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OPTIKS
Graphics Editor by Keith P. Graham
Thank you for choosing OPTIKS. OPTIKS is a system for viewing,
scanning, printing and altering monochrome PC graphics files.
OPTIKS can read and write many different graphic file types.
OPTIKS is useful for converting files from one type to another,
sizing files and changing files in many ways. OPTIKS is easy to
use and easy to learn. It is a very complicated program in some
ways, but it has very easy paths to let you do exactly what you
need to do with a minimum of fuss.
Now that you have OPTIKS, what do you do next?
First you will have to install OPTIKS (this takes about 2
minutes). You should practice for another few minutes, loading
and saving a file, and then you should browse through the manual.
The manual is nice to have, but it spends most of the time on the
shelf. You will only have to use the manual if you are having a
problem or trying to do something a little complicated. The
manual has installation instructions, a few overview chapters,
many examples of common things that you might want to try, and a
series of discussions of all of the OPTIKS options. Start by
installing OPTIKS and then try a few of the examples. You will be
an expert in a few minutes and with good luck, never have to use
the manual again.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Installing OPTIKS
2. Starting Up OPTIKS
3. What is OPTIKS?
4. How to Use the Menu Tree
5. Selecting Files
6. Viewing a Picture
7. Help System
8. Mouse and Keystrokes
9. Keyboard Macros
10. Altering an Image
11. How to Save an Image
12. Configuration options
a. Screen Type
b. Virtual Screen Width
c. EMS Memory
d. Miscellaneous Options
e. Printer Options
f. Saving the CONFIG.OK file
g. Debug Break Points
13. Drawing
14. Scanning
15. Mandelbrots
Appendix:
A. Problems
B. Menu Tree
C. Example of converting a file
D. Using Color
E. Using HP Soft Fonts
F. Supported File Formats
G. Canon Scanner Driver and Switches
CHAPTER 1. Installing OPTIKS
OPTIKS needs no special setup for most situations. The program
will try to figure out what video screen you have and if you have
a mouse and EMS memory. If you start up OPTIKS and get a blank
screen, please refer to APPENDIX A. Installing OPTIKS only
requires that you copy the OPTIKS programs to a disk where you
can get at them.
Floppy disk installation
Copy OK.EXE to a floppy. Copy any OPTIKS screen fonts that you
will be using to the floppy. For example: Put the OPTIKS disk in
drive A: Put a blank formatted disk in drive B: At the dos prompt
enter: COPY A:*.* B: This will copy all of the OPTIKS files (even
some that you probably don't need) to the B: drive. Label the
disk in B: OPTIKS and put the original disk with you other
important disks in the back of the bottom shelf of the
refrigerator (or some other cool safe place). Now to start OPTIKS
from the floppy, from the A prompt enter: OK and press return.
Don't write protect the Diskette. OPTIKS may want to create a
file called config.ok, and you may want to use the diskette for
storage of some graphics files.
If you are not installing on a hard disk, skip over to the
discussion of STARTING OPTIKS. Installing OPTIKS on a Hard Disk.
On a hard disk, all packages (including DOS) should have their
own sub directory to live in. The root directory should have the
following files: COMMAND.COM, CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT. The
root directory should have only these three files and the list of
subdirectories. If you have anything else on you root directory
you are slowing down the operation of you hard disk. All programs
should be located in separate directories for each subsystem.
OPTIKS should have its own subdirectory. To create an OPTIKS
subdirectory, you will have to be at a DOS prompt. The following
assumes that you are installing OPTIKS on your C: disk and you
want a subdirectory called OK.
Make sure that you are at the DOS C> prompt. If you have an A> or
a B> enter "C:" and change to the C: disk. Next change up to the
ROOT directory. This is the disks main directory, where all other
directories start from. Enter: CD \ Press return. The slash used
here is the "back slash". It tilts backwards. You should be at
the root.
Some people have a prompt command in their AUTOEXEC.BAT (the
command is PROMPT $P$G) that will show them which directory they
are in. If you are not sure which directory you are in just type
"CD" and press return, this will show you the current directory.
Next create the OK directory by entering: MD OK and press return.
The "MD" command stands for Make Directory. It will make a
directory called OK. If you enter DIR after you finish making the
directory, you will be able to see the OK subdirectory listed. If
you get an "Unable to Create Directory" error it means that there
already is an OK directory. The next step is to copy the files
from the OPTIKS disk to the directory. Place the OPTIKS main
diskette in drive A: and enter the following:
COPY A:*.* OK
There is no space between the : and the *.*. There are spaces
between the COPY command and the A and before the OK. You don't
have to use upper case letters with DOS. Press the return. This
will copy all of the programs and information from the A: disk
into the OK subdirectory.
When the copy is done, you can take the diskette in A: out and
put it in a cool safe place. OPTIKS may come with some diskettes
of sample graphics. You can copy this into the OK subdirectory,
but some people like to keep pictures in a separate PIC
subdirectory. You can use the same procedures above or refer to
your DOS manual to copy the pictures into a subdirectory.
CHAPTER 2. Starting Up OPTIKS
Change to the OPTIKS directory by entering: CD\OK and pressing
return. The main OPTIKS program is called OK.EXE if you are using
floppies, you can start up OPTIKS by typing OK and pressing
return. OPTIKS will start up right away and show you the OPTIKS
logo and a menu. If you spelled the OPTIKS program name correctly
and pressed return and got the message "Bad command or file name"
then something is wrong. The easiest thing to do if you get this
error is to enter DIR and see what you get. This will help you
figure what is going on. For the OK command to work, OK.EXE must
be on the current disk and current directory OR there must be a
PATH set so that DOS can find the OK.EXE file. If you want to
start OK then you either have to be on the C: disk in the OK
directory or you have to set the path so that OK can be found.
The OPTIKS configuration file
In OPTIKS it is possible to save your configuration. Your
configuration includes things like your choice of printer and how
much EMS memory you want to use. This is done by "KEEPING" your
configuration. When you save a configuration the configuration us
kept in a file called CONFIG.OK. OPTIKS looks for CONFIG.OK when
it starts up. If it can't find the file, it uses defaults.
CONFIG.OK must be in the current directory when you start up or
OPTIKS won't find it. CONFIG.OK is small so you may want to keep
copies around wherever you start up OPTIKS.
CHAPTER 3. What is OPTIKS?
OPTIKS is a program for manipulating black and white images.
OPTIKS is a large area into which pictures can be brought. You
bring in the picture by using the FILE READ or FILE MERGE options
from the menu. The FILE READ option cleans out the work space
where the FILE MERGE option will set the picture into a frame
that you specify.
Once the picture is in the work space you can copy it or alter it
in various ways. You can save the picture by using the FILE SAVE
option. You must tell OPTIKS how much of the picture to save. You
don't want to save the entire work space. You would quickly fill
up the disk with pictures surrounded by a lot of empty black
space. The OPTIKS work space is a lot wider than your screen.
You can move around in it. In this way you can have pictures
which are bigger than one screen. The width of the work space is
called the VIRTUAL WIDTH. The length of the work space is called
the VIRTUAL LENGTH. Think of the screen in front of you as a
window to look into the OPTIKS work space. The work-space holds
the image data and the Video Screen is a window to look at the
image data in the work space. Pressing the HOME key brings you to
the upper left corner and pressing the END key brings you to the
lower right corner. The area defined by Virtual Width and Virtual
Length (it might be called Virtual Area) is limited by how much
memory you have.
Memory is allocated when you start up OPTIKS right up to the
maximum in you machine. If you have EMS memory OPTIKS will take a
good chunk of that. The default width of the screen is 1024
pixels wide. This is wider than most screens, but it is narrower
than some pictures. A common problem is that pictures seem to be
cut off on the right after loading. This is because the Virtual
width is too small to handle the width of the picture. Change the
Virtual width using the /ENVIR CONFIG VIRT menu options. Remember
that by making the work-space wider you reduce the Virtual
Length. This is because you have limited memory. If the image
starts cutting off on the bottom you will have to reduce the
Virtual Length or get more memory.
