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1991-12-31
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PICTURETHIS(TM) "SHAREWARE" VERSION
RELEASE 4.00
DECEMBER 31, 1991
TUTORIAL, PART 2 OF 2 PARTS
Copyright 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 by Patricia Y. Williams and
Gregory Williams, All Rights Reserved.
HortIdeas Publishing, 460 Black Lick Road, Gravel Switch,
KY 40328 U.S.A.
EXERCISE 11. OBJECTS AND CLIP ART
1. You have finished drawing one leaf with filled areas, but
the ultimate goal is to draw a compound leaf with three
leaflets. To do this, you will group the trails of your leaf
into an "object" which can be scaled, saved as clip art,
copied, and otherwise manipulated. An object is a group of
trails, smaller objects, and text blocks (see Exercise 15)
which can be manipulated as an whole. To define your leaf as
an object, first press F7 to access the object menu. Then
press G (for "Group"). One of the trails on the screen is
dashed. Press Enter to select the trail. It is dashed-and-
dotted; the other trail is dashed. Press Enter again to
select the second trail also. Since there are only two trails
on the screen and you have selected them both, PictureThis
automatically stops the selection process and groups the two
trails into an object. If there were trails or objects on the
screen which shouldn't be included in the new object, you
could select the trails/objects which you DID want to
include (in the usual manner, with +, Space, -, and/or
Enter), and then press D (for "Done").
2. Your new object (the leaf) now can be scaled down to
leaflet size, but first you should save it as clip art. To do
this, press F10 to access the file menu, then press E (for
"Export"). Since there is only one object on the screen, it
is automatically selected for exporting, and you are asked
for a file specification. Key in "LEAF.CLP" and press Enter.
The object is saved as a clip art file.
3. Since you have saved the object, it's safe to erase it. Do
this by pressing F7, E, and Y. (The object automatically was
chosen since it was the only one.) You should have a blank
screen, so draw a large box somewhere in the middle of the
screen and fill it, just to have something on the screen.
4. Press F10 to access the file menu, then press I (for
"Import"). Press Enter to see the directory, and choose
"LEAF.CLP" to be imported. The curves of the leaf (without
endpoints) are drawn on the screen in the positions they were
when you saved them, and a prompt ("OK? (Y/N)") appears.
Press Y, and the leaf is redrawn with endpoints.
5. Look at the Quickshow screen. The leaf should be in front
of the box, probably obscuring some or all of the box
(depending on where and how large you drew the box). When you
import clip art, it is placed at the FRONT of the drawing.
Let's change the layering so that the box is in front of the
leaf. To do this, press Esc to get back to the drawing
screen, then press F7 and L (for "Layer"). An object on the
screen becomes dashed. Choose the box in the normal way and a
layering menu appears. Press F to move the box to the front
of the drawing. Check with the Quickshow screen. Now repeat
this process, but move the box to the rear by pressing R.
Note that trails (for example, the box) which are not part of
objects can be treated like objects for most object
manipulations, including erasing, layering, moving, copying,
scaling, rotating, flipping, and inclining. (More about these
manipulations later.)
If there are several objects on the screen, you can move
the chosen object "Ahead of" or "Behind" selected objects,
thus putting it somewhere in the "middle" of the layering. To
try this, first press F7, then U (for "Ungroup"). The leaf is
selected automatically (it is the only object -- the box is a
trail and cannot be ungrouped), and a prompt appears, asking
if you want to ungroup the leaf. Press Y; the leaf now is two
separate trails. Now the box should be at the rear, with the
actual leaf in front of it and the stem in front of the leaf
(check on the Quickshow screen). Try to put the stem in back
of the leaf but in front of the box using the "Ahead" or
"Behind" options. (There are a least two ways: F7, L, select
the stem, B, select the leaf, D; and F7, L, select the leaf,
A, select the stem, D.) To continue with the drawing, relayer
so the stem is in front, and group the leaf and stem; erase
the box.
EXERCISE 12. MANIPULATING OBJECTS
1. You need to scale down the leaf down so three leaflets
fit on the screen. Press F7, then press S. The leaf is chosen
(and dashed) automatically, since it is the only object on
the screen. A prompt appears asking if you want to replace
the original object. Press Y, since you want only a small
leaflet. (If you pressed N (or any character except Y or y),
when you completed the operation, both the original large
leaf AND the smaller scaled leaflet would remain.) A prompt
appears (assuming "H+" is toggled; if it is not, toggle it
on, press Esc twice to get to the "FREE" state, then start
this Exercise again). The prompt says "Move then F1 to set
anchor point." The anchor point is the point around which the
object will be scaled; it will not move when the scaling is
complete. In this case, the upper-left tip of the leaf is an
appropriate anchor point, so press Del, followed by +, Space,
and/or - repeatedly until the cursor is at the tip of the
leaf, then press F1. You are asked if you want to scale by
cursor movement or direct entry. Press D. (To learn how to
scale by cursor movement, see the user manual.) Next you are
asked if you want uniform scaling (horizontal and vertical
scaling by the same amount); press Y. At the prompt, key in
the factor by which the leaf will be scaled: ".5" (to make
the leaflet half as big as the original leaf); press Enter. A
prompt about scaling line weights appears; press any key
other than Y or y to answer negatively. (See the user manual
for more details.) A leaflet is drawn on the screen (without
endpoints), and you are asked: "OK? (Y/N)." Answer "Y"; the
old (large) leaf is erased, and the new leaflet is drawn with
endpoints. You might notice some "garbage" on the screen;
this doesn't affect the PostScript output, but if it bothers
you, press D to redraw the screen without the unwanted dots.
2. Two more leaflets are needed. To make copies of the
leaflet now on the screen, begin by pressing F7, then C. The
leaflet is selected and dashed automatically, since it is the
only object on the screen. A prompt appears: "Move then F1 to
set start point." The cursor should be at the endpoint where
the lower section of the leaf joins the stem, which makes an
appropriate start point, so just press F1. Another prompt
appears: "Move then F3 to set finish point." Move the cursor
to the right with the cursor key 6 until it is at about
5.295, 2.792. A dotted line follows from the start point.
Press F3. A copy of the leaflet appears (without endpoints)
at the new location. (Notice that the start point of the
original leaflet is copied to the finish point, with the
rest of the leaflet copied around it; this allows for
precise placement of any part of an object.) A prompt asks
if the copy is "OK?"; press Y. Another prompt asks if you
want to copy again; press Y again. Now make a second copy of
the leaflet. The start point remains the same; a dotted line
connects it to the cursor. Move the cursor to a new finish
point (approximately 4.695, 3.992); press F3 and another
leaflet appears. Answer Y to the "OK?" prompt, but N to the
"Again?" prompt.
3. You now have three leaflets, but they are not oriented
correctly for joining together to make a leaf. To orient
them correctly, start by "flipping" the upper-right leaflet.
To do this, press F7, then F. Now you must ACTIVELY choose
the upper-right leaflet, since there are three objects on the
screen; do so in the normal manner. Answer Y to the prompt
about replacing the original object. Another prompt appears:
"Move then F1 to set first flipline point." Press F1 at the
current cursor position (the cursor should be where the lower
part of the leaf joins the stem). Another prompt appears:
"Move then F3 to set second flipline point." Move the cursor
to the tip of the leaflet (a dotted line follows) and press
F3. A mirror image of the leaflet, flipped over the dotted
line, appears (without endpoints), and you see the "OK?"
prompt (which you should answer by pressing Y).
4. Next, the upper-right and lower leaflets must be rotated
so they can be attached to the stem of the original leaflet.
Press F7, then press R. Select the upper-right leaflet and
answer Y to the "Replace original object?" prompt. A prompt
appears: "Move then F1 to set anchor point." The anchor point
for rotation is the point about which the object will be
rotated; it does not move during the rotation. In this case,
the anchor point should be at the lowest endpoint of the
stem. Move the cursor there and press F1. Choose whether to
enter a rotation angle by cursor movement or direct entry; in
this case, press C to choose cursor movement. (See the user
manual for details on how to rotate by direct entry.) A new
prompt appears: "Move then F2 to set 0 degree direction."
Move the cursor near the tip of the upper-right leaflet,
press Del to get exactly to the endpoint, and press F2. A
solid line will have followed from the anchor point; the
angle of rotation is measured at the anchor point from this
line. A final prompt appears: "Move then F3 to set rotation
angle." Move the cursor to the right. A dotted line is drawn
from the anchor point to the cursor. Press P to turn on the
relative position box (see Exercise 4.4). When you are
rotating an object, the relative position box shows the
rotation angle (the angle between the solid and dotted line).
Move the cursor until the angle is about 83 degrees, then
press F3. A rotated leaflet (without endpoints) and the "OK?"
prompt appear; answer the prompt with Y, and the rotation
operation is complete. Similarly, rotate the lower leaf by
about -50 degrees about the lowest stem endpoint. (Note that
in PictureThis, angles are positive in the clockwise
direction.)
EXERCISE 13. CONNECTING CURVES SMOOTHLY
1. Now you need to extend the original (middle) leaflet's
stem. Since the stem is small, it is easier to work on the
300% screen; first move the cursor to about 4.953, 3.835,
then press + to zoom to the 300% screen, centered on the
cursor. Turn the relative position box off and the current
position box on by pressing P twice, so you can see the most
important areas of the screen.
2. The stem extension should look like a continuation of the
stem, so the curves making up the extension should have line
weight -1 (that is, they should be construction curves), the
same as the curves making up the stem. We could draw them as
regular curves and then change their weight to -1 later, but
it's easier to change the current "default" line weight and
draw them as construction curves in the first place. To do
this, begin by pressing L. A line parameter menu just like
the one for trails appears. The only difference is that the
state in the status box reads "NEWLNS" rather than "TRLNS" as
it for trails. The current values of the line parameters are
on the second line of the menu. These values are assigned to
all newly drawn curves. The line parameters of previously
drawn curves are NOT changed if the values are changed. You
can change any of these line parameters, just as you can
change the line parameters of an individual curve or trail.
Change the current line weight to -1. All curves drawn from
now until you change the current line weight again are
construction curves.
3. The new stem extension should connect smoothly with the
stem already there. This is easy to do using the built-in
smoothing capability of PictureThis. To begin drawing the
stem extension, first move the cursor to the upper stem end
and press F1 to start a new curve. Now press S to indicate
that you want to connect the new curve smoothly (tangent at
the shared endpoint) with an existing curve. One of the
curves emanating from the endpoint is dashed; cause the side
(long) curve of the stem to be dashed by pressing +, Space,
and/or - as necessary, then press Enter. A guideline through
the endpoint and TANGENT to the side of the stem appears.
Move the cursor to the other end of the curve (at about
5.425, 4.445); press F1. Press F2 to jump the cursor back to
the first control point, then move the cursor. It is
constrained to move ALONG the guideline. Since the cursor
moves ONLY along the guideline (which is tangent to the
existing curve), the two curves join smoothly at the
endpoint, and in the PostScript output they appear to be one
continuous curve. Set the first control point at about
4.113, 3.210. Set the second control point at approximately
5.285, 4.305 (in the normal manner -- the second control
point is NOT constrained by a guideline). Press F3 to
establish the curve; the guideline disappears.
4. When you are drawing a continuous curve by connecting
several sequentially drawn curves smoothly, it is desirable
to smooth at EVERY successive endpoint. You can do this by
pressing A (for "Automatic smoothing"). Notice that the "A"
at the left side of the status box now is followed by a "+"
instead of a " ." This means that automatic smoothing is
toggled on. Your cursor still should be at the second
endpoint of the curve which you just drew. Press F1 to start
the next curve. A tangent guideline automatically appears
tangent to the last curve drawn. Now move the cursor to about
5.395, 4.565; press F1.
