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neo.txt
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1997-04-16
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R
Introduction
NEOchrome is a painting program for the low resolution mode of
the Atari 520ST personal computer system. NEOchrome uses many of the
features of the ST's GEM system. With NEOchrome you can create
colorful full-screen pictures and save them to disk for use in other
programs or with the NEOchrome slide show program (SLIDENEO.PRG).
Terms Used
When we use the word SELECT, click the left mouse button once
while pointing at a specified object on the screen. RIGHT SELECT
indicates that you should click the right button once. DRAG indicates
that you hold down the left button and slide the mouse, while RIGHT
DRAG is the same function with the right button. DOUBLE-CLICK
indicates that you must click the left button twice rapidly.
To Install
Place the NEOchrome disk in the drive and double-click on the
drive icon to get the directory to appear. Select the NEO.PRG icon to
highlight it, then move the pointer up to the OPTIONS menu. Select
INSTALL APPLICATION. With the keyboard, type NEO, then move the
pointer to OK and click once (do not hit the RETURN key, which will
cancel the installation). Now NEOchrome is installed so you can work
with previously created pictures easily.
To Start
Just double-click on NEO.PRG. After a few seconds the screen
background will turn black and the NEOchrome screen appears. Now you
can start a new drawing.
To start with a previously-saved screen, double-click on the name
of that picture instead of NEOchrome. If you get a dialog box with
the choices "SHOW, PRINT, CANCEL", that means that NEOchrome needs to
be installed -- use the instructions above to install NEOchrome, then
double-click on the picture name.
The NEOchrome Menu
The lower half of the screen contains the NEOchrome menu, a
collection of icons that represent the functions available. The top
edge of the menu area shows the 16 colors in the color palette. The
left side of the menu contains the tools, shown in a 3 by 5 grid. The
middle of the menu area scrolls through all the ST's colors and
magnifies the drawing area. The right side of the menu area shows
options depending on the tool that is currently selected. Above the
options area is the color mixer and the UNDO box.
Full Screen and Half Screen Display
NEOchrome pictures occupy a full screen. To see the entire
screen, move the pointer to the left of the icon area onto the "FULL
SCREEN" box and click once. To return to the half screen/menu
display, move the pointer until it is on any corner of the screen and
click again. The "Esc" key on the keyboard also switches between the
two displays.
Scrolling Vertically
When in the half screen display, you can scroll the visible area
of the picture up and down. The GRABBER (row 1 column 2) performs
this function. First select the grabber, then drag the image up and
down.
The Color Palette
You can choose any combination of the ST's 512 colors to fill the
16 color palette. First select which palette color to change by
selecting it. A small triangle appears below that color to indicate
that the palette position is now selected. This color is used for any
drawing operation until you select a different palette color.
Some of the palette positions are used by NEOchrome for specific
screen and border. The rightmost palette color is used for the
cursor. The text cursor alternates between these two colors.
One way to change a palette color is to pick one from the color
map window. You can view all the ST's 512 colors by scrolling through
them -- just right drag the color map from side to side. Select the
individual color you want. The color now appears in the mixer area
(upper right side of menu area). If that is the desired color,
double-click and that color fills the selected palette position.
The other way to change the color in the palette is to use the
mixer. Move the pointer up to the three digits, which represent the
red, green, and blue values respectively for the color (the same
values you would see on the CONTROL PANEL desk accessory). With the
pointer positioned over one of the digits, clicking the left button
makes the digit increase and clicking the right button makes it
decrease. The color color appears in the small window to the right of
the digits. When the color reaches the desired shade, udouble-click
the left button on the window to get that color into the palette.
UNDO
The UNDO box on the screen (or the UNDO key on the keyboard) will
erase the last drawing operation performed. If you make a mistake,
use UNDO. If you didn't mean to UNDO the operation, hit UNDO once
more and to "undo" the UNDO!.
The Tools
First choose a color from the palette by selecting it -- triangle
appears below it.
PENCIL (row 1 column 5): Select the pencil, then drag to draw or
right drag to erase pixel by pixel (actually this draws in the
background color). For better accuracy, you can watch the magnify
window at the center of the menu area, which appears whenever the
pointer is in the image area.
ERASER (row 3 column 4): Select the eraser then drag to erase
broad areas of the picture. Double-click on the ERASER tool to erase
the entire visible area of the picture.