CHAPTER 4. How to Use the Menu Tree
The main way of making OPTIKS work is through the Menu Tree.
Check out the WHATS.NEW file on the OPTIKS distribution diskette
to find out about latest additions and changes to OPTIKS. The
Menu comes up all by itself when you start OPTIKS. You can press
the / key to get it back after you have viewed a file. You can
also press the Esc key. The / and the Esc work a little
different. The / always brings you to the main menu. The Esc Keys
brings you back to the last menu you were working from before you
entered VIEW mode. The menu consists of a line of options with a
line of explanation below the options. One option is shown in
reverse video. The explanation line is for the menu item that has
the reverse video. If you use the cursor control keys you can
move the reverse video to another menu item. The left and right
arrows move the reverse video back and forth. The explanation
line changes for each menu item. To select a menu item, move the
reverse video to that item and press the Enter Key. This will
either bring you to a new menu or to one of the OPTIKS functions.
You will notice that each menu item begins with a different
letter. If you press the first letter of any menu item it is the
same as moving to that item and pressing enter. For example to
read an Apple Mac picture you would could:
1) Press the / key to bring up the main menu.
2) Move to the FILE menu item.
3) Press the enter key.
4) Move to the READ menu item.
5) Press the enter key.
6) Move the cursor to MAC.
7) Press enter. 8) You will see a file selection list at this
point, move to the file you want and press enter.
----OR----
Press /FRM enter and select the file.
CHAPTER 5. Selecting a file.
There are hundreds of graphics packages and most packages have
unique file types. Originally the idea was to restrict a user to
using only one graphics package, but experience shows that the
more adaptable and flexible a package, the more it will be used.
OPTIKS increases the usefulness of these packages by allowing
transfers of data between them. In order to read or write a file,
you must know 1) the kind of file, and 2) the file name.
Whenever you choose READ, WRITE, MERGE or INFO from the FILE menu
you are presented with a list of file types. OPTIKS can read and
write a large number of formats.
Sometimes OPTIKS can read a file, but can't write the same
format. In some cases, OPTIKS can write a format, but can't read
it. The file formats are listed in alphabetical order. You can
use the cursor control keys to move around the list of file
types. As you move, the file types are highlighted and a
description of the file type is shown to you. You can press the
first letter of the file type and you will jump immediately to
the first match. Press the letter again and you will jump to the
next match. When you have highlighted the file type that you
want, press the enter key and you will go to the next step.
OPTIKS goes to the disk and finds all of the files that have the
corresponding extension and shows you all of the files available.
If you see the message "No Matching Files" then the file
selection criteria did not find any files. This message appears
for a moment while OPTIKS searches your disk, but it should go
away if any files are found.
Selecting an existing file.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ READ A FILE ║
║ Select a File Format and Press Enter ║
║ Press Esc to Exit ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
AutoCAD ACAD Slide
╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ACAD SLD EFS PCR * WIPS ║
║ ASCII FAX PCR FONT 1 WPG ║
║ AMIGA IFF GEM PCR FONT 2 ZSOFT PCX ║
║ ART GIF PCR FONT 3 ║
║ BASIC * HALO CUT PCR FONT 4 ║
║ BLOAD CGA * HP PRINTER PDA ║
║ BLOAD EGA * HP SOFT FONT PIG ║
║ BLOAD AT&T * IBM ISF PMG ║
║ BLOAD HERC * LOTUS PIC POSTSCRIPT ║
║ BLOAD VGA * MAC PRINT POWER ║
║ BLOAD EEGA * MOUSE PRINTSHOP ║
║ BLOAD 720 * MSP RAS ║
║ DCX NEWSMASTER RLE ║
║ DEGAS NEWSROOM PRO TIFF ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Fig. 1 Read File List Menu.
When you read a file or ask for information about a file, you
must be talking about a file that already exists. If you are
writing a file to disk you may be over-writing an existing file
or naming a new file. To select an existing file, you can move
the reverse video bar up and down and select the file you want.
If there are more files than can appear on the screen at once you
can use the PgUp and PgDn to move through the pages of files
until you find the one you are looking for.
The file that you are looking for may not be found on the current
disk or subdirectory. You may have to change the way OPTIKS looks
for a file. You can press the / key or F10 to move the cursor up
to the selection line. Correct the selection line to correctly
match the disk, path and filename of the file you want.
For instance, when you want to read a MAC file OPTIKS expects the
file name to end in the extension .MAC and lists *.MAC files. The
*.MAC means list all files ending in .MAC. You may have the file
on your disk as GRAPH.PIC. Even though it is a MAC file, you have
it named as .PIC. (This is quite common. There is no standard
naming convention for Apple Mac files.) You would have to press
the / key from the file selection screen and change the *.MAC to
*.PIC or even GRAPH.PIC and then press enter. You will be shown
all of the matches. You can change the current working disk and
subdirectory by retyping the information on the selection
criteria line. OPTIKS remembers when you change the disk or
directory and will use the new value every time you make a new
selection.
Writing to a new file.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ SAVE A FILE ║
║ Select a File Format and Press Enter ║
║ Press Esc to Exit ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
AutoCAD Binary Drawing Interchange Format
╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ACAD DXB GEM TIFF PACK ║
║ ACAD DXF GEMDRAW WIPS ║
║ ACAD SLD HALO CUT WPG ║
║ ART HP LETTER ZSOFT PCX ║
║ BASIC * MAC HEAD ║
║ BLOAD CGA * MAC NOHEAD ║
║ BLOAD EGA * MOUSE ║
║ BLOAD AT&T * MSP ║
║ BLOAD HERC * PCR * ║
║ BLOAD VGA * PIG ║
║ BLOAD EEGA * POSTSCRIPT ║
║ BLOAD 720 * RAS ║
║ COM SYS ║
║ EFS TIFF UNCOMP ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Figure 2. Save File List Menu.
When you save to a new file or print to disk, you are given the
same selection screen that appears when you want to read a file.
You don't usually want to select an existing file. If you did you
would point to it and press enter, but this won't work when
creating a new file. To write to a completely new file, press F9
key to get to the file selection criteria line and enter the name
of the file that you want to create. If OPTIKS can't find the
file it will create it. You can change the disk and directory at
the same time and OPTIKS will create the file on another disk or
directory.
CHAPTER 6. Viewing a Picture
After loading a picture, OPTIKS goes into VIEW MODE. VIEW MODE is
when the MENU is not on the screen. The keys act differently in
VIEW MODE. For instance, the right arrow does not, highlight a
menu item, it moves the picture to the left. Whats really
happening is the video screen window moves to the right. You can
move your view of the image by using the keys to move the window
to a different part of the image. The cursor control keys move
you around the picture. End brings you to the lower right corner,
Home brings you to the upper left corner. PgUp and PgDn move the
window faster the than up and down arrows. You can use the CTRL
key with the arrow keys to move faster.
When you are in VIEW mode you can return to the menu by pressing
the / key. There are several "fast path" keys also available to
you. You can refer to chapter 8 for keystrokes.
CHAPTER 7. Help System
The F1 key is always HELP. But since memory is so important I
have purposely left the help screens small. There are five help
pages. The help pages are: Cursor - for keys which control
cursor movement. Range - for keys which control the range. Menu -
a quick guide to using the menu. File - a little bit of
information about entering file names. Keys - most of the OPTIKS
keystrokes and fast paths.
CHAPTER 8. OPTIKS Mouse and Keystrokes
OPTIKS was designed to be used quickly and efficiently from the
keyboard. This allows single keystrokes to have a great deal of
functionality. There are many keystrokes available to you,
depending on where you are and what you are doing.
Mouse "keys"
A Microsoft compatible mouse will give you the ability to move
around in OPTIKS without using the keypad. The mouse acts like
the cursor control keys, Moving the mouse left is equivalent to
pressing the left arrow, moving the mouse to the right is
equivalent pressing the right arrow. Moving the mouse up and down
is like the up and down arrows, moving the mouse fast is like
holding down a cursor control key or pressing page up or page
down. The left button on the mouse is the Enter Key. The right
button is the Esc Key. If you have a three button mouse the
middle button is the / key.
Keys that are always available.
No matter what is on the screen, there are a few keys that are
always available. These keys can be pressed at any time without
interfering with the current screen.
F1 - Help. This is the on- line help facility. To have full help
the HELP.OK file must be in the OPTIKS start-up directory. Read
chapter 6 on how to call up help and use it.
ALT-G - this is the key to place a 16 by 16 pixel grid on the
screen. This is useful for positioning objects. Press Alt-G once
and the grid goes on. Press it again and it goes off. The grid
disappears whenever the screen is cleared.
ALT-N - Puts the name of the last file read on the bottom of the
screen.
Alt F1- F10 - Keyboard Macros. Macros are simply a list of
keystrokes which can be started by pressing the ALT and one of
the function keys. See chapter 9 for help on keyboard macros.
Ctrl-Break - Pressing the Ctrl Key and break (scroll-lock) at the
same time causes the main menu to appear. This upsets DOS and in
DOS 3.3 and 4.0 it is possible to get a "stack overflow" message
from DOS which will blow you out of the water. If you get this
message you MUST reboot in order to clear DOS and start any
programs. I consider this a DOS bug in 3.3 and 4.0. In any event,
avoid pressing Ctrl- Break unless you are in real trouble. Try
the F9, F10, / and Esc keys first. These keys generally give you
better results than Ctrl-Break.
MENU Keystrokes.
When the menu is on the screen, you are in MENU MODE. Menu mode
is where you make selections for performing various tasks. When
you are in menu mode you can:
1) select a new menu item,
2) select a task,
3) leave the menu,
4) ask for help.
Moving around the menu was described in chapter 4. If you have
not read chapter 4 and you don't understand how to move around in
a menu you should turn to chapter 4 and learn how to move around
the menu tree. The left and right arrows, the Enter key and the
Esc key were described in chapter 4 for moving around in the
menu. There are additional live keys which can be used for other
functions. The following keys are "alive" while in menu mode.
F10 - Leave the menu.
F10 will knock you out of the menu and into VIEW MODE. VIEW MODE
is where you can scroll around inside the virtual work-space and
look at the picture.
ESC - Moves up one level in the menu tree. If you keep moving up
a level, you will eventually move completely back to VIEW MODE.
When the Hour Glass is on the screen it means "please wait". It
appears when OPTIKS is reading and writing a file or working on a
portion of the screen. You can clear the screen and display the
work in progress by pressing Alt-C. This is especially useful for
Mandelbrots which can take hours to days to finish. The screen
does not clear immediately, but will clear when finished with the
current line. The work so far will be shown. Pressing the escape
while the hour glass is on the screen will abort the current
process.
Chapter 9. The OPTIKS Command Line and Keyboard Macros
The command OK will start up OPTIKS. This is the normal way to
enter into OPTIKS. Once in OPTIKS you would use the keyboard or
the mouse to manipulate graphics. There are times when it may be
convenient for OPTIKS to do some action from a BAT file or from
the command line. You can do this by entering: OK keystrokes The
keystrokes are the slash key: "/" and any valid sequence of
OPTIKS menu items. Menu items, if you recall, can be entered by
typing the first letter of each item. There are a few special
keys also. They are:
~ (tilde) = Return key
^ (hat) = Escape Key
@ = Home
! = End
? = Wait forever for a keystroke
If the escape is pressed, the key sequence ends.
$ = wait 2 seconds
If the escape is pressed, the key sequence ends.
* = restart the command line.
This is for slide shows.
+ = up arrow
- = down arrow
( = left arrow
) = right arrow
;x= start macro number x, x = 0 to 9
An Example:
OK frm~/!c:\ok\reflect~~$$$/qy
Does the following:
f=FILE
r=READ
m=MAC
~=Enter
/=jump up to
filespec area
!=END (clears any found names from the line)
reflect=name of mac file "C:\OK\REFLECT.MAC"
~=return
- do it twice
$$$$$=wait 10 seconds
/=menu
q=QUIT
y=YES
USING MACROS:
If you find yourself doing the same thing over and over again you
can put the keystrokes into a Macro. Use /CM to enter macros 1 to
10. Once the macro is entered you can use ALT-1 to ALT-0 to start
the macro up. The special keys used on the command line (see
OPTIKS COMMAND LINE) are the same symbols used for macros. The
command line is a special case of macros. A macro is a series of
keystrokes that will be entered from the macro just as though you
entered them from the keyboard. If you save you config.ok file by
entering /ECK you will also save any macros you have entered. You
can have a macro start up automatically by entering something
like: OK ;1 The semicolon means jump to a macro, in this case
macro 1. Macro 1 can end in ;2 which would make it jump to macro
2. Here is an example to load print a potion of a file:
/ppr@~------------)))))))))))~g;2
This is / to start off, P for print, P for printer, @ for home, ~
for return, - for down, ) for right, another ~ for return and g
to go. The ;2 means jump to another macro, in this case 2. If the
2 macro printed out another portion of the screen, you could be
chaining together macros to print a large picture. In total,
macros can add up to 700 pre-recorded keystrokes. Pressing the
Esc key will always kill a running macro.CHAPTER 10. Altering an Image
Once an image has been loaded into memory you may alter the image
in various ways. The IMAGE menu selection allows for moving parts
of images, sizing parts of images and rotating images. You may
enter the IMAGE menu from the Main menu or by pressing the "I"
key when viewing an image.
The image menu is a list of all of the IMAGE operations that may
be performed on the picture. You may move through the various
options, and as you do a description will appear giving a simple
explanation of what the function can do.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ IMAGE ALTERATION ║
║ Make a Selection and Press Enter ║
║ Press Esc to Exit ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
Fill a box with Current Pattern
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ BFILL ERODE MIRROR SIZE ║
║ BLANK FADE NEGATE SMOOTH ║
║ BLUR FAT BITS OVERLAY TALLER ║
║ CLIP FLIP RTILT 1 THIN ║
║ COPY INLAY RTILT 2 TURN ║
║ CONTRAST LINE XOR RTILT 1/2 UNSTEP ║
║ DEPOS LTILT 1 SHADE WASH ║
║ DOUBLE LTITL 2 SHORTEN WHITE OUT ║
║ EDGE LTILT 1/2 SHRINK WIDEN ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Figure 3. Image Menu.
OPTIKS is non-destructive in that it does not erase a portion of
the picture unless something is actually put on top. For example,
if you decide to halve a section of the screen, you will see the
new smaller picture on top of the original picture. Just because
you shrank a portion of the screen it does not mean that OPTIKS
erased the old image. The old image will remain with the new
image on top of it.
ROTATE rotates an image 90 degrees clockwise. The ROTATE option
always rotates a square. Your screen may have an odd aspect ratio
(CGA is 3.2 to 1) so that you may not see a square on the screen.
The area to be rotated is determined by the horizontal length of
the range. ROTATE ignores any vertical range that you may have
indicated.
COPY takes a section of an image and copies to another section of
the work space.
The steps for copying a range are:
1) Select COPY from the IMAGE menu.
2) Move the finger to the upper left hand portion of the area to
be copied. Press Enter.
3) Move the finger to the lower right hand corner of the range
and press enter.
4) When you move the finger now, the whole box will move. Move
the range to where the range is to be copied and press return.
5) You may use this function to STAMP a picture over and over
again. Press Esc when you are done copying.
The HALVE option makes a picture half size. This is like SCALE,
but it is faster and a fixed 1/2 size.
SHORTEN squashes down a picture by taking out every other line.
NARROW takes out every other dot in the horizontal direction
making the picture 1/2 of its original size.
DOUBLE makes a picture twice its size.
WIDER doubles every dot making the picture twice as wide.
TALLER doubles every line, making the picture twice as tall.
The TILT functions will make a portion of the image lean to the
left or right. The functions will tilt various amounts. These
functions will take text and make it ITALIC.
RTILT 1 tilts to right, 1 dot for every 1 vertical dot.
RTILT 2 tilts to right, 2 dot for every 1 vertical dots.
RTILT 1/2 tilts to right, 1 dot for every 2 vertical dots.
