Die Multimedia Power-CD/MULTIMEDIA.bin/bildutil/tpaint/tpaint.doc

Text File | 1991-12-02 | 27KB | 759 lines

  **************************************************************************
  *                                                                        *
  *                 TurboPaint - ShareWare Version 2.1                     *
  *                                                                        *
  *                   Program by Richard C. Leinecker                      *
  *                                                                        *
  **************************************************************************




Introduction

This program was designed as an alternative to using PC Paintbrush and Deluxe
Paint. One of the big drawbacks to using PC Paintbrush is that you have to
reinstall the program every time you want to change video modes. Both PC
Paintbrush and Deluxe Paint consume a great deal more memory than TurboPaint,
too. That means that people with less memory can use TurboPaint and those who
like to keep their TSRs resident don't need to reboot with a different
configuration before using it. You also can run TurboPaint effectively without
a mouse--try that with PC Paintbrush and Deluxe Paint. And PC Paintbrush
doesn't offer support for Tandy 16-color mode which is about 25% of the
market.


Registering the Program

TurboPaint is shareware. That means that if you use it, you should register.
The registration price is $25.00 which is very inexpensive considering what
you'll get. The registered version of the program has many extra features like
full expanded and extended memory support, stretch and rotate block functions,
MacPaint and TIFF loading and saving, 640x480 in 256 color mode, and more.
You'll also get a disk full of art, a disk full of clip art, and a disk full
of fonts. With the disks comes a printed manual and free updates for 12
months.


















                                    - i -



Table of Contents

Files on Program Disk ................................................ 1
Using the keyboard or a Joystick ..................................... 1
System Requirements .................................................. 2
Running TurboPaint ................................................... 2
Video Modes .......................................................... 2
File Formats ......................................................... 3
The Keyboard Driver .................................................. 3
Selecting Colors and Tools ........................................... 4
Lines ................................................................ 4
Undo ................................................................. 5
Rectangles ........................................................... 5
Circles and Ellipses ................................................. 5
Rays and Polygons .................................................... 6
Filling .............................................................. 6
Pixels ............................................................... 6
The Airbrush ......................................................... 6
Cut and Paste ........................................................ 7
Loading Fonts ........................................................ 7
Entering Text ........................................................ 8
Zooming .............................................................. 8
Shadows .............................................................. 9
Inverting and Reversing Blocks ....................................... 9
Setting the Palette .................................................. 9
Mirror ............................................................... 9
Cycle ................................................................ 9
Print Options ........................................................10
Animation, Mask, and Object Saving and Loading .......................11
Customer Support .....................................................12

























                                  - Page ii -


FILES ON PROGRAM DISKS
EXECUTABLE FILE:
    TPAINT.EXE

DOCUMENTATION FILE:
    TPAINT.DOC


USING THE KEYBOARD OR A JOYSTICK

TurboPaint works with mice, keyboards, and joysticks. It only recognizes
one device at a time, though. If you run the program normally it looks for
a mouse driver and if one is found it uses it for input. If no mouse driver
is found it installs the keyboard driver.

You can override the mouse driver or even the keyboard driver installation
with some command line switches. If you want to use the keyboard driver
add the command line switch /K. If you want to use a joystick add the command
line switch /J.





































                                -  Page 1 -


SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

At least one floppy disk: any graphics monitor that supports Hercules, CGA,
EGA, Tandy-16 color, or MCGA (VGA): a Microsoft-compatible mouse, joystick, or
keyboard: about 400K for CGA; 420K for EGALOW, Hercules, and Tandy-16; 480K
for EGAMED and MCGA; and 540K for EGAHIGH. Even if your system has the
necessary memory, you might still get a message that says Not Enough Memory.
That's because DOS takes up memory for itself out of what's available. You
might also have one or more memory resident programs that are occupying some
of the memory that TurboPaint needs.

RUNNING TURBOPAINT

It would be a good idea to create a separate directory for the TurboPaint
files. For more information on creating subdirectories see your DOS manual.

Start the program by typing TPAINT. You'll get a menu where you can pick the
video mode you want. You can pass the video mode as a command line argument
instead of using the menu. To do this, just type TPAINT VIDEOMODE where
VIDEOMODE can be HERCULES, CGALOW, CGAHIGH, EGALOW, EGAMED, EGAHIGH, TANDY,
MCGA, or VGA.


