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OPTIKS
The Spread Sheet for Graphics
Preface
At long last, OPTIKS is going to be documented. I
have been working on OPTIKS and its forbearers for the last
year and hundreds of people have actually been using OPTIKS
without any help at all. This is probably a tribute to the
fact that OPTIKS has been developed with Lotus 1-2-3 as a
model. Functionally the two programs are totally different,
but 1-2-3 has proved to be the standard in "user friendly"
software. Lotus 1-2-3 is actually "user seductive". When I had
to choose a face for OPTIKS I decided to make it similar in
many ways to 1-2-3's friendly smile. If you use 1-2-3, you
already know much about using OPTIKS. What 1-2-3 is to the
cell, OPTIKS is to the pixel.
What's a pixel? Pixel is the name of the kitten in
Robert Heinlein's book "The Cat Who Could Walk Through Walls",
but it means a point of light on the screen - a picture
element. OPTIKS deals with points. You can organize these
points into pictures and you can grab a bunch of points in the
shape of a rectangle and call it a "RANGE". The thing you
might want to remember in OPTIKS is that it knows nothing
about letters or characters, lines or shapes. It knows dots on
the screen and at best can be told about a bunch of dots.
OPTIKS is a 1-2-3 like menu which leads to little
routines to do things with pixels. The main thing that OPTIKS
is used for is to RETRIEVE files from a disk so that we can
view them. The files are almost always pictures of some sort
created by OPTIKS or by specialized "paint" or "draw"
programs. There are other routines which allow you to move
pieces of the picture around, type in various fonts and do
various things to change and (hopefully) improve the picture.
OPTIKS will even allow you to MERGE another picture (perhaps
from another type of paint program) into an existing picture.
After you have viewed a picture and used some of the
OPTIKS features to alter the picture you can SAVE the picture
in one two dozen or more different file formats supported by
OPTIKS for both read and write. This makes OPTIKS ideal as a
file conversion utility. The version which writes out files in
a variety of formats is available to paid users only, but the
price is less than that of the competition. Although competing
file conversion utilities are all very good, OPTIKS has a few
extra features that make it easy to use and is usually very
fast on file loads and saves compared to most programs.
An important point to make about OPTIKS is that it is
an evolutionary product. It started on PC bulletin Boards as a
small view utility called FMAC and then grew into a prototype
program called PCRGB. It has been around for a while now as
OPTIKS, but it has doubled in features so that now it has over
300 menu items. And it is still not done! How can I sell a
product that's not finished? My answer is that OPTIKS may
never be finished. The menu items that tell you apologetically
that this or that feature is not installed are really goals
for the immediate future. I am constantly adding to and
refining the program. There is always a new file type I'd like
to support or a new way of changing a picture I'd like to add.
I look at paint and publishing programs every day and very
often I see something that should be added to OPTIKS.
Sometimes I see a feature that the competition has installed,
but it could be improved.
OPTIKS is not really competing with programs like PC
Paintbrush or Ventura Publishing. I can't do the good job that
the coders who worked hard on these programs have done. OPTIKS
occupies a niche somewhere in between these giants and off to
the side. OPTIKS can read files that other programs can't, and
create files that are perfect for inclusion in paint and
publishing programs. OPTIKS is a graphics utility for creating
output to be used by specialty programs. Its a "Jack of all
trades" program that is like having a Swiss Army Knife in your
pocket. It saves you hours of time when you need it. But I
would never use OPTIKS as a replacement for a Paint program or
expect it to do the very specific functions of a Publish
program.
One last thing. I am Keith Graham. I am writing
OPTIKS, I am writing this. I (or my wife) answers the phone
when you call (914) 623-4161. There is no one else involved in
the project. This is good and this is bad. I can't make a
living off of OPTIKS so 10 hours a day I am out in the jungle
busting my butt for other people. This makes me hard to reach.
