MacFormat España: xRes 2.0/macformat_xres.iso/xRes 2.0 SE/Access/Read Me

Text File | 1996-06-12 | 16KB | 397 lines

xRes™ 2.0 Special Edition ReadMe
March 1996

Welcome to Macromedia xRes Special Edition -- the most powerful
creative tool for hi-res images. No matter what your skill or
experience level, Macromedia xRes Special Edition offers you the
tools to compose and create -- fast.

No matter what your needs -- image layout and design, retouching,
creating compositions, collages, or photomontages, or combining
painted and photographic effects -- Macromedia xRes provides
enhanced creative functionality and productivity with its advanced
handling of hi-res images.

And if you are creating for the web or for multimedia, you'll find
that xRes' Direct Mode provides you with an excellent solution for
creating and editing images and compositions for online display.
Web file formats like GIF89a, Progressive JPEG, and PNG
make creating web images from hi-res images a snap!

Macromedia xRes Special Edition offers a limited set of features from
the full version of Macromedia xRes. As an owner of this limited
edition, you qualify for a special upgrade price to the full version.
(See the offer included with your packaging for more information.)
The complete version offers more powerful features like:

*CMYK editing and color separations

*Unlimited floating objects

*Additional filters including Curves, Calculations, and artistic filters

*Additional artistic brushes and presets

*Additional textures

*Path functionality, including path import from Macromedia
FreeHand™

*Custom color libraries from Trumatch and Pantone

*Batch conversion to and from Macromedia xRes' native file formats

The full version of Macromedia xRes also includes other great goodies
not included with the Special Edition:

XTRAS
Kai's Power Tools 3.0 S.E. Macromedia Edition including the Gradient
Designer, the Texture Explorer, the Spheroid Designer and a sampler
of Compact Filters using the new Lens FX interface. These filters ship
with over 700 Graphic Presets exclusive to Macromedia customers!

STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY & GOODIES
Over 450 MB of high and low resolution photography in xRes' native
LRG format from vendors like PhotoDisc, Visual Language, Texture
Farm, Classic Photographic Image Objects, Image Kit, Digital Stock
Corporation and Xaos Tools.

GOODIES
Goodies include fonts and demos of other Xtras from 3rd party
vendors!

ADVANCED IMAGING TUTORIAL
Included are sample files and a step-by-step of basic and advanced
techniques.

FULL DOCUMENTATION
Included are a Getting Started manual and User Manual.

To upgrade to the full version, contact Macromedia at 1-800-457-
1774 in the United States and Canada, or 415-252-2000 in the rest
of the world.


TECHNICAL NOTES
USING PLUG-IN FILTERS

To use plug-in filters, do the following: Make sure "Support Plug-ins"
is checked in the Preferences > General dialog. Access Preferences >
Set Plug-In Folder…, locate your plug-in folder, and click Select at the
bottom of the dialog. After checking "Support Plug-ins" in the General
Preferences, and specifying the location of your plug-in folder,
relaunch xRes.

The following plug-ins have been successfully tested with
Macromedia xRes:
*KPT 3.0™, by Meta Tools
*KPT 2.1™, by Meta Tools
*Terrazo™, by Xaos Tools
*TypeCaster™, by Xaos Tools
*Paint Alchemy™, by Xaos Tools


PLUG-IN TIPS

Third-party plug-ins can be very memory intensive. xRes will
behave differently with plug-in filters depending on whether you
are using the plug-ins in Direct Mode or xRes Mode.

Using Direct Mode:
In the Direct Mode, xRes will immediately warn you if there is not
enough memory for the plug-in to apply.

Using xRes Mode:
Since delayed processing is used in xRes Mode, xRes cannot tell you if
there is enough memory to run the plug-in until you render the file.
(Rendering occurs when you export the file format to any format
except MMI.) If there is not enough memory to apply the plug-in file,
the following error message will appear:

"Not enough memory to run plug-in. Plug-in effect will not render.
Increase heap size by [x] MB."

At this point, you have a couple of options:
One, save the file, exit xRes, increase the amount of memory allocated
to xRes as specified by the error message, start xRes, and then apply
the plug-in effect. For instance, if the error message tells you to
increase the heap size by 5 MB, then exit xRes, increase the RAM
allocated to xRes by 5 MB, then restart the program, and re-apply
the plug-in.

The second option is to export the file at a lower zoom level, one that
will generate a smaller file size and require less memory to render.

There is an easy test to figure out if the plug-in will render in the
final image. After applying the plug-in, zoom in to the 1:1 level. If an
error message appears saying that there is not enough memory to
run the plug-in, then that means there is not enough memory to
apply the plug-in in the final rendered file. Next, zoom out to 1:2. If
there is no error message at this level, then render the file at 1:2 to
see the plug-in effect in the final file. If there is an error message at
1:2, then zoom out to 1:4, and so forth.