VIDEO MODES

The video modes that TurboPaint supports are Hercules 720x348, CGA 4-color
320x200, CGA 2-color 640x200, EGA 16-color 320x200, EGA 16-color 640x200, EGA
16-color 640x350, Tandy 16-color 320x200, MCGA 256-color 320x200, and VGA
640x480.

It's possible that some older EGA cards will work in the lower two EGA
resolutions and not the 640x350 EGA resolution. If you have a Hercules card
and another graphics card installed simultaneously, you can't change video
modes from one to the other while the program is running. You'll need to exit
the program and restart it in the mode that you want to use. Systems that
combine video equipment in nonstandard ways run an incompatiblity risk, too.















                               - Page 2 -


FILE FORMATS

TurboPaint supports PCX, LBM (IFF), and GIF file formats. When loading PCX and
IFF files, you get better results if you're in the same video mode as the
picture file. You can set the picture type by selecting 'Pic Type' in the
'File' menu.

A word about compatibility is in order. Deluxe Paint II Enhanced supports PCX
but it isn't completely compatible with the three varieties of PCX files. It
may have trouble loading TurboPaint PCX files. Deluxe Paint II Enhanced
creates Packed Bitmap LBM files that TurboPaint (or Deluxe Paint II) won't
load. The converse is also true, Deluxe Paint II Enhanced will not load
TurboPaint LBM files (or Deluxe Paint II files). Deluxe Paint II will usually
load TurboPaint LBM files, but not always in the 256-color MCGA mode.

You may want to load a picture with larger or smaller dimensions than the mode
you're in. There's an option that'll let you set the positioning of the
picture. To do this select 'Place Pic' in the 'File' menu.
You can also load the Palette and Image of a picture file separately. These
two options can be found in the 'File' menu.

THE KEYBOARD DRIVER

The keyboard mouse driver is a direct replacement for Microsoft-compatible
mouse drivers. It doesn't provide the complete gamut of mouse functions, but
fills the bill for TurboPaint's needs.
To move the mouse, press the cursor (arrow) keys. The driver is ballistic; the
longer a key is pressed, the faster the mouse moves. If your keyboard has two
right-arrow keys (one on the numeric keypad and one elsewhere) use the key on
the numeric keypad. It performs better.
The equivalent of the left mouse button is the 5 key on the numeric keypad. To
press the left mouse button, press the 5 key. To unpress the left button,
press the 5 key again. It's not as easy to use as a real mouse because you
have to remember to unpress the button. If the keyboard mouse driver doesn't
seem to work correctly, try pressing the 5 key.
The Delete key is equivalent to the right mouse button. It also needs to be
unpressed just as the 5 key or keyboard left mouse button.
If you're in the drawing window and press the Tab key, the mouse pointer will
jump over to the toolbox. Another press of the Tab key and the mouse pointer
will be back where it was.








                                 - Page 3 -


SELECTING COLORS AND TOOLS


When the program first runs, you'll see a rectangle to the right side of the
screen that contains icons and rectangles with the drawing colors. These are
called the tool selector and the color palette and are used to select the
drawing tool and color.
To select a drawing tool, point to the desired tool and click the left mouse
button. It will be highlighted so that you can see the currently selected
tool.
To select a drawing color, point to the desired color and click the left mouse
button. You'll see a wide border around the currently selected drawing color.
If you're in MCGA mode, only 16 colors are displayed but you can scroll
through all 256 colors. Do this by clicking the right mouse button on either
the right or the left side of the color palette. Clicking on the right side
moves to the right through the palette; clicking on the left moves to the left
through the palette.
You can move the toolbox to the left side or remove it completely if you find
this more convenient. To move or remove the tools, choose the 'Desk' pulldown
menu and select the appropriate entry for the desired action. The F10 key will
turn the menus and toolbox on and off, too.