You can reach information of PC Rockland and make voice orders
at (914) 358-8145. This number is only for orders of ordering
information, and no one there has tech support information. The
advantage of this number is that a real person answers during
normal east coast working hours and phone messages will be
returned (for order information only).
OPTIKS USER MANUAL
CHAPTER 1
HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
OPTIKS runs on IBM PC's and PC compatibles with
graphics screens and more than 256K free memory. If you want
to print with OPTIKS you will need a graphics printer.
SOFTWARE:
OPTIKS works on all versions of PC-DOS and MS-DOS
from 2.00 on up. OPTIKS will grab as much free memory as it
can, and needs at least 256k free to be useful. It will
sometimes conflict with memory resident programs or time
slicing programs which can't handle graphics or do not use
memory well. OPTIKS is what you would call a "Well Behaved"
program in that it does everything it can according to the
rules. It should peacefully coexist with most applications. If
you find an application which causes OPTIKS to crash or some
other program to crash, I would like to know about it. I will
try to fix the problem. DOS 3.x uses an internal stack for
interrupts. Pressing the CTRL-BREAK repeatedly to bring back
the OPTIKS menu will eventually blow the DOS stack. This is
DOS problem and refer to the DOS manual for a fix. OPTIKS
needs no special CONFIG.SYS options such as BUFFERS or FILES
statements. OPTIKS opens one file at a time and then closes
it. There is never more than one file open at a time.
OPTIKS is designed as a single user program and may
get into conflicts when placed on a network. If there is a
need to run OPTIKS on a network and conflicts occur I will add
DOS file locking commands to the file open and closes. This
seems unlikely to be a problem so I will wait until I hear of
a need for this.
HARDWARE:
GRAPHICS BOARDS:
OPTIKS makes an attempt to identify the graphics
board plugged into your system. It can identify EGA, AT&T 6300
and CGA boards. If you have a monochrome system, OPTIKS will
check first to see if you have an EGA and if that fails will
send you into Hercules graphics mode. If you have neither an
EGA, AT&T 6300 or a monochrome system the program enters into
640*200 mode CGA graphics.
In addition to these modes OPTIKS can be made to
select VGA modes, Paradise 480, Tseng Labs or Nec graphics
modes, Compaq graphics and AMDEK/WYSE 1280 modes. The 1280
boards work well in 640 mode, but not all of OPTIKS features
will work at 1280 mode. 1280 mode should be used for viewing
graphics only.
MEMORY:
OPTIKS needs about 200k for the program itself and
its work areas and then grabs pages of memory in 32k chunks
until it runs out of memory. These pages are used for storing
the picture data. If you do not have EMS memory, OPTIKS can
grab, at most, around 384K. This is not enough for many large
scanned images, but it is perfectly adequate for Apple
MacPaint pictures which are narrow and not very long.
If you have EMS memory you can assign some or all of
it to be used by OPTIKS. OPTIKS now automaitically grabs all
of the EMS memory it can. If you do not want OPTIKS to use
all of the EMS memory you must go into the EMS menu and
release all of the EMS memory and then re-allocate the
correct amount. Use the KEEP option under CONFIG to have
OPTIKS automatically use the correct amount of EMS memory
the next time you start up OK.
Since OPTIKS uses only a few simple features of EMS
memory it should not matter which EMS card or version of the
EMS driver that you use. The most EMS memory that can be used
with OPTIKS is 4 megs. This should be enough for the most
humungous image.
If you don't have EMS memory then try using OKEMS.COM
which will emulate EMS to a disk drive. There are instructions
on how to use OKEMS in a separate DOC file.
MOUSES:
Yes, it says mouses not mice. Mice are small rodents,
mouses are small hand held pointing devices. OPTIKS will
identify and use a Microsoft mouse driver. I have a Logitech
mouse and I use it with OPTIKS. I have used a Genius mouse
with OPTIKS. This leads me to the assumption that OPTIKS will
work with a Microsoft mouse. There are no settings for the
mouse. The keyboard will always work. I have a Mouse Systems
mouse driver that I have used with a Mouse Systems mouse
clone, but it is crude and difficult to control. I would
suggest using a Microsoft Driver with the Mouse Systems Mouse
and letting OPTIKS handle the details.