LINE DRAW (row 2 column 1): Select the line draw tool, then drag
to see the line and let go of the button to leave the line in position
(or click the right button to abort the line). Right drag to create a
"ramp line" made up of the colors between the color ramp pointers
(notches on the palette). To move these pointers, right drag them
from side to side.
AREA FILL (row 2 column 2): Select this tool to fill an area with
a solid color. The bottom "droplet" from the icon shows which pixel
is used for the fill operation -- the mangifier is helpful for better
accuracy in filling an area. Be sure that the area to be filled is
completely enclosed or the color will "leak out" into other areas of
your drawing -- use UNDO if this happens and use the pencil to touch
up your borders.
PAINT BRUSH (row 2 column 5): Select this to paint using various
size and shape of brush. The brushes are selected in the OPTIONS
area. Drawing with a paint brush is similar to the PENCIL tool.
SPRAY CAN (row 3 column 5): Select this for an airbrush effect.
Select the nozzle from the OPTIONS area. There are four "speeds" for
a paint spray. Left drag for the faster rate and right drag for a
slower rate, with both speeds increased when using the full-screen
display.
TEXT (row 1 column 4): Select TEXT then select a starting
position on the screen. You will see a flashing text cursor. Typing
on the keyboard now puts text on the screen. You can move the pointer
at any time to the options area and change the type size, style, and
alignment on the screen. You can also change the color of the text
while creating it. Hit backspace to correct mistakes. You can click
on the "system" selection in the options area to toggle the upper half
of the system character set.
Copying Parts of the Image
COPY BOX (row 1 column 3) lets you move rectangular parts of the
image or copy them to other parts, or even to copy them into other
pictures. Select COPY BOX, then drag to surround an area of the
image. Release the left button, then drag when the cursor is within
the box or cancel the box by clicking outside it.
The right side of the options area shows two icons, the lower for
"transparent" copy and the upper for an "opaque" copy. The difference
is that the transparent mode does not copy any pixels in the
background color, letting underlying pixels show through, while the
opaque mode moves every pixel in the rectangle including background
spaces.
The left side of the options area shows CUT, COPY, PASTE, and
CLEAR. "Clear" removes the contents of the copy box. "Cut" removes
the surrouded area and puts it into a special unseen buffer. "Paste"
retrieves the area from the buffer. "Copy" puts the surrounded area
into a buffer without removing it from the screen. An image that has
been placed in the buffer can be retrieved later to place it on the
picture, even if a new picture has been loaded from the disk, as long
as you have not exited the program.
You can drag the area around and then "stamp" it into the desired
position with the right button. If you don't want to remove the area
from its original location before moving it, to make several copies of
it on the screen, click the right button as soon as you grab the area
and before moving it.
Saving, Quitting, and Loading
DISKETTE (row 3 column 1): The diskette is used to exit back to
the desktop, save the current image to disk, or to load a new image.
To exit or save the picture, select and a dialog box appears to allow
you to save, exit the program, or to cancel the dialog box without
taking any action.
Right select gives you a menu of all the NEO files on the current
directory. You can use this menu to load a different picture,
replacing the current one. The contents of the buffer (see "copy box"
above) remains intact.
Color Palette Animation
NEOchrome can perform special effects by shifting the colors in
the palette. The slide show demo on the NEOchrome master disk
animates several of the images like the waterfall by using this
technique.
Choose the range of colors on the palette to be shifted by moving
the notched pointers on the palette using the right drag, as described
in the "ramp line" function above. The arrows on either side of the
color mixing area control this. Select the arrow for one shift in
that direction, or right select it for a continuous color palette
shift. When in continuous shifting, left button clicks speed up the
shift and right button clicks slow it down. To stop continuous
shifting, select or right select on the opposite arrow.
The SLIDENEO.PRG gives you a slide show which can also animate
your colors. To use this feature, the picture must be saved while the
colors are scrolling. To program the duration that a picture is
presented with the slide show, first set the desired speed, direction,
and range of color scrolling. Then stop the scrolling by clicking on
the opposite arrow. Each time scrolling is stopped, the time since it
was started is remembered by the NEOchrome program, and this amount of
time is used for the presentation.
Future Versions
NEOchrome is a product still under development. Features
included in version 0.5 are complete, but Atari will continue refining
this product and adding many new features during the next few months.
Enjoy this "preview" version for now, and watch for the final version
when it is ready.
Credits:
NEOchrome designed and programmed by Dave Staugas
Pictures drawn by Jerome Domurat
Manual by Neil Harris
Press <CR> to continue: