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1988-06-28
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* Ultra Paint *
Copyright 1988 by Steve Hines
Version 1.00
UltraPaint is Shareware! If you like it and use it, send me $15 and I
will send you the latest version with IFF Save enabled! If you don't find Ultra
Paint useful, please pass it along.
Send Money, Bugs, Suggestions, and general correspondence to:
Steve Hines
701 Paul Street
Esondido, Ca.,
92027
Credits::
Thanks to RJ Mical for the great Palette tool and File Requester.
And now, on with the show...
Starting up::
To start from Workbench:
Set ToolTypes in the UltraPaint Icon (using the menu item
'info'). The format of entries is...
h=(height)
w=(width)
d=(depth)
p=(preset)
These Options are explained below.
To start from CLI:
type [run] cdraw h(height) w(width) d(depth) [p(preset)]
Options:
Height is any number from 1 to 400 (automatically switched to
interlace mode)
Width is any number from 1 to 640 (automatically switched to
hires)
Depth is any number from 1 to 5 in LoRes, 1 to 4 in Med-HighRes
Preset is an optional argument, from 1 to 4.
1. 320x200x5
2. 320x400x5
3. 640x200x4
4. 640x400x4
The Color Window::
The Color Window is the color selector window on the screen. Clicking
on any of the little color boxes changes the current Foreground drawing
color. The current Foreground color is in the big box on the left.
The Menus::
Project-
About: Shareware info...
Save: NOT enabled in this version...see above
Load:
1. Picture: Load picture does just that, loads a picture.
Brings up a file requester. This requester will
list files in the big box on the left. Clicking
the mouse anywhere outside this box and any
other gadgets will stop the files from listing
in the box. File selection is just like any
other file requester. Next Disk flips to the
next dos device mounted to the system.
2. Brush: Brings up the file requester mentioned above.
You can select any IFF picture. If you are in
freehand or airbrush mode (mentioned later),
the brush will appear and follow your cursor.
See Custom and Makebrush for details.
Load Opts:
1. Clr on Load: This option allows to clear the screen when a
Picture is loaded. This could be useful
if you want to merge to 'half' pictures
together.
2. Load to Spare: This option allows you to load a picture into
the Spare screen (memory permitting).
Undo: This will undo your LAST draw action (but will not undo an undo
) a 'draw action' is anything that would draw something ON the
screen. This does NOT include something like 'grabbing' a brush
or turning on/off crosshairs, etc...
Spare:
1. Copy to spare:This copies the current screen to 'spare',
allowing you to save a screen for later
reference, or clip-art.
2. Swap spare: This swaps the current screen with the current
one, making it the spare.
Newpic: This erases the current picture.
Quit: Quits the program, give you 'one last chance' before exiting.
Mode-
Freehand: This is the 'main' drawing mode in Ultra Paint. Brush size
and shape only have effect on this and Airbrush mode. The
brush, when in block or slash mode, draws from pointer
position down. BkSlash draws from position up, and circle
draws from centerpoint around.
Sketch: Very fast draw mode. Will only draw single pixel lines. Meant
for sketching drawing or ideas.
Line: The basic Line mode. Will draw a line from here to there.
This mode uses the Standard interface, which all Modes use
from here on unless otherwise noted. Press and hold the
'Select' (Left) button on the mouse. When the mouse is moved
the object (whatever is being drawn) follows the mouse.
Releasing the Select button will drop the object.
Ray: Will draw multiple lines from any fixed vertex to any other
Point on the screen. This interface is a little different.
First, to select a vertex, Click the Select button on the
vertex point. To draw a 'ray' move the mouse, without the
button pressed, to the endpoint. Press Select button, and the
ray will be drawn. If the Select button is held down, and the
mouse moved, multiple rays will be drawn to follow the mouse
pointer until the Select button is released. To exit Ray and
select another vertex, stop all movement of the mouse, and
press the 'Menu' (Right) mouse button. While in Ray draw mode
the color can be changed, and draw from the same point,
without exiting.
Box: Just the general box draw thingy. Uses the standard
interface.
Solid Box: When drawing the Solid box, a diagonal line will be draw
across the box to denote that is is going to be solid. This
was done for speed.
Ellipse: It's just that, an ellipse.
Solid Ellipse: Solid Ellipse.
Polygon: To draw polygon, select a startpoint, and click the Select
button there. Select as many lines as you want using the
Select button. To exit, Either click the Menu button, or
Click on the Startpoint.
Solid Poly: To draw a solid poly, select a startpoint, and click the
Select button. Select as many lines as you want using the
Select button, but please no more that 120 lines... To exit,
Click on the Startpoint and the shape will be filled.
Fill: Very simple. Just click on the area to fill, and voila!