Microsoft recently changed the mouse driver so that a
reset resets the entire hardware involved. I use a reset to
clear the mouse in order to stop at a line or position better,
but this causes delays on computers using a new mouse driver.
I have tried their suggested fix and it does nothing except
make the mouse unstable for older versions of the driver.
PRINTERS:
OPTIKS works with Laser printers and Dot matrix
printers. I have seen the output of IBM graphics printers, IBM
Proprinters, Epson FX series printers, Toshiba 3x1 printers,
Canon Laserbeam printers, Hewlett Packard Laserjet Printers
and Ricoh Laser Printers. I have tested OPTIKS on Panasonic
printers. Other printers are being tested. OPTIKS will write
Encapsulated PostScript Files which can be printed on
PostScript Compatible printers. JLASER board printing works. I
have added LaserMaster CAPcard support which I have not seen
work, but there should be no problem.
OPTIKS supports only single pass graphics so if you
have an EPSON printer which software utilizes the double pass
graphics, the output may look a little light. This is under
investigation. I will be purchasing an Epson compatible
printer in order to better test the graphics.
SCANNERS:
OPTIKS works on CANON IX-12 scanners and Princeton
Graphics Scanners. JLASER is a constant challenge, but you
should be able to use it in current versions. I am told that
DEST scanners work by specifying CANON.
ENHANCEMENTS:
As technology advances, OPTIKS will be adding new
hardware support. As soon as I receive the specifications on
new iron I will add routines to OPTIKS to support it. I often
work in the dark in that I can't test my work. This is
frustrating to me and to my users who must wait through
several revisions in order to get some features working
correctly. Sometimes suppliers support me directly with
hardware loans. This is appreciated and I always try to thank
suppliers who help out by trying to present their hardware in
a good light. The features developed with the help of
suppliers are always the best parts of OPTIKS because I can do
my best work when I have good support.
OPTIKS USER MANUAL
CHAPTER 2
GETTING STARTED QUICK
If you can read this you have gotten OPTIKS out of
its ARC and onto a disk. I will not tell you how to put OPTIKS
on a disk or warn you to make backup copies, because you are
already on your way to being a "power user" or you wouldn't be
interested in OPTIKS. You need OK.EXE or OKPRIV.EXE to use
OPTIKS. OK.EXE is the free version which is distributed for
evaluation purposes. It is identical to OKPRIV.EXE except that
OKPRIV.EXE allows you to write out graphics images in a wider
variety of formats. OKPRIV.EXE also has an internal serial
number which can be used to verify ownership. When I talk
about OPTIKS I will refer OKPRIV.EXE or OK.EXE as OK. This
saves time.
OK needs to be on the current path to work (you knew
that). It does not have to be on the current disk or
sub-directory as long as it is on the path. You type OK (or
OKPRIV) to get OPTIKS started. It will take a fraction of a
second to load in and grab memory and clear it out. Its
housekeeping chores include looking on the current disk and
sub-directory for a file called CONFIG.OK This file contains
information on how you have set your defaults. You don't need
it, but you may want to create one later on. The first time
OPTIKS starts up it uses its defaults which 99% of the time
are what you need.
OPTIKS bloops at you when its done housekeeping
(usually under 2 seconds). It displays the OPTIKS logo and
throws you into menu mode.
DEFINITION: MENU MODE. That's the mode where you can
see a menu and make selections from the menu.
The menu is the row of words in capital letters going
across the top of the screen. The choices are:
FILE ENVIRN PRINT IMAGE DRAW TYPE SCAN QUIT
The word FILE is in reverse video. Underneath the menu line is
an explanation of what the word in reverse video can do for
you. If you move the reverse video cursor using the left and
right arrow keys you can see a short explanation of each of
the menu items and what it does for you.
