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***************************************************************************
FREE PAINT REVISION 35 ZETA
© 1991 by Stefan Günter Boldorf,
all rights reserved!
THE FREE PAINT MANUAL
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
© 1991 by Stefan Günter Boldorf,
all rights reserved!
(but first something necessary)
***************************************************************************
LEGAL STUFF
This package consists of the files FPaint, FPaint.info, FreePaint.doc,
FreePaint.doc.info, FreePaintInstall and FreePaintInstall.info.
The package and all its files are NOT Public Domain. However you are
allowed to copy and use the package as long as ALL the following demands
are met. Exception from any of the points below can only be granted by my
expressed written consent.
1. This package may only be distributed in its intact, unchanged form.
Altering, as well as omitting, expanding or any other change of the
package or any part of it is strictly forbidden!
1. Neither this package, nor any portion of it may be included in or
distributed as a commercial product.
2. Neither this package, nor any portion of it may be used commercially.
3. Neither this package, nor any portion of it may appear in an electronic
mailing facility, where an additional charge to your telephone bill is
upheld.
4. The disk, this package is distributed on may not be priced over $6 in
the U.S.A. or the equivalent of DM 6 in Germany or any other country.
5. Neither this package, nor any part of it may appear or be included in
any Public Domain or other disk series without my expressed written
consent.
No guarantees, implicit or explicit are provided. The user is responsible
for all damages resulting directly or indirectly from the use of this pack-
age. I cannot be made liable for any damage resulting in the use or misuse
of the package or any part of it.
Mackenbach, 6th of August 1991
Stefan Günter Boldorf
***************************************************************************
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION
2. FUNDAMENTALS OF FREE PAINT
2.1 HOW TO GET FREE PAINT TO WORK
2.2 A FEW CONVENTIONS FOR THE FURTHER TEXT
2.3 THE MENUBAR
2.4 THE FASTMENU
2.5 THE DRAWING AREA
2.6 FIRST STEPS
3. PAINTING WITH FREE PAINT
3.1 THE SKETCH MODE
3.2 THE SPRAY MODE
3.3 THE LINE MODE
3.4 THE SPLINE MODE
3.5 THE RECTANGULAR MODE
3.6 THE POLYGON MODE
3.7 THE CIRCLE MODE
3.8 THE ELLIPSE MODE
3.9 THE FILL MODE
3.10 THE TEXT MODE
3.11 THE ZOOM MODE
3.12 THE BRUSH MODE
3.13 THE COLOR MODE
3.14 THE DUMP MODE
3.15 THE UNDO MODE
3.16 THE EXIT MODE
3.17 THE ICONIFY MODE
4. THE MENUS OF FREE PAINT
4.1 THE PICTURE MENU
4.2 THE BRUSH MENU
4.3 THE MIXED MENU
5. THE REQUESTORS OF FREE PAINT
5.1 DISK REQUESTOR
5.2 PAGE FORMAT REQUESTOR
5.3 COLOR PALETTE REQUESTOR
5.4 PRINT REQUESTOR
5.5 CHANGE BRUSH REQUESTOR
5.6 BRUSH HANDLE REQUESTOR
5.7 FILL MODE REQUESTOR
5.8 FONT REQUESTOR
5.9 REMAP REQUESTOR
5.10 SPRAY REQUESTOR
5.11 ICONIFY REQUESTOR
6. MESSAGES AND REQUESTS
6.1 THE FREE PAINT MESSAGE SYSTEM
6.2 THE FREE PAINT REQUEST SYSTEM
6.3 THE WORKBENCH REQUESTORS
7. THE OPTIONS OF FREE PAINT
7.1 THE SYNTAX
7.2 THE KEYWORDS
8. KEYBOARD SETTINGS
9. PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION
10. ABOUT THE PICTURES THAT CAME WITH THIS
11. A WORD TO THE USER
***************************************************************************
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 WHAT IS FREE PAINT
What is Free Paint? Well, Free Paint is a painting program for the
Amiga, that lets you draw as 'free'ly as possible. Free Paint is NOT
FREEWARE!!! If you are a beginner in Amiga affairs, this manual may
help you understand this machine even better, some basic knowledge
about Workbench and Amiga-DOS is needed, but nothing exceeding the
Amiga-DOS and Users manual that came with your computer. I you have
used the IconEdit tool you will find this no more complicated. If
in doubt about something, try it out, but make sure it cannot do much
harm (that means if you are sure the damage can be restored or is
negilible, if not ask a friend about it or do not do it at all!). The
intermediate user or hacker may be bored at some places, I admit, but
I urge you to read this manual thorougly! There may be some misspell-
ings and other grammatical errors ( I am neither English nor American),
but it should be understandable.
1.2 WHY WAS FREE PAINT MADE
When you feel the urge to do some drawing on the Amiga the standart
equipment ( I speak of the Extras and Workbench disk) is neither
plentyful nor up to date. The object editor on the Extras disk is a
joke and the IconEdit program has to few tools and is hard to use. The
Public Domain pool for the Amiga contains some rudimentary drawing
programs, such as VDraw, DaVinci or Klecks, but they all lack functions
or are not 'user friendly' (may Shneiderman forgive me!). Then there is
the commercial market, well if you have the money ($100-$150) to buy
one. The solution to the problem may be Free Paint, which is provided
here. It cannot compete with most of the commercial software, but to
my knowledge it is better than any one of the Public Domain programs.
1.3 HOW DO YOU USE THIS MANUAL
This 'manual' was made to provide you with both a guide to the many
functions Free Paint has and a basic tutorial into drawing with it.
You should read this manual before you install or use Free Paint,
or even better make a hardcopy and read it to help you before and
while using Free Paint.
1.4 HOW DO YOU DRAW WITH FREE PAINT
This part of the manual is primarily for the beginner and inexper-
ienced, but may even prove helpful for people with more knowledge.
After starting Free Paint, you will be presented a black screen with
a white menubar, not unlike that of the workbench screen, and on the
right there should be a panel of sixteen symbols and a checkerbord of
thirtytwo different colors. On this panel the symbols are usually
drawn black on a white background, but one is drawn white on a black
background, this symbol shows you which function (or mode as I like to
call it sometimes) will be used when you go to work with your mouse.
Each symbol can be actived by clicking on it or typing a key that is
associated with it (see 3. for information about them). Some functions
will go to work the time you hit their symbol, some require you to
mark points on the black screen, but all the specifics are discussed
below, read section 3. to get to know them. If you want to store a
piece of art to disk, or load it to make changes Free Paint has the
capabilities to interface with most of the art software for the Amiga.
