OFF WORLD SOFTWARE presents ELECTRIC IMAGE by Nigel Head Written in STOS Basic N.B. This help file is available by pressing HELP whilst on the menu screen. @ Upon loading (auto-boot) you are presented with the menu screen. ---------------------------------------- | 1 | 2 | 3 | | 19| 20| 21| ------------- ELECTRIC ------------- | 4 | 5 | 6 | IMAGE | 22| 23| 24| ------------- ------------- : 7 : 8 : 9 :--------------| 25| 26| 27| ------------- ------------ ------------- | 10| 11| 12| | | | 28| 29| 30| ------------- | IMAGE | ------------- | 13| 14| 15| | WINDOW | | 31| 32| 33| ------------- | | ------------- | 16| 17| 18| | | | 34| 35| 36| ------------- ------------ ------------- ------------------------------------- | CC| C0| C1| C2| C3| C4| C5| C6| C7| ------------------------------------- |PAL| C8| C9|C10|C11|C12|C13|C14|C15| ------------------------------------- @ To get to the drawing screen either click the mouse's right button, or click the left button while pointing at the image window in the centre of the screen. To return to the menu click the right button again. Throughout Electric Image the right mouse button will always take you back one step (if in the middle of a drawing operation it will allow you to start/ restart that operation, if on the drawing screen, but not drawing, it will return you to the menu screen). The pointer and the left mouse button will select an option. Double click to redefine that option (e.g. alter brush or pencil type). The Undo key will undo all actions made since leaving the menu screen. @ Pressing the Space Bar will display the X and Y co-ordinates of the mouse pointer. Press it again to return to normal operation. Colours are selected by clicking on the chosen colour (C0 to C15). The current colour is displayed in CC. To mix new colours click on PAL (described later). There follows a list of instructions for each option. Where use is self evident no instruction is given. Most will only select an option. You must click in the image window or press the right mouse button to go to the drawing screen. 1. FREE-HAND DRAWING Double click on this option to alter the size and style of pen/pencil used. (Right mouse button to return to menu screen). @ 2. ERASER Note: this erases in the current ink colour. This may seem odd at first but, unless your entire background is colour 0 (unlikely), it is of much more use. 3. RULER For drawing straight lines. Click on the start then finish positions. The next line will start where the last one ended. To start a new line click the right mouse button. 4. CIRCLE (OUTLINE) Click on the centre, then move the mouse horizontally. Click again to set circle (right button to cancel). 5. CIRCLE (SOLID) As above. N.B. all solid shapes use the pattern selected with 33. @ 6. STRAIGHT LINES FROM ONE POINT As 3, but all lines start from the same point. 7. ELLIPSE (OUTLINE) As 4. Move mouse vertically and horizontally to size circle. 8. ELLIPSE (SOLID) As above. 9. AIR BRUSH Freehand air brush. Double click to set spray size/shape, right button to return to menu screen. 10. BOX (OUTLINE) Click on the top left corner, then move mouse until box is right size, then click again. @ 11. BOX (SOLID) As 10. 12. AIR BRUSH WITH MASK As 9, but will first let you define a mask where the spray will not go. See 16 for how to define mask. Because of the difficulty of redrawing another identical mask in a different colour, you can change colour without returning to the drawing screen by pressing RETURN. 13. ROUND CORNER BOX (OUTLINE) As 10. 14. ROUND CORNER BOX (SOLID) As 10 15. FLOOD FILL Fill an enclosed area with ink or a pattern selected from option 33. @ 16. SOLID SHAPE Draw the outline of a shape as you would with the straight line option (3). When completed click the right mouse button and the last point will be joined to the first and the image filled. 17. TEXT For placing text on screen. Type the text before moving it to the position you want it in. Then click the left mouse button. Double click on this option to select style and background colour for type (the type colour will be the current colour). Click on the typeface itself to change style. 18. SMUDGE/DITHER Smudges the colours under the pointer. @ 19. CLS Clears the current drawing screen. 20. PRINT OPTIONS Print screen, colour settings or a disk directory. Menu driven. 