Right now we are interested in looking at a graphics
image file in the disk. I always use an Apple MacPaint file
called REFLECT.MAC to test so I include it with the OPTIKS
disk. We want to get this file into OPTIKS. You can find the
word FILE on the menu. I try my best to get the menu word to
correspond to the function of the menu selection. It should be
obvious most of the time what each menu does. You will become
an expert user before you know it. Getting through the first
time is all it takes.
Move the reverse video cursor to the word file and
press the return key. OPTIKS gives you another menu. (You
could have just pressed the F key and OPTIKS would have found
the menu item that starts with an F.) The new menu looks like:
RETRIEV SAVE MERGE LIST DEFAULT CHECK
We are interested in retrieving a file so we can choose the
retrieve function. If we had a picture that we wanted to save
we could enter S to save it or we could merge a new picture
with the existing picture using merge. List is used to list
out all or some of the files on a disk and default can move us
to a new disk drive or sub-directory. Check is used when we
can't figure out what kind of a graphic image we have. Check
will look at the file and see if it can recognize it. (Handy
when you have 30 or more different types of graphic files
cluttering your disks).
By the way, if you accidentally get into the wrong
menu branch you can always back out the way you got in by
hitting the Esc key. Don't panic! - Escape.
Press R (or move the cursor to RETRIEV and press
return). Your are given another %#!@ menu which looks like:
PCR TEXT LANG BLOAD FONTS MORE->
PCR files are ultra-squished image files. PCR is a format
unique to OPTIKS and you may want to use this file format if
disk space is at a premium. But we are trying to look at an
Apple MacPaint file. Text is an ascii text file, LANG is for
Lotus PIC and Postscript. Bload is for Basic BLOAD/BSAVE files
and FONTS is for typing and such. None of these have anything
to do with Apple MacPaint. By process of elimination you are
going to have to choose the MORE option.
Press M or move the cursor to MORE and press return.
Oh no! another menu:
APPLE PCB IMG WIPS RLE CUT FONTASY MORE->
Finally there is Apple and all you have to do is
press the return because the cursor is right on the APPLE menu
option. Pressing A will also work.
The disk drive light comes on as OPTIKS takes a look
to see what you've got on the disk and then shows you a
directory of the disk. OPTIKS knows that Apple MacPaint files
have an extension of .MAC and shows you only those files that
match this extension. If you have none, OPTIKS will show you
exactly that - nothing. OPTIKS has looked at the disk and made
a list of the files that it found. You may press the up arrow
or the down arrow to display all of the file names. If
reflect.MAC were the only MAC file on the diskette then that
would be displayed. You can use the up and down arrows looking
for a file, or you can change default disks and directories by
pressing the page down key. You can get a new file list by
pressing the page up key. Your last resort is to type the
complete name of the file that you want to load.
If you typed everything correctly and OPTIKS finds
REFLECT.MAC on the disk, a neat little hourglass will appear
and the sand will drain while the file is loaded. When OPTIKS
is finished (it only takes a few seconds) it will beep and you
will be looking at the etching by M.C. Escher of Escher
himself holding a silver reflecting sphere.
Actually Reflect is a big picture and you will only
be looking at the top part of it. The menu will be gone (thank
goodness) and you will be in VIEW MODE.
DEFINITION: VIEW MODE. The mode that you use to view
a picture.
When in View mode you can use the cursor control keys
to move around the picture. Home brings you to the upper left
hand corner of the work area and END brings you to the lower
right hand corner. END does not bring you to the lower right
hand corner of the picture image which is quite a bit smaller
than the whole work space. PgUp and PgDn go up and down the
picture in chunks. The up and down arrows move you through the
picture slower. The left and right arrows move you
horizontally through the picture.
The picture may be too big to view all at once, but
you can browse through it using the cursor control keys.