Macromedia advises that you apply plug-ins in Direct Mode for the
most predictable performance.

If you are using a plug-in that is not on the approved list, then try it
on a dummy file before using it in an important project.

If you have applied a plug-in effect, and then zoomed in, floated a
selection, or saved the file, the plug-in dialog may re-appear. If it
does, click the OK button to continue. If you have accessed a plug-in
filter, canceled out of it, and then zoomed in, floated a selection, or
saved the file, the plug-in dialog may re-appear. If it does, click
Cancel to continue. The plug-in dialogs appear as xRes plays back the
commands that have been applied to the file.


USING KPT FILTERS

Take note of the following incompatibilities when using KPT filters:

The Gradients on Paths features of KPT 3.0 may not work on larger
files.

The Angular Shapeburst of the KPT Gradient Designer will apply as a
Rectangular Shapeburst.

When using the KPT 3.0 Glass Lens filter, an empty black dialog will
appear when you render if there is not enough swap disk space to
render the file. Click on this black dialog twice to continue.

The KPT Fractal Explorer will not work unless you have a math
co-processor installed.

Problems have been noted with using KPT 2.1 and KPT 3.0 with
images over 80 MB. See "Plug-in Tips" above for more information
about maximizing xRes performance when applying filters to large
images.

Macromedia is currently working on ensuring compatibility with
other plug-in vendors.


WORKING WITH FILE FORMATS

Recommended File Format:
Macromedia recommends that, whenever possible, you use the TIFF
file format to go back and forth between xRes and other applications.

JPEG Files:
xRes uses the latest JPEG code from the JPEG Standards Group.
Applications using older code may have problems reading xRes JPEG
files.

JPEG Documentation Correction:
The xRes User Guide states that Progressive JPEGs are lossless. This
is incorrect. Progressive JPEGs, like all JPEGs, use a compression
scheme that may cause data loss in files. When you are saving JPEG
files, a Quality slider may be set between 1 and 100; a value of 100
generates a lossless JPEG file.

EPS Files:
xRes does not have TIFF previews for the EPS format. The EPS TIFF is
only for PC applications.

Saving Files at Different Zoom Levels:
If you use the File > Save As command to save a file at a different
zoom level, such as 1:2, 1:4, 1:8, or 1:16, you must close and re-open
the file for the file to reflect the new size. The new file left on your
screen will not reflect the new size until you open it.


PERFORMANCE & COMPATIBILITY

Optimum System Configuration:
xRes performs optimally with the Macintosh's Virtual Memory
turned off, the Disk Cache set to 32k and Modern Memory Manager
(on newer Macintosh systems) set to on. Since xRes is disk intensive,
regular software maintenance and regular optimization of
your hard disk will help to keep xRes at top performance.

Rendering Times:
The time it takes to render a file depends on the type of machine,
including the processor and memory installed, in addition to the size
of the image, the number of objects in the image, and the commands
applied to the image. Note that painting operations take longer than
others to render because xRes must play back each individual brush
stroke. Do not be disillusioned if you have done a lot of painting and
the image takes a long time to render; simple image editing
operations will render in a fraction of the time. On a PowerMac 8500
with 16 MB of RAM allocated to xRes, an 80 MB image with 8 objects
renders in 9 minutes.

Updating:
In the current version of xRes, there are situations in which the
application updates without an Updating Composite slider appearing
on the screen. The program may appear frozen. In a few seconds the
cursor will re-appear.

Allocating Memory:
If you are running xRes with another application, be sure the RAM
you have allocated to these applications is less than your total RAM,
minus your system RAM. For instance, if you have 32 MB RAM and
your system occupies 6 MB of RAM, then allocate a total of no more
than 26 MB to xRes and other applications.

Microtek Scan Wizard™:
If you are using the Microtek Scan Wizard, the dialog appears as if it
will not allow you to reposition the preview area. To arrange the
preview area, click on the desktop and then click on the dialog. The
preview marquee starts blinking, allowing you to reposition it.

TWAIN:
xRes 2.0 does not support TWAIN compatible drivers. If your
scanner comes with both a plug-in and a TWAIN scanner driver, be
sure that you are using the plug-in version of the driver. If a TWAIN
driver appears under the Acquire module, it is because you have
included the driver in your plug-ins folder, and it is a third-party
driver. Using this driver with xRes may cause crashing errors.

External Swap Disks:
If you have a 4 GB external swap disk that is divided into two
partitions, you may only specify one of them as a swap disk to be
used in xRes. We are currently researching this problem.

TypeCaster:
TypeCaster may not work on files over 10MB. There is a problem in
generating ATM font sizes at very large sizes.