LINES

To draw lines, first select the tool at the top left corner of the tool
selector. Once it's selected and you can see that it's highlighted, you're
ready to draw lines.
Begin by pointing the mouse at the starting point of your intended line and
pressing the left mouse button. Make sure that you keep the left button
pressed while you are drawing the line.
Now, with the left button still pressed, move the mouse pointer to where you
want the line to end. Release the left mouse button and your line becomes part
of the picture.
Choose the 'Set' pulldown to find the two line options. To set the line width,
select the menu entry labeled 'Line Width.' A dialog box will appear that
displays the current line width. To increase the width of the line, click the
left button on the line. To decrease it, click the right button on the line.
The maximum width is eight and if you exceed this amount, the program will
return to a width of one. If you decrease the line width past one, the program
will set the line width to eight.
To set the line pattern, choose the entry in the 'Set' pulldown labeled 'Line
Style.' A Dialog box will appear with eight line patterns. To choose one of
these, click the left mouse button on it. The line style affects all line and
rectangle operations except the free-hand drawing tool.
You can redefine any of the line patterns. Just click the right mouse button
on the pattern you want to change. A new dialog box will superimpose itself of
the previous box. Line definitions are composed of sixteen bits. To toggle any
of the sixteen bits, just click on it with the left mouse button. Now press
Return or click on Ok to return to the Line Style dialog.
You can reset the program defaults by deleting the file PREFS.



                                    - Page 4 -


UNDO

If you make a mistake while drawing, you can usually undo it, if you haven't
done anything else. Undo your mistake by pressing Escape, selecting the
'Undo' entry in the 'Extra' pulldown menu, or clicking on the UNDO tool.


RECTANGLES

Drawing filled and unfilled rectangles follows a procedure similar to drawing
lines. With the appropriate tool selected, move the mouse pointer to either
the upper left or the lower right corner of the rectangle. While holding the
left mouse button down, move the mouse pointer to where the opposite corner of
the rectangle should be. Release the left mouse button to complete the
rectangle.
If you're drawing with a filled rectangle, you may want to change the fill
pattern. To do this, choose the 'Set' pulldown and select the 'Fill Style'
entry. A dialog box will appear with eight choices. Choose one by clicking on
it with the left mouse button. The fill pattern will apply to all filled
tools.
You can redefine any of the fill styles. Just click the right button on the
one you want to change and another dialog box will appear on top of the Fill
Style box. Toggle the bits of the pattern by clicking the left mouse button on
them. When you are done, press Return or click on Ok.
For any of the filled shapes (filled rectangles, filled circles, or filled
ellipses) you can set several border options. The first choice is whether or
not to have borders. The second choice is whether the border will be the
currently selected line style or a plain solid pattern. You can set these
options with the 'Borders' entry in the 'Set' menu.

CIRCLES and ELLIPSES

To draw a circle or an ellipse, first point to the center of the figure you
want to draw, then press the left mouse button and stretch the shape to the
desired dimension. Moving the mouse in the X and Y directions will stretch the
ellipse in that dimension. Circles will remain perfectly round regardless of
the position of the mouse pointer.












                                - Page 5 -


RAYS AND POLYGONS

To draw a set of rays, position the mouse at the origin. Hold down the left
mouse button and move the pointer to the end of the first ray. Keeping the
left button pressed, press the right button to place this ray in the picture.
Now move to the endpoint of the next ray and click the right mouse button. Do
this until all of the rays have been drawn then release the left mouse button.
Drawing polygons is similar to drawing rays. Position the cursor, press the
left mouse button, and move to the first vertex. Click the right mouse button
while pressing the left button. Move to each vertex and press the right
button.

FILLING

To use the fill tool, position the mouse pointer at the position where you
want to fill. It will continue filling the screen until it meets the selected
fill color. If you try to fill a shape that is not completely closed, the fill
will bleed outside of the destination shape.

PIXELS

There are two tools for drawing pixels. The second tool in the first column of
the toolbox draws a single pixel. The third tool in the first column draws a
set of pixels.
To draw a single pixel, select the single pixel tool, position the mouse
pointer, and click the left button.
To draw a set of pixels, select the free-hand drawing tool, and position the
mouse pointer. Hold the left button down as you move the mouse pointer
wherever you want to draw. When you are done, release the left mouse button.

THE AIRBRUSH

The airbrush tool allows you to blend colors and soften edges. To use this
tool, select the airbrush icon in the tool selector. Position the mouse cursor
and hold down the left mouse button. The slower you move the brush, the
thicker the texture appears.
You can change the airbrush attributes. To do this, choose the 'Set' pulldown
and select the 'Airbrush' entry. A dialog box will appear that will let you
set the airbrush size and flow.