You can only look at the picture for so long before
you decide its time to do something like print it out. You
will have to get into Menu mode to print the picture (remember
PRINT was on the first menu).
You can get back to the menu by pressing the / key
(same as Lotus 1-2-3) or you can press Esc. Press / now and
the menu will appear.
This time we are interested in printing so press P or
move the cursor over to the PRINT option and press return. The
menu that comes up is:
PRINT FILE CAPcard
You now have the option to print to a printer or to a file.
You may have some need in the future to print to a file, but
for now press the P to print to the printer. The menu is now:
RANGE PAGE LINEF GO CONFIG
PAGE is to eject the current page from the printer.
LINEF is to give the printer a line feed. RANGE is to tell
OPTIKS how much of the printer you would like to print.
You must specify a range before you can print!
Press R or move the cursor to RANGE and press return
to set the range.
The menu disappears and you are given instructions to
move a pointer to the upper left hand corner of the range. One
problem is that the message has covered part of the picture.
You can enter Alt-C to clear off any clutter on the screen.
Let's just print Escher's head for now. Press the down arrow
and you will notice that the pointer is a finger. You are in a
new mode now called RANGE mode.
DEFINITION: RANGE MODE: The mode you are in whenever
a finger is on the screen. Range mode is used for 1) pointing
and 2) defining a range.
Move the finger to a point just above and to the left
of Escher's head. As you move the finger down, the picture
will move up so you won't fall off of the bottom of the
screen.
When you get the finger positioned you can start the
range by hitting the return key. When you hit the return
another message will appear telling you to move to the lower
right hand corner of the range. Move the finger down and to
the right until Escher's head is in reverse video. The part of
the picture that shows in reverse video is the range. Press
the return key when you have got the range you want to print
in reverse video.
That's all there is to range. You should be back into
the menu. Now, assuming that you have an Epson or IBM
compatible graphics printer you can press G or move over to
the GO option and press return. This will start you printing.
(If you don't have a printer, I would skip this part.)
If you don't have an IBM graphics type printer you
will have to use CONFIG and then MODEL and then DOT or LASER
and then select the correct printer from the menu. You would
then use Esc to get back up to the printing menu to press G.
OPTIKS prints pretty fast compared to some graphics
programs, but graphics printing is slow at best (its all those
darn little dots). When you are through printing you may want
to press P for page to eject the page from the printer.
You can press Esc to get back up to the Main menu.
And from there you can explore the rest of the menu items. The
last time I counted I came up with 300 different menu items
and I've added more since then. Many are hardware specific or
are used for changing the defaults. Most lead to menus within
menus.
LEAVING OPTIKS:
OPTIKS is a great program, but sometime even I want
to get back to the DOS prompt. You have to get to the main
menu. If you are in view mode press the Esc key or / and the
main menu will appear. If you are in a menu press Esc until
you get to the main menu. (Hint: you are looking for QUIT).
From the main menu press Q. You will be asked to confirm and
you press Y if you are sure. OPTIKS will then clean up the
mess it made of memory and return to DOS. If you are in a
floppy disk based system you may be asked to put the boot disk
with COMMAND.COM back into the A: drive before DOS will let
you continue.
Whew, you did it. Next time will be a breeze. From
now on you can either hunt through the menus or dip into the
rest of the documentation for information about how to read,
write and alter images. You have already done all of the hard
stuff. Everything else is either more of the same or obvious.
The best way to learn about OPTIKS and its
capabilities is to explore the menus. Start with REFLECT.MAC
and try all the neat stuff under IMAGE which allows you do
shrink and stretch and tilt and rotate plus other nifty
things. Try saving the image in different formats. Saving a
file is similar to printing, when you choose SAVE and then a
type of file you will be asked for a range. Also try pressing
the F1 key and you will be given lots of information in a very
small space.