***************************************************************************
2. FUNDAMENTALS OF FREE PAINT
2.1 HOW TO GET FREE PAINT TO WORK
Free Paint can be started three ways, first by CLI, then by clicking
its Workbench icon and last by clicking on an picture or brush icon
that was once made using Free Paint. Free Paint runs under Workbench
1.2 and 1.3, and may even under 2.0 ? You need at least 512KB to run
Free Paint, but to be able to use all graphic modes 1MB is needed.
When you have removed some files from your Workbench it may be hard
for Free Paint to get all the resources it needs to work. (To find out
if Free Paint runs, just double-click it on the Public Domain disk this
package came on, if it works you will not need to install it! In that
case you may skip the following lines and proceed to 2.2.)
I cannot supply all the resources with the Free Paint package because,
as you may know, Commodore has extended its copyright over all files
supplied on a Workbench. One can buy a license, but for a hefty annual
fee, which I do not want to pay. Therefore I have not included the
libraries, needed to use Free Paint. But do not panic, maybe the Public
Domain disk this package is on has them already, and if not there is a
file called 'FPInstall.mil' that has to be clicked on Workbench
which creates a working environment for Free Paint on a separate disk.
This file is a script file for my very own MultiInstall simple script
execution program, that should be in the 'C' drawer of the PD disk.
It can be run from CLI using the line: 'MultiInstall FPInstall.mil'
(well, it is rather slow both ways).
If you are a bit experienced you may like to do the routine yourself,
well Free Paint needs the icon, diskfont, and mathtrans libraries from
your workbench libs drawer to run, also the Workbench should use a
'topaz 8' like font. If you own an Amiga 3000 which to my knowledge does
not have to have the 'topaz 8' font in ROM make sure that there is one
in your 'fonts:' drawer.
2.2 A FEW CONVENTIONS FOR THE FURTHER TEXT
I think this is the place to introduce a few conventions which will be
used in the later text to avoid confusion.
------------------------------------------------ After starting Free
| THE MENUBAR | THE | Paint the screen
-----------------------------------------| | will look like this.
| |FAST-| |
| | | <---+
| THE DRAWING AREA | MENU|
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
------------------------------------------------
When you start Free Paint (or FPaint as I will call it from now on)
a new screen will be opened, and this screen is divided into three
portions. First there is the MENUBAR, just like any normal Amiga
screen on top of the screen, only a little bit larger. Then on the
right hand side appears an area with a couple of symbols on the top
and a color palette on the bottom, this area will be called FASTMENU.
What remains of the screen is the DRAWING AREA. Only on this part of
the screen the painting is done. Since the MENUBAR and the FASTMENU
cover parts of the screen, the whole portion of your picture may not
be in the DRAWING AREA, but still it is stored in the memory. To access
the whole picture you can either move the DRAWING AREA or hide both
MENUBAR and FASTMENU. The place, your whole picture is stored is called
the PAGE. A PAGE may even be larger than any Amiga-DOS Screen (actually
up to 1008 Pixels wide and 1024 Pixels high).
You are able to copy portions of the screen into a separate hold, that
I call BRUSH, because it can be used like a brush to draw on the
DRAWING AREA with some restrictions. This BRUSH hold can be modified
in many ways and even saved or loaded from disk.
Usually, when using Workbench or programs that run on it, you
are allowed to use the left mouse button to activate switches ( they
are called 'gadgets' and in Free Paint the symbols in the FASTMENU are
switches) and handle objects, while the right mouse button can only
select items from the menu. Well, in Free Paint the user can paint and
select with BOTH mouse buttons. You can associate each button with one
pen, the current color of each pen is shown in the FASTMENU and the
MENUBAR (see below).
2.3 THE MENUBAR
Located on top of your screen is the MENUBAR. It should look like that:
___________________________________________
|FreePaint [][] Matte Free x4 320 200 |
¯¯¯¯¯^¯¯¯¯^¯¯^¯¯^¯¯¯¯^¯¯¯¯^¯¯¯¯¯¯¯^¯¯¯¯¯^¯¯
| | | | | | | |
The Name | | Brush | Zoom | Pointer
| | State | Factor | Y-Position
Left Mouse | | |
Button Color | Grid Pointer
| State X-Position
Right Mouse
Button Color
Starting from the left you see the program name, which is 'Free Paint'.
Then the color display informs the user which color is associated
with the mouse buttons (you draw with the color of the left box if you
use the left mouse button, and with the color of the right rectangle
it if you decide to use the right button). The next word, the brush
state show you how a BRUSH will appear on the DRAWING AREA. For a
description of the states see 3.12 below. On the right of this the
grid state is displayed. The grid makes your pointer move in intervals
you can specify in 4.3.4, see this section for more information on the
grid feature too. Then there is the zoom factor, showing you how many
times the zoom function (see 3.11) will magnify. Last, but not least,
the coordinates of the pointer relative to the PAGE are provided.
Pressing and holding down the right mouse button while pointing on the
MENUBAR will show you some pulldown menus, just like on Workbench.
These are discussed below, after some more important information.
The MENUBAR can be hidden by striking the F9 key, another typing of F9
causes the MENUBAR to reappear.
2.4 THE FASTMENU
On the right of your screen,the FASTMENU should look like this:
FPant <---- The program name (actually FPaint).
|/|/|
|/|/|
|/|/| <---- The symbol (or gadget) field area (actually 8 lines).
|/|/|
[¯I¯] <---- The mouse button color display (two 'round' boxes).
OOOOO
OOHOO <---- The color palette. A display of all colors available.
OOOOO The currently selected color is boxed. (here it is 'H')
When you look right, you see the FASTMENU. On top of it there is the
inevitable 'Free Paint' title, under that are eight pairs of symbols,
which are used to activate the different drawing tools. Most of this
symbols are divided by a diagonal line. Usually you click these symbols
using the left mouse button, doing this on the left top area normally
activates a simple, non filled function, while the bottom right place
does it on a more complex or filled on, e.g. the first symbol in the
third line activates the rectangle function, if clicked on the left top
corner, and the filled box if clicked on the right bottom. A few
symbols may even clicked using the right mouse button, (the place where
the click is made on is not important) which activates a requestor
that allowes you to do even more complex functions. Some symbols even
activate a function immediately, for example, the garbage can cleans
the DRAWING AREA the time it is hit!
Below the symbol area are shown two boxes. The left hand box is the
same color as the pen you use, when painting with the right mouse
button, the other one displays the color the left button uses. On the
bottom of the FASTMENU a palette of all usable colors is available.
The color used by the left mouse button is marked by a rectangle. You
can select the color for either button by moving the pointer into this
area and pressing the button on the color you want to set the pen to.
The FASTMENU can be hidden by pressing the F10 key, striking F10 again
makes it appear.
