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Desktop Paint ████████████████████████ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ If you like this program, please: Send us $40.00, the normal user fee for Desktop Paint 256. Registered users of Desktop Paint 256 are entitled to phone support, notification of upgrades and good karma. When you register it, we'll send you a copy of the latest version. Please tell us the version number of your copy of Desktop Paint 256 when you register. Our address can be found in the Registration section of this document. NOTE: You can register Desktop Paint 256 with a Visa card by calling 1-800-263-1138 (toll free) from the United States or 1-416-729-4969 from other places. (The area code for Alchemy Mindworks' non-800 numbers will change from 416 to 905 after October 4, 1993.) NOTE: British users of Desktop Paint 256 should contact our UK distributor, The Public Domain & Shareware Library Ltd., Winscombe House, Beacon Road, Crowborough, Sussex, TN6 1UL, England, telephone 0892 663298, FAX 0892 667473, BBS 0892 661149. NOTE: Danish users of Desktop Paint 256 should contact Prof Shareware, Benloese Skel 4 G, DK 4100, Ringsted, Denmark. NOTE: French users of Desktop Paint 256 should contact our French distributor, DP Tool Club, 102 rue des fusilles, 59650 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France, telephone (33) 20 56 55 33, fax (33) 20 56 55 25. NOTE: German users of Desktop Paint 256 should contact our German distributor, PD-SERVICE-LAGE, Postfach 1743, D-4937 Lage, West Germany. NOTE: We now have a bulletin board system. See the section on contacting Alchemy Mindworks for more information. ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ TABLE OF CONTENTS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Introduction Running Desktop Paint 256 A Word About Drivers A Word About Mice A Word About Memory and Desktop Paint 256 A Word About Colour and Desktop Paint 256 File formats The Menus Desk menu File menu Edit menu Extra menu Text menu Font menu Tools menu Colour menu The Toolbox Configuring Desktop Paint 256 Command Line Switches Fonts Managing Resources Contacting Alchemy Mindworks Inc. Registration Paying by credit card Source Code Availability and Books Bundling Desktop Paint 256 Shareware distributors Other Alchemy Mindworks Shareware Revision History Legal Dogma INTRODUCTION ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Desktop Paint 256 is a powerful, easy to use 256-colour paint program. It's suitable for drawing original pictures and for editing previously scanned images. It will read and write files in most of the popular bitmapped image formats, including PCX, IMG, GIF, TIF and WPG, among others. Unlike some commercial paint applications, Desktop Paint 256 does not include every feature imaginable, and it won't occupy several megabytes of hard drive space. It also won't take you an eternity to learn. Its intuitive user interface makes it all but self- explanatory, and its on-line help will let you get over rough spots quickly. Note that Desktop Paint 256 will only create and work with files having up to 256 colours. Note also that it will only work with WPG files which contain bitmapped images. Desktop Paint 256 is a paint program, rather than a drawing program. It does not support GEM, Corel Draw, Designer, DXF or EPS files. Unlike many other paint programs, Desktop Paint 256 features complete XMS and EMS support. It will handle enormous images... pictures which unpack into several megabytes... if you have sufficient extended or expanded memory in your system. Desktop Paint 256 requires a Microsoft compatible mouse and driver and a suitable super VGA card. See the section on drivers later in this document. You can run Desktop Paint 256 on any 80286 or better system. It will prove a bit slow on very low end systems. Desktop Paint 256 requires 640 kilobytes of conventional memory, and at least a megabyte of XMS or EMS. You can actually run it in a system with just 640 kilobytes of conventional memory if no TSRs or device drivers are loaded and you're working with very small pictures, but some of its features may be unavailable. If you register Desktop Paint 256 we'll send you the current version of the software and a copy of the Desktop Paint 256 font toolkit. This will provide you with more fonts and some tools to help you convert fonts from other sources. The font toolkit is discussed in greater detail later in this document. RUNNING DESKTOP PAINT 256 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ You should place the following files in the directory you plan to keep Desktop Paint 256 in. - DTPV.EXE The program - DTPV.RES Fonts and other resources - DTPV.DOC This document - DTPVINST.EXE The installer - EXAMPLE1.PCX A picture file You must run DTPVINST before your run DTPV. Please consult the sections of this document that deal with Drivers and Configuration. Once you have installed Desktop Paint 256, type DTPV. When Desktop Paint 256 has loaded you'll see a grey screen with a menu bar at the top. Click on one of the menu items to pull down a menu. If you have enabled pull down menus, drag the mouse pointer to the menu item you wish to select and release it. If you've enabled drop down menus, click on the item you wish to select. The function you've chosen will pop up. Chances are you already know how to work a menu bar. Desktop Paint 256 assumes that your mouse has two buttons. In most cases, you'll be using the left one to click on things. On a two button mouse, drawing with the left button will produce lines in the current foreground colour and lines and drawing with the right button will produce lines in the current background colour. If you have a three button mouse you might have to experiment a bit to see which button draws lines in the background colour. When you open a file under Desktop Paint 256, all the files in the current directory which match one of the supported file types will be visible in the file selector box. You can open any file by clicking on it and then by clicking on Ok. Note that if you attempt to open a file with more than 256 colours, Desktop Paint 256 will complain. A work area will open on your screen. If the picture you want to work on is too big to fit on the screen all at once, scroll bars will appear to allow you to move the work area over your picture. If you wish to open a different picture, you must first select Close from the file menu to close your current picture and then select New or Open. You can return to DOS at any time by selecting Quit from the File menu. You can run Desktop Paint 256 and load a file into it with one command from the DOS prompt. For example, if you wanted to edit a file called EXAMPLE1.PCX, you could do this C>DTPV EXAMPLE1.PCX This would run Desktop Paint 256 and load the picture as if it had been loaded with the Open command from the File menu. Desktop Paint 256's dialog boxes will respond to the keyboard. If you hit the Enter key when a dialog box is visible, the box will respond as if you had clicked in the "Ok" box. If you hit Esc it will respond as if you had clicked in the "Cancel" box, assuming there is one. A WORD ABOUT DRIVERS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Desktop Paint 256 is a super VGA paint program. It requires a display with at least 640 by 400 pixels resolution at 256 colours. A standard IBM VGA card will not work with Desktop Paint 256. Neither will a "basic" VGA card, a PS/2 VGA display or most laptop and notebook displays. In addition, you must be using a display card of a type which Desktop Paint 256 supports. A complete list of the supported cards can be found in page F2 of DTPVINST. If your card is not among those that are explicitly supported by the existing drivers, you might be able to use one of the VESA drivers. In many cases the company that packages up a VGA card is not the same as the one that made the actual hardware that drives it. For example, The Orchid Fahrenheit 1280 card is not listed on page F2 of DTPVINST. It is supported, however... you can use the VESA driver for Desktop Paint 256. If you're uncertain what type of card you have, run the VGACARD program that comes with Desktop Paint 256. It will attempt to ascertain who made your card, and suggest a suitable driver. It's fair to note that it tries very hard to be accurate, but the numerous variations on super VGA cards available at the moment make it impossible for a program like this one to be right all the time. Use what VGACARD tells you carefully. Note also that VGACARD will not tell you how much memory is on your VGACARD, nor in most cases which modes it supports. Both these considerations may affect your choice of drivers. For example, cards with only 256 kilobytes of memory can only support 640 by 400 pixels at 256 colours. Some older Paradise cards with 512 kilobytes of memory on board have enough memory to support 800 by 600 pixels, but the hardware on the card cannot generate this mode. A WORD ABOUT MICE ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Desktop Paint 256 is driven by the driver of a Microsoft or Microsoft-compatible mouse. Most mice will work properly with the package. A few, such as some species of Logitech mice, don't implement their drivers quite correctly, and will cause the mouse cursor to jump, rather than moving evenly. If you encounter this problem, you will probably be able to overcome