LTILT 1 tilts to left, 1 dot for every 1 vertical dot.
LTILT 2 tilts to left, 2 dot for every 2 vertical dots.
LTILT 1/2 tilts to left, 1 dot for every 2 vertical dots.
OVERLAY is exactly like COPY, but the COPY is transparent. This
copies a range on top of an image without destroying the picture
underneath.
INLAY is similar to overlay except the image is XORED onto the
image underneath it. This gives interesting ghosting effects. The
OPTIKS logo on the start up screen was created by inlaying an
image of radiating lines onto the word OPTIKS.
ZOOM allows you to edit fat bits. Use the SPACE bar to make a fat
bit black, use the enter key to make it white.
SCALE allows you to change the size of an image. First select the
range of the image to be scaled then enter the new size of that
range.
The WHITE OUT option will "white-out" sections of a picture.
The MIRROR selection will make a range in the picture a Mirror
image.
The NEGATE selection will make all black dots white and all white
dots black.
BLANK will make a portion of the picture black.
FLIP will turn a range upside down.
EDGE looks at the image and finds dots where a picture changes
from black to white. If a dot is white and surrounded by white,
it is ignored. The same is true of a black dot surrounded by
black dots, but dots on an edge are turned white. This makes for
very interesting special effects. It is best done several times
so that the edges get edges.
XOR LINE, is a way of simplifying the picture. Each line is
turned black and only new dots which did not exist in the line
above it are shown. This is useful to eliminate regions of white
to make a cartoon effect. It does strange things to dithered data
and may be useful as a special effect.
CONTRST is a Contrast increaser. It examines a range and lightens
the light areas and darkens the dark areas.
GRAY examines every pixel on the screen and makes it a dot
depending on the relative level of dark or light in the
surrounding pixels. This evens out some dithered areas and makes
them more uniform.
SMOOTH is similar to GRAY, but it keeps a rolling average so that
the total lightness or darkness of the picture does not change.
Both gray and smooth tend to blur the image a little.
WASH checks for white dots on a black background and black dots
on a white background. If it finds lone dots, it will get rid of
them. This is useful for cleaning up pictures with noise or dirty
places with random dots.
UNSTEP looks for "jaggies" which are areas with a sharp right
angles. UNSTEP will fill in these areas and smooth out a range.
Be aware that it will also take a place where you want a sharp
angle and smooth it off. UNSTEP works best after you use DOUBLE
(see above.)
SHADE Makes every other dot black to give interesting faded
looks.
DARKEN makes every other dot white.
ERODE chips away at the white space on the disk and cleans up
loan dots.
DEPOS deposits dots on other dots to build up white and erode
black space.
CLIP erases all of a screen except the range.
CHAPTER 11. How to Save an Image
After you have read in an image and done whatever needed to be
done to the image, it may be necessary to save the image.
The PCR format is a way of saving pictures in a very compressed
format. Only OPTIKS uses PCR files. Saving an image is done by
selecting FILE/SAVE from the menu. You are given a list of
possible file formats for saving. Select one by moving the
highlighted bar to that item and pressing enter. You then must
indicate the range of the area to save.
This allows you to save a whole picture or just a part of the
picture. Move the finger to the upper left hand side of the image
and press enter and then move to the lower right hand side and
press enter. Once the range is selected then the file selection
menu will appear. If you want to save this as a new file then
press the F9 key and type the name of the file. If you want to
replace an existing file, point to the file and press enter. The
hour glass will appear and the file will be saved.
Chapter 12. Configuration options
Although OPTIKS comes preconfigured for most applications, you
may have a need to change one or more of the various options. You
may also want to keep your configuration. OPTIKS will create a
file called CONFIG.OK on the current directory whenever you ask
to KEEP a configuration. The next time you start up OPTIKS, the
program will look on the current directory for the CONFIG.OK file
and use the information that it finds there. All of OPTIKS
configuration options are found in the ENVIRN menu option from
the main menu. The ENVIRN menu items are:
CONFIG BREAK SCREEN MACROS ERASE
CONFIG leads to the Configuration menu (see below).
a. Screen Type
OPTIKS is a graphics editor at heart, but unlike various systems
which present a virtual device interface, OPTIKS uses what you've
got as simply as it can. This means that your hardware dictates
what you get. OPTIKS in no way claims to be WYSIWYG. OPTIKS is
quite the reverse. OPTIKS will not display circles on your screen
as round (unless by accident). You will see every dot in the
graphic. Sometimes a package like GEM paint will show a different
image than OPTIKS for the same file. This is because GEM Paint
attempts to be WYSIWYG using its VDI (virtual device interface).
OPTIKS shows the actual contents of a file and allows you to
change it without an intermediate program trying to figure what
it is you really mean. When you use OPTIKS to print, the same
kind of thing happens. OPTIKS will print every dot that you tell
it to, at the resolution that you specify. This will sometimes
make for a distorted image, but OPTIKS puts the onus on you to
control your environment. OPTIKS tries to figure the best screen
mode when it starts up. The search for a proper screen goes like
this:
Check for CONFIG.OK
Check for VGA
Check for EGA
Check for VESA
Check for AT&T 6300
Check for hercules
Go to CGA mode
It's possible to wind up in the wrong mode if you are on a
non-standard video that does not show up as VGA or CGA and looks
like Hercules. This happens also when you are in a VGA card
hooked up to a monochrome monitor (such as the Nec Multisync GS).
The cure is to start up with the command line string of ESICM for
example:
OK ?
This will place you in CGA mono mode. From this screen you can go
back and select IBM EGA 640*350 or whatever mode works best for
you. The SCREEN option which is accessed from the ENVIRN menu
controls the display screen type. OPTIKS makes a best guess shot
at determining a screen when you start up. This is not always
correct. You can select a screen type which OPTIKS will force
itself to use when it starts up. You can also use the screen
option to see what an image looks like on other systems.
WARNING: Selecting a screen type incompatible with your hardware
could cause OPTIKS to freeze or cause monitor damage. Actual
hardware damage is possible but extremely unlikely. Running
OPTIKS on a an IBM Monochrome Adapter with no graphics ability
can cause OPTIKS to damage the monitor.
If you know a computer has no graphics ability then there is no
point in even attempting to run OPTIKS. If you select a screen
option which causes the screen to blank out, but the Escape key
still causes a blip sound every other time it is pressed, you can
still exit OPTIKS without a problem. Press Ctrl-Break. Press Q
and then Y. This will always work to exit you from OPTIKS. This
is not the recommended way to exit OPTIKS, but it should always
work. Ctrl-Break will upset some DOS versions so use it only to
break out of OPTIKS.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ VIDEO CARD SELECTION ║
║ Make a Selection and Press Enter ║
║ Press Esc to Exit ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
AMDEK or WYSE 1280 Black and White 640*400 mode
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ AMDEK EGA COLOR MAXXON VGA ║
║ ATI PRISM EV-673 MCGA VIDEO 7 ║
║ ATI VGA GEN 5200 NEC VIDEO 7 ║
║ ATI VIPS GENIUS ORCHID VIDEO 7 ║
║ AT&T 6300 GENOA VGA PARADISE ║
║ CGA MED GENOA VGA PARADISE ║
║ CGA HIGH GENOA VGA STB ║
║ COMPAQ HERCULES TOSH 3100 ║
║ EGA MONO LOGIX TSENG ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Figure 4. Video Selection Menu
OPTIKS supports CGA medium and high resolution modes, EGA and VGA
graphics modes, Hercules and AT&T and a few Enhanced EGA and VGA
modes. Although OPTIKS does not support color fully, it is
possible to load and view color pictures by using the PLANES
options. 1 plane = 2 colors, 4 planes = 16 colors. Color modes
are for viewing graphics. Do not try image functions on a color
picture. Do not try to save a color image to a black and white
format (eg. Color PCX to MAC). Do not try to load a black and
white image while planes are set to 4.
IBM VGA supports the two standard VGA graphics modes for 640 by
400 These modes are useful in that they offer a better aspect
ratio than other screen modes. Circles tend to be round in these
modes.