                                 - Page 6 -


CUT AND PASTE

To cut a block, select the scissor tool icon. Position the mouse pointer at
the upper left corner of the rectangle that you want to cut. Hold the left
mouse button down and drag the box until the image you want to capture is
framed by the rectangle. Release the left mouse button and it will be copied
into the clipboard buffer.
There are two options when you cut from the screen. You can copy from the
screen (leaving the screen intact) or you can cut from the screen (removing
the rectangle and the background from the screen). To change options, choose
the 'Set' pulldown and select the 'Block' entry. If you have 'Copy only'set to
yes, the screen won't change when you cut. If it's set to no,the portion of
the screen that you cut will be removed.
To save a block to disk, choose the 'Extra' pulldown and select the 'Save
Block' entry. Enter the filename and the program will save the block to disk.
The blocks aren't compatible with any other formats. You can't use blocks from
different video modes either.
Once a section has been cut or loaded from disk, it can be pasted on the
screen. Select the paste tool icon and position the cursor. Pressing the left
mouse button will cause the tools to disappear. As long as you hold the left
mouse button down, you can move the block. To place it in the picture, release
the left mouse button.
There is a memory restriction in EGAHIGH and VGA. At runtime the program
allocates the remaining memory for the clipboard buffer. The block you can
cut is directly related to the amount of memory the program finds.


LOADING FONTS

You can load any GEM font. To do this, choose the 'Extra' pulldown and select
the 'Load Font' entry. Highlight the font you want to load in the file
selector. The system font is resident when TurboPaint runs. Remember that
loading fonts uses memory. You can't load an unlimited number of fonts. If
your system is close to the memory limit, other operations might be affected
if you load too many fonts.
To set the font that you will use, choose the 'Set' pulldown and select the
'Text' entry. To cycle through the loaded fonts, click the left mouse button
inside of the text box. You can select different styles of each font by
clicking the right mouse button in the text box.












                                 - Page 7 -


ENTERING TEXT

To put text in your picture, select the text tool icon. Position the mouse
pointer and click the left button. The tools will then disappear. There are
two ways that you can enter text, free form or formatted.
To enter text in a free form manner, simply type the text. You can move the
mouse anywhere on the screen and the text will follow. This method is good if
you're trying to fit text into a picture.
If you want to enter multiple lines of text, it's better to press the left
mouse button once more where you want the text to start. The mouse will
disappear and a text-type cursor will appear. Type your text and press Enter
at the end of each line. The cursor will then go to the beginning of the next
text line, ready for you to type it in. When you're finished typing, you can
move the text anywhere on the screen. Click the left mouse button to place the
text. Click the right mouse button to exit from text entry.

ZOOM

You can magnify by choosing the 'Extra' pulldown and then selecting the
desired magnification factor, or you can press F1-F4. F1 gives you the
greatest magnification and F4 the least.
After you've selected one of the magnification factors, the tools will
disappear and you'll see a rectangle appear on the screen. Position the
rectangle so that it frames the region you want to magnify. Then click the
left mouse button.
At the far left side of the screen you'll see the chosen section of the
picture in the actual size and to the right of that you'll see the magnified
version. To draw, just click inside of the rectangle that contains the
magnified version. You can pick different colors at the far right side of the
screen. If you're drawing in MCGA mode, you can use the right mouse button to
scroll through all 256 colors.
To quit and go back to the full screen, press the right mouse button. The
escape key will undo any drawing while you're in magnify mode.













                                 - Page 8 -


SHADOWS

You can shadow many of the drawing functions. Do this by choosing the 'Set'
pulldown and selecting the 'Shadow' entry. There is a color selector that lets
you set the shadow color. The grid of nine squares is where you set the
relative position for the shadow. The numbers (1-4) let you set the distance
of the shadow from the original shape. Finally, you can turn the shadow on or
off. The shadow attribute works with lines, rectangles, squares, circles, and
ellipses.

INVERTING AND REVERSING BLOCKS

If you have a block in the clipboard, you can invert it vertically or reverse
it horizontally. Choose the 'Extra' pulldown and select the 'Invert Block' or
the 'Reverse Block' entries. The screen will blank, then the image will be
pasted on the screen, and you'll see the image being transformed. Once the
procedure is finished, the screen will be restored and the new image will be
in the clipboard. Select the paste tool to place the block on the screen.

SETTING THE PALETTE

You can set the color palette if you're in an EGA, Tandy, or MCGA mode. Choose
the 'Set' pulldown and select the 'Colors' entry. Hold down the left mouse
button and move the slider bars to the desired setting, or click on the arrows
to incrementally change the value.

