home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Media Share 9
/
MEDIASHARE_09.ISO
/
graphics
/
vgacol.zip
/
RAINBOW.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-09-13
|
17KB
|
417 lines
@@ @@ @@@@@@@ @@@
@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@
@@ @@ @@ @@ @@
@@ @@ @@ @@@@@ @@ @@@ @@
@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@
@@@ @@@@@@@ @@ @@
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
@@@@@@@@ @@@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@ @@ @@
@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@
@@@@@@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@
@@ @@ @@ @@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@ @@
@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@ @@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@ @@@@
@@ @@ @@ @@ @@@@@@ @@ @@ @@@@@@@@ @@@@@@@ @@ @@ (TM)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Program That May Save Your Vision.
PALETTE EDITOR AND SCREEN BLANKING UTILITY
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SPECIALTY OFFICE PRODUCTS CORPORATION
527 S.W. 19th Road Miami, FL 33129
(305) 856-6302
Copyright (c) 1991 by SPECIALTY OFFICE PRODUCTS CORPORATION
All Rights Reserved.
LIST OF FILES
All of the file listed below should be in your distribution disk.
NAME DESCRIPTION
------------- ---------------------
RAINBOW DOC Instruction manual.
RAIN EXE Palette editor.
INSTALL EXE Installation program.
RAINBOW COM Palette enforcer.
RAINBOW PAL Palette file.
HOW CAN VGA RAINBOW HELP SAVE MY VISION ?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the author of VGA RAINBOW bought his first computer he instantly
became addicted to programming, spending quite a few hours per day staring
at a CGA monitor. By the end of the day his eyes were on FIRE ! After a
few months of this, he decided to buy a VGA monitor which had increased
resolution and should help relieve his problem. The resolution was better
but the colors were still too bright and glaring. One day he learned that
his VGA monitor had access to over 262,000 color combinations. Immediately
he set out on a quest to find these colors, where were they, he wondered.
After a long search he found that by mixing combinations of red, green and
blue he could change the colors on his monitor to shades that were not only
aesthetically pleasing to his eyes but he also noticed that those aching
eyes were hardly aching. Having studied the art of memory resident
programming he wrote a small program which allowed him to modify the sixteen
palette registers, allowed in text mode, to display any color he desired.
Thus the origin of VGA RAINBOW.
This software will allow you to modify the colors of any program.
You will notice that some color combinations increase the clarity and
sharpness of the characters on your monitor, while decreasing the
glare associated with the 16 standard colors available from most programs.
You will be able to work on your computer for longer periods without
using that old bottle of eye drops every five minutes. In fact, after
a while you might end up throwing away the bottle because the date expired
since the last time you used it. Keep one bottle on hand for those days
when you might find yourself on another system which does not have VGA
RAINBOW installed. Keep up the faith, maybe one of these days all
VGA systems will have this little helper installed and we will
all be safe from those little RGB gremlins ready to blast little photon
SCUDS into our eyes at any opportunity they get.
WHAT COLORS COMBINATIONS SHOULD YOU USE ?
Most of the programs we use, are programs which involve processing
numbers or text. In these cases we have two areas to consider, the background
color and the text or foreground color. For the background you want to pick
an opaque shade which reduces the amount of light reflected from the screen,
due to lighting from sunlight, coming in through windows, or lighting
from lamps and other light fixtures. Pick a color which is on the low end
such as RED = 6, GREEN = 14, BLUE = 17. These are the RGB values you would
assign using the Palette Editor (RAIN.EXE). For text or foreground there
are two colors which are always recommended, these are Amber and Green.
Amber is the choice for text, in well lighted rooms, and green is the choice
for dim lighting. Choose the shades of amber and green which produce the
sharpest image on your monitor. The file, RAINBOW.PAL contains the settings
found to be most soothing on the authors monitor. These settings may not be
the best settings for your eyes or monitor, so you may have to tweak the
settings on this file, it is up to you. Read the GETTING STARTED section
below for more details.
HOW TO GET STARTED
Begin by putting the distribution diskette in drive A: or B: and
type
INSTALL
you will see the installation program come up. The installation
program will install all the files in your root directory (C:\)
if you have a hard disk or in the case of floppies in B:\. If you
only have one floppy and no hard disk (hopefully not) then don't use
this program, instead just copy all the files in the distribution
diskette into your START-UP DISKETTE.
After installing all the files, the installation program will modify
your AUTOEXEC.BAT file by adding the following lines at the top.