2.5 THE DRAWING AREA
What is left of the screen if called the DRAWING AREA. On this you
can use the graphic functions selected in the FASTMENU. The DRAWING
AREA is only a part of the full PAGE you can draw on. When the MENUBAR
and the FASTMENU are hidden the DRAWING AREA may be as large as the
PAGE, if you did not change the PAGE width and height in the Page
Format Requestor. If the PAGE is larger than the DRAWING AREA it can
be moved by pressing the arrow keys.
2.6 FIRST STEPS
2.6.1 LOADING A PREVIOUSLY DRAWN PICTURE
To load a picture that has been drawn before move your pointer over the
MENUBAR, press and hold the right mouse button and move the pointer
on the first item of the first menu that should read 'Load Picture'.
Release the button and a window will appear on the screen (for a de-
scription of this window see section 5.1). There should be a list of
files in this window. Try to find the text 'PICTURE (dir)' or the text
'FreePaint (dir)'. You can move the list with the arrow gadgets and
the slider on the right. If you have found the second text click on it
and you will find the first one!. Either way click on the PICTURE (dir)
text and you will see a list of files succeeded by '.pic'. Now click
on one of those and click the field where the 'OK is shown. The
corresponding picture will be loaded and shown on the screen. You can
draw as soon as the pointer changes from the 'forbidden sign' into your
normal pointer.
2.6.2 DRAWING A SMILIE
To draw a SMILIE click on the yellow rectangle on the bottom of the
FASTMENU using the left mouse button. This sets the color used with
this button to yellow and the circle between the color palette and the
symbols and the one in the MENUBAR should turn to yellow, too. Now
move the pointer higher to the circle symbol and click it on the right
bottom corner, a filled disk should be drawn there instantly. Move
your pointer left into the DRAWING AREA and you will observe that two
lines go through your pointer (this figure is called crosshair). Place
the pointer in the middle of the screen, press and hold the left mouse
button and the move the mouse. You should see how a disk is drawn in
yellow. When the disk has a size you like release the button and the
disk stays that size. We will now draw the eyes for our smilie. To do
so click on the black rectangle in the area you have clicked the
yellow one before, move back into the DRAWING AREA and on the head of
the smilie. There draw disks that make the eyes just like you did with
the yellow head disk. After that the poor thing still needs a mouth.
To do that click on the bottom right corner of the upmost left symbol
and draw the mouth with your pointer, just as you would if your
pointer was a pencil. Tata!
2.6.3 SAVING YOUR MASTERPIECE TO DISK
Again, move the pointer on the MENUBAR, press and hold the right mouse
button and place the pointer over the 'Save Picture' item in the first
menu, the release it. A window will open ( see section 5.1 Disk Req.)
like described above. There is a field above the 'DF0' gadget, where
you can type in the name your picture shall have. After you have enter-
ed a name click 'OK' and it will be saved. You can continue painting
after the pointer gets 'normal' again.
***************************************************************************
3. PAINTING WITH FREE PAINT
Here the simple painting functions are discussed. Each one of these
functions has a symbol of its own in the FASTMENU. Not all of the
many funtions Free Paint has are listed here, some are accessable
from keyboard, only. See section 8. for a complete list of the keyboard
settings.
3.1 THE SKETCH MODE
This mode or function draws a pointed or filled freehand line when
used. To activate the pointed mode strike the '.' key or click the
top left corner of the top left symbol on the FASTMENU ( I call this
symbol the first symbol, the one on the left the second and that below
the third symbol and so on). The filled freehand line is invoced by
pressing ':' or clicking the bottom right corner of the same symbol.
Painting is done by moving the pointer on the DRAWING AREA and pressing
( or holding down) a mouse button (and moving around).
3.2 THE SPRAY MODE
This one is selected by clicking the second symbol( a spray can) with
the left mouse button or typing 'a' (for airbrush). Clicking it with
the right one or striking 'A' causes a requester to appear in wich the
shape of the spray stain can be changed according to personal taste (
see 5.10. for more information about this requestor).
Painting works just like in sketch mode.
3.3 THE LINE MODE
The symbol for this function is a straight diagonal line (it is the
third one). Clicking on this or typing 'v' (for variable line) acti-
vates it. To draw a line you move your pointer on the DRAWING AREA and
the point your line shall start on, press a mouse button, hold it down,
and move to the place the line has to reach. While doing so the line is
stretched like a rubber band and drawn in its own color. Releasing the
button finally draws the line on the DRAWING AREA.
3.4 THE SPLINE MODE
A curve is used to symbolise this function. Pressing the 's' key or
clicking this symbol selects it. This one works similiar to the line
function. You move on the DRAWING AREA, place a line like in 3.3 and
after realeasing the button you can form the curve by moving the
pointer around. Pressing a button again draws the line in its color.
3.5 THE RECTANGULAR MODE
The symbol for this is a ... guess ... RECTANGLE!. Clicking the left
top corner or the 'r' key selects the hollow rectangle, the other
corner or the 'R' key the filled box mode. You draw by once again
going into the DRAWING AREA and pressing a mouse button. Moving the
pointer while holding the button down enlarges or shortens the
rectangle or box, releasing it finally places the figure. The place
where you first pressed the button marks the first edge of the
rectangle/box, where you released it marks the edge on the other
side of a diagonal line.
3.6 THE POLYGON MODE
On the right side of the rectangular symbol is the polygon symbol.
The polygon line mode is invoced by clicking the top left area or
the 'g' key, the filled polygon by the other area or the 'G' key.
Unlike the other modes you move into the DRAWING AREA, press a mouse
button and release it. Memorize the button you pressed. Now move
the pointer around and press the SAME button as before to add an edge
to the polygon and the OTHER button to place the final edge. You are
allowed to draw a polygon with up to 50 edges, if you try to add a
51st one the function aborts as if you had pressed the OTHER button.
3.7 THE CIRCLE MODE
Guess what symbold this one has! Right, a circle. A empty circle is
selected by the top left corner or striking 'c', a filled disk by
the other corner or the 'C' key. Pressing a mouse button inside the
DRAWING AREA sets the center of the circle and moving the pointer while
holding the button down selects the radius. Realeasing the button
finally draws a circle or disk.
3.8 THE ELLIPSE MODE
This one works exactly like the above, only here you can select the
vertical and horizontal radius at the same time.
3.9 THE FILL MODE
The tilted can with water flowing out is the symbol for the fill
function. Clicking it with the left mouse button or typing 'f'
activates it, while clicking the right button or pressing 'F' opens
a requester to set one of the fill styles (see section 5.7. below).
Clicking into the DRAWING AREA starts the fill, striking 'ESC' aborts
the fill in process.
3.10 THE TEXT MODE
The capital letter is the sign for the text funtion. The left mouse
button or 't' selects it, 'T' or the right button openes a requestor
which lets you select the current font and text style (see sect. 5.8.)
After selecting the mode you have to place the cursor inside where ?