21. SWAP IMAGE There are two drawing screens, each with its own colour settings. Click here to swap between them. N.B. the save option only saves the current screen, not both. 22. CAMERA Take a 'picture' of part or the whole of the current screen. This option works in the same way as the box option (10). The image within the box is stored and can be pasted on screen using options 25, 26 & 27. @ 23. CUT As 22, but leaves a hole behind in the current colour (see 2 for the reasoning behind this). 24. SCROLL Select a box on screen as you would with 10, then press the arrow keys to move the contents of the box in any direction. Right mouse key to end. N.B. whilst scrolling, the undo function will only undo the current scroll area. To undo everything since leaving the menu screen, click the right mouse button and then press undo. 25. PASTE IN FRONT Paste the photographed/cut image on screen. Can be used like a brush. @ 26. PASTE BEHIND As 25, but the image is pasted behind any object already on screen. 27. PASTE TRANSPARENT As 25 but any background colour is left transparent. 28. MAGNIFY Select your screen area and click the left mouse button. This area is enlarged by 400%. LIFT enables you to set the current colour by clicking on it within the magnified area. Clicking on the right mouse button will allow you to select another area to zoom in on. Not selecting another area and clicking on the right mouse button again will return you to the menu screen. @ 29. COPY Copy an area of screen to another area. Draw two boxes on screen (see 10), The contents of one are copied into the other. The boxes DON'T have to be the same size. If you want to set this function so that the second box IS the same size as the first, then double click on the option. 30. MOVE As above, but will leave a hole behind in the first box in the current colour (see 2 for the reasoning for this). 31. BRUSH This works like draw (1), but with a brush of 32 by 32 pixels. To redefine the brush double click on the option. LIFT lets you lift your brush off the drawing screen. @ 32. REPLACE COLOUR Select an area of screen (see 10) and every pixel of the current colour within that area will be changed to any other colour of your choice. To choose the new colour double click on this option. N.B. this does not alter the colour definitions as the Palette option does. 33. SELECT FILL PATERN Click on the pattern/solid you would like the fill command (15) and any solid objects (5, 8, 11, 14 and 16) to use. 34. QUIT End use of Electric Image and LOSE ANY UNSAVED WORK. @ 35. LOAD FROM DISK Load a picture or set of colours from disk. You can load Neochrome (low-res only), Degas or Electric Image's own format compressed images into the current screen. 36. SAVE TO DISK Save a picture or set of colours to disk. You have the same options for saving pictures as for loading them (35), but the compressed option is recommended because it uses a lot less disk space. PAL PALETTE SETTINGS This allows you to set the palette of 16 colours to anything you require. Select the colour to work on and click on the R, G, and B + or - symbols to alter the red, green and blue content of the colour. @ Pressing Undo will return the colours to their original settings. If you get in a mess and can't see what you are doing, press Help and colour 0 will be set to black and colour 1 to white. Clicking on either of the small images of the two drawing screens will set the colours to those used for that screen. If you click on FADE the pointer will change to the word FROM. Click on a colour and it changes to TO. Now click on another colour. All the colours in between will be set to a gradual fade between these two colours. If the second colour is lower than the first, then the fade runs off the end and starts at the beginning again. @ To make the colours, from the currently selected one onward, cycle through each other, click on the arrow to the right of COLOUR CYCLING. This will increase the speed of operation. Clicking on the other arrow will slow down the speed. Clicking on COLOUR CYCLE will stop the cycling. Obviously all the colour functions won't work in high resolution. @ TIPS ==== Though you can use the two drawing screens for different images, it is better to use the second for storing tests, brushes or photos from the first. It can also be used to test an idea that may spoil your masterpiece if not successful. To copy part or all of one screen to the other, you need to use the photo option (22). A photographed or cut area of screen is not lost when you swap screens. If you want to set the colours of one screen to those of the other then make sure the current screen is the one with the wrong colours, use the palette option and click on the other screen. @ END . . .