OPTIKS DEFAULTS
OPTIKS in a attempt to be as helpful as possible
tries to anticipate your needs. OPTIKS starts up and looks
around your hardware for 1) a mouse, 2) an EMS driver, 3) a
recognizable video board and 4) a CONFIG.OK file. The
CONFIG.OK file is a record of your stored configuration. It is
written to the current subdirectory whenever you go to /ECK.
(That is / Environment Config Keep.) This "keeps" your current
variation from the default on disk. In this way you won't have
to change display modes, EMS, screen width, favorite printer,
etc. every time you start up.
There is no default for mouse. Either a mouse driver
is there or it is not. On early versions of DOS, there may be
a problem with DOS not cleaning up the interrupts and OPTIKS
can be fooled into thinking there is a Mouse when there is
not. OPTIKS works best in DOS 3.x. If your version of 2.1 or
2.11 is working, there is no reason to change, but if OPTIKS
hangs the machine when you start up, consider trying a newer
version of DOS. (I have used no DOS 3.x specific features so
if you get to the menu without hanging by all means use the
leaner, meaner DOS 2.)
Below are listed some of the more important defaults
which are saved in the CONFIG.OK file. If you don't use any of
them, then don't worry about defaults and try another chapter.
VIRT - Virtual Screen Width
Virtual in computerese means: It looks and acts like
its there, but it really isn't. Your REAL screen width is
either 640 pels or 720 pels depending on your monitor. A
Hercules screen is 720, most of the others are 640. OPTIKS
figures this out when it starts up, and you can't tell it
different. It is possible to have a virtual screen much bigger
than the real screen. You can use the cursor controls to move
around inside the virtual page so that a piece at a time shows
up on your real screen.
The default virtual screen is 1024 pels wide, but you
can double that (and double it again and a again) up to 8192
pels wide. If you think of the way a Laser Printer prints at
300 dots per inch, 8,192 pels is 27+ inches wide. That's a big
picture. (divide the # of pels by the print density to get
inches).
There is price for fooling with the virtual page
width. You only have so much memory. You can display the
current memory situation from the Environment menu, and by
adding total EMS memory allocated and real memory used for
pictures you can get the total picture memory. That is all the
memory you get. The wider the virtual page width the fewer
lines of picture can be allocated. Number of lines times the
width of a virtual page equals total picture memory. Picture
memory is a constant so if you want a longer picture you need
a narrower page.
If you have no EMS memory and not much free DOS
memory you will cut off the bottoms of most pictures. If you
make the virtual page width very wide, you may not be able to
see more than a screen of any image. 1024 pels is best for
Readmacs which are fixed at 576 pels wide. 2048 is best for
the large .PCC files on the OPTIKS conference. 4096 pels will
give you more than 13 inches width at 300 DPI. Only power mad
DTP users will consider the 8,196 pel virtual page width.
Once you select a virtual page width you like, "KEEP"
it by going into Config and using the Keep option. This will
place a CONFIG.OK on the current directory. The next time
OPTIKS starts up it will look at the CONFIG.OK to see what
size virtual page you prefer and set it correctly.
CHAPTER 2
THE OPTIKS COMMAND LINE
The command OK (or OKPRIV if you have a private version)
will start up OPTIKS. This is the normal way to enter into
optiks. Once in OPTIKS you would use the keyboard or the
mouse to manipulate graphics.
There are times when it may be convient for OPTIKS to do
some action from a BAT file or from the command line. You
can do this by entering:
OK keystrokes
The keystrokes are the slash key: "/" and any valid
sequence of OPTIKS menu items. Menu items, if you recall,
can be entered by typing the first letter of each item.
There are a few special keys also. They are:
~ (tilde) = Return key
^ (hat) = Escape Key
@ = Home
! = End
? = Wait forever for a keystroke
If the escape is pressed, the key sequence
ends.
$ = wait 2 seconds
If the escape is pressed, the key sequence
ends.
* = restart the command line.
This is for slide shows.