The DRAWING AREA, you're right! After that you are able to use the
keyboard like in any text editor. The arrow keys move the cursor
around, DEL deletes one column and backspace ('<-') the last character.
ESC or selecting another function with the mouse buttons ends the text
mode.
3.11 THE ZOOM MODE
The magnifying glass or the 'm' key activates it. You have to place
the rectangle that appears now over the area you want to magnify. The
magnification factor can be adjusted by the '+' an '-' keys and the
current factor is shown on the MENUBAR with a preceeding 'x' like x5
for factor 5. After you have moved the rectangle over the area to zoom
click a mouse button and watch!. The DRAWING AREA will be split into
two sections, the left one displays the working area in normal size,
the right one magnified. You are able to use all the funtions in the
FASTMENU on the right area just like in normal mode on the DRAWING
AREA, with the exception, that while placing a line, rectangle or
circle the effects will not be shown in their true color, but inverse.
Note that neither menus nor toggling of MENUBAR and FASTMENU are
possible in this mode.
Clicking the zoom symbol again, pressing 'm' or using the EXIT function
exits the zoom mode.
3.12 THE BRUSH MODE
The symbol on the right of the zoom symbol activates the brush mode.
To use a brush, you have to cut or load one first. The loading part
is discussed below in the requestor section, but the cutting out is
explained here. When I speak of 'cutting' out an area I actually mean
copying it to the BRUSH holding space.
There are two cut modes, first the rectangular cut, which is selected
by the 'b' key or the top left corner, that lets you place a rectangle
around the area you want to cut out. This rectangle is placed like in
3.5, note that the area covered by the rectangle itself will also be a
part of the brush.
The second one is a polygonial cut, in which you place a polygon
around the area to cut like in 3.6, note that here the area covered by
the polygon is also a part of the BRUSH.
After you have cut out a BRUSH it will be shown under the pointer and
can be placed on the DRAWING AREA like sketch mode ( see 3.1.) Pressing
the left mouse button places the BRUSH on the DRAWING AREA.
There are two modes in which this can be done. The 'Matte' mode, where
the background of the BRUSH is transparent, like a matte painting for
movies, and the 'Replication' mode, where it is not. 'Matte' mode is
selected by F1, 'Replic.' by F2. Pressing the right mouse button puts
the shape of the BRUSH in the color of the right mouse button down.
Note that you can only have one BRUSH at a time. If you already have
cut out a BRUSH and cut out or load another the first one will be lost!
3.13 THE COLOR MODE
The three letters 'Col' symbolise this mode. When selected by ',' or
the left mouse button, your pointer changes into a hollow star and
the word 'USE' below it you can select a color inside the DRAWING AREA
by moving the center of the star over it and clicking the corresponding
mouse button. After you have released the button, the pointer will
regain its original shape and the mode selected before will be acti-
vated. Pressing 'p' or the right mouse button opens the palette
requestor, that is explained below in the requestors section 5.3..
3.14 THE DUMP MODE
The dustbin is the symbol used for this. Clicking on it or pressing
'*' clears the DRAWING AREA or the working area in zoom mode. Note that
this function works immediately!
3.15 THE UNDO MODE
This one makes the last operation undone, if possible.
3.16 THE EXIT MODE
After pressing this or striking 'q' you will be asked if you are
sure to leave. Note that all that has not been stored on disk is lost.
Make sure that all of your brushes and Pages have been saved!
3.17 THE ICONIFY MODE
Well, this mode (or function) is not really a drawing function. It can
only be accessed via keyboard by the F5 key. Striking this key causes
the screen Free Paint uses to close. A small window will be opened on
Workbench that has the headline 'Resume Free Paint' and looks like a
normal message requestor. Clicking 'CONTINUE' in this requestor reopens
the Free Paint Screen.
Why all of this you ask! Sometimes one wants to interrupt drawing and
do something else, but resume drawing later. In that instance he or she
hits the F5 key, Free Paint closes its display, but the actual PAGE is
kept intact in memory. Then the person will work on something else.
After finishing that, he or she clicks the 'CONTINUE' gadget and Free
Paint tries to reopen a display. But if there is not enought memory
Free Paint may not be able to do it, and some Disk Requestors ( see
section 5.1 for mor info about this) appear which allow you to save
the PAGE, BRUSH and SPARE PAGE to Disk. After the saving routine Free
Paint closes down all its activities and quits. To avoid this messy
situation, make sure that the amount of free memory when clicking
'CONTINUE' is not smaller than the time Free Paint went into ICONIFY
MODE. Use this function with caution as it can mess up your machine
big time!!!
***************************************************************************
4. THE MENUS OF FREE PAINT
These menus work just like normal Workbech menus, with the exception,
that the Amiga-keys are not neccessary for short cuts. On the right
side of each item the key you can activate it by is displayed. Note
that these menus are not available if in zoom mode!
4.1 THE PICTURE MENU
4.1.1 LOAD A PICTURE
This item allows you to load a picture on your current page. It cannot
be made undone! If the picture is larger than your PAGE the overhang
will be cut away, if it is smaller, it will leave the rest of the PAGE
intact.
Free Paint loads IFF-ILBM pictures, up to 64 colors, which means most
of the pictures (except H.A.M.) made on and for the Amiga. It will
not load IFF-ACBM pictures (the BASIC pictures on the Extras disk).
See section 5.1. for more information.
4.1.2 SAVE A PICTURE
Here you can save the entire PAGE to disk. The options (see Options)
will be used. If any problem arises you will be informed.
Free Paint saves IFF-ILBM compacted pictures, which can be loaded by
allmost any Amiga painting or other art program. If a file exists
that has the same name as the one you have entered into the disk
requestor, you will be informed about it and asked if you want to back
the elder file up. If you select 'YES' the elder file will be renamed
and get the suffix '.bak', your present file will be saved using your
name only. If selected 'NO' the elder file will be deleted.
See section 5.1 for more information about the 'Disk Requestor'.
4.1.3 PRINT A PICTURE
This item enables you to print out your page on any printer that can
be used via preferences. See section 5.4. for more information.
4.1.4 DELETE A FILE
This item allows you to delete any Amiga-DOS file. Note that a deleted
file is lost forever. You are not restricted to picture or brush files,
any file can be deleted, except directories and icon files.
See section 5.1. for more info.
4.1.5 CREATE A SPARE PAGE
Here you can create an additional PAGE, having the same dimensions as
the original. You can only create one spare PAGE!.
4.1.6 SWAP PAGE
This one exchanges the spare PAGE and the one currently drawn on. You
have to open a spare PAGE before doing this.
4.1.7 WRITE SPARE
Selecting this item writes the PAGE currently used to the spare PAGE.
There has to be a spare PAGE open.
4.1.8 DELETE SPARE
This item removes a spare PAGE from memory. The picture in the spare
PAGE is lost forever. There has to be a spare PAGE open before doing
this, of course.