If you find the screen too crowded with guidelines, you can
make them invisible by pressing E (for "Erase"). All types of
guidelines (for smoothing, ovals, and squares) become
invisible, but the cursor still moves along the invisible
guidelines. You can toggle the guidelines back on by pressing
E again. The "E" in the status box is followed by a "+" if
the guidelines are invisible, by a "-" if they are visible.
Finish the curve by placing the first control point
(smoothed) at about 5.467, 4.489, the second control point
(not smoothed) at about 5.435, 4.605, and pressing F3.
Now press F1 again; since automatic smoothing is on, a
tangent guideline appears (only momentarily if guidelines are
toggled off). Move the cursor to the original stem's lower
endpoint and press F1, followed by S, and choose the stem's
side (lower) curve to smooth by. You now are smoothing on
both ends of the curve. The control points should be set to
about 5.271, 4.439 and 4.029, 3.273 (or whatever gives a
good looking stem -- but be sure to move each control point
at least a little way from its associated endpoint, or the
curves won't join smoothly).
5. Fill the trail which you just made (the stem extension)
with the same gray percentage you used for the original stem
(75% was suggested). Look at your drawing on the Quickshow
screen at 300%, then zoom down to the 100% screen. The stem
should appear smooth (within the limitations of the screen
representation).
EXERCISE 14. MOVING OBJECTS
1. You now need to move the two side leaflets so their stems
intersect the main stem realistically. You could cut the
curves which form the main stem and then (after moving the
side leaflets to approximately the correct positions) extend
their stem ends to meet those cut points, but that isn't
necessary in this case. It's easier to move the stem ends of
the leaflets so they completely overlap the main stem. Since
they are all filled with the same gray and are not outlined,
they will look fine on the PostScript output this way. Move
the cursor to about 4.655, 3.495 and zoom up to the 300%
screen. All of the stem ends should be visible.
2. To move the bottom leaflet, press F7, then M, select the
leaflet, and move the cursor to the lower endpoint of its
stem end and press F1 for the start point. Now move the
cursor to about 4.135, 3.310. Press F3 for the finish point.
Watch closely as the new stem end is drawn; does it
completely overlap the main stem and not stick out the other
side? If it looks good, answer Y to the "OK?" prompt. (If it
doesn't, answer N and move the finish point a little.) Move
the other leaflet similarly, by setting the right endpoint
of its stem end to the start point and moving the cursor to
about 4.167, 3.268 for the finish point. Check your work on
the Quickshow screen at both 300% and 100%. Your drawing of
a poison ivy leaf is complete. (Of course, it isn't quite
botanically correct, because we kept the drawing simple for
purposes of this tutorial.)
3. Before you add text to the drawing, you should group the
three leaflets and the main stem into an object and save it
as clip art (see Exercise 11). You also should save your work
as a drawing periodically (see Exercise 7.3), and now is a
good time to do it. If you are adventurous, you might want to
scale down the leaf (with three leaflets) and combine several
of them with some stems to make a whole poison ivy vine! The
scaled-down leaves might not look very precise on the drawing
screen or Quickshow screen, but they should look fine on the
PostScript output. (In general, if you want something small,
first draw it big, and then scale it down; very little
accuracy is lost. Or you can draw a small object on the 600%,
1200%, or 2400% screens.)