it by replacing your MOUSE.COM mouse driver with the one included with Desktop Paint 256. Note that you must have a Microsoft-compatible mouse and a suitable mouse driver loaded before Desktop Paint 256 will boot up. A WORD ABOUT MEMORY AND DESKTOP PAINT 256 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Desktop Paint 256 is forever calling for and releasing blocks of memory. Each time it opens a window, displays a picture or an icon, responds to a mouse click and so on, it calls for at least a bit of memory. If you hear a click when you ask Desktop Paint 256 to do something, this usually indicates that it could not find enough memory to do what you asked it. This may be because you're running it in restricted memory, or because most of your memory is occupied by a picture. If possible, you should not run Desktop Paint 256 from a shell program, or shelled out of another application, as this will reduce the amount of memory it has available for its own use. In very cramped memory situations, you can free up a bit of memory by unselecting an area of your drawing if one is currently selected. Selecting things will be dealt with later in the discussion of the Selector tool. You can also free up any memory occupied by the clipboard by opening the Clipboard window from the Desk menu and selecting Clear. Opening the About box may free up a bit of memory. Note that if you attempt to quit Desktop Paint 256 and there isn't enough memory to open the window that asks "Do you want to quit?", Desktop Paint 256 will assume that you do and return you immediately to DOS. As such, you can't actually get trapped in it. Desktop Paint 256 will buffer your picture, its clipboard and several other large image fragments it works with in extended or expanded memory if you have some available. You must select the appropriate memory type in the DTPVINST program as well. A suitable memory driver must have been loaded in your CONFIG.SYS file. If there is not enough extra memory available, Desktop Paint 256 will use conventional memory. A WORD ABOUT COLOUR AND DESKTOP PAINT 256 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Desktop Paint 256 uses the 256-colour graphics mode of a VGA card. This means that if you load a 256-colour image file into it, all 256 colours of your display will be required to show you the picture. Desktop Paint 256 will select five colours for its own use, to draw menus, icons and such. These will be the five colours closest to white, black, light grey, middle grey and dark grey. Desktop Paint 256 will not change the colours in your picture to create colours for itself. As such, if there are no colours in your image that are close to these colours, some of the colours used in the menus and such may shift noticeably. If you import a graphic into the Clipboard, its colours will be adjusted to suit the colours in your current image. This may cause a noticeable colour shift in your imported image. If you open a picture of a green parrot against a green jungle, for example... such that all the colours in the picture are green... all the screen menus and such will be drawn in green on green. When Desktop Paint 256 loads a picture, it "sorts" the palette, such that the colours run from dark to light in the Colours menu. In some special cases you might want to disable this feature... see the section on Command Line Switches later in this document for a switch to do so. FILE FORMATS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Desktop Paint 256 supports most of the popular image file formats. You can load an image from one format and save it to another. Note that some of these file formats can support colour images, which the 256-colour version of Desktop Paint 256 can't deal with. If you encounter an error reading a file, use the Get Info function of the File menu to see how many colours it supports. MACPAINT FILES ───────────────────── MacPaint files can come in two flavours. The most common one is straight ported MacPaint files, that is, files having the Macbinary header. The other is "headerless" files, these being the ones used with PFS:First Publisher. Desktop Paint 256 reads both types, but if you convert a file from a different format to MacPaint format the file will be written in accordance with the setting of the MacBinary header field in DTPVINST. You can override this with the appropriate command line switches. Files converted to the MacPaint format from other formats will be cropped or padded out as necessary to fit in the MacPaint format's 576 by 720 format. Note that you can't save a colour image to the MacPaint format. GEM/IMG FILES ──────────────────── There are actually quite a few variations on IMG files... they handle monochrome and grey level images. The primary application for IMG files is as the bitmapped image file format of Ventura Publisher. PCX FILES ──────────────── PCX files are used to hold images for Z-Soft's PC Paintbrush package. You can import the PCX files created by Desktop Paint 256 into most desktop publishing and word processing packages. GIF FILES ──────────────── Desktop Paint 256 supports both the 87a and 89a versions of the GIF standard. It will read the first image of GIF files having multiple images. By default Desktop Paint 256 writes GIF 89a files. If you require GIF 87a files, use the /G87 command line switch or set it up to write GIF 87a files using DTPVINST. TGA FILES ──────────────── The Truevision Targa format is used by several high end paint programs and things like ray tracing packages. It can handle images with up to sixteen million unique colours. It can also support 256-colour images, although this application for Targa files is infrequently used. If you encounter Targa files that won't read into Desktop Paint 256, use the Get Info function of the File menu. You'll probably find they have more than 256 colours. TIFF FILES ───────────────── The TIFF format offers lots of options to make it applicable to a wide variety of applications... which entails a certain amount of confusion, as well. You can get better control over all the nuances of TIFF files through Alchemy Mindworks' Graphic Workshop application, as discussed later in this document. Note that due to the wide variations among the programs which produce TIFF files, Desktop Paint 256 would be lying rather badly if it claimed to be able to read all TIFF files. Specifically, it does not read Huffman or LZW compressed TIFF files as yet, as we haven't devised code to do this in a reasonable amount of space. WPG FILES ──────────────── These are the native import graphic files for WordPerfect. These files can contain both bitmaps and line art, or vector graphics. Desktop Paint 256 can only deal with the bitmapped parts of them. WPG files which refuse to read with Desktop Paint 256 are usually those which contain only vector elements and no bitmaps. MSP FILES ──────────────── These are the image files used by the paint program which came with Microsoft Windows version 2. Don't confuse these with PCX files... some versions of Windows 2 came with a Windows implementation of PC Paintbrush from ZSoft as well. The two programs... and the two file formats... are not compatible. MSP files are monochrome only. Note that you can't save a colour image to the MSP format. IFF/LBM FILES ──────────────────── These started out on the Amiga. The IFF file standard is extremely flexible, and allows all sorts of things besides images to be stored in IFF files. IFF files are found on the PC having been ported from Amiga systems. They are also created on the PC by several applications such as Electronic Arts' Deluxe Paint package and Digital Vision's Computer Eyes video scanner board. In the first case they are given the extension LBM. In the second they are given the extension CE. The basic file structure is the same, however. Note that Desktop Paint 256 only reads "pure" IFF files, and will not handle the countless variations on the format which have appeared on the Amiga. BMP FILES ──────────────── These are the files which are used as "wallpaper" under Windows 3. They can be created using the version of PC Paintbrush supplied with Windows. BMP files use no image compression, as the intention appears to be to make them fast to load. Plan on your BMP files being very large. PIC FILES ──────────────── These should not be confused with Lotus 1-2-3 PIC drawing files. PIC files are created by PC Paint (not PC Paintbrush) and are used by Grasp, among other things. They come in many flavours. Desktop Paint 256 has been tested with the most common ones. In theory it should support them all, but that's only a theory. THE MENUS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The easiest way to go through the functions of Desktop Paint 256 is to look at its menus and toolbox. Here's a quick overview of the menus, starting from the left edge of the screen. Note that many of the menu items have keyboard equivalents. This is indicated by a diamond and a letter, the diamond representing the Alt key. For example, if you wish to select the Open function, you can do so by either selecting it from the file menu or by holding down the Alt key and hitting O. Some menu items may be printed in grey type, rather than in black. These are disabled. Items are disabled because it's inappropriate to use them at the moment. For example, you would not be able to select the Print item until there was a picture in Desktop