deluxe might report not enough memory for some operation. Usually it is chip memory that you're low on, and these conditions are not fatal; the operation just fails. To free up more chip memory, quit any programs you have running which have open screens or windows. Couldn't find path to MultiView or AmigaGuide MultiView or AmigaGuide is needed for online help. If you don't have either of these programs, try to get them or open a shell and type: MakeLink SYS:Utilities/AmigaGuide C:More or replace C:More with your favorite text viewer. If you do this, you'll probably want to use a text editor to strip the AmigaGuide instructions out of this file. Icon Deluxe searches your path to find AmigaGuide or MultiView. SYS:Tools and SYS:Utilities are both in the path by default. If you've taken them out of the path, put them back! You should not change Startup-sequence. This error could also occur if you've moved MultiView or AmigaGuide so that they are no longer in your search path. If you've done so, edit User-startup and add the line "Path add ", with being the path where AmigaGuide or MultiView are stored, or make a link from SYS:Utilities/AmigaGuide to where you currently keep AmigaGuide with the MakeLink command as above. @endnode @node Copyright " Copyright " COPYRIGHT: The registered version is copyrighted and may not be distributed, so please do not allow it to be pirated. Ten dollars isn't much, so anybody who wants or uses it can afford it. If you use IconDeluxe, please register and encourage me to write more cheap but high-quality Amiga software. The public version is full-featured and is not "cripple-ware." It does have a short delay before saving the icon, to remind and encourage the user to register. It's not long, just long enough to contemplate the hundreds of hours I spent writing this program when I should have been studying so you could harvest the fruits of my labors. Do you feel guilty yet? Hee hee... The public version is freely distributable and perfectly usable, so please spread it around. @{" Register " link Registering} @endnode @node Why " Why Icon Deluxe " WHY I SPENT SO MUCH TIME WRITING ICON DELUXE AND WHY YOU SHOULD USE IT: Icon Deluxe was written by me in my spare time while attending college. I wrote it because of frustration with the icon editor that comes on the extras disk. I disliked the fact that it enforces the 80x40 size limit, since that means you can't edit existing icons which are larger than that, not even to cut them down to size, and there are many, especially for games, that are larger than the size limit. I also didn't like the fact that the enlarged pixels are still too small to work with easily, that you can't insert text into the bitmap, that you can't click select icons to edit, that you can't cut and paste blocks, and the list goes on. There are other icon editors in the public domain, but all the ones I saw had as many problems as the Commodore one. I figured that many other users and developers probably felt the same frustration, so I set out to write an icon editor which is powerful and easy to use. I think I've accomplished this. If you think so too, you can reward me for the hundreds of hours I spent writing it by @{"registering" link Registering}. @endnode @node Registering " Registering " @next Plea REGISTERING ICON DELUXE: If you like Icon Deluxe, or are just sick of the save delay and seeing the about window when the program first starts up, then you can reward me for the hundreds of hours I spent writing it by sending a small contribution of $10 (or equivalent in other currencies). If you have done so already, I would like to express my thanks to you, as that $10 fed me for a week. If you have not registered, think of all the time I spent writing this for you, and how nice it would be to help out a poor student who's struggling to get by. In return, I will send you the registered version of Icon Deluxe, which does not include the save delay or open the about window at startup as does the public version. I'll also send updates to all registered users for bug fixes and added features. For bug reports or feature requests, I can be reached on the internet at btietz@ucsd.edu. If you would like to get the source code to Icon Deluxe, send an extra $5. The source is very well commented so beginning programmers should have no trouble understanding and learning from it, and even skilled programmers might find some of the code useful. Send cash, check, or money order payable to Brian Tietz. Non-U.S. currency is fine, just send the equivalent amount using current exchange rates. Icon Deluxe Brian Tietz 9256 A Regents Rd. La Jolla, CA 92037 USA If you have an email account, and wish to have the registered version of Icon Deluxe emailed to you in uuencoded format to get it @{"faster" link Faster}, just include your email address. Thanks in advance! @endnode @node Faster " Getting Icon Deluxe faster " The actual time varies from @{"a few milliseconds" link MilliSec} to a minute or so. It depends on how fast the data connection is. @endnode @node MilliSec " A few milliseconds " That's really fast. @endnode @node Plea " Plea for user feedback " @prev Registering @next History WHAT AMIGAS ICON DELUXE WORKS ON: I think IconDeluxe works on all amigas. With previous versions of Icon Deluxe, I've recieved conflicting reports about it not working on certain systems. I thought that it just didn't work under 3.0, but then I found out that IconDeluxe DOES work under 3.0; it seems that it had a problem with 68030 and 040 processors, possibly stemming from incorrectly obtaining the workbench address. I think this bug has been fixed, and it probably will work on all amigas now, but I am using a 68000 A500 with 2.04 to write Icon Deluxe, so I can't be sure... I would REALLY appreciate it if I could get some feedback from people with the following configurations: 68030's; 2.04/2.1 68040's; 2.04/2.1 A500, A1000, A2000, A2500, A3000; 3.x A1200 A4000 to make sure it really works on these configurations. (@{"PLEASE!!!" link Please}) And if it fails for anyone, on any system configuration, @{"please" link Please} let me know so I can get it working for everybody. I can be reached at btietz@ucsd.edu, or via snail mail at: Icon Deluxe Brian Tietz 9256 A Regents Rd. La Jolla, CA 92037 USA Thanks in advance! @endnode @node Please " Please!!! " Please please please please please!!! Pretty please with sugar on top! @endnode @node History " History " @prev Plea HISTORY: Started October, 1991 Began 2nd revision January 8, 1992 Finished version 1.00 May 8, 1995 Version 1.01 May 13, 1995: Fixed minor bug in size drag handle Version 1.02 May 14, 1995: Fixed minor bug in arbitrary resize, added graphical resizing to arbitrary resize, fixed minor bug in processing of command line argument Version 1.03 May 16, 1995: Fixed bug in save as and load when no file specified (for loading a drawer) Version 1.04 June 7, 1995: Fixed bug in online help (it used to lock up the program until help is closed), added file name to window title bar, fixed display bug when reducing icon depth Version 1.05 June 15, 1995: Fixed minor bug in flood fill and clear image Version 1.06 July 5, 1995: Fixed bug in keyboard shortcuts Version 1.07 July 18, 1995: Fixed potential bug in drawing font loading, added ability to load IFF images larger than 400x400 and scale them down, added wait pointer Version 1.08 July 25, 1995: Fixed bug in load icon image to options, which couldn't load the icon of a drawer or disk, and added option to chop one pixel vertically when saving, also eliminating the report that the icon size is inconsistent when a default drawer icon is loaded, fixed behavior of file requesters Version 1.09 August 19, 1995: Fixed bug in horizontal line drawing tool, changed border of string gadgets to conform with style guide, enlarged tool buttons, gave paste brush its own image, enlarged work area, added install script, added Revert, added more keyboard controls, fixed potential bug in requesters, improved how help file is dealt with Version 1.10 September 3,1995: Changed help file path handling again, now it is stored in the tool types; thanks to Barry McConnell for the idea and for harassing me enough to actually rewrite that part of the program ;^) (that's how it should have been in the first place), also added keyboard access to tool types window add gadget, started correcting for a bug in one of the C library functions, fixed reduced frame height of startup icon bug Version 1.11 September 11, 1995: Fixed bug which causes possibly setting the workbench depth too high on 3.0 systems. @{"Might have fixed" link Plea} bug which could result in using an invalid workbench pointer. @endnode