+ = up arrow
- = down arrow
( = left arrow
) = right arrow
An Example:
OK frma!reflect~$$$/qy
Does the following:
f=FILE
r=RETRIEVE
m=MORE
a=APPLE
!=END (clears any found names from the line)
reflect=name of mac file "REFLECT.MAC"
~=return
$$$$$=wait 10 seconds
/=menu
q=QUIT
y=YES
I have set up a slid show displays 3 Zsoft PC Paint files
over and over again and scrolls around a little in each.
I put it in a BAT file to make it easier to create and run
OK /frmp~$)))---$((($@^p-~$)))---$((($@^p--~$)))---$((($@*
Using the * key in a command line allows you to have a
continously running show. However I would suggest that
you have a $ or a ? in there somewhere or you will have
to reboot to exit the show.
NOTES ON COLOR:
With release 2.08 I have added the ability show 16 color
graphics in EGA and VGA modes. The file types supported
are ZSOFT PCC and PCX, Compuserve GIF and DR's GEM Paint
IMG files. I have not tested GEM IMG files yet.
The default for all systems is single plane 2 colors.
To change the default you must go to the ENVIRONMENT
menu down to SCREEN and select IBM. The various sorts of
IBM screens will be displayed along with PLANES. The planes
can be either 1 or 4. To use color you must select 4 before
you read the file or the palette will not be set.
If you try to read a normal black and white file the planes
will be reset to 1. Planes will not work unless you are in
a valid EGA or VGA mode.
Color and Black and White graphics can not be mixed.
Color images can be saved and manipulated a little, but
many functions will not work with color. No drawing and few
of the image manipulators work correctly. Typing will be
very strange.
Some Color images will set the palette so that the menu is
nearly invisible. The finger move destructively on the screen
and this is a real bug which is being addressed
Old EGA cards with less than 256k on them will show odd
patterns on the screen. Owners of such cards should order
an upgrade to get full use of all of the new graphics coming
out.
TIPS on using HP LaseJet fonts.
2.08 also saw the ability to read laserjet fonts. There is
not enough memory to run OPTIKS and keep a font resident
so LJ fonts are treated as files. /FR will read files and
fonts, but ERASES the workspace first. Use /FM (merge) to
type on an existing graphic. Fonts are XOR'd to the image
so that they overlay the data in a non-destructive manner.
The image will show through the letters. This may not be
acceptable for some typing. Clear a space for the letters
using /IFD or /IFE.
Since the fonts are loaded as files, if a letter is not in
the file buffer, the file will be re-read from the beginning
to find the file. This is very slow in large fonts. Fonts up
to about 16 point will fit entirely in the file buffer and
they will go much faster.
Since most fonts are variable spaced, the backspace key will
backspace the width of the last letter typed. To erase a letter
you re-type it. Accurate typing will save you hours of
repositioning.
FILE MENU TREE
The floowing is a summary of the OPTIKS menu tree as it pertains
to files. This will help you to determine what files OPTIKS can
read and write.
ROOT menu:
FILE ENVIRN PRINT IMAGE DRAW TYPE SCAN QUIT
FILE: Load, save, merge, and list files
ENVIRN: OPTIKS Environment and optional features
PRINT: Print a Picture to a Disk file or a Printer
IMAGE: Alter Picture shape, size and other attributes
DRAW: Draw lines and boxes.
TYPE: Type to screen using OPTIKS fonts.
SCAN: Read/write image data from scanners.
QUIT: Leave Optiks.