MIRROR

You can cause TurboPaint to mirror all of your drawing in vertical,horizontal,
or both vertical and horizontal directions. To do this, choose the 'Set'
pulldown and select the 'Mirror' entry. You can set vertical, horizontal, or
both. Most drawing operations will then be mirrored in the specified
direction(s).

CYCLE

In EGA, Tandy, or MCGA modes you can rotate the palette and watch the effect.
Just select 'Cycle' from the 'Extra' menu to toggle this feature on and off.









                                - Page 9 -


SPARE PAGE

TurboPaint gives you two separate pages. This really helps when you're cutting
from one picture and pasting to another. You can change from one page to the
other by pressing J or selecting 'Swap Page' in the 'Set' menu. All load and
save operations involve the currently active page.

PRINT OPTIONS

The first thing you'll have to do before you print a picture is load a printer
driver. Do this by selecting 'Load Printer' on the 'File' menu. A dialog box
will appear. Scroll the the selections by clicking the left mouse button on
the arrows to the right of the printer names. you can page through them by
clicking inside the rectangle between those two arrows. To select a printer
click the left mouse button twice on the one you want.
You can print your picture with a lanscape or portrait orientation. Do this by
selecting 'Orient Print' on the 'File' menu.
You can set the printer port by selecting 'Printer Port' on the 'File' menu.
You can print the picture normally or in inverse. To set this select 'Invert
Print' on the 'File' menu. Normal will give you a white background and inverse
will give you a black background.
You'll have to experiment with the picture scaling. For most printers the
default scaling is too small. To set the scaling select 'Print Scale' from the
'File' menu. To change the scaling hold down the left mouse button on the
rectangle inside of the dialog box. While holding down the left mouse button
drag the box to the size you want and let you of the left mouse button. When
you're done press Return or click on Ok.






















                                 - Page 10 -


ANIMATION FILES

If you're writing a program you might be able to make use of the animation
files TurboPaint creates. The file format is as follows.

  2 byte integer - video mode (HERCULES=0, CGALOW=1, CGAHIGH=2, EGALOW=3,
                   EGAMED=4, EGAHIGH=5, TANDY=6, MCGA=7, VGA=8)
  2 byte integer - Number of Animations
  2 byte integer - Animation X Coordinat
  2 byte integer - Animation Y Coordinate
  2 byte integer - Animation Delay

  Then, for each image there is a two byte integer with the size of the
  image in bytes follwed by the image data. Each image is an integer with
  the width, and integer with the height, and the bitmap data. For
  Monochrome, CGA, Tandy, and MCGA the data is straight forward. For EGA
  and VGA modes each scan line contains four sets of data, one each for
  the bit planes.


OBJECT FILES

The object files are in the following format.

  5 byte signature
  2 byte integer - video mode (HERCULES=0, CGALOW=1, CGAHIGH=2, EGALOW=3,
                   EGAMED=4, EGAHIGH=5, TANDY=6, MCGA=7, VGA=8)
  2 byte integer - flag (used by TurboPaint)
  2 byte integer - image width
  2 byte integer - image height

  Then the image data follows. Each image is an integer with the width,
  and integer with the height, and the bitmap data. For Monochrome, CGA,
  Tandy, and MCGA the data is straight forward. For EGA and VGA modes
  each scan line contains four sets of data, one each for the bit planes.


MASK FILES

The mask files are for programmers who need special effects for a screen.
The format of a mask file is as follows.

  2 byte integer - width of screen
  2 byte integer - height of screen
  2 byte integer - video mode (HERCULES=0, CGALOW=1, CGAHIGH=2, EGALOW=3,
                   EGAMED=4, EGAHIGH=5, TANDY=6, MCGA=7, VGA=8)


  The mask data follows. Each scan line has width / 8 bytes of mask data.
  There are as many scan lines of data as the height of the screen.







                                 - Page 11 -

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

You can ask questions by leaving messages on GEnie addressed to R.LEINECKER or
on CompuServe to user ID 74676,457. You can also write me with your questions.
I'll reply in a week or less of receiving your question as long as you're a
registered user.
If you have ideas for an upgrade, send those too. I'd like the program to be
as good as possible.
Site licenses are available. Just write with the specifications and I'll get
right back to you.
If you have a question or a comment that's urgent you can reach me at home at
919-342-9299. Please call between 6-10 PM EST on weekdays or between 8AM-8PM
EST on weekends.
Send inquiries and to: Richard C. Leinecker, P.O. Box 2567, Reidsville, NC
27323-2567.






































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