Paint 256 to print. DESK MENU ──────────────── Clipboard --------------- The Clipboard function lets you see the most recent fragment cut or copied from a picture. The Clipboard is a holding area for bits of images. In the Clipboard window, the current contents of the Clipboard will be displayed padded out with black if they're too small to fill the window or cropped if they're too big. This is only how the image is displayed in the window, and will not affect it when it's pasted into your picture. You can import and export small image files into and out of the Clipboard. The dimensions of imported files must be fairly modest... certainly no larger than those of your current drawing area. The Clipboard will complain if attempt to import a picture which it considers to be too large. The file type for exported image from the Clipboard will be the set in the File Type item of the File menu. About ----------- The About box will tell you what version of Desktop Paint 256 you're using, as well as how much memory you have free at the moment. Note that is only conventional DOS memory... it does not include any XMS or EMS you may have on hand. It will, however, tell you what type of memory is being used to store your image in if you have one loaded. The About box will also tell you what type of processor Desktop Paint 256 believes is in your computer. This information is used to calibrate several time delays, such as the speed of the airbrush. Help ---------- The Help function will present you with detailed on-line help to assist in using Desktop Paint 256. You can work your way through the help by clicking on the underlined text items in the help window. Click on the Previous button to back up on level, the Index button to return to the first page and the Done button to exit Help. Note that each step down in the hierarchy of help pages requires some memory. If you're running Desktop Paint 256 with very little free memory, you may not be able to fully access Help. Save Screen ----------------- The Save Screen function will take a "snap shot" of the Desktop Paint 256 screen and store it in an image file. Hitting Alt 1 will also invoke this function... you can use Alt 1 if you want to capture a dialog box, for example. When you invoke the Save Screen function, a file selector dialog will appear to prompt you for a file name to save the screen image to. FILE MENU ──────────────── New --------- The New function allows you to create a blank drawing of any size... at least, of any size you have memory for. The smallest dimension a drawing can have is thirty-two pixels on a size. The largest is 32,760 pixels. Note that a drawing 32,760 pixels square would require about 524,000 megabytes of XMS or EMS to contain it. You cannot create a new drawing which occupies more memory than you have. Open ---------- The Open function will load a drawing from your disk into Desktop Paint 256. All the files of types which Desktop Paint 256 can work with will appear in the Open file selector box. The same minimum and maximum file sizes apply to Open as they do to New. You can't open a file if there's one currently visible in Desktop Paint 256... you must close your existing file first. Note that Desktop Paint 256 can't tell if a file is really suitable for opening until you actually try to open it. As such, it will display the names of files with too many colours for it to work with, for example, and complain if you try to open one. Close ----------- The Close function disposes of an existing drawing and prepares Desktop Paint 256 to have a different drawing opened or created. Save ---------- The Save function will save your current drawing back to the disk under the current file name. If you have started your drawing from scratch with New, you must first select Save As to assign it a file name. Save As ------------- The Save As function allows you to save your drawing under a new file name. The file type will be the current file type, as set by the File Type function. Print ----------- The Print function will print your current drawing to a laser or dot matrix printer. Desktop Paint 256 supports PostScript and LaserJet compatible laser printers in four resolutions. Note that even though your printer may have three hundred dot per inch resolution, you can still print to it at a lower resolution. Selecting, for example, one hundred dot per inch resolution will cause the picture to be printed larger. Desktop Paint 256 prints to dot matrix and ink jet printers through a special driver resource called a PDRV, which lives in DTPV.RES. Use DTPVINST to select non-laser printer drivers. If there is no driver available, only the laser printer options will appear in the Print dialog box. You can select the number of copies to be printed. The number can range from 1 through 99. Note that this value only affects output to laser printers. Printing to an external printer driver will only print one copy at a time no matter how the Copies value is set. The DeskJet 500C and PaintJet drivers will print in colour. Get Info -------------- This will allow you to look at any image file of the currently selected file type and see how big it is, how much memory it will require to edit, how many colours it has for file formats which support colour and so on. File Type --------------- The File Type function will allow you select the file format for use in Save As and Export operations. Note that you can load a file from one format, change the file type and then save it in another. Quit ---------- The Quit function returns you to DOS. EDIT MENU ──────────────── Copy ---------- The Copy function is only active when an area of your drawing has been selected using the Select tool... the scissors. When selected, the Copy function will copy the contents of the selected area into the Clipboard. Cut --------- The Cut function behaves like Copy except that it will fill the selected area with the current background colour and unselect it. Paste ----------- The Paste tool is only active if there's something in the Clipboard. It will paste the current contents of the Clipboard into the upper left corner of the drawing window. It will be selected, and you can move it to where you want it to be. If you hold down the control key while pasting, the pasted fragment will be transparent. Clear ----------- The Clear function behaves like the Cut function except that it does not copy the selected area to the Clipboard. It just fills it with the current background colour and unselects it. Invert ------------ The Invert function is only active when an area of your drawing has been selected. It inverts all the pixels in the selected area to their complimentary colour in the current palette. Flip Horizontal --------------------- The Flip Horizontal function is only active when an area of your drawing has been selected. It flips the selected area right to left. Flip Vertical ------------------- The Flip Vertical function is only active when an area of your drawing has been selected. It flips the selected area top to bottom. Rotate (90, 180 and 270) ------------------------------ These three functions are only active when an area of your drawing has been selected. They rotate the selected area by the specified amounts. Scaling ------------- The Scaling function is only active when an area of your drawing has been selected. It scales the selected portion of your drawing to your choice of sizes... a dialog box will pop up asking for a scaling factor. The scale factor can range from .1 (ten percent of your original) to 10 (one thousand percent of your original) assuming that the scaled fragment will actually fit in the drawing window. You can specify different horizontal and vertical scaling factors by selecting the "Anamorphic" box. If this box is not selected, clicking in the most recently changed value will copy it to the other value. Smudge ------------ The Smudge function is only active when an area of your drawing has been selected. It will make the details of the selected area fuzzy. You can select Smudge multiple times to increase the amount of smudging. Soften ------------ The Soften function is only active when an area of your drawing has been selected. It will reduce the contrast of the selected area. Note that the first time you use Soften, Sharpen or Matrix, Desktop Paint 256 will pause to order the current image palette. It stores its working palette in an internal table, which will speed up subsequent operations that use it. The table will be discarded when you change pictures, use the Edit function of the Set Palette dialog, save an image or open the About box. If this happens, you'll have to wait for it to be ordered again when next you use Soften, Sharpen or matrix. The Soften function can help reduce the effect of moire patterns caused by scanning images from books and magazines. Sharpen ------------- The Sharpen function is only active when an area of your drawing has been selected. It will increase the contrast of the selected area. Matrix ------------ The Matrix function is only active when an area of your drawing has been selected. It will increase the size of the pixels in the selected area. The effect of doing so is similar to that used to hide the identity of people in television news. EXTRA MENU ───────────────── Gradient -------------- The Gradient function allows you set the characteristics of the gradients which are drawn by the Gradient tool, to