EXERCISE 15. ADDING TEXT
1. Now you are going to add some text to your poison ivy
drawing. First, you'll label some of the parts. Move the
cursor to about 3.195, .742; press F8. The text menu
appears. To enter text, you need to specify point size (size
of the text characters; 72 (PostScript) points = 1"), a font
number (typeface), line spacing (distance between successive
lines of text), justification (positioning of text on the
page), and gray value (0% -- white -- to 100% -- black). All
of these text parameters have default values (note that the
default value for font number is 0, an invalid number, and
it MUST be changed to a valid number before text can be
entered), as shown on the second line of the menu. Press P
to see the parameters menu. Press F to choose a new font. A
prompt appears asking for a font number. Fonts are numbered
from 1 to 9999. Press ? to see a help screen giving
previously assigned numbers for the 35 PostScript fonts
found in most PostScript-compatible laser printers. Right
now, you'll be using Times-Roman, font number 91 on the
chart. Press any key to return to the font number prompt,
then key in "91" and press Enter. PictureThis searches for
the specified font's information files in the current
directory. If the font information files aren't found, you
are asked to key in a new directory. You CANNOT use a font
unless its information files have been read. Back at the
text parameters menu, press P to change the point size. At
the prompt, key in "20"; press Enter. When you change the
point size, the line spacing automatically is set to 120% of
the point size (in this case 24 points), but it can be reset
independently. The rest of the parameter defaults are fine
for now (position justification and 100% (black) text), so
press K (or Enter) to keep these parameters.
Back at the text menu, press E to edit. The drawing screen
is replaced by a full-screen editing screen. This is a
"counting editor" with many features tailored to technical
typesetting, but in most cases you can use it like a
conventional text editor. The bottom line gives brief
descriptions of the active function keys. The top line gives
information about how your text will appear on the drawing
screen, but it can be ignored for now. (You can press F1 to
see an editing help screen.) For now, key in the single word
"leaflet" on the first line of the editing screen; you can
use the cursor, BackSpace, and/or Del keys to help correct
mistakes. Next, press F5; this "sets" the text in the editor
onto the drawing screen. The drawing screen reappears as you
last saw it, and the word "leaflet" appears, beginning at the
cursor position. (This assumes that the screen font file,
STANDARD.SFT, is in the current directory. If it isn't,
you're asked for a new directory.) Notice that the cursor is
at the BASELINE of the word (where the characters "rest").
You have just set your first PictureThis "text block" (that
is, the text on the screen which results from pressing F5
when in the editor).
Now move the cursor to about 3.695, 4.322 and press F8
TWICE; (this is a short cut into the editor when the current
text parameters are as desired). Type the word "rachis"
(that's the technical term for the stem to which the
leaflets of a compound leaf are attached), and press F5.
This second label appears at the current cursor position.
Next you need to draw pointers from the labels to the parts
they label. Change the line weight for subsequently drawn
curves to .5 points (see Exercise 13.2). To move the cursor
to the BEGINNING of each text block in turn, press Tab, then
proceed as for endpoint selection: press + (or Space) and/or
- to cycle repeatedly to cycle around the text blocks. If you
press Shift Tab and then + (or Space) and/or - repeatedly,
the cursor goes to the END of each text block in turn. Try
both. Now draw a line from the the beginning of the word
"leaflet" to the left leaflet. Endpoints of about 3.524,
.832 and 4.224, 1.662 are appropriate. Next, draw a line
from the word "rachis" to the stem. Try endpoints at about
3.994, 4.092 and 4.244, 3.362.
Text blocks can be treated as objects or grouped as parts
of objects, for manipulation in any of the ways in which non-
text objects can be manipulated (moving, copying, scaling,
rotating, saving as clip art, etc.). They even can be edited
AFTER they have been manipulated. See the user manual for
more details.
2. Now, make a title for your drawing. You will "center" the
title text in a "margin." Margins are boxes in which text
blocks set from the editor are placed. The current margin is
the default one, which is at the same position as the default
frame. This default margin is fine for now. Move the cursor
to the left of the margin by pressing Ctrl L. (The cursor
also can be moved to the right, top, and bottom of the
current margin by pressing Ctrl R, Ctrl T, and Ctrl B,
respectively. Try it.) Move the cursor to about 0, 5.402.
