Copyright: (c) 1994 MatchWare
Citation: medi8or designer Version 2.0


Picture tool

Use the picture object to add pictures or drawings to a page. Pictures from disk must have of the following formats:

BMP	CUT	DIB	GIF	JPG	PCT	PCX	TGA	TIF	WMF

Windows graphic formats for DIP, BMP and WMF are supported if pictures are pasted from the clipboard. Place a picture object on a page by selecting the picture tool from the toolbox and then move the object from one corner to the diagonal opposite corner. The following dialog will appear:

Select the picture here. If you wish to use a picture from disk, enter the name in the field or click the "Select" button to browse your hard disk for the picture file.

Bitmap pictures allow you to maintain the picture size and/or the X and Y aspects. This will prevent any distortion of the picture. The pixels are shown 1:1 if the picture size is maintained.

Use The clipboard by first entering/selecting (BMP or WMF format) a file name and then clicking the clipboard button.

The Edit/Convert button will start the Chameleon program with the selected picture. The picture can now be altered and converted to another format. The file extension is automatically changed if the picture is converted. When the picture is altered, Chameleon must be closed before continuing in medi8or. The Edit/Convert button is disabled for WMF drawings.

Chameleon can be replaced with other similar programs by adding/changing the following line in the medi8or.ini file (use an ASCII editor e.g.  notepad) in the section [PictureObject]:

EditPrg=C:\ ... xxxxx.exe (full path to the program)

Double-click the picture to change an already existing picture. The Picture object adds the menu item "Hotspots" to the local menu.

Color reduction in 256 color mode

A page can only contain one picture with 256 colors. If more pictures with 256 colors or more are contained on one page the system will use a on the fly color reduction with a fixed palette.

Picture objects can react to the following events:

Move into

Move out of

Mouse down

Mouse up

Hide object

Timer

Show object

See also :

Events

Event dialog

Actions

Toolbox


BMP
BMP	Windows bitmap (or OS/2 variation)

Formats	Black/white, 4 and 8 bit grey scale, 4 and 8 bit palette, 24 bit RGB.
Compression	None and RLE

The BMP file format offers the best compatibility with other programs (especially when compression is not used). The pictures take up space. However, they load fast from disk.


CUT
CUT	Halo Device Independent Image File Format

Formats	8 bit grey scale and 8 bit palette
Compression	RLE (variation of RLE)

Compatible with Media Cybernetics Dr.HALO, HALO DPE, Grey F/X, HALO F/X and Image Pro.


GIF
GIF	Graphics Interchange Format

Formats	Black and white, 4 and 8 bit grey scale, 4 and 8 bit palette.
Compression	LZW

Compatible with the GIF89a specification. The GIF format is suitable for pictures in 256 colors (gives a good size/speed proportion) and is supported by almost all draw programs today.


JPG
JPEG	File Interchange Format

Formats	8 bit grey scale and 24 bit RGB.
Compression	JPEG

JPEG is the best  format when it comes to the size of photo realistic pictures. The format does not preserve the picture pixel by pixel. Instead it creates a general impression close to the original picture (depending on the compression factor). A high compression factor gives a relatively long decompression time.


PCT
PCT	Apple Macintosh PICT Format

Formats	Black and white, 4 and 8 bit palette, 24 bit RGB.
Compression	None and Macintosh PackBits RLE

Reads ICT version 1 or 2, only bitmap data (i.e. bitmap data, not vector).


PCX
PCX	Zsoft Image File Format

Formats	Black and white, 4 and 8 bit palette, 24 bit RGB.

Compression	None and RLE (variation of RLE)

Compatible with PC Paintbrush®, Publisher’s Paintbrush® and Microsoft Paintbrush read files marked as Zsoft software version 2.0, 2.8 and 3.0 answering to PCX file format version 5.


TGA
TGA	Truvision TGA

Formats	Black and white, 4 and 8 bit palette, 24 bit RGB.
Compression	None and RLE (variation of RLE).


TIF
TIF	Tag Image File Format

Formats	Black and white, 4 and 8 bit palette, 24 bit RGB.
Compression	None, Macintosh PackBits RLE,
LZW, LZW w. Horiz diff,
CCITT Huffman 1D, CCITT Group 3 and 4  fax encoding

Reads TIFF files answering to Revision 5 of the TIFF specification.


WMF
WMF	Windows metafile

Windows metafiles contain vector information instead of bitmap data. The advantage for  metafiles is a free scale and transparent areas. Most Windows vector draw programs can export in WMF format.

Remember to unmark the "Place Header" in Corel Draw.


Hotspots

Hotspots are not available in this demo version.


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