Airbrush: Airbrush is very simple. Just press and hold the Select
button. The area the size of the Airbrush (see below) will
slowly be filled in with whatever brush is active. When the
mouse is moved, the Airbrush will move with it.
Airbrush size: This will bring up a requester asking for input. The
current value will be displayed. Clicking on the window
close gadget will cancel. Typing in a number and
pressing return will change the Airbrush spray width.
Zoom: To zoom, Click and hold the select button anywhere on the
screen. A box will appear that is the size of the zoom area (
see below). When the button is released, A window will appear
on the left side of the screen with the area zoom in it. It
may take several seconds for the area to fill the zoom
window.
Zoom Menus-
Palette: Allows you to modify colors without exiting
zoom mode. See below for instructions on this
tool.
Move: Will move the zoom window to the other side of
screen.
Grid: Will switch the grid on and off.
Quit: Quits!
Using Zoom: Click anywhere in the zoom window. A dot of the
appropriate color will appear in the zoom and
main window simultamiously. The crosshairs and
coordinates will show the relative place on the
screen from zoom.
Zoom Config:
Grid: Allows you to toggle Grid outside of zoom.
Mag: Brings up requester. This number is the amount of pixels
to be included in the zoom, and will be sized
appropriately.
Crosshairs: These follow the pointer around the screen. Useful for
lining things up on the screen. Turn off in draw modes.
Coordinates: Report the position of the pointer. This is updated in all
draw modes.
Tog Coords: Move the coordinated to opposite side of the screen. Gets
them out of the way when drawing.
Brush-
Type: Pretty self explainatory, except..:
Custom: If you have allready grabbed a brush and are in
Airbrush or Freehand, the brush previously grabbed will
become the current drawing tool.
Make Custom: To grab custom, Click on the Top-Left edge of the
brush, and move the mouse to the Bottom-Right and
release the button. Brushes greater than 320
across and 200 high are not allowed. If all goes
well, the custom brush will be the new drawing
tool. (If the brush size is a limitation, try
using the spare screen.)
Size: Again, self explainatory. 4 preset sizes are listed along with...
Makesize: Brings up requester. This entry is the new diameter
(for circle) or width & height (for all else) of the
current brush Type.
Brush: This menu is for custom brush only. The first 2 items do NOT
require having a brush in 'hand', the rest do.
Matte: When selected, the backround color is transparent.
Corner: When Selected, the brush is handled in the top-left
corner, otherwise, it is held in the middle.
FlipX: Will flip your custom brush in the X direction.
FlipY: Will flip your custom brush in the Y direction.
The ghosted items are 'planned' brush functions.
Stuff-
Color:
Palette: Brings up the palette modifier. The colors selected
here ALSO change the drawing color. The sliders change
the R, G, and B values. Clicking on the RGB on the
lefthand side will change to and HSL scale (Hue,
Saturation, Luminance). Clicking Cancel will undo ALL
the colors that were changed. OK okays all changes
made in the palette. After clicking Range, which will
do a 'dither' effect between colors selected, The next
2 color selections you make will be the colors to
'range' between.
Default: This will reset ALL colors to the ORIGINAL colors.
This is not undoable, so BE CAREFUL!
Other:
WB: Allows you to turn Workbench on and off, if possible, that
is, if there are NO other programs that have open windows
on the Workbench.
Title: Will turn the title bar on/off. The title bar displays
the current memory available and is periodically
updated.
Free: Brings up three requesters. Selecting YES for any of
these will disable the said function forever.
Sleep: Will put Ultra Paint to sleep. This is relatively
useless now, but was in there when the program was a
multitasking hog. Left it in here 'just because'.
CW:
On/Off: Will enable/disable the color window on the screen.
Bugs:: So far...
There is a high possibility that any brush with a horizontal resolution
greater than 320 will guru the program, or load in a very strange
version of that brush. I am hoping this will be of little trouble,
since Ultra Paint will only allow 320x200 brushes. If this poses a
problem to you, please send me a letter.
When a brush is loaded into a HiRes or HiRes Interlace screen, it is
possible that Ultra Paint will guru, and a very good chance it will
guru upon exit. As an alternative, load the brush as 'clip art' into
the spare screen until this is fixed.
Also, for some strange reason, zoom sometimes guru's when exiting. This
only happens on certain occations, that I have not pinpointed yet. The
only thing I can suggest is to exit slowly (like not move too many
things at the same time). If you have any idea of how this could be
fixed, tell me PLEASE! Thanks...
(I think this bug has been fixed, or at least I have not been able to
get it to recur after the fix...)
Other than that...It's ok!
Well, that's everything...Hope you like Ultra Paint!!!
Lots of additions to come, like gadgets, brush functions, line thickness, etc..!
so please register now!
Steve...