Press F8, then P. Change the font to "93" (Times-Bold) and
the point size to "50"; then press J followed by C to change
the justification to centered. Press K (or Enter) to keep the
new text parameters and return to the text menu. Press E (or
F8 or Enter, whichever it most convenient) to get into the
editor. Key in "Poison Ivy"; press F5. The words "Poison Ivy"
appear at the VERTICAL position of the cursor, centered
between the left and right sides of the margin. Notice that
the characters are drawn twice (the second time slightly
displaced up and right from the first), to indicate that they
are "bold" (note: "italic" characters are shown slanted).
PictureThis uses the same screen font to show characters of
all standard PostScript fonts, so each on-screen character's
FORM isn't much like it will appear in the PostScript output,
but each character is shown with quite accurate PLACEMENT,
WIDTH, and HEIGHT.) View your drawing on the Quickshow
screen, then save it.
3. To finish the illustration, a technical description of
poison ivy will be added. First draw a box to contain the
description. Place its corners at (exactly, please!) 5.750,
3.990 and 7.980, 5.970. (Use the I key to switch to a cursor
speed of 1 iu per key press when necessary.) You now need to
make a new margin within the box, to contain the text. First
press F8. Now press M (for "Margin"). Draw the new margin as
you would draw a box: go to one corner (5.900, 4.140) and
press F1; move the cursor to the other corner by pressing
Ctrl PgDn (to go to the lower right corner of the frame,
which also is the lower right corner of the box just drawn)
and then moving back a little to 7.830, 5.820. Press F3 to
set the second corner of the new margin box. Notice that the
margin is a little smaller than the box; that's so the text
won't go all the way to the edges of the box. The new margin
looks like a box of a different color, with no endpoints at
its corners. Press F8 again, then +, Space, and/or -; this
allows you to cycle through the margins previously defined
(two in this case: the default and the one you just made);
stop with the new margin showing (to make it the current
margin), and press Esc to return to the "FREE" state.
Since the box is such a small part of the screen, it will
be easier to work at the 300% level. Move the cursor near the
center of the box (about 6.880, 5.020); press +. Before
entering the text, the cursor must be at the proper
position; move it to 5.900, 4.270. Press F8 to see the text
menu. The text parameters need to be changed again; change
the font to font 91 (Times-Roman), the point size to 10, and
the justification to full. (Full justification means that
the text lines up vertically both on the left side of the
margin and on the right side of the margin; this is
accomplished by adding extra space as needed between words.)
Try a short cut into the editor by pressing Enter twice.
(Enter can serve as a substitute for K (for "Keep"), as well
as a substitute for E (for "Edit" in the text menu.) Font 91
will be the main font for the description, but the first two
words actually need to appear in Times-Bold, font 93. You
could do this by changing the font in the text parameter
menu and making two text blocks (one would consist of the
first two words in bold, the other the rest of the text in
roman), but it is easier to change the font for a few words
in a text block by using typesetting codes in the block. To
start a typesetting code, press Ctrl A. A left pointing
triangle, signifying "typesetting code begins," appears
where the edit cursor was. Now key in "ft93"; this code
means change to font number 93. End the typesetting code by
pressing Ctrl Z (a right pointing triangle ends the code).
Key in "Rhus toxicodendron." (This is the scientific name
for poison ivy). To switch back to the Times-Roman font,
press Ctrl A; key in "ftp"; press Ctrl Z; code means switch
back to the previous font (in this case, font 91). The top
status line says (among other things!) "FT91"; move the
cursor back into the middle of "Rhus toxicodendron" and the
status line says "FT93"; it also gives the current (that is,
at the current cursor position) point size ("PT10"),
justification ("JF"), text gray percentage ("GR100"), and
line spacing in points ("LS12"). The remaining numbers tell
how much space within the current margin box (both
vertically and horizontally) have been used and remain to be
used, with the cursor at its current position. All of this
status line information can be quite useful when you are
entering complicated text, but it can be ignored most of the
time (including right now). Move the cursor to the end of
the current line by pressing the End key on the numeric key
pad, and key in a single space, followed by the following
paragraph (DON'T press Enter until you're done!):
Suberect and bushy, scrambling over fences, walls,
etc., or in woods climbing by rootlets to
considerable heights. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate;
berries whitish or cream-colored, 5-6 mm. in
diameter. Abundant in hedgerows, thickets, and
woods. To many persons, poisonous to the touch.