Text at Large Sizes:
Some fonts are only designed to be used up to a specific point size;
after this, they will not show up in the rendered document. (A
rendered document is a file you have exported to any file format
except MMI.) If you are using text at a point size of 400, test it out in
a dummy document before using it in an important project.

Printing:
xRes 2.0 S.E. requires LaserWriter version 8.0 or greater.


CUTTING, COPYING, & PASTING TO THE CLIPBOARD

The Cut and Copy commands are used to copy information to the
clipboard. The Cut command cuts the entire object from the
document, even if there is a selection. When you Paste after applying
the Cut command, the entire object will be pasted. The Copy
command copies the image area inside of a selection. When you Paste
after applying the Copy command, only the image area inside of the
selection will be pasted.

When you paste an object into a document, that object appears in the
top left corner of the zoomed out view of the document. You may not
see this object if you are in a zoomed-in view; to see the object (and
move it around), zoom out until you can see the entire image within
the image window.

To copy and paste between different applications (such as from xRes
to Photoshop), use the Cut or Copy commands from the Direct Mode
of xRes. The Direct Mode will copy the information to the system
clipboard.


WORKING WITH OBJECTS

New Objects:
When you click on the New Object Icon in the Objects Window, a
dialog allows you to specify the size of the new object. For most new
objects, you will want to uncheck the Transparency box in this dialog;
otherwise the object will come into the document as a clear sheet of
acetate.

Filling Transparencies:
In this version of xRes, you may not fill transparent objects with the
Gradient Tool, the Bucket Tool, or the Edit > Fill command.

Resize Error:
A checkbox called Maintain Size appears in the Resize Document
dialog (Modify > Resize > Document.) In some very large documents,
xRes may generate an error message when you attempt to type in a
new height, width, or resolution. If this error occurs, change the pop-
up menus in the dialog to pixels before checking this checkbox.

Rotate Commands:
The Modify > Rotate > CW 90 and Modify > Rotate > CCW 90 menu
commands rotate the entire document, not just the active object as
documented. These commands allow a fast and easy way to rotate
multi-object documents. The Modify > Rotate > Arbitrary can be used
to rotate the topmost active object.


WORKING WITH BRUSHES & TEXTURES

New Pressure-Sensitive Preference:
A new preference has been added to the General Preferences for
customers using pressure-sensitive tablets. The preference is called
"Set Tablet Pressure" and refers to the minimum pressure needed for
xRes to register tablet input. Older tablets may require higher values.

Multi-Tipped Brushes:
Some multi-tipped brushes, such as the Hav variant, Glass variant,
and Nature variant located in the Styles brush, may be slow on some
systems due to the randomization of tip spacing, which requires a lot
of number crunching. Allocate more RAM to the program to increase
performance of these brushes, or use one of the many other brushes,
such as Felt Tip, Calligraphy, Chalk, Pencil, Soft, or Hard.

Texture Scale Box:
A checkbox in the Textures Palette called Scale is currently
nonfunctional.


PREVIEWING FILTERS

One way to preview filters is to use the preview box, accessed by
checking Use Preview Box in the General Preferences. The preview
box previews the image as if you were applying the effect at the 1:1
zoom level. If you are working at a zoom level such as 1:4 or 1:8, the
effect appearing in the preview window will not match the effect as
applied to the image at the current zoom level.

The Preview Box will not work if you are previewing Indexed 256
files, or if you are using an 8-bit monitor display.


CROPPING OPTION

A new dialog has been added that appears when you have cropped
an image, applied alpha channels, and saved the file. This dialog only
appears if you are working with a one-object document and saving
the file as a format other than the MMI format. In this instance, a
dialog allows you to either: a) keep the cropped boundaries of the
document but delete any extra channels, or b) return the image to its
uncropped size and keep the alpha channels.


KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS

Documentation Errors:
The keyboard shortcuts Command-T and Command-H are not
implemented in this version of xRes. The keyboard shortcuts
Command + and Command - can be used to zoom either in or out. In a
few rare instances, these commands may become inactive. If this is
the case, click on the desktop, then click back in the application; the
zoom shortcuts will work again. The function keys F1 through F15
control brush sizes; F1 creates a very small brush, while F15 creates
a very large brush.


To upgrade to the full version, contact Macromedia at 1-800-457-
1774 in the United States and Canada, or 415-252-2000 in the rest
of the world.


A FINAL WORD
We hope you find Macromedia xRes 2.0 S.E. a great asset to your
work or entertainment. Let us know if you have any suggestions,
praises or complaints…we're committed to keeping a firm step ahead,
and that will only happen if you pass along your comments. Thank
you for choosing xRes.

©1996 Macromedia, Inc. All rights reserved.