AT&T is for the AT&T 6300 mode monochrome graphics. This graphics
mode is the reason why many people purchased AT&T 6300 systems
which work well with OPTIKS. However, OPTIKS scans for the 6300
BIOS signature and will send you into 6300 automatically. If you
disable the 6300 screen in order to put another graphics card in,
OPTIKS will still think that you are a 6300 and this can cause
OPTIKS to go into the wrong mode. You must use the OK ? command
line to get to IBM CGA MONO mode to bypass the automatic screen
detect and then select the correct screen mode. Use KEEP so that
in the future OPTIKS will not try to use the AT&T mode.
HERC is Hercules Graphics Mode. There is no standard way to
detect a Hercules card. The standard schemes do not always detect
clone Hercules cards. OPTIKS looks to see if the Hercules
Graphics memory is available and if it finds something then will
assume that you may have a Hercules card. If you start up in
monochrome text mode and you don't have an EGA or VGA or AT&T,
the assumption must be that you have a Hercules card. This
assumption is sometimes wrong. You can use the OK ? to start
OPTIKS if you have a screen which can use the CGA modes (which is
almost everyone) to bypass the Hercules testing. 1280 is the Wyse
or Amdek 1280 system. This system will start up correctly in CGA
mono mode. Use this option to enter the 640*400 mode of this
system.
COMPAQ is for the Compaq portable computers which use AT&T type
graphics modes. This selection will not scan for the AT&T bios
signature.
TOSHIBA is for the Toshiba 3100 special graphics modes.
b. virtual screen width
OPTIKS starts up by default with a virtual screen width of 1024
pixels. This is fine for most small graphics files. Some larger
graphics will be cut off on the right edge because the width of
the OPTIKS work- space is only 1024. To increase the virtual
screen width enter:
/ECV
This is Environment Config Virtual. You will be given the
following menu:
1024 2048 4096 8192 EMS DISPLAY
You would select a virtual screen width from 1024 to 8192 by
moving to the correct item and pressing enter. EMS allows for
control over the allocation of EMS memory and DISPLAY will show
you your memory allocation.
One of the consequences of changing the virtual screen width is
that the work-space is erased. Another consequence is that your
virtual work-space will be shortened. OPTIKS only has a limited
amount of memory to work with and if you use more to make the
work-space wider then some will be taken away from the length.
You must use the smallest width possible to hold your graphics
and then you will have the most length possible.
c. EMS memory
The EMS option from the Environment Config Virtual menu controls
how EMS is allocated. Normally OPTIKS checks for free EMS memory
and grabs any that is not being used for itself. OPTIKS will
release this memory when you quit from the program. There may be
times when you do not want OPTIKS to use the EMS memory or you
wish to limit the amount of EMS memory that OPTIKS uses.
ALL 128 256 12 MEG B-1.5M C-2M D-3M E-4M UALLOC
ALL is all available EMS memory.
128 to 4M are the various chunks you can force OPTIKS to take. If
OPTIKS can't take the amount specified, it won't take any.
UNALLOC is the option which unallocates any existing EMS memory.
You must allocate any memory OPTIKS has previously allocated in
order to allocate EMS memory differently.
d. Miscellaneous Options
The CONFIG menu bar looks like this:
VIRT TALK SCREEN PRINTER KEEP DISPLAY BLIP
VIRT and SCREEN have been discussed. PRINTER and KEEP are
discussed below. This section includes TALK and BLIP which are
the kinds of things that programmers do when they are not being
watched.
TALK is an experiment in using the PC speaker for voice. This
only works on 4.77 Mhz PC's. If you have a faster PC the voice is
not really recognizable. The TALK function is set to echo through
the speaker a letter for each letter pressed. Try it, say that's
interesting, and then turn it off.
BLIP is a sound affect that sounds a little like a Star Wars
sound. It is to inform you when significant events occur. If you
work in a quiet office where the sound of OPTIKS annoys those
around you, it can be turned off.
DISPLAY shows you many of the miscellaneous configuration
options.
e. Printer options
OPTIKS can print out graphics on a variety of printers. OPTIKS is
not intended for use in printing except as a means of producing a
draft quality image. Other programs print much better than
OPTIKS. OPTIKS should be used with desk top publishing programs
or other graphics programs to make those programs work better.
You might want to use OPTIKS printing to produce an idea of what
an image will look like when included in other applications.
OPTIKS is generally faster than other programs because it just
prints what it has without trying to translate the image to fit
on your output. OPTIKS can be considered a "Quick and Dirty"
approach to printing. When you choose PRINT from the OPTIKS main
menu, you will have to decide between:
PRINTER FILE CAPCard
Choose the printer option if you want to go directly out to a
printer port. FILE is if you want the output of OPTIKS to go to a
file. You can use this if you want to use OPTIKS output with the
INCLUDE program which is on the OPTIKS Shareware diskette or you
want to print the file later. You can copy the printer file to
the printer by using the DOS COPY command. If you save your
printer output in a file called PR-OUT.PRT then you would enter:
COPY/B PR-OUT.PRT LPT1:
The /B option tells DOS not to stop at the End-of-File marker. In
graphics, the End-of-File marker might appear naturally as part
of an image pattern and should not be interpreted as the actual
end of file.
CAPCard is a LaserMaster CAPCard which is a card that goes into
your PC and directly drives most laser printers. The card is many
times faster than a normal laser printer and is a cost effective
way of upgrading inexpensive laser printers to HPCL and even
Postscript in an environment where speed is important. The
CAPCard option will not work if the DJET driver is used. You must
disable DJET and load in the other driver to make OPTIKS work
correctly with a CAPCard. At publication time I am being mailed a
CAPCard for evaluation and I hope to have the bugs in this
section worked out.
f. Saving the CONFIG.OK file
OPTIKS can KEEP options by selecting the KEEP function from the
ENVIRONMENT/CONFIG menu. The options are kept in a small file
called CONFIG.OK. This file contains all of the options that you
have set including all macros. When OPTIKS starts up it looks on
the current directory for the CONFIG.OK file and will use one
when it finds one.
g. Debug Break Points
The BREAK option can be accessed by pressing Ctrl-B when in view
mode and allows for debug check points. This is only useful if
you are in competition with OPTIKS and need to know how OPTIKS
does something. You can set one of the break points by selecting
a break point and an INT 3 will be issued just before entering
that function. If you are in DEBUG.COM or other debugger, you can
run OPTIKS until the interrupt is encountered and single step
through a routine.
BREAK is the most dangerous thing you can fool with in OPTIKS.
OPTIKS has reassigned some of the interrupts when it loads so
make sure that you do not quit out of the debugger. If you do not
exit OPTIKS through the /QY option, you computer will hang up
requiring a red switch restart.
CHAPTER 13 - Draw functions.
OPTIKS allows you to draw LINES, BOXES, ELLIPSES and POINTS. It
will allow (in a future release) to fill. There is no "undo" in
OPTIKS so be careful and save you work before doing anything
drastic.
LINES - these are classic rubber band lines. You draw a line by
pointing to one end of a line and pressing enter key, and then
moving to the other end of the line and pressing enter key.
Before pressing the enter key for the second time, you can
"float" the line, by pressing the delete key. Pressing the delete
key again will "freeze" the line and go back into rubber band
mode. Float will work on all drawing routines as well as all
ranges.
BOXES - Selecting BOX will allow you draw rectangles and squares.
First you point to the upper left hand corner of the box and then
stretch out a box by moving the lower right hand corner of the
box.
ELLIPSES - Circles and ellipses can be drawn by pointing to the
center of the ellipse and then stretching out the ellipse by
moving the finger. A circle is a special ellipse. Since different
screens have different aspect ratios, there is no way to be sure
that you have a circle right.
POINT - this is like the old toy "etch-a-sketch". Pressing enter
starts the line and pressing enter again stops it.