PATH C:\
RAINBOW
To set the screen blanking delay to other than 10 minutes use the
/B XX switch as follows.
To set a 5 minute delay type RAINBOW /B 05
To disable screen blanking type RAINBOW /B 00
Just in case you didn't want this you can find your old AUTOEXEC.BAT
file renamed as AUTOEXEC.BOW. It is important that you allow RAINBOW
to be the first resident program loaded. Some resident programs want
to be the last ones loaded and interfere with any others loaded
after. RAINBOW doesn't mind being first and has never been known to
interfere with any programs, so let him be first. The program files must
be in the root directory for the program to work. DO NOT put them in a
subdirectory.
After the above steps have been completed the program will ask if you
whish to print out the manual. It is not very long and will be worth having
a printed copy when you are learning how to use the program. Once these
steps are completed VGA RAINBOW should have been installed correctly. Next
reboot the system, either turn it on and off or press [CTRL], [ALT] and the
[DEL] keys at the same time. Both procedures will accomplish the same thing.
If all went properly you should have seen the following message on boot up.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
VGA RAINBOW (TM) V1.00 Copyright (C) 1991 SOP Inc. All Rights Reserved
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The reason for rebooting is so that VGA RAINBOW can install itself in
memory. This software is made up of two programs VGA RAINBOW and VGA
RAIN. VGA RAINBOW is the PALETTE ENFORCER, its duty is to monitor the
color settings on the system. If another program tries to change them
it will reset them back to your settings. Why do I want VGA RAINBOW to
do this ? Lets say you had set the colors on your word processor using
VGA RAIN (the use of VGA RAIN will be described shortly), most
programs reset the palette to the standard colors, when you run them.
If you were to run the program, your settings would be erased and
the standard colors put in their place. What would be the use then of
having set the colors, if your word processor changes them when you run
it ? This is where VGA RAINBOW comes in, when your program resets the
colors, VGA RAINBOW detects this and enforces the palette you had
chosen previously, therefore allowing you to use your palette instead
of the standard one used by your word processor. Pressing [ALT]+[SHIFT]+[N]
will disable palette enforcing. Pressing [ALT]+[SHIFT]+[P] will enable
palette enforcing. Now that you are all set lets learn how to use VGA RAIN.
* Remember to backup your source diskette before doing
anything else, this is most important.
VGA RAIN is the PALETTE EDITOR. This program allows you to change the color
of your sixteen palette registers to any of the 262,000 plus colors you
now have available. It can be resident like VGA RAINBOW (this means it
will be available from within any other program.), it can be transient
(just like a normal program). You will want it to be resident when you are
going to change the colors of another program, this way you can see how
the program will look while you are changing the colors. When you are
finished with it you can unload it from memory and get back the memory
it was using.
If you rebooted the computer VGA RAIN already installed the DOS settings
provided in the palette file RAINBOW.PAL, therefore lets see at what you
where looking at before vs now.
Press [ALT]+[SHIFT]+[N]
This disables RAINBOW and sets the colors back to normal.
Press [ALT]+[SHIFT]+[P]
This enables RAINBOW and sets the colors back to the palette settings.
VGA RAIN has three command line switches and are listed below.
VGA RAIN Version 1.10 Command line switches.
Usage:
RAIN = Run RAIN.EXE in transient mode.
RAIN /i = Make RAIN.EXE resident.
RAIN /q = Terminate RAIN.EXE residency.
The /i tells VGA RAIN to make itself resident. Lets try it, at the DOS
prompt type RAIN /I, you should see the following message.
-------------------------------------
| VGA RAIN (TM) Version 1.00 |
| Copyright (C) 1991 |
| SPECIALTY OFFICE PRODUCTS, INC. |
| All Rights Reserved. |
-------------------------------------
VGA RAIN is now resident. Press the [Alt] and [TAB] keys at the same
time and observe the PALETTE EDITOR pop up, to exit press [escape]. There
is a help window provided it describes the commands that you have
available. Before we continue it would be better if you ran your favorite
program. The following steps will be more effective if you do this.
A warning before we continue. VGA RAIN does not pop-up in graphics
mode. If the program you are going to run works in graphics you may still
use VGA RAIN but it will not show up on the screen. Version 2.0, which
is in production, will have this capability along with more features.
1) All the colors on your VGA monitor are composed of combinations of RED,
GREEN and BLUE. By varying the amount of each color and combining them
you can produce different colors. There are two menus, the top one is
numbered 1 thru 16, these are the present settings of the sixteen palette
registers. The bottom menu displays the RED, GREEN, and BLUE components
of the highlighted color in the top menu. To switch between menus use the
[TAB] or [ENTER] key. You can check this by pressing [ALT] + [TAB], to
pop-up VGA RAIN and then pressing [TAB] or [ENTER]. The active menu is the
one with the BLUE highlight.
2) Activate the top menu and select color #1 by pressing the up or down arrow
key. Once you've done this press [TAB] or [ENTER]. You should now be
in the bottom menu. Now press the [+] key about 20 times. You should have
seen the color that is highlighted in the top menu change, if you haven't
changed the settings this should be the background color or color number
1 in the top menu. Play with the RED, GREEN and BLUE settings to get a
feel of all the colors you have available. Now choose the color that
matches the text or foreground color on your monitor by going to the top
menu and highlighting it. Next go to the bottom menu and change it using
the [+] or [-] keys (The left and right arrow keys will do the same thing).
Play around with the settings to get a feel for the program.
3) When you are satisfied with the colors you have chosen press [escape].
You will be asked wether to save these settings or not if you press
[Y] the palette will be updated. From now on these are the colors your
program will display when you run it. Unless you want to change the colors
you don't have to do anything else to the program.
4) When you are finished with VGA RAIN type RAIN /Q to unload it from memory.
That's all there is to it. Go and do this for all your programs, once your
finished you don't have to bother changing colors again until you get
a new program. Enjoy !!!!
Have fun with the colors but mostly use the colors to save your vision.
Pick soft colors which will sharpen the images you'll be looking at and
make it easier on your eyes.
NOTES
1) VGA RAINBOW requires less than 3K of memory. It will vary in size
depending on the number of programs you customize.
2) VGA RAIN requires less than 26K of memory. It should only be resident
when you are customizing a program.
3) If your computer hangs after installing VGA RAIN or VGA RAINBOW you
probably have a conflict between memory resident programs. Change the
order in which they load until it doesn't do it.
4) VGA RAIN will not pop-up in graphics mode. If you try it, it will work,
but will not display anything. You may still use it, but you will be
working in the dark. To exit it just press escape and your program
will work again.
5) Some graphics programs allow changing the palette settings. If this is
the case you don't want VGA RAINBOW enforcing its palette, therefore
Press [ALT]+[SHIFT]+[N] to disable it. When you are finished enable
VGA RAINBOW by pressing [ALT]+[SHIFT]+[P].
COMMANDS
VGA RAIN :
Alt-H Hide Help
Alt-N Set Normal Colors
+ Intensify Color (also Right Arrow)
- Dim Color (also Left Arrow)
Tab Switch Menus (also Enter Key)
ESC Save and Exit
VGA RAINBOW :
Alt-Shift-N Disable VGA RAINBOW
Alt-Shift-P Enable VGA RAINBOW
* Thank you for using VGA RAINBOW.
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@@@@ VGA RAINBOW and VGA RAIN are the sole property of @@@@
@@@@ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @@@@
@@@@ SPECIALTY OFFICE PRODUCTS CORPORATION @@@@
@@@@ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @@@@
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
For technical assistance call or write to:
SPECIALTY OFFICE PRODUCTS
527 S.W. 19th Road
Miami, Fl 33129
(305) 856-6302
If you have a modem leave any comments, suggestions or questions to:
Al Gonzalez
CompuServe User ID#: 70662,3047
Program Registration $2.00
Sysops may post these files for downloading to users.
VGA RAINBOW and VGA RAIN software are Copyright (c) 1991 SPECIALTY OFFICE
PRODUCTS, INC. All Rights Reserved.
VGA RAIN and VGA RAINBOW are trademarks of SPECIALTY OFFICE PRODUCTS, INC.
PROGRAM LICENSE AGREEMENT
Specialty Office Products provides these programs and licenses their use
world wide. You assume responsibility for the selection of the programs
to achieve your intended results, and for their installation and subsequent
use.
LICENSE
* These programs may be used on a single workstation;
* These programs may be copied into any machine readable or printed form
for backup or modification purposes in support of your use of the
programs on the single workstation;
* You may modify the programs and/or merge them into another program for
use on the single workstation. Any portion of these programs merged into
another program will continue to be subject to the terms and conditions
of this agreement;
You must reproduce and include the copyright notice on any copy, modification
or portion merged into another program.
Special licenses are available for this product. Please contact:
SPECIALTY OFFICE PRODUCTS
Attn: Alberto A. Gonzalez
527 S.W. 19th Road
Miami, FL 33129
(305) 856-6302