4.1.9 PAGE FORMAT
As you know, the Amiga has lots of different resolutions and colors
available. This item lets you select one of them. The old PAGE, an
existing SPARE PAGE and an existing BRUSH will be closed ( make sure
your picture has been saved) and a new one with the desired attributes
will be opened. If there is not enought memory to open a display with
the selected attributes, the number of colors will be decreased and
Free Paint tries again, until either a display is opened, or it re-
signes and quits.
4.1.10 MEMORY
After having selected this, you will be shown the current memory stat-
istics, divided into CHIP and FAST memory. Note that only CHIP memory
can be used for picture data. The largest continuous hunk of memory is
also shown, because memory fragmentation may keep Free Paint to open
an screen even if the total summ of memory is large enough. To see if
you have enough CHIP-RAM look at the LARGEST line first!
4.1.11 INFORMATION
Almost every software producer is vain, so am I. But I have to pro-
tect my rights on this program and package, wich makes it necessary!
Copying only the program without this document is illegal, also is
changing any part of it, so be nice and do not violate my rules!
4.1.12 QUIT FREE PAINT
Heres the way out of this program. Make sure that your pictures have
been saved on disk before you do this, because after this they are
lost!
4.2 THE BRUSH MENU
4.2.1. LOAD A BRUSH
Loading a brush is similiar to loading a picture. But there are differ-
ences. When a brush is loaded, all of it is loaded into memory, but the
colors are stored in a special place (see 5.3.'Palette Requestor')
and if the brush colors differ from the PAGE colors you are in for a
surprise! If you already had a brush cut out it will be lost.
See section 5.1. for more info.
4.2.2 SAVE A BRUSH
To save a brush to disk use this item. It works similiar as 4.1.2 SAVE
A PICTURE.
4.2.3 PRINT BRUSH
Like 4.1.3, only for the brush.
4.2.4 RENEW BRUSH
If had cut out a brush before and used another function later, this
gets back the last brush you had cut out or loaded.
4.2.5 CHANGE BRUSH
After selecting this item a requestor will open, asking you to specify
the way you want your brush changed. Note that you cannot undo this!
See section 5.5. 'Brush Change Requestor' for more information.
4.2.6 DISCARD BRUSH
The brush version of DELETE SPARE.
4.2.7 BRUSH HANDLE
This is used to specify the place, where the pointer holds the brush.
See setcion 5.6.'Brush Handle Requestor' for more information.
4.2.8 BRUSH OFFSET
When a brush is loaded or cut out Free Paint stores the coordinates
of the place it was cut out from. You can modify these values here.
4.3 MIXED MENUS
4.3.1 COLOR PALETTE
After having activated this the palette requestor opens. You can edit
both color and color rotation parameters here. See section 5.3. for
more info.
4.3.2 REMAP COLORS
This items calls a requestor in which colors can be moved without
changing the palette. See section 5.9. 'Remap Requestor' for more info.
4.3.3 MOVE SPACING
When you move the DRAWING AREA you use the arrow key. This requestor
allows you to specify how much pixels one stroke will move the DRAWING
AREA.
4.3.4 GRID SPACING
Free Paint can be told to use a grid for pointer adjustment by pressing
the F8 key. The position, on which the pointer appears are adjusted,
according to the values specified here. If you enter 10 and 20 for
X and Y spacing, your pointer will move to positions like 0,40 10,20
110,280 etc. Note that your real Amiga pointer still moves to any
position, but the drawing will be done according to the adjusted
positions only.
4.3.5 OPTIONS
All other items in this menu are options. See OPTIONS below for more
information.
***************************************************************************
5. THE REQUESTORS OF FREE PAINT
In this section of the manual, a special window type is discussed,
the requestors. Requestors will appear when a decision has to be made
or more complex settings have to be modified. All of the requestors
have a headline, and at least one gadget to close them. A simple
requestor is the one opened when you want to exit Free Paint. There
is a headline which reads 'Free Paint Request:', the text 'Really exit
FPaint?' and two gadgets saying 'YES' and 'NO'. Note that you can also
select gadgets by the 'Y' and 'N' keys here!
5.1 DISK REQUESTOR
When this requestor is opened the headline tells you what to do, e.g.
'Load A Picture', or 'Delete a File'. Below the headline is an area,
where the current path (see your Amiga-DOS Manual) is displayed. You
can edit this path by clicking on it, typing a new path and striking
the return key. Below the path is a list of the files in the current
directory. This list consists of the names of all directories and other
files in the current directory. Directory names are succeeded by a
'(dir)' suffix and will always appear before the other files. Icon
files (the '.info' files) are not displayed. The list is sorted alpha-
betically while the names are read in, so only during the loading
process their position may change. The names in the list can be click-
ed on like normal gadgets. Clicking on a 'normal' name causes it to be
highlighted and the name be copied in the field below, clicking on a
directory makes the requestor read that directory and display it.
Under the list is the place for the name of the file to perform an
operation on. You can edit this file like the path area, or click on
a file from the above file list. Further down a list of Amiga-DOS
devices can be found ( DF0:, DF1: or RAM:). Clicking on these has the
same effect as typing in their names in the path area. On the right of
these the 'PARENT' gadget moves you to the parent directory if it is
possible. On the right hand side of the requestor a slider can be found
to move the file list up and down, and above or below it are arrow
gadgets, that, when selected move the list one item up or down.
Finally clicking on the OK gadget tells Free Paint to perfom the oper-
ation,while EXIT makes it forget it. Double-clicking on a filename has
the same effect as selecting 'OK'.
5.2 PAGE FORMAT REQUESTOR
This is the req. to specify the mode of the PAGE. The High Resolution
gadget switches to the mode a normal Workbench screen has, (640 pixel
wide), Low Resolution to the mode most games run in (320 pixel wide).
The PAL gadget turns PAL mode one ( 256 Pixel high, for European Amigas
only) while the NTSC gadget turns to the American TV norm ( 200 pixel
high). The Interlace gadget turn the interlace mode on and doubles
the vertikal pixel count. Below you can specify the number of colors
you want to use. Note that only legal Amiga modes are possible! As
you have read before, a Free Paint Page can be larger than a screen,
the Width and Height gadgets allow you to specify the width and heigt
of your page. Note that widths have to be multiples of 16, other
widths will be adjusted to the next greater legal value. This is done
because the Amiga system opens screens only with widths of multiples
of 16, even if you specify others, so all of the memory allocated is
available to you! Note also that the maximal dimensions of a PAGE is
1008 * 1024 Pixels. If your machine has not enough emory for this mode
Free Paint will attempt to open a Page with the same dimensions, but
less colors, until it succeeds or admits, that it cannot open a PAGE
at all and exits.