The FILE menu items are:
RETREIV SAVE MERGE LIST DEFAULT CHECK
RETREIV: Load a file from disk into the workspace
MERGE: Combine a file from disk with the current picture
SAVE: Write picture information to disk
LIST: List the files on the current directory
DEFAULT: Change the current directory and/or logged drive
CHECK: Check For Recognizeable file header
OPTIKS can RETREIVE or MERGE the following types of files:
PCR: PC Rockland ultra-squished data format
TEXT: ASCII text files with OPTIKS escape sequences
LANG: these are interpreted vector files which are:
LOTUS: Lotus PIC files (Without text, color or fill)
POST: Post Script files (Scanner Graphics)
BLOAD: Bload/Bsave files from basic supporting the following
CGA: CGA B800 16K interlaced screens
EGA: EGA A000 32K 640*350 single plane screens
AT&T: AT&T B800 640*400 interlace 4 screens
HERC: Hercules B000 720*348 interlace 4 screens
640x400: VGA and similar modes 32k at A000
480: Enahanced EGA 640*480 modes - A000
720: 720 wide modes at A up to 48k
FONTS: Load PCR Fonts
APPLE: Apple MacIntosh MacPaint format (READMACS)
PCB: PC Paintbrush (PCC or PCX files from Zsoft)
IMG: EFS Image files (raw data format)
WIPS: Datacopy Corp. uncompressed WIPS Files
RLE: RLE Run Length Encoded Files from Compuserve
CUT: Dr. Halo II CUT files
FONTASY: FONTASY load block or BASIC PUT/GET files
SFP: Type to screen with HP Soft font
LJET: Printer output files for HP LaserJet
MSP: Microsoft Paint
PIG: Ricoh IS30 Pixel Image Generation files
RAS: Show file RAS format
TIFF: Aldus - Microsoft TIFF files
GEM: GEM Paint file
ISF: IBM Image Support Facility 2 v1.00
DEGAS: DEGAS Atari ST files
ART: PFS First Publisher .ART files
1.0PIC: PC PAINT version 1.0
PDA: PALANTIR PDA Uncompressed
IFF: ATARI IFF Graphics files
GIF: Compuserve Graphics Interchange Format
TRY: Best Guess: MicroSoft Paint, GEM, Zsoft PCX, GIF, TIF or MacPaint
OPTIKS can SAVE in the following formats:
PCR APPLE BRUSH MSP EPSF LOAD IMG
PCR: PC Rockland ultra-squished data format
APPLE: Apple MacIntosh MacPaint format (READMACS)
PCB: PC Paintbrush (PCC or PCX files from Zsoft)
EPSF Post Script files (Scanner Graphics)
MSP: Microsoft Paint
BLOAD: Bload/Bsave files from basic supporting the following
CGA: CGA B800 16K interlaced screens
EGA: EGA A000 32K 640*350 single plane screens
AT&T: AT&T B800 640*400 interlace 4 screens
HERC: Hercules B000 720*348 interlace 4 screens
640x400: VGA and similar modes 32k at A000
480: Enahanced EGA 640*480 modes - A000
720: 720 wide modes at A up to 48k
IMG: EFS Image files (raw data format)
WIPS: Datacopy Corp. uncompressed WIPS Files
CUT: Dr. Halo II CUT files
TIFF: Aldus - Microsoft TIFF files
GEM: GEM Paint file
RAS: Show file RAS format
FONTASY: FONTASY load block or BASIC PUT/GET files
PIG: Ricoh IS30 Pixel Image Generation files
GEM: GEM Paint file
TIFF: Aldus - Microsoft TIFF files
ISF: IBM Image Support Facility 2 v1.00
ART: PFS First Publisher .ART files
HP-SOFT: Write HP soft font letter. Use OKHL to create a font
1.0PIC: PC PAINT version 1.0
PDA: PALANTIR PDA Uncompressed
IFF: ATARI IFF Graphics files
COMING SOON - MORE GREAT DOCUMENTATION!
I will be issuing documentation at the rate of a
couple of chapters a month for the next few months until its
time to go back and rewrite the whole thing. The
documentation, like OPTIKS itself, will evolve as I find need
to explain things. I will follow the format of the menus going
from left to right. Chapter 3 will probably be a discussion of
the modes in OPTIKS plus a more detailed description of the
features of the program itself. I will discuss the General
Help screens. Chapter 4 will start with FILE information and
should give you some hints on how to load and save files. In
the mean time I hope this is helpful to someone.