╔══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ SHADE PATTERNS ║
║ Make a Selection and Press Enter ║
║ Press Esc to Exit ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════╝
Solid Black
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ BLACK HERRING ║
║ BRICK HAPPY ║
║ BUGS HEX ║
║ CHECKERS FHORIZ ║
║ CONFETTI LIPS ║
║ DIAG RADIATE ║
║ DOLLAR SM CHECKS ║
║ EYES VERT ║
║ GRAY WHITE ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
Figure 5. Shade Pattern Selection Menu.
SHADE - This determines a shade pattern that will be used in
drawing the drawing lines, and they will be used for FILL when
that is done. There are about a dozen or so patterns and they
cover all of the standard types and a few odd ones. They are 16 *
8 dot patterns.
WIDTH - This selects how many dots wide a line can be drawn as. A
line can be 1 to 8 dots. (when I say line I mean the lines of a
box or an ellipse as well as rubber bands or points.)
APPLY - this controls how a dot will be applied to the picture.
If you are drawing a white line on a white background you cannot
see the line. With apply, you can change the method and color of
point writing. The choices are:
PUNCH - this means punch a hole and put a dot there no matter
what the background was. This puts a white dot in on
the picture.
XOR - This puts a white dot on black points and a black dot
on white points. Lines drawn with XOR will always be
visible.
OR - This lays in or merges with the background. It does
not erase what was there ever, but merges with it.
NEG PU - Negative punch - puts a black dot down.
NEG XOR- Puts a Black dot down using the xor rules. (I am not
sure that this does anything!)
NEG OR - ORs a black dot down.
CHAPTER 14 - Scanning.
OPTIKS supports Canon IX-12 scanners using the Canon supplied
software drivers and DFX Handy Scanners (see appendix G. for
switch settings on Canon card and software installation.)
The way scanning works is as follows:
Step 1 - select a range. This is the area where the scan will go.
You can press F2 after selecting the range option and the scan
will use up the whole work space as much as possible.
Step 2 - Select a starting point. This is the distance down the
page that you want to start the scan. This is the distance down
the piece of paper, not the screen, although I am using the
finger to select this value. When you select starting point,
press ALT-I to get the index on the screen so you can get a feel
for how many dots down the page you will be starting. Normally
you would press the HOME key and go to the upper left hand corner
so that you would scan the whole piece of paper.
Step 3 - Select OPTIONS. You must select how many DPI you want to
scan at and at what density etc., to scan at.
Step 4 - Start the scan. The scanner will pull the paper through
the scanner and the picture will be transferred to the OPTIKS
work space. Press ALT-C to view the progress of the scan if it is
slow. Every time you press ALT-C while the Hour Glass is on the
screen the screen will clear and any work so far will be
displayed.
CHAPTER 15 - Mandelbrots.
Mandelbrots are found in the DRAW menu of OPTIKS. They are not a
true graphics editing function, but OPTIKS is a convenient
platform for creating a viewing Mandelbrot sets.
Mandelbrots are those neat looking germ like swirls that appear
from time to time on the covers of computer magazines. They seem
to sell magazines, but I doubt if anyone will buy OPTIKS just for
the Mandelbrot set.
OPTIKS uses integer arithmetic. I once was asked if I supported
the math coprocessor. I can go faster than the coprocessor using
integers for the kind of arithmetic that graphics needs. OPTIKS
produces Mandelbrots about 10 times faster than "C" language
floating point and about as fast a coprocessor in calculating
Mandelbrots.
A section of the Mandelbrot set 1024 by 1024 takes about 3 hours
on my 20 mhz 80386 Dyna. This would take two days on a 4.77 PC.
Using "C" language floating point this would take two weeks on
the PC.
In addition to speed OPTIKS offers the ability to create truly
huge landscapes (limited only by patience and the stability of
the power lines.) OPTIKS allows you to produce 16 color sets or
Dither the sets to black and white. Dithered Mandelbrots look
marvelous. They have a 3D texture that is great and they print
out on laser printers at 300 DPI with amazing clarity.
Mandelbrot Strategy.
Step 1 - Select COLOR Planes. If you are going to create color
Mandelbrots, you must select COLOR/PLANES/4 before you select
RANGE. RANGE will use the color method to calculate the
Mandelbrot
Set parameters. If you change color planes, you must reselect the
range.
Step 2 - Select RANGE. Please do step 1 first. (It seems strange
to have to write that last sentence, but I know I will get phone
calls about this.) Range is the BOX that you will fill in with
the Mandelbrot landscape. Selecting a small box assures that you
won't have to wait very long. When you are exploring always use a
small box, you won't get much detail, but at least you will get
something in reasonable time.
Step 3 - Enter PMAX. This is the left hand coordinates of the
portion of the Mandelbrot set that you will be viewing.
Step 4 - Enter PMIN. This is the right bound.
Step 5 - Enter QMIN. This is the bottom bound.
Step 6 - Enter QMAX. This is the top bound.
I use the following for a take off point. PMAX= -.74 PMIN= -.75
QMAX= .12 QMIN= .113 This is from the cover of a recent Micro C
magazine. It has some neat curls in it and you have enough room
for some zooms.
You must also enter:
ITERATIONS. This is a number larger than 100. The larger the
number, the slower the program will run, but you will get more
color information in the darker areas of the picture. This will
generally give you crisper information. This must be less than
32000.
MODULUS. This is the Mandelbrot "blow-up" point. It should be
over 1000, but not larger than 16000 due to limits of the integer
arithmetic that I use. The lower the number the faster the set
will run, but higher number give more detail and less noise. The
method that I use to generate the sets produces some noise in the
"lowlands" which are the flat uniform areas out away from the
action. The action itself comes out well.
You may select if you like a color method. This affects the way
OPTIKS treats the colors. Normally, the count of iterations at
blow up is used to determine the color. OPTIKS allows you to
shift this value to the right dividing it by 2. Colors are
interpreted modulo 16 so that colors start counting over again
after 15. Low shift values give small regions of color which
repeat. Large values of shift give broader regions of color which
do not repeat as often. Low values give "busy" highly detailed,
but difficult to view landscapes. (The look very grainy). High
values give better views, but some detail is lost.
Dither uses a process of converting colors to patterns of dots
which comes out very well in OPTIKS. Dither and color planes are
mutually exclusive. You can't dither in color.
I get best results using dither and a shift of 2 or three.
The strategy continues.
Select a small range, and all of the parameters and GO. Wait a
while watching the hour glass. Press Alt-C and the screen will
clear, showing work in progress. When you have seen enough press
Esc to stop the works.
ZOOM. Once you get a picture you can ZOOM (or Pan) the picture.
Since OPTIKS has a work space much bigger than the image you can
zoom in on a section that you did not actually paint. Or you can
specify a zoom area bigger than the original picture and this
will Pan (or step back). Zooming recalculates the Pmax, Pmin,
Qmax and Qmin values. The ZOOM function will remember what your
last range was and use that for the calculations. The area you
ZOOM does not have to be completely in or out of the original
range. You can zoom into areas that you did not completely paint.
Do not change the range before zooming. The correct order is
RANGE, GO, and ZOOM then GO. If you change the range then you
must select GO and then ZOOM in on the new range.
Do not ZOOM in forever. The smallest value that the arithmetic
can express in OPTIKS is about .00000001. If you go too deep you
will hit this limit and get a screen of white space.
Keep your ranges and zooms roughly square so that you don't have
to worry about aspect ratios. If you have funny shaped zooms you
will have squashed pictures.
When you get a picture that you like then make a very large range
and select go. Come back a few hours (or days) later and save the
results.
Appendix A. Common Problems
a) Get a blank screen after typing OK
It is quite possible that OPTIKS is getting confused over what
type of video card you have attached and what kind of screen that
it is attached to. Sometimes, if your motherboard switch settings
are set to monochrome and you have and EGA or VGA card, OPTIKS
will try and set you to Hercules mode. Even though you card may
support a Hercules setting, the board may not want to shift into
Hercules emulation. Since there is no standard way to set
Hercules graphics mode, it is possible that you card my not
respond. Other graphics combinations can through off the OPTIKS
identification routines. If you have an EGA or VGA or a card
which supports CGA graphics and OPTIKS is giving you a blank
screen then try entering:
OK ?