This requestor can be closed by the OK gadget, which invoces the
changing process, or EXIT, which cancels the action.
5.3 COLOR PALETTE REQUESTOR
This req. is the easy but powerful tool to adjust your palette and
color cycling facilities. On the top left corner three sliders named
R, G and B can be used to set the red, green and blue parts of the
currently selected color (this color is marked by a rectangle in the
palette in the middle and shown in a box at the right top corner).
If you do not like the RGB color mode, next to those sliders are three
more, named H, S and V. The H slider selects a colour out of a color
list of 'pure' colors, the S and V sliders add white to it or reduce
its value. To the right, a list (or palette) of colors is displayed.
You can activate a color by clicking it in there or in the DRAWING
AREA! On the far right three small gadgets perform actions on the whole
palette: BRU copies the brush palette, DEF the dafault and REC the last
time used palette onto the current one. Below the sliders are the
'action' gadgets. After clicking on COPY the pointer will change to a
arrow with 'TO' below it and the next selected color will have the
currently selected color be copied on it. SWAP work accordingly, with
the only difference that it swaps the two colors. FLOW computes a soft
flow between those colors. MARK marks a color cycling range between
the two and stores the direction they were selected. MARK works only
if one of the cycling ranges has been selected (see below). A marked
cycling range is displayed in the palette by a continuous line in the
used colors and a horizontal one in the start and end colors.UNDO takes
back the last action. CYCLE cycles the currently selected cycling range
for six times,which will take some time, if it rotates slow! There are
four numbers right of this one, these mark the four cycling ranges Free
Paint uses. Clicking them activates the corresponding range. Below
these a slider can be used to set the cycling speed. OK activates the
current settings while EXIT cancels them. Note that when using 64
colors, only 32 will be displayed. That is due to the fact that the
Amiga does not use 64 different colors in this mode, but copies the
first 32 to the second and makes them half the brightness of the first
(it is called HALFBRIGHT MODE).
5.4 PRINT REQUESTOR
This req. appears when you want to print out a brush or PAGE. There
are three print modes, 1/1000 INCH, FULL PAPER and Prt.Pixels. The
first reads the values in the 'Horiz.' and 'Vert.' fields and inter-
prets them as 1/1000 Inch values for printing dimensions. The second
prints on the full paper width and height available. The last one uses
the 'Horiz.' and 'Vert.' fields to specify the print width in printer
pixels, i.e. dots. The Center gadget centeres the printout on the paper
and the Aspect gadget tells the printer to ignore one of the dimension
values and compute them so that the proportions of the hardcopy look
like the ones on the screen. PRINT causes the printer to work, EXIT
cancels the action. When printing a window will appear. Clicking the
'CONTINUE' gadget aborts the printing process.
The function this requester represents is rather crude. I suggest you
use a printing program if you want to get a really good hardcopy of
your image.
5.5 CHANGE BRUSH REQUESTOR
When this req. is opened, you will see a field of 12 gadgets. Each line
has three gadgets, and so there are 4 lines of them. The first two
gadgets are named MIRX and MIRY, the will mirror the current brush on
the X or the Y axis. The 90° gadgets performs an 90 degrees rotation.
HLFX, HLFY shrink the brush to half its former size while DBLX, DBLY
double it horizontally (X) or vertically (Y). SIZE lets you select the
new size of the brush by moving a rectangle of the current brush size
around, pressing a mouse button, holding it down and moving the pointer
makes you size it. After the button has been released, the new brush
will be computed. ROT is used to rotate a brush any degree you want.
Similiar to SIZE, the angle is given by moving the pointer. SHRX,
SHRY are the functions to sheer a brush horizontally or vertically.
Finally, the EXIT function closes the req. without any brush change.
5.6 BRUSH HANDLE REQUESTOR
This requestor contains a square of 9 black boxes, actually only 8
black and one white box. The white box marks the place, where the
pointer holds your brush. Clicking on a black box causes the white
box to move to there. If you click OK, the requester is closed and the
brush handle set to ther area, the white box was at, EXIT aborts the
action, leaving the old handle intact.
5.7 FILL MODE REQUESTOR
To set the style of the fill function, this requestor was made for.
There are seven different styles to select from, but some of them are
not available all the time. On the right top corner of the req. a
box showns you how the filled area might look (the colors may not be
true only the pattern is). If this area is crossed out, that means
this style is not available. The styles are as follows. The 'Solid'
style fills with the currently selected pen, the 'Brush' style uses
the brush, if there is one, for a pattern, 'Check' checkers the fill,
'HLine' draws horizontal lines, 'VLine' vertical ones, 'Rand.' creates
a random pattern of the two mouse pens and 'Spare' fills with the
pattern of the spare page, if there is one. Selecting OK sets the
style, EXIT remains with the old style.
5.8 FONT REQUESTOR
This req. enables you to use any Amiga-DOS fonts inside Free Paint.
There is a list of all available fonts, which can be moved by a slider
on the right or two arrows below. Clicking inside the list marks
one font. These fonts are shown by name and then the size follows.
Below the list, the styles can be found and selected, too! Below them
the LOAD gadget loads the specified font and sets the style, while
SET only sets the current font to the marked style. EXIT aborts as
usual.
5.9 COLOR REMAP REQUESTOR
Like in the color palette req. you are shown a palettes of colors, but
here there are two of them, one called OLD, the other NEW. The meaning
of this is, that the OLD palette marks the color configuration before
the req. was opened, and the NEW part the configuration you will set,
when selecting the OK gadget. The OLD part cannot be changed, the NEW
one should be or no change will take place. You use this req. to change
the colors in parts of your picture only, without changing the colors
in your palette. You can COPY, SWAP and UNDO like in the pallete req.
additionally it is possible to select colors inside the DRAWING AREA.
The NORM gadget copies the OLD part to the NEW one. Below all those
gadgets are four ones, that stand for the areas you want to remap.
First there is SCREEN which stands for the DRAWING AREA, BRUSH for the
brush, REGION for a part of the DRAWING AREA you are asked to mark (it
works like cutting out a brush in rectangular mode) and PAGE for the
whole PAGE. Note that remapping a page cannot be made undone!
The OK gadget start the remapping or area selecting process. The
remapping can be stopped by pressing 'ESC'.
5.10 SPRAY REQUESTOR
There are only two sliders in this req. The RANGE slider adjusts the
area, that is sprayed, DEPTH the number of points set with one spray.
OK and EXIT work like always.
5.11 ICONIFY REQUESTOR
By pressing the F3 key, Free Paint changes into 'iconify mode', which
means that it stops working, opens a requester on the Workbench and
waits until you click 'CONTINUE' inside it. After you have clicked
'CONTINUE' the Free Paint screen reappears and you can go on painting.
