Email Effects enables conversion of pictures into text. This works by using darker characters (such as %$#) for darker areas of the picture and lighters ones (such as .,') for lighter areas of the picture.

If Custom Picture Characters is on in the Preferences, pictures are converted using the characters specified, otherwise Email Effects will automatically choose characters that will look good. In both cases, pictures are automatically contrasted and sampled for darkness before being converted to text.

To convert a picture, simply paste it in from the clipboard or drag it into the document from another program. It will instantly appear in a picture selection, ready for manipulation. You can also choose Place from the File menu to place a PICT picture file (or many other formats, including GIFs and JPEGs if QuickTime translation is available) into the document.

Move the picture by pressing the arrow keys on the keyboard or dragging it.

Resize the picture by dragging one of the edges of the selected rectangle. The way in which the resizing takes place will depend of the Picture Scaling setting.

Delete the picture by pressing the delete or escape key on the keyboard or choosing Clear from the Edit menu.

The Transparent button on the toolbar controls whether a picture is transparent or opaque. If it is transparent, blank space characters in the picture will let the underlying design show through.

The Picture Scaling button on the toolbar toggles between three different scaling modes :

If set to Direct, the height/width ratio of the picture will be the same as the rows/columns ratio of the characters produced. This will produce accurate results for pixel-accurate visual elements such as icons, but the results will be elongated (because characters on screen are taller than they are wide).

If set to Proportional, the height/width ratio of the picture will be the same as the height/width ratio of the results on the screen. This will produce natural-looking results for pictures, but will result in a reduction of the vertical resolution. This may cause problems with pixel-accurate visual elements such as icons.

If set to Free, the picture may be freely stretched horizontally and vertically. This is the most versatile mode and will allow for experimentation for best results.