The question mark will tell OPTIKS to go directly to CGA high
resolution mode without trying to check on video card type. Once
you get into CGA mode use the /ESV option to select a video card
which you can support and try it. Once you get the best
resolution you can then use the KEEP menu item to save your
config.ok.
Sometimes it helps to enter MODE CO80 from the DOS prompt and
then OPTIKS has a much easier time identifying your video card.
c) Printer prints in negative.
There is an option under printer options that allows you to set
NEGATE or negative. Some pictures appear on the screen correctly
but print out awful, the best thing to do is to set the NEGATE
off and print the picture again.
d) Right side of image is cut off.
You have not set the virtual screen width. The work space is only
1024 pixels wide when the OPTIKS starts up. If you are dealing
with 400 DPI images it is time to set the Virtual width as wide
as possible (perhaps 4096) to get the whole picture in.
e) Bottom of image is cut off.
The size of an image that can fit into OPTIKS is limited by your
machines memory. If you have EMS memory you can fit BIG pictures
into OPTIKS work space. If you have low memory and no EMS optiks
cannot fit the whole picture in and gives up reading the image
when you run out of room to store it. I would suggest that you
get out OKEMS and try it. OKEMS should be on the OPTIKS
distribution diskette and it is available for download at My BBS
at (914) 623-0038.
f) AutoCad or GEM draw problems.
Unfortunately OPTIKS does not make any attempt to look at what is
being written out before it is written out. A pixel image will
always be a pixel image to OPTIKS. If you try to write out a file
in a draw format, what you get is horizontal lines which
approximate the raster lines of the image. These work OK in GEM
and AutoCad and even Ventura, but they take up much memory, and a
large complex image will blow Acad out of the water, and GEM and
Ventura could refuse to load very large pictures.
I am afraid that if you really need AutoCad or GEM images that
you should get Corel Draw or Micrographics Designer and do the
job right. The OPTIKS images are good for putting raster images
into AutoCad drawings. You can get realistic people and trees
into the picture as long as they are small, but if you need to
convert a large image into a real drawing then use one of the
products designed to that.
DRAW file formats are basically incompatible with bit mapped
images. OPTIKS tries to allow a limited transfer of information
to the draw formats by drawing horizontal lines or dots that
correspond to the pixels in the image. OPTIKS will translate
WHITE dots on the screen to BLACK dots and lines in the draw
format. OPTIKS ignores the black areas of the screen. DRAW
formats are saved in the same way that normal files are saved
(see SAVING files if you have not already done so). Make the
saved range as small as possible. Draw formats tend to be very
large, especially AutoCAD DXF files. If you are using AutoCAD use
DXB or SLD files to save space and speed processing. When you
read the file into another program, the files may have to be
sized again. Ventura will automatically size SLD and GEM Draw,
but AutoCAD will have some minor problems with the DXF and DXB.
You will have to use the ZOOM command in AutoCAD to get the
picture right. DXF and DXB files use whatever color is defined
for lines so make sure that you don't have a black screen and
black lines or you won't see anything.
g) Can't scan.
There are two reasons why OPTIKS would not scan. First you must
have a Canon Scanner with the IX12 handler that comes with you
scanner. You can get the latest version of the handler off of my
BBS. Canon has given me permission to distribute it to OPTIKS
users. The second reason could be that the switch settings on the
scanner are wrong. If you have and EGA or VGA you must change the
switches on you scanner card. Please refer to the section on
scanning and the appendix of scanner switch settings.
You must also set all of the options, including the range and
starting point of the scan in order to get the scanner to work.
Please check these settings and try again.
If you have 386max or QEMMS or DoubleDos going, make sure that
they know about the scanner memory frame.
h) Can't read a GIF file.
OPTIKS can read NON-INTERLACED gifs up to 16 colors. OPTIKS will
not be able to read 256 color GIFS and it will read interlace
GIFS all scrambled. Use VPIC by Bob Montgomery. I have not
released color OPTIKS because VPIC is still a better product.
i) Can't read a TIFF file.
OPTIKS can not read gray scale tiffs. OPTIKS will not read tiffs
with proprietary compression schemes and OPTIKS cannot read the
few group 4 CCITT compression tiffs around.
j) Can't read a Printshop Graphic file.
OPTIKS can read only a few types of PrintShop graphics. It can't
read every graphic on the disk. There is now sure way to be able
to read them all and the new PrintShop is out now with new
formats that I have not looked at yet.
k) Can't read a PC Paint or Grasp file.
GRASP and PC PAINT use a funny way of reading files - from the
bottom up. I know how to read the files, but I am too lazy to
change thousands of lines of code to read a very few files. There
are Utilities on BBS's which will convert the PIC files to PCX
and back.
Appendix B. Menu Tree
FILE
READ
SAVE
MERGE
LIST
INFO
CHECK
ENVIRON
CONFIG
VIRT
1024
2048
4096
8192
EMS
ALL
128
256
512
MEG
B-1.5M
C-2M
C-3M
D-4M
UNALLOC
DISPLAY
SCREEN
VIDEO
COLOR
1 PLANE
4 PLANES
PRINTER - See printer config options
KEEP
DISPLAY
BLIP
ON
QUIET
RANGE
BOX
LINE
SCREEN - see above
MACROS
1 TO 9
ERASE
YES
NO
PRINT
PRINTER
FILE
CAPCARD
RANGE
PAGE
LINEF
GO
CONFIG
MODEL
DOT
IBM
EPSON
8510
TOSHIBA
PROPRT
24PROPRT
GEMINI
LASER
HP LASERJET
RICOH
CANON
PORT
LPT
1 TO 3
COM
BAUD
PARITY
INIT
1 TO 3
DENSITY
1 TO 6
ORIENT
PORTR
LAND
NEGATE
NEGATE
POSIT
STRIKES
ONE
TWO
SPACE
IMAGE
DRAW
LINE
ELLIPSE
BOX
FILL
POINT
TEXT - See type options
SHADE
WIDTH
1 TO 8
APPLY
PUNCH
XOR
OR
NEG PU
A-NEGX
B-NEG0
MANDEL
RANGE
PMAX
PMIN
QMAX
QMIN
ITER
MODULUS
COLORS
0 TO 4
DITHER
OFF
ON
PLANES
1
4
GO
ZOOM
TYPE
TYPE
FONT
0 TO 4
SCALE
HALF
1, 2 OR 4
COLOR
W ON B
B ON W
1 - OR
2 - OR
3 - AND
4 - AND
5 - XOR
6 - XOR
SCAN
IX12
PRINCETON
RANGE
LOCATE
DEFAULT
HREDUC
NON
HALF
QUARTER
RESOL
75DPI
150DPI
200DPI
300DPI
MODE
NORMAL
2-OR
DITHER
DENSITY
STANDARD
DARK
LIGHT
NEGATE
POSIT
NEG
SCAN
QUIT
Appendix C. Converting a MAC file to a PCX file.
The following is a step by step procedure to convert an Apple
MacPaint file into a Zsoft PC Paintbrush PCX file. This is a
useful example because it does the kind of things that most
people will want to do with OPTIKS.
Before starting up OPTIKS make sure that the OPTIKS program is
available and that you have the disk with MAC files on it. You
may want to copy the MAC files onto your hard disk into an OPTIKS
subdirectory along with the OPTIKS program. Start up the OPTIKS
program. Enter OK and press return.
The main menu will greet you. If the screen is blank then refer
to the Problems section in appendix A.
Since you are converting a MAC file to a PCX file, choose the
FILE option. Do this by moving the highlighted bar to the FILE
entry on the menu and press Enter. You may press the F key
instead.
You must first READ the MAC file into the work-space so move the
highlighted area to READ and press Enter. You may also press the
R key.
The file format selection screen comes up. You can jump right to
the MAC entry by pressing an M. You may also use the cursor
control keys to move over and down to the mac entry. Press Enter
when MAC is highlighted.