If you have closed the Workbench by using the F4 key, it will be
reopened and not closed when Free Paint resumes.
***************************************************************************
6. MESSAGES AND REQUESTS
6.1 THE FREE PAINT MESSAGE SYSTEM
If Free Paint finds one of your commands difficult to execute, or if
you have made a mistake, the program will tell you what went wrong or
how to fix it. A window will appear that has a headline reading
'Free Paint Message'. A text below is the message to the user. When
you have read this text, notify Free Paint by either clicking the
'CONTINUE' gadget in the right bottom corner, or striking the 'C' key
or the spacebar.
For more important messages Free Paint opens a display that looks
like a Guru Meditation, but in most cases it will not go into reset!
6.2 THE FREE PAINT REQUEST SYSTEM
When simple YES/NO decisions have to be made Free Paint opens a window,
that looks like a message window in 6.1. and has the headline
'Free Paint Request'. A text asks you to make a decision. Click either
the 'YES' or 'NO' gadget, or type 'Y' or 'N' to tell Free Paint what
to to.
6.3 THE WORKBENCH REQUESTORS
In error situations, that are handled by the Amiga software and cause
the dreaded 'System Request' requestor to appear on the Free Paint
screen, make sure, that you respond to them. As long as this requestor
is on your screen the actual Free Paint is halted and none of its
functions will work. This is due to the way the Amiga is built and
cannot be changed easyly.
***************************************************************************
7. THE OPTIONS OF FREE PAINT
Options are those items in the MIXED menu, that are not alligned with
the first four. This was done to allow for some space for the asteriks
'*'. An asteriks '*' appearing before an option means, that it is used.
If the '*' is missing, the option is ignored.
Options can be specified three ways, first by selecting them in Free
Paint itself, the by using the key word in the command line in CLI or
as 'Tool Types' in the Free Paint Icon. Using the last two ways has
the advantage, that all key words are accessable.
It is also possible to specify an startup picture file, but if you
do so on Workbench, all options are ignored. In CLI a startup file
has to be the only parameter in the command line and be preceeded by
a '-' character (e.g. FPaint -MyDrawing.pic) or it will be ignored!
7.1 SYNTAX
If you specify options in CLI or as 'Tool Types', a special simple
syntax has to be used. It looks this way: first the keyword, followed
by an underscore ('_') and a switch ('ON' or 'OFF') or a numerical
value. Calling Free Paint from CLI to open a Workbench'like screen
is done this way "FPaint HIRES_ON COLORS_4".
Multiple options can be written into one line with at least one space
in between. When using 'Tool Types' multiple options in one 'Type' and
multiple 'Tool Types' are possible. If one keyword appears more than
once, only the first one is used!
7.2 KEYWORDS
7.2.1 ICON
This keyword switchs the use of icons for Workbench. If it is "ON"
icons wil be saved for each brush and picture saved by Free Paint,
but when using the 'DELETE FILE' item, the corresponding icon
will be deleted! It uses the switchs "ON" and "OFF", default value
is "ON".
7.2.2 HANDLE
HANDLE switches the saving of the brush handle position of a cut
out brush. It uses "ON" and "OFF", default value is "ON".
7.2.3 OFFSET
Free Paint stores the coordinates, where a brush was cut out. This
switch tells Free Paint,if it should save these too. It uses "ON" and
"OFF", default is "ON".
7.2.4 CYCLES
This option controls the saving of color cycling ranges.It uses "ON"
and "OFF", default value is "ON".
7.2.5 SCREEN
If a PAGE is larger than a normal Amiga-DOS screen Free Paint allows
the user to move the DRAWING AREA around. So information about the
DRAWING AREA and the PAGE are stored when saving. But some display-
ing and painting programms do not accept the fact, that a PAGE can
be larger than a DRAWING AREA. To create picture files, that run
on these programs turn this option "OFF". Of course, it uses the "ON"
and "OFF", default value is "ON".
7.2.6 LORES (CLI + 'Tool Types' only)
This option cause Free paint to open an low resolution (320 pixel wide)
screen. It uses the "ON" and "OFF", default value is "ON". If you
specify LORES_OFF the current revision will try to open a high res.
screen.
7.2.7 HIRES (CLI + 'Tool Types' only)
This option cause Free paint to open an High resolution (640 pixel
wide) screen. It uses the "ON" and "OFF", default value is "ON". If
you specify HIRES_OFF the current revision will try to open a low
resolution screen.
7.2.8 LACE (CLI + 'Tool Types' only)
LACE switches the dreaded interlace mode on or off. Use like the above!
(Oh my god, it rhymes) Default is "LACE_OFF"
7.2.9 COLORS (CLI + 'Tool Types' only)
You can specify the number of colors you want here. Use it like this
"COLORS_16" or "COLORS_8". The numbers have to be powers of two, or
you will get less colors than you want. Make sure that you select a
valid Amiga-DOS number of colors for the selected mode. Default is
"COLORS_32".
7.2.10 WIDTH (CLI + 'Tool Types' only)
This numerical keyword lets you enter the width of your page (for
restrictions see PAGE FORMAT Req.) Example: "WIDTH_640". Default
is "WIDTH_320".
7.2.11 HEIGHT (CLI + 'Tool Types' only)
This numerical keyword lets you enter the Height of your page (for
restrictions see PAGE FORMAT Req.) Example: "HEIGHT_256"(it is default,
too!)
7.2.12 PAL (CLI + 'Tool Types' only)
A switch for the TV mode. In European Amigas 256 lines are accessable,
in American only 200, due to the difference in power supply frequency.
This switch uses "ON" and "OFF", default is "ON", meaning 256 lines.
7.2.13 NTSC (CLI + 'Tool Types' only)
Like the above, but turns on the NTSC mode.
***************************************************************************
8. KEYBOARD SETTINGS
Here the functions that can be called by striking a key are listed,
those that are not accessable in zoom are marked by (nz). In text mode
all of those functions are inactive, see the 'Text Keys' part for the
settings there.
8.1. FAST MENU KEY SETTINGS
These keys act like the symbols in the FASTMENU. They have been described
in section 3.
Key | Action
--------+---------------------------------------------------
'.' ':' | Draw pointed or straight sketch
'a' 'A' | Use spray function or set spray parameters
'v' 'V' | Draw normal line
's' 'S' | Draw spline line
'r' 'R' | Draw rectangle or box
'g' 'G' | Draw polygon or filled polygon
'c' 'C' | Draw circle or disk
'e' 'E' | Draw ellipse or filled ellipse
'f' 'F' | Fill area or select fill mode
'm' 'M' | Activate zoom mode
'b' 'B' | Select brush cutout mode
',' 'p' | Get color under pointer or activate color palette
'*' | Clear screen
'u' 'U' | Undo
'q' 'Q' | Quit
8.2. MENU SHORT-CUT KEY SETTINGS
These keys are short-cuts for menu selections. They have been listed in
section 4.