be described shortly. Specifically, you can set the direction in which the gradient will progress and the minimum and maximum values for the extremes of the gradient. The range for the gradient values is zero through 255. The gradient always changes from the current foreground colour to the current background colour. Set Palette ----------------- The Set Palette function will allow you to change colours in the current palette, to save palettes to disk and to load new palettes. To edit a colour, click on it with the left or right mouse button to make it the current foreground or background colour. Click on the Edit button... clicking with the left mouse button will edit the current foreground colour. Clicking with the right mouse button will edit the current background colour. If you load a palette from disk, your current screen colours and the colours in your image will probably change. You can make a saved palette the default new colour palette for Desktop Paint 256. This is discussed later in this document. Grid ---------- The Grid function allows you to turn the magnetic grid on and off, and to set its spacing. When the grid is switched on, the mouse will snap to the nearest grid point when you draw things, allowing you to accurately position lines, rectangles, ellipses and so on. The Grid item will have a check mark beside it when the Grid is active. Grid Setup ---------------- The Grid Setup function allows you to determine the frequency of the magnetic grid. The grid is always relative to the upper left corner of your picture. Line Settings ------------------- The Line Setting functions select the current drawing line width. You can also select no thickness, which is useful if you want to draw a filled rectangle or gradient with no line around it. Full Screen ----------------- The Full Screen function toggles between the windowed mode of Desktop Paint 256... in which the toolbox will be visible on the screen... and the full screen mode, in which pretty much the entire screen will be used as an image editing area. In this latter mode, you can access the toolbox through the Tools menu. Set Brush --------------- The Set Brush function will allow you to set and edit the current brush. You can also save and load brush sets. The brushes affect the way lines are drawn with the Brush tool and the shape of the brush used by the Local Undo tool, both of which will be discussed later in this document. Note that if you don't like the default brush set in Desktop Paint 256, you can create a new one, save it to a brush file and then add it to DTPV.RES to make it the default brush set. This will be discussed later in this document in the section that deals with modifying DTPV.RES. TEXT MENU ──────────────── Left, Centre and Right ---------------------------- These functions set the direction that text will be drawn. Font Size --------------- The Font Size functions select the size in which the current font will be drawn. They will also tell you what the current font is, just in case you forget... the current font will have a check mark beside it. When Desktop Paint 256 first boots, the current font will be the first one in the Font menu and the current size will be the smallest size that font is available in. FONT MENU ──────────────── The Font menu will allow you to select a font to draw text with. It will display all the fonts in DTPV.RES. Selecting a font from the Font menu will make it the current text font when you next use the text tool. A check mark will appear next to the name of the current font in the font menu. If you register Desktop Paint 256, you'll receive the Desktop Paint 256 font toolkit, which will provide you with a wider range of fonts, as well as tools to convert fonts from other formats for use with Desktop Paint 256. TOOL MENU ──────────────── The Tool menu is iconic... it duplicates the functions in the Desktop Paint 256 toolbox. It will allow you to select tools even if you're working in full screen mode, which causes the normal toolbox to stay hidden. To use an iconic menu, drag your mouse cursor over the menu area until it rests on the icon you wish to select, and then release it. The currently selected tool will be inverted. COLOUR MENU ────────────────── The Colour menu is also iconic. It will allow you to set the current foreground and background colours. Run the menu with your left mouse button to set the current foreground colour and with your right mouse button to set the current background colour. THE TOOLBOX ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The toolbox will appear at the left side of your screen when you have opened or created a drawing file if the full screen mode isn't active. The currently active tool will be inverted. You can select a new tool by clicking on it. You can also select a tool by using the Tool menu. Selector (the scissors) ----------------------------- The Selector tool allows you to select areas of your drawing. Selected areas can be transformed using the tools in the Edit menu. You can move a selected area by placing the mouse cursor in it, holding down the left button and dragging it to its new location. If you hold down the left shift key while you select an area, the original image below the selected area will be left behind, and a copy made to appear in the selected box. If you do not, the image below the selected area will be filled with the current background colour. You can cause a selected area to become a permanent part of your drawing by clicking outside it. The selection box will go away. This is called "deselecting". Normally, selected areas are opaque, that is, white areas will obscure any areas beneath them. If you hold down the control key while you drag, transform or deselect a selected area, the selected image will become transparent. Any pixels below it will remain visible. If you paste an image fragment into your drawing, it will appear in the upper left corner of your drawing window and behave as if it had been selected with the left shift key held down. Selected image fragments can be "nudged" one pixel at a time using the cursor mover keys of your keyboard. The four arrow keys will move a fragment horizontally and vertically. The Home, End, PgUp and PgDn keys will move it diagonally. Note that the holding down the Ctrl will make a fragment transparent when you nudge it except when you try to move it vertically. It turns out that the IBM keyboard doesn't support scan codes for Ctrl Up and Ctrl Down. Lasso (genuine polyester rope) ------------------------------------ The Lasso tool will allow you to select irregular areas of a drawing. Once selected, these areas behave just like those selected by the Scissors tool, with the following exceptions: - None of the image manipulation functions of the Edit menu will be active if a Lasso'd fragment has been selected. - Lasso'd fragments exported to image files will become rectangular. To use the Lasso tool, click and drag your mouse cursor around the periphery of the area you want to select. Note that there's a limit to the complexity of a selected area. If the Lasso selector closes unexpectedly, you've exceeded this limit. In most applications this won't happen... the Lasso complexity limit is pretty high. The Lasso tool is a bit of a memory pig. Airbrush (ozone friendly spray paint) ------------------------------------------- The Airbrush tool will allow you to spray random areas of pixels in your drawing window. The longer you leave the mouse in one place and held down, the darker or lighter the area will become. Use the left mouse button to spray in the current foreground colour and the right mouse button to spray in the current background colour. The line width settings in the Extra menu will determine the spay size. Select No width or Thin Width for a small spray and something thicker for a large spray. Note that on fairly slow systems the paint might take a long time to come out of the can. The airbrush speed is adjusted based on the type of processor Desktop Paint 256 finds in your computer. You can change the sizes of the airbrush spray using DTPVINST, as will be discussed later in this document. Text (the big T tool) --------------------------- The Text tool will allow you to draw text in your picture using the currently selected font, font size and direction. The text will emanate from wherever you click in the drawing window. A vertical text cursor will indicate where the next character will appear. If you hit Enter when you are typing text, the cursor will move down a line. You cannot draw text if part of the text would appear outside the drawing window. Click with the left mouse button to draw text in the current foreground colour. Click with the right mouse button to draw text in the current background colour. Line ---------- The Line tool allows you to draw lines. The thickness and the colour of the lines is set by the Set Line function in the Gadgets menu. As there is no sense in drawing a line with no thickness, the line thickness will default to a one point line if you have it set to no thickness. You can constrain lines to be perfectly horizontal, vertical or diagonal by holding down the left shift, right shift or Alt keys respectively. Eraser (the pencil end) ----------------------------- The Eraser tool allows you to erase areas of your drawing. If you erase with the left button of your mouse the eraser will be small. If you erase with the