OPTIKS looks on the disk and finds all files ending in .MAC and
displays them. If the MAC file has another extension (PIC is
common) you may not see the file. Also if the file is on another
disk you will have to change to that disk. If you see the NO
MATCHING FILES message then you can use the backspace key to move
over and enter a new file specification so that you can find the
matching files. For instance you may wish to enter
C:\OPTIKS\*.PIC
instead of C:\OPTIKS\*.MAC. You can change the disk and
subdirectory here also.
If there are some matching files, but they have the wrong
extension or you are on the wrong disk or in the wrong
subdirectory you can press the F10 key to get up to the file
specification line. Type in the correct disk, directory and files
specification and press enter. Once you get the correct file on
the screen, move the highlighted bar to the file that you want to
read and press enter. The hourglass appears on the screen and a
second or so later the file that you selected will appear on the
screen. If you see scrambled garbage, the odds are that the file
is not an Apple Macpaint file.
D. Using Color
With release 2.08 I have added the ability to show 16 color
graphics in EGA and VGA modes. The file types supported are ZSOFT
PCC and PCX, Compuserve GIF and DR's GEM Paint IMG files. I have
not tested GEM IMG files yet. The default for all systems is
single plane 2 colors. To change the default you must go to the
ENVIRONMENT menu down to SCREEN and select PLANES. The planes can
be either 1 or 4.
To use color you must select 4 before you read the file or the
palette will not be set. If you try to read a normal black and
white file the planes will be reset to 1. Planes will not work
unless you are in a valid EGA or VGA mode. Color and Black and
White graphics can not be mixed. Color images can be saved and
manipulated a little, but many functions will not work with
color. No drawing and few of the image manipulators work
correctly. Typing will be very strange.
Some Color images will set the palette so that the menu is nearly
invisible. The finger moves destructively on the screen and this
is a real bug which is being addressed Old EGA cards with less
than 256k on them will show odd patterns on the screen. Owners of
such cards should order an upgrade to get full use of all of the
new graphics coming out.
E. Using HP Laserjet fonts.
2.08 also saw the ability to read laserjet fonts. There is not
enough memory to run OPTIKS and keep a font resident so LJ fonts
are treated as files. /FR will read files and fonts, but ERASES
the work space first. Use /FM (merge) to type on an existing
graphic. Fonts are XOR'd to the image so that they overlay the
data in a non-destructive manner. The image will show through the
letters. This may not be acceptable for some typing. Clear a
space for the letters using /IFD or /IFE. Since the fonts are
loaded as files, if a letter is not in the file buffer, the file
will be re-read from the beginning to find the file. This is very
slow in large fonts. Fonts up to about 16 point will fit entirely
in the file buffer and they will go much faster. Since most fonts
are variable spaced, the backspace key will backspace the width
of the last letter typed. To erase a letter you re-type it.
Accurate typing will save you hours of repositioning.
F. Supported File Formats.
File types are: R=Raster, V=Vector, L=Language, B=LiBrary
File Optiks File Description/
Extension Support Type Software Source
========= ======= ==== ==================
.001 Yes R Complete FAX page file
.ART Yes R PFS First Publisher Clip Art
.ART No ? Ashton-Tate Byline Clipart
.BAS Yes R Basic Bload/Bsave
.BSG Yes R FONTASY (same as .RAW)
.CA Read RB NewsRoom Pro
.CGM No V Computer Graphics Metafile
.CUT Yes R Dr. Halo, Cut files
.DAT Read RB PrintShop
.DCX Read RB Panasonic Fax PCX libraries.
.DD No R CBM Doodle
.DHP No ? Dr. Halo
.DRW No V Freelance
.DRW No V MicroGrafx
.DRW No V NBI Legend
.DXF No V AutoCad
.EPS Some VRL Encapsulated Post Script
.EV No ? NCN Execuvision
.FG No ? Slidewrite Plus
.GAL No ? Gallery on Exhibit, Graphics Gallery
.GEM No V GEM Draw
.GMF No V Computer Graphics Metafile - Various
.GIF Some R Cserve Graphics Interchange format
.GX1 No R PC PaintBrush
.HPC(L) Some RV Hewlett Packard's LaserJet Graphics
.HPG(L) No V Hewlett Packard Graphics Language
.IFF Yes R Amiga Interchange Format File
.IMG Yes R DataCopy Wips
.IMG Yes R GEM Paint
.IMG Yes R IBM Image support Facility
.IMG No ? Boeing Graph
File Optiks File Description/
Extension Support Type Software Source
========= ======= ==== ==================
.MAC Yes R Apple Macintosh Macpaint
.MAK Yes R Apple Macintosh Macpaint, No Header
.MSP Yes R Microsoft Windows Paint
.P No ? Ashton Tate Draw Applause
.PCR Yes R OPTIKS/PCRGB
.PCX .PCC Yes R Zsoft PC Paintbrush
.PDA Yes R Palantir Scanner Graphics Files
.PGA No R IBM PG Adaptor image file
.PI1 .PI2 Yes R Atari Degas uncompressed images
.PIC Some V Lotus
.PIC v1.5 R Mouse systems PC Paint
.PIG Yes R Ricoh Pixel Image Generator file
.PRN Some VLR Post Script, Any print image file
.RAS Yes R Show file Ras format
.RAW Yes R Basic Array format
.RLE Yes R Cserve, Teletext Run Length Encoded
.SLD Some V AutoCad Slide
.SFL Yes R Soft Font Single Letter
.SFP Yes R HP Soft Font
.SHP Read RB Printmaster, Newsmaster
.TIF Yes R Aldus/Microsoft Tag Image Format
.WPG No RV Word Perfect Graphics 5.0
OPTIKS can either read or write the files Listed as YES, Optiks
makes a good attempt at reading the files marked as SOME. Some
files marked YES can only be written or read. Library type files
and Vector graphics files are not supported by OPTIKS and will
probably never be supported. The exceptions are Lotus PIC,
AutoCad SLD and a very few EPS files. Combination of Raster and
Vector May be supported but for write only and then only Raster.
G. CANON SCANNER - Technical information
This information is extracted from the CANON IMAGE SCANNER IX-12
IXHND2 SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONS from CANON. This guide is for
using the software with the OPTIKS program for scanning by
OPTIKS. Other programs will include additional information where
needed. The IXHND2.COM program should be executed before
attempting to use the IX-12 Scanner. The command can be included
in the autoexec.bat if the scanner is to be used regularly.
The command is of the form:
IXHND2 /xy zz
Where xy is used to tell the program how the interface board
switches are set and zz is used to change the interrupt.
DO NOT USE THE ZZ PARAMETER WITH OPTIKS.
VALUES OF X.
X Value I/O Address JP1 JP2 SW5 SW6
0 308 to 30F Left Right OFF OFF
1 318 to 31F Right Right OFF ON
2 1A8 to 1AF Right Left ON OFF
The default setting for x is 0.
The y value tells the program where the buffer is located in
memory. Unfortunately the default is C000-C0FF which is the
location of the EGA Bios. You will probably have to change this
value and set the jumpers on the board if you have an EGA or VGA.
Some VGA boards go right up to C7FF. XT hard disk controllers use
C800 and some of them go up to CC00. I have not listed E000
settings because that is usually where the EMS buffers are
located.
VALUES OF Y
X Value MEM Address JP3 JP4 SW1 SW2 SW3 SW4
0 C000 RIGHT RIGHT ON ON ON ON
1 C400 RIGHT LEFT OFF ON ON ON
8 C800 N/A ON OFF ON ON
9 CC00 N/A OFF OFF ON ON
2 D000 LEFT RIGHT ON ON OFF ON
3 D400 LEFT LEFT OFF ON OFF ON
A D800 N/A ON OFF OFF ON
B DC00 N/A OFF OFF OFF ON
A typical command line to install the handler if you have a VGA
and an XT controller is:
IXHND2 /03
with the jumpers set to:
Left Right Left left
and the switches set to:
OFF ON OFF ON OFF OFF
From reading the documentation this setting will work in most
systems.
The default is /00 (will not work with EGA or VGA).
Default jumpers are:
Left Right Right Right
Default Switches are:
ON ON ON ON OFF OFF
PS
For those of you who read documentation:
To get out of the annoying shareware message at the end press
Ctrl-K.
KPG