Key | Action
--------+---------------------------------------------------
'l' 'L' | Load picture or brush (nz)
'z' 'Z' | Save picture or brush (nz)
'd' 'D' | Print picture or brush (nz)
'x' 'X' | Delete file (nz)
'o' | Create a spare page (nz)
'j' | Exchange normal and spare page (nz)
'w' | Write normal page to spare page (nz)
'k' | Close the spare page (nz)
'n' | Change page format (nz)
'?' | Show memory info
'I' 'i'| Show program info
'q' | Quit
'h' | Renew brush
'N' | Change brush
'&' | Select brush handle
'%' | Select brush offset
'P' | Remap area (nz)
'p' | Activate color palette
'$' | Select move spacing
'!' | Select grid spacing
'6' | Toggle icon usage
'7' | Toggle brush handle usage
'8' | Toggle brush offset usage
'9' | Toggle color cycle usage
'0' | Toggle page dimensions usage
8.3. FUNCTION KEY SETTINGS
Listed here are the actions, that are invoced by pressing a function key.
Key | Action
--------+---------------------------------------------------
F1 | Select brush mode 'Matte'
F2 | Select brush mode 'Replc'
F3 | Open Workbench
F4 | Close Workbench
F5 | Iconify Free Paint (nz)
F6 | Toggle pointer
F7 | Toggle pointer marker mode
F8 | Toggle grid
F9 | Toggle MENUBAR (nz)
F10 | Toggle FASTMENU (nz)
8.4. OTHER KEYS
Key | Action
--------+---------------------------------------------------
Arrows | Move screen on page
'+' '-'| Increase or decrease magnification factor
'[' '{' | Next left / rigth mouse pen
']' '}' | Previous left / right mouse pen
'1'-'4'| Cycle corresponding color range
'#' | Activate color panic mode (so that you can see the FASTMENU
| and MENUBAR without having to change the colors!)
***************************************************************************
9. PROGRAMMERS INFORMATION
Free Paint is a raster oriented painting program for the Amiga. It
saves using the IFF-ILBM format, with a compacted body chunk. A
normal saved file contains four CRNG chunks for color rotation and
an CAMG chunk if in EXTRA_HALFBRITE. A saved brush contains a GRAB
chunk to store the position of the brush handle.
The Image width and height, both brush and picture are stored in the
BMHD Width and Height fields, while the dimensions of the screen are
written into the PageHeight and PageWidth fields (see SCREEN option).
A brush offset is stored in the BMHD OffsetX, OffsetY fields, and
can be switched to 0,0 by the OFFSET option. If the HANDLE option is
off, no GRAB will be saved, if the CYCLES option is off no CRNG is
saved.
Free Paint loads almost anything, that starts with FORM....ILBM and
has a BMHD, CMAP and correct BODY chunk. If the image is displayed
correctly depends on the current screen mode.
Free Paint uses the $bfe001 and $dff016 custom chip registers for
mouse button handleing. Input devices or handlers that do not use
these registers will not work. All other environmental interaction
is done using Intuition functions and should work on any Amiga.
***************************************************************************
10. ABOUT THE PICTURES THAT CAME WITH THIS
There should be a 'PICTURE' and 'BRUSH' drawer in the same directory
that FPaint is in. In these subdrawers some pieces of art have been
supplied by me. I have drawn all of them myself, so there is no need
to blame anyone else for the mess. I AM NOT AN ARTIST, I use FPaint
mainly to design graphics for games (like Mamba Move) or utilities
(such as Label Maker). On the other hand, I am quite proud of some
of the pictures I have drawn, so limit your criticism.
***************************************************************************
11. A WORD TO THE USER
There are some words I would like to add about the way Free Paint was
programmed and has to be spread.
I started to write FPaint in the autumn of 1989, because I was broke
and desperatly needed a painting program. I had written some drawing
programs in Amiga-Basic, but they were slow and memory consuming, all
Public Domain painting programs made me angry ( I speak of VDraw 1.16
and VDraw 1.19 as well as Klecks). So I began to write this one. There
were some serious setbacks ( I backed up on one of my source disk,
killing about 800k of source code, including 2 well running FPaint
revisions). My revision system is somewhat strange, I have to admit.
There are no revisions 1-9, the first one was called I , then II and ][
and after that 1.2 which is revision 12! From that on numbers are
correct (this should not trouble you, since the older versions have
been released to a number of my friends only, by the way the revisions
14 and 15 were the two that went overboard, I had to reconstruct the
later revisions from an earlier 14, 13, and lots of new ideas, which
made FPaint14-18 rarely working hacks.) This revision ( I do not want
to call it version) was testet on Amiga 2000 A + B + C (I own an A) by
myself and the people listet below. The greek letters after the re-
vision number is the debugged version count, ZETA means sixth debugged
version of that revision.
After FPaint had grown I thought about sending it to a PD series to
have other 'Amigaphile' creatures enjoy it, too! But there are some
German 'PD-dealer' that sell single PD-programs or packages for
three times or more the price of a normal PD-disk, some include
strange expansions to rectify this, some even do not! To make sure
that those 'black sheep' do not make profit out of my hard work I
have included the rather elaborate legal header.
There is a even stranger way of getting into the PD-market, it is
called SHAREWARE. First, there are those, who send in a half-working
copy of their oh-so wonderful hack and expect you to pay a fortune
in shipping and program price to get a fully working one. This way,
they make PD an advertising board free of charge, and I do not think
that is the way it should be. Then there are those, who send in
working programs and demand a share fee. Well, I think you should
either put your software into to PD market ( they do not have to be
FREEWARE), or make your programs commercial products, low budget
perhaps. I myself am not a rich man ( a starving student rather) but
in my opinion the share fees are paid by the wrong people, law abiding
users, and not by the pirating masses, that hurt the Amiga scene.
And when I look at the header of many SHAREWARE programs and see a
disclaimer, that makes the user the victim if the programmer screwed
up, I get angry. You usually do not pay to play Russian roulette!
If the programmer does not want to bear the consequences, he should
not demand payment!
This package is partly dedicated to those, that cherish the idea of PD
and just include their works in the PD as I do.
This program is NOT SHAREWARE, I do not expect anyone to pay me any-
thing as long as she/he abides by my demands in the legals section.
Donations are accepted, of course, but I do not put moral pressure on
anyone!
Well, there is only 'one' thing to say now, HAVE FUN, ENJOY, CU!
Thanx for many tips and a lot of testing go to:
Thomas Geib, Björn-Eric Trost, Christian Motz and Dirk Remmelt.
Mackenbach, 20th of August 1991
Stefan G. Boldorf
Flürchenstraße 16
W-6751 Mackenbach
GERMANY
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