right button it will be large. The eraser always erases to the current background colour. Rectangle and filled Rectangle ------------------------------------ The Rectangle tool draws rectangles... seems pretty obvious, doesn't it... Rectangles will be drawn in the current line drawing colour and thickness and will be filled with the current foreground colour if you've selected the filled rectangle tool. You can constrain rectangles to be perfect squares by holding down the Alt key. Fill (paint roller) ------------------------- The Fill tool performs a "flood" or "bucket" fill using the currently selected fill pattern. Having selected the fill tool, click in a solid colour area of your drawing. It will be filled with the current fill pattern. The fill tool likes to fill closed areas. If the area you attempt to fill has a hole in its periphery, the paint will leak out and fill the area outside it, too. The Undo tool is very useful when you're using the Fill tool. If you attempt to fill an extremely complex area, it's just possible that Desktop Paint 256 will run out of fill memory. If this happens, some areas of your drawing may not be filled. In this case, simply click in the unfilled area to continue filling. The Fill tool is also a bit of a memory pig. Ellipse and Filled Ellipse -------------------------------- The ellipse tool draws ellipses. Ellipses will be drawn in the current line drawing colour and thickness and will be filled with the current foreground colour if you've selected the filled ellipse tool. You can constrain ellipses to be perfect circles by holding down the Alt key. Undo ---------- The Undo tool will undo the last thing you did and then select whatever tool you were using before you selected undo. Changes to your drawing cease to be undo-able after you save the drawing, scroll the drawing or draw something else. Local Undo (the bottle of typewriter correction fluid) ------------------------------------------------------------ The Local Undo tool is a brush, the size and shape of which can be selected using the Set Brush item of the Extra menu. It will allow you to undo selected areas of your drawing by painting over them. You can use the Local Undo brush to etch away bits of the most recent thing you've drawn. Brush (the paintbrush) ---------------------------- The Brush tool allows you to draw freeform lines using the current brush, as set by the Set Brush item of the Extra menu. The left mouse button draws lines in the current foreground colour and the right mouse button draws lines in the current background colour. Zoom (the magnifying glass) --------------------------------- The Zoom tool allows you to zoom in on a section of your drawing and make pixel by pixel changes to it. When the zoom window is open, clicking in the enlarged area will set pixels to black and white... the left mouse button sets them to black and the right one to white. If you select Ok, the modified area will be pasted into your picture. You can Undo zoomed changes if you don't like them after you've closed the Zoom box. The scroll bars in the Zoom window will allow you to pan around the visible part of your drawing. You can change the current foreground and background colours from within the Zoom box either by using the Colour menu or by holding down a shift key and clicking with your mouse. In the latter case, the left mouse button selects a new foreground colour and the right mouse button selects a new background colour. Gradient -------------- The Gradient tool draws rectangles which will be filled with a graduated grey tone, the details of which are defined in the Set Gradient function of the Extra menu. The area will be surrounded by a line as defined in the Line functions of the extra menu. You can have a no thickness line if you like. If you hold down the control key while you draw a gradient, it will be transparent. Gradients are useful for giving areas a three dimensional appearance. Gradients change from the current foreground colour to the current background colour. CONFIGURING DESKTOP PAINT 256 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ You must configure Desktop Paint 256 before you run it. At the very least, you must tell it which super VGA screen driver to use. You should also fine tune it for your requirements at this time. Configuration is handled by the DTPVINST.EXE program. The DTPVINST program must reside in the same subdirectory as DTPV.EXE. To run it type DTPVINST You can choose to edit the run time defaults, the current screen driver setting or to add a non-laser printer driver to Desktop Paint 256 RUN TIME DEFAULTS ──────────────────────── This screen will allow you to set up the various operating parameters of Desktop Paint 256. The last two fields are where you should enter your registration name and number, as provided by Alchemy Mindworks when you register the package. You can change the values in any field by cursoring down to it and hitting Enter. Here's a quick overview of what the fields in the installer do. Default printer --------------------- This line sets the default printer. Do not set it to "Dot matrix" unless you will have selected non-laser printer driver, as described later in this document. Printer port ------------------ This line selects the port to which your printer is connected. Default New width ----------------------- This line sets the default width value which appears in the New box in Desktop Paint 256. Default New depth ----------------------- This line sets the default depth value which appears in the New box in Desktop Paint 256. Macbinary Header ---------------------- This line defines whether MacPaint files will be written with or without Macbinary headers. If you're using PFS:First Publisher, select NO. Compress IFF/LBM files ---------------------------- This line defines whether LBM files will be written with or without compression. Compress TIFF files ------------------------- This line defines whether TIFF files will be written with or without compression. Create GIF 87a files -------------------------- This line defines whether GIF files will be written using the old GIF 87a standard or the newer GIF 89a format. Default to full screen ---------------------------- This line defines whether Desktop Paint 256 will come up in full screen or windowed mode. You can, of course, toggle between these modes once you get going. Startup function ---------------------- This line will allow you to define what Desktop Paint 256 will do if you run it without a command line file name. The options are: - NONE: Do nothing. - NEW: Open the New dialog box. - OPEN: Open the File Open dialog box. - ABOUT: Open the About dialog box. Default file type ----------------------- This line sets the default file type which Desktop Paint 256 will initially use to save files with. File type for save screen ------------------------------- This line defines which file format to use for saving screens. Palette file extension ---------------------------- This line defines the file extension for saved colour palette resource files. Brush file extension -------------------------- This line defines the file extension for saved brush definition resource files. Airbrush size ------------------- These two lines allow you to define the maximum diameter of the airbrush for the small and large spray modes. These values must be in the range of 2 to 48. Menu type --------------- This line defines the way the menus in Desktop Paint 256 will behave. Drop down menus behave like the menus in Microsoft Windows. Once you select one, it will stay visible until you have selected an item from it or clicked outside it. Pull down menus require that you keep your mouse button held down until you have made a selection. Image memory ------------------ Set this line to tell Desktop Paint 256 whether you have EMS or XMS memory available. Make sure you set this to EMS or XMS if you have extra memory and want to work with large pictures. Make sure you choose the appropriate type of extra memory for your system or Desktop Paint 256 may crash. If you're running Desktop Paint 256 under Windows 3, use XMS. Drive map --------------- This is a string which should contain all the letters of the legal hard and floppy drives on your system. It should have no spaces or extraneous characters. This string is not checked for validity. Path to DTPV.RES ---------------------- This should be the complete DOS path to the directory where DTPV.RES will be located on your system. It should include the drive letter and a trailing backslash. For example, C:\PAINT\ With this string set correctly, you can run Desktop Paint 256 from anywhere on your hard drive and still have it find its resource file. This field will default to the current drive and directory the first time you run DTPVINST. Registration name and number ---------------------------------- When you register Desktop Paint 256, we'll send you back a number. Enter your name in the registration name field exactly as it was when you registered Desktop Paint 256 and your registration number in the next field. Upper and lower case matter. This will disable the beg notice at the end of Desktop Paint 256. If your name contains characters with accents or other non-English characters, please read ACCENT.DOC for instructions for entering them into the Registration name field. EDIT SCREEN DRIVER ───────────────────────── This screen will allow you to select which screen driver Desktop Paint 256 should use to support your VGA card. Move the selector bar to the appropriate driver and hit Enter. Three lines should appear to the left of the driver. Hit F10 to accept this choice. EDIT PRINTER DRIVER ────────────────────────── This screen will allow you to add an additional printer driver to Desktop Paint 256. Move the selector bar to the appropriate driver and hit Enter. Three lines should appear to the left of the driver. Hit F10 to accept this choice. COMMAND LINE SWITCHES ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ You can use command line switches when you run Desktop Paint 256 to temporarily adjust the settings which DTPVINST configures. Each command line switch is of the form /XXX, a slash and three letters. Multiple switches should be separated by spaces. These are the current command line switches. /DOS - use conventional memory for an image buffer /EMS - use expanded memory for an image buffer /XMS - use extended memory for an image buffer /LP1 - print to LPT1 /LP2 - print to LPT2 /LP3 - print to LPT3 /MBH - write MacPaint files with MacBinary headers /MBN - write MacPaint files without MacBinary headers /IFN - don't compress IFF/LBM files /IFC - compress IFF/LBM files /TGN - don't compress TIFF files /TGC - compress TIFF files /G87 - write GIF 87a files /G89 - write GIF 89a files /FUL - default to full screen mode /WND - default to windowed mode /NEW - start with the New dialog box /OPN - start with the File Open dialog box /ABT - start with the About dialog box /NON - start with no dialog boxes /DDM - use drop down menus /PDM - use pull down menus /NSP - Don't sort the palette. Use with care. FONTS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Assuming that you have fonts installed in DTPV.RES, the Font menu will appear in Desktop Paint 256 and you'll be able to type text into your pictures. Desktop Paint 256 comes with a basic selection of fonts, and you can add more to it. Fonts are large, and a whole family of fonts can easily cause DTPV.RES to swell by a few hundred kilobytes. There is no commercial source of proportional bitmapped fonts for PC applications per se. Instead, Desktop Paint 256 allows you to utilize fonts from other sources. Specifically, you can convert bitmapped fonts from GEM applications such as Ventura Publisher, from Microsoft Windows 3 FNT files and from Macintosh FONT and NFNT resource files. Once converted, these fonts can be added to Desktop Paint 256. The font conversion tools for Desktop Paint 256 are included with the font toolkit, which is part of the registered version of the software. If you downloaded Desktop Paint 256 from a bulletin board, you'll probably be able to find a wealth of suitable fonts there too. There are three separate programs to do these conversions, GEM2FONT, MAC2FONT and WIN2FONT respectively. There is also a program called SEEFONT which will allow you to look at samples of the fonts you've converted to see what they're like. The font toolkit also includes the source code and instructions to write your own assembly language dot matrix printer driver PDRV resource, should you feel like doing so. MANAGING RESOURCES ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ NOTE: The RMOVER utility, to be discussed in this section, is only provided with the registered version of Desktop Paint 256. The DTPV.RES file is a list of resources. Resources are unrelated bits of data and code which Desktop Paint 256 might need. These could have been kept as separate files, but keeping them all in DTPV.RES makes them easier to manage, requires less space on your hard drive and allows Desktop Paint 256 to get at them more rapidly. Desktop Paint 256 looks at DTPV.RES when it first boots up. It relies on DTPV.RES for its icons, file format resources, fonts and a number of internal data blocks it requires. If you don't want to deal with resources or you like Desktop Paint 256 as it is, just skip this section. These are the resource types which Desktop Paint 256 will recognize in DTPV.RES. IFMT - Image format reader / writer resource PDRV - Dot matrix printer driver REGN - The beg notice EXIT - The exit notice ICON - An icon FONT - A font HELP - One page of help BRSH - A brush set CMAP - A palette Some or all of these may be present in DTPV.RES, depending on how you want to configure Desktop Paint 256. USING RMOVER ─────────────────── In order to work with resources you'll need RMOVER.EXE, which is included with the registered version of the package. RMOVER allows you to add resource files together, to extract resources from a file, to delete resources from a file and to list all the resources in a file. Listing resources ----------------------- Let's begin with the simplest function of RMOVER, listing the resources in a resource file. DTPV.RES is a resource file. To see what was in it, you would do this. RMOVER DTPV /L You would see something like the following list for the DTPV.RES file which comes with the distribution version of Desktop Paint 256. Resource mover version 1.5 - copyright (c) 1990 Alchemy Mindworks Inc. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Description: Resource file created by RMOVER 131 resource(s) _____________________ Rsrc 0000 - type:IFMT - nmbr:000000000 - 03281 bytes MAC (MacPaint) Rsrc 0001 - type:IFMT - nmbr:000000001 - 04572 bytes GEM/IMG (Ventura) Rsrc 0002 - type:IFMT - nmbr:000000002 - 06114 bytes PCX (PC Paintbrush) . . . Rsrc 0128 - type:HELP - nmbr:000000065 - 00689 bytes Print Rsrc 0129 - type:HELP - nmbr:000000066 - 00249 bytes Get Info Rsrc 0130 - type:HELP - nmbr:000000067 - 00537 bytes File Type Deleting resources ------------------------ This is how you would delete a resource from DTPV.RES with RMOVER. Let's delete the PDRV resource. This has resource number zero. RMOVER DTPV /D /TPDRV /N0 The /D switch tells RMOVER to delete a resource, /T switch tells it the type of the resource to delete and the /N switch tells it the number of the resource to delete. Do not delete the REGN or EXIT resources. You should also avoid meddling with the ICON and HELP resources. You can delete those IFMT resources which correspond to image file formats you'll never need if you're trying to free up some space. Extracting resources -------------------------- This is how you would extract a resource from DTPV.RES, that is, to copy it from DTPV.RES to a separate resource file of its own. Extracted resources live in resource files having one resource. You could later add such a resource to another resource file. In this example, we'll extract the PDRV resource. Note that this will not delete it from DTPV.RES. RMOVER DTPV /E /TPDRV /N0 /FEPSNFX80.RES The /T and /N switches work as before. The /E switch tells RMOVER to extract a resource. The /F switch tells it the name of the file to put the extracted resource in. This file... EPSNFX80.RES... will be deleted if it exists and a new one created. Adding resources ---------------------- This is how you would add a resource to DTPV.RES. In this example we'll add TEXTURE.PTN to DTPV.RES. RMOVER DTPV /A /FTEXTURE.PTN The /A switch tells RMOVER to add a resource. Note that all the resources in the file indicated by the /F switch will be added to DTPV.RES. NOTE: RMOVER can quite easily delete resources you might want to keep if you give it erroneous instructions. Keep a backup copy of your resource files while you're working with it. COMMON RESOURCE TYPES ──────────────────────────── Here's what each of the resources you might want to meddle with does and how to work with them. Make sure as you work with DTPV.RES that you keep a copy of the original DTPV.RES file which comes with Desktop Paint 256 so you can start over if you find you've deleted something you might want. The FONT Resources ------------------------ Each font which will be available in Desktop Paint 256 must have a separate resource. Thus, if you have Dutch in seven sizes, there will be seven FONT resources for Dutch. A complete discussion of fonts is available in FONTS.DOC, which comes with the font toolkit discussed above. Note that Desktop Paint 256 can function without any fonts in DTPV.RES at all. If you have no need of the text capabilities in Desktop Paint 256 and you want it to boot up more rapidly, remove all the fonts from DTPV.RES. The CMAP Resource ----------------------- If you don't like the default colour pattern which comes with Desktop Paint 256, you can replace it with one of your own devising by including a CMAP resource in DTPV.RES. The default colour pattern will be used when you create a new image. To create a CMAP resource, use the Set palette function of the Extra menu and save a palette to a CMP file. Rename this to have the extension RES and use RMOVER to add it to DTPV.RES. The BRSH resource ----------------------- If you don't like the default brush set in Desktop Paint 256, you can add a new brush set to DTPV.RES to change it. Create the brush set you want to use as a default and save it to a BRS file. Use RMOVER to add this file to DTPV.RES. Make sure that you delete any old BRSH resources from DTPV.RES if you change default brush sets from time to time. CONTACTING ALCHEMY MINDWORKS INC. ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ We hope you'll contact us to register Desktop Paint 256... see the section about registering your software elsewhere in this document. You can contact us by mail by writing to us at: Alchemy Mindworks Inc. P.O. Box 500 Beeton, Ontario L0G 1A0 Canada You can register Desktop Paint 256 with a Visa card by calling 1-800-263-1138 from the United States or 1-416-729-4969 from other places. Please note that this number is for ordering only. (The area code for Alchemy Mindworks' non-800 numbers will change from 416 to 905 after October 4, 1993.) We will attempt to answer questions from unregistered users who write to us to the extent that their answers are needed for you to fully determine whether this software will suit your requirements. We can also be reached through the Alchemy Mindworks bulletin board. It's available twenty-four hours a day at (416) 729-4609. As of this writing, the protocol was 300, 1200 or 2400 baud, or 9600 baud v.32bis, eight data bits, no parity and one stop bit. (The area code for Alchemy Mindworks' non-800 numbers will change from 416 to 905 after October 4, 1993.) The bulletin board always has the most recent versions of all our shareware on it, plus bug fixes, drivers and other relevant information. It only exists to support Alchemy Mindworks' shareware... it does not have a general file area. If you encounter problems with a file, you're welcome to upload the errant file to our bulletin board. Actually, you can upload any picture files you like to the board... we enjoy getting pictures. If you have a question about Desktop Paint 256, feel free to leave it on the bulletin board. We try to answer all questions within twenty-four hours. Note that you must call back to retrieve your answer... please don't ask us to phone you or to leave the answer on another bulletin board. Registered users of Desktop Paint 256 will receive our voice number for immediate technical support. The voice number is only available for use from 10:00am to 5:00pm EST. If you call and get our answering machine... it does happen... please leave us a message or call back later. We are only able to return long distance calls if we can call you collect. In this regard, please note that as of this writing Canada has a very peculiar electronic voice mail collect call system... if the phone company's computer starts talking when you pick up the phone, it's probably us returning your call. We ask that in contacting us you appreciate that we are a small company with limited resources. If you have not registered this software we will not tell you to go to hell, but please don't ask us for half an hour of free technical support. REGISTRATION ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ If you like Desktop Paint 256 and find it useful, you are requested to support it by sending us $40.00. This will entitle you to telephone support, notification of updates, a free copy of the latest version of this software and other worthwhile things. It will also avail you of a registration number to shut off the closing beg notice. More to the point, though, it'll make you feel good. We've not infested Desktop Paint 256 with excessive beg notices, crippled it or had it verbally insult you after ten days. We trust you to support this software if you like it. If you want to see additional features in Desktop Paint 256, register it. If we had an Arcturian mega-dollar for everyone who has said they'd most certainly register their copy if we'd add just one more thing to it, we could buy ourselves a universe and retire. Oh yes, should you fail to support this program and continue to use it, a leather winged demon of the night will tear itself, shrieking blood and fury, from the endless caverns of the nether world, hurl itself into the darkness with a thirst for blood on its slavering fangs and search the very threads of time for the throbbing of your heartbeat. Just thought you'd want to know that. Our address is: Alchemy Mindworks Inc. P.O. Box 500 Beeton, Ontario L0G 1A0 Canada You can register Desktop Paint 256 with a Visa card by calling 1-800-263-1138 from the United States or 1-416-729-4969 from other places. (The area code for Alchemy Mindworks' non-800 numbers will change from 416 to 905 after October 4, 1993.) If you have previously registered Desktop Paint 256, you can update your copy to the current release for $20.00. If you have a FAX number, please include it in your registration. We're hoping to be able to handle notification of future updates of this software by FAX where we can. This is both considerably faster and a lot cheaper than mail. You can FAX your order to us at (416) 729-4156. You'll find an order form in this ZIP to make this easier. (The area code for Alchemy Mindworks' non-800 numbers will change from 416 to 905 after October 4, 1993.) When you register Desktop Paint 256, please specify the disk size you require. In addition, please state whether you require dual density disks... some of our packages normally ship on quad density disks. You should only require dual density disks if you're using an old-style 8088-based XT system. Please note that we are not able to accept purchase orders for fewer than six copies of Desktop Paint 256 at a time. We cannot ship software COD. CANADIAN USERS ───────────────────── The registration fee for Desktop Paint 256 is $40.00 (CDN) plus seven percent GST, or $42.80. We sincerely regret collecting this tax on behalf of several levels of government which will only squander it. If you sincerely regret having to pay it, we urge you to express your regret by voting in the next federal and provincial elections. AMERICAN USERS ───────────────────── The registration fee for Desktop Paint 256 is $40.00 (US). The exchange on US funds pretty well covers the extra postage to the States. Please note that when you send us your order... and then when we send you your update back... two distinct post offices get to deal with the ensuing mail. It can take a few weeks for things to get through this system... we ask that you be patient. We don't fully understand why it takes less time for a package to get to Australia than it does to send one to Cleveland... some things are best left as mysteries. OTHER USERS ────────────────── The registration fee for Desktop Paint 256 is $40.00 (US). If you pay us by cheque, please make sure that it's a cheque drawn on an international bank, and that it will be negotiable in Canada. If there's no bank clearance number along the bottom of the cheque, it will not clear. Payment from countries outside Canada must be in US dollars. PAYING BY CREDIT CARD ──────────────────────────── We can accept payment by Visa only. We need your Visa card number and expiry date and the name which appears on your card. We also need written authorization to debit your Visa account for the specific amount you're sending us. We cannot accept MasterCard, American Express or other credit cards. SOURCE CODE AVAILABILITY AND BOOKS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ It isn't. After considerable meditation and several bad experiences, we have decided not to release the source code for Desktop Paint 256. We do license parts of them for specific applications... if you want more information about using some of the functions of this package in your software, please contact us. If you're interested in writing programs which use graphics, you'll find everything you need to know in Bitmapped Graphics, second edition, by Steven William Rimmer. It's published by TAB Books, (TAB book 3558). It features code to pack and unpack MacPaint, IMG, PCX, GIF and TIFF files, as well as chapters on screen drivers, dithering and printing. An additional book on this subject, Supercharged Bitmapped Graphics, (TAB Book 4102), discusses the GIF 89a, WordPerfect, BMP, IFF/LBM, TGA, MSP, 24-bit PCX and colour TIFF file formats, as well as such subjects as colour dithering and colour printing. If you'd like to write applications which use menus, icons, windows and all the other paraphernalia of a graphical user interface, you might find the book PC Graphical User Interfaces handy. It's published by TAB Books (TAB Book 3875). It includes the C source for a complete graphical user interface library, related code to manage fonts and bitmaps and a tiny paint program. Bitmapped Graphics for Windows, by Steven William Rimmer, published by TAB Windcrest, will be available at the end of 1992. It deals with the most popular image file formats in a Windows environment. A complete discussion of graphic file formats for use in word processing documents and desktop publishing chapters can be found in The Graphic File Toolkit, by Steven William Rimmer, published by Addison-Wesley. This is an invaluable reference for anyone who wants to use graphic files but does not want to become a programmer in the process. If your local bookstore doesn't have these books, they can be mail or phone ordered from Christies of Cookstown, P.O. Box 392, Cookstown, Ontario L0L 1L0, Canada. Their phone number is (705) 458-1562. It has a FAX machine on it after hours. As of this writing, they're open seven days a week. BUNDLING DESKTOP PAINT 256 ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ If you'd like to include Desktop Paint 256 with your product, please get in touch with us. We have several ways to help you do this so your users get the most out of our software and we won't have to set our leather winged demon of the night on 'em. SHAREWARE DISTRIBUTORS ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ We will, at our discretion, send out disks of our shareware applications to shareware distributors. Alternately, you can download the current versions of our applications from CompuServe in the PICS forum or from our bulletin board at (416) 729-4609. We encourage you to use our bulletin board, as it will allow you to keep your copies of our applications up to date. If you obtain current copies of our shareware, you have our permission to distribute them under the following terms. No written permission from us is required if you abide by these terms. - That nothing be added to, deleted from or changed in the archive files which contain our packages. This includes adding ZIP file comments to them. - That our shareware is not included in or bundled with other hardware or software without our written permission. - That no printed documentation regarding our shareware is included with the package without our written permission. - That hard copy explaining that our packages are shareware is included with the disks. - That no more than $10.00 (US) be charged for the distribution of whatever package our applications are part of. If you will be charging more than this, please get in touch with us for bundling rates. You do have our permission to copy the ZIP files from our quad density disk to multiple lower density disks for distribution. Please note that if you would like to distribute Desktop Paint 256 in "rack" packaging, that is, in a store rather than directly from a shareware distributor, we request that you contact us for permission to do so. We will require a proof copy of the packaging you intend to use prior to giving our consent for rack packaging. OTHER ALCHEMY MINDWORKS SHAREWARE ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ The following are the other shareware packages we have available as of this writing. Our newsletter, available for the asking, will list all the current ones. GRAPHIC WORKSHOP ─────────────────────── This is the last word in image programs. It converts, prints, views, dithers, thresholds, transforms, flips, rotates, scales, crops, colour adjusts, scans, quantizes and wreaks special effects on MacPaint, GEM/Ventura IMG, PCX, GIF, TIFF, WPG, MSP, IFF/LBM, BMP, RLE, Halo CUT, Targa, ART, EXE, TXT and EPS files. It drives CGA, Hercules, EGA, VGA and pretty well all super VGA cards. It will drive PostScript and LaserJet Plus laser printers, colour PostScript printers, colour inkjets and most dot matrix printers. It features batch processing, extended and expanded memory support, an intuitive user interface and easy to follow menus. It allows you to convert colour image files into superb black and white clip art for desktop publishing, among other things. GRAPHIC WORKSHOP FOR WINDOWS (RELEASE 1.1) ───────────────────────────────────────────────── Offering the same functionality as Graphic Workshop for DOS, the Windows implementation of this package offers a traditional Windows interface, multitasking and lots of things to click on. It converts, prints, views, dithers, thresholds, transforms, flips, rotates, scales, crops, colour adjusts, scans, quantizes and wreaks special effects on MacPaint, GEM/Ventura IMG, PCX, GIF, TIFF, JPG, WPG, MSP, IFF/LBM, BMP, RLE, Halo CUT, Targa, ART, text and EXE picture files. Graphic Workshop for Windows will display and print on any card and printer respectively that can be driven by Windows. It features batch processing, an intuitive user interface and easy to follow menus. The 1.1 release adds a thumbnail preview mode, context sensitive help, easier installation and all sorts of new features. Includes several unicorns. IMAGE GALLERY (RELEASE 1.1) ────────────────────────────────── Image Gallery is a visual database to help you keep track of a large number of image files quickly and effectively. It will create database files... galleries... of any combination of bitmapped image files, displaying them as small ``thumbnail'' images. It works with all the file formats supported by Graphic Workshop, with the exceptions of EPS, EXE and TXT. You can search a gallery visually or by key words. Each entry in a gallery supports key word and comment fields, as well as the dimensions, location and other specifics of each image. You can also print all or part of a gallery, producing hard copy catalogs of your images when you need them. Image Gallery will run with any VGA card. It uses a Microsoft compatible mouse and will drive any PostScript or LaserJet Plus compatible laser printer, and most dot matrix printers. Release 1.1 includes a full colour view function, exporting and multiple selection. DESKTOP PAINT 256 (RELEASE TWO) ────────────────────────────────────── This is a complete rewrite of our popular super VGA paint package. Desktop Paint 256 is a powerful painting application. It will let you create and edit pictures stored in the MacPaint, GEM/Ventura IMG, PCX, GIF, TIFF, WPG, MSP, IFF/LBM, BMP, Halo CUT, and Targa formats. It features a rich selection of drawing and image manipulation tools, XMS and EMS support to work on large images and a user friendly interface. Looking very much like monochrome Desktop Paint in colour, it's a powerful application which will be equally useful for picture collectors, artists and desktop publishing users. It supports Paradise (and compatibles), Headland Video 7, Tseng Labs 4000 series cards, Trident cards which use 8900 series chips, Oak Technologies cards, ATI VGA Wonder cards and all cards with VESA capabilities. Note that you must have one of these super-VGA cards to use Desktop Paint 256... it does not run in the standard 320 by 200 pixel "standard" VGA mode. Desktop Paint 256 requires a Microsoft-compatible mouse. DESKTOP PAINT 16 ─────────────────────── Desktop Paint 16 is a VGA paint package for use with images having up to sixteen colours. As with the monochrome implementation of Desktop Paint, it will read and write image files in the MacPaint, GEM/IMG, PCX files, GIF, TIFF, WPG, MSP, IFF/LBM, BMP and PIC formats. It has EMS and XMS support to handle images of virtually any size, an intuitive user interface and a wide selection of image creation and manipulation tools. Desktop Paint 16 can utilize fonts from many other sources, including Ventura Publisher, Macintosh FONT and NFNT resources and Windows FNT files. It requires a VGA card and a Microsoft- compatible mouse. DESKTOP PAINT (RELEASE THREE) ──────────────────────────────────── Desktop Paint is a powerful monochrome paint package fine tuned for use with desktop publishing applications. It will read and write image files in all the formats Graphic Workshop supports with the exceptions of EPS and RLE. It has EMS and XMS support to handle images of virtually any size, an intuitive user interface and a wide selection of image creation and manipulation tools. Desktop Paint can utilize fonts from many other sources, including Ventura Publisher, Macintosh FONT and NFNT resources and Windows FNT files. Desktop Paint requires a Microsoft- compatible mouse. GRAFCAT (RELEASE THREE) ────────────────────────────── GrafCat prints a visual catalog of your image files, with fifteen or sixteen pictures to a page, depending on the image orientation you choose. It supports all the file types that Graphic Workshop handles, and will drive any PostScript or LaserJet Plus compatible laser printer, including LaserJet II and LaserJet III series printers. This is a complete re-write of GrafCat... it now supports a file finder screen like the one in Graphic Workshop and numerous print options. If you can't obtain them from the usual sources of shareware, they're available from us for $40.00 each preregisterd. They're also all available for downloading from our bulletin board at (416) 729-4609. (The area code for Alchemy Mindworks non-800 numbers will change from 416 to 905 after October 4, 1993.) REVISION HISTORY ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Version 2.0d - Fixed a bug that caused two colour files to be mangled when they were saved to some formats. Improved the way the eraser works. Changed the appearance of the check boxes. Version 2.0c - Fixed a bug in the flood fill function and made the depressions shallower. Version 2.0b - Fixed a few (rather embarrassing) cosmetic bugs, including one that allowed the ellipse function occasionally overwrite the scroll bars. Very messy. Version 2.0a - Desktop Paint 256 slips through a hole in the fabric of time and embarks on its journey into infinity... very zen- like, this. This is a complete rewrite of Desktop Paint 256 LEGAL DOGMA ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ Neither the author nor Alchemy Mindworks Inc. assumes responsibility for any damage or loss caused by the use of these programs, however it comes down. If you can think of a way a picture program can cause you damage or loss you've a sneakier mind than mine. All the registered trademarks used herein are registered to whoever it is that owns them. This notification is given in lieu of any specific list of trademarks and their owners, which would not be as inclusive and would probably take a lot longer to type. If you register Desktop Paint 256, we will assume that you are doing so having tested the shareware version and ascertained that it's suitable for your hardware and requirements. We cannot provide refunds for shareware registration if you subsequently change your mind. Graphic Workshop, Desktop Paint, Image Gallery, GrafCat and Storyteller are trademarks of Alchemy Mindworks Inc. That's it...