End the text with an Enter. This prevents the last line from
being fully justified. You will have noticed that the text
automatically wrapped long before it reached the end of the
editor line. It wraps when the margin line is full. The
wraps occur at a space, a user-inserted hyphen, or in two
cases at a hyphen inserted by PictureThis (consider-able and
poi-sonous). Notice that a hyphen inserted by PictureThis
has a short line down on the left. Automatic hyphenation
can be turned off, but is usually desirable; see the user's
manual for more details. Look over your text and correct any
errors. (Check the editor help screen by pressing F1 to see
the functions of various keys, if you want.) When you are
satisfied, press F5 to set the text. The paragraph you typed
in appears on the drawing screen.
Check carefully for errors in the text, if you find one
you need to edit the paragraph. (Even if you don't find one
you should pretend to and do the following.) To do this, you
need to "cut" the text block back to the editor for re-
editing. First press Tab to make sure the cursor is at the
beginning of the text block; then press F8, followed by C
(for "Cut"). The menu box disappears, the text block is
dashed, and an information block about the dashed text block
appears at the bottom of the screen. Press Enter to select
the text block. (You could choose other text blocks, EVEN
THOSE OFF THE SCREEN, by cycling through them, using the +,
Space, and/or - keys.) The text block is erased, and the
text menu reappears. The text block isn't lost, it's in the
editor. Go into the editor (by pressing E, Enter, or F8) to
edit the text block. Correct your error (or change
something). Now press F3 to "compose" the text. Composing
recalculates where the text wrapping must occur for each of
the lines in the editor. You should compose whenever you
have made changes to the text, so you can see the correct
wrapping. Now press F5 to set the text block.
Cutting can be very useful. You can cut the text back to
the editor to correct errors, to change any of the text
parameters (point size, font, justification, etc.), to change
the position of the text (i.e., screen cursor position), or
to change the margin. Try it. You particularly might want to
see what changing the justification to right, centered, and
left (without changing anything else) does to the text. If
you cut text blocks several times you may run out of memory
for drawing the text or even saving the text block. All is
not lost; much previously used memory can be freed simply by
pressing D to redraw the screen, pressing J to "greek" the
text, or saving your drawing and getting it again (nothing
is lost). For more details, see the user's manual.
Go to the 100% screen by pressing -; center the screen by
pressing Shift 5; then IMMEDIATELY press Q to see the
Quickshow screen. Notice that you DON'T have to wait until
the screen is completely drawn to scroll, zoom, Quickshow, or
view. The drawing stops where it is and begins anew on the
just specified screen. If you find that the drawing takes too
long to redraw because of the text, press J (for "Jabber");
the screen redraws with the text "greeked," that is, with
just baselines and ascender (along the tops of letters) lines
are shown, instead of the individual characters. The
Quickshow screen also shows greeked text. If you press J
again, the text is greeked on the drawing screen, but
individual characters show on the Quickshow screen. Pressing
J a third time returns to showing individual characters on
both the drawing and Quickshow screens.
4. Your drawing is complete, so save it (see Exercise 7.3).
(A drawing previously completed using this tutorial is named
PIVY.DRW on one of the distribution disks.) Also save your
work as an Encapsulated PostScript file. See the user manual
for the many ways you can modify your drawing's final output
(including scaling from tiny to huge, changing the page
orientation, and/or moving the drawing's position on the
page(s)).
5. Deliver your resulting EPS file(s) to a laser printer or
imagesetter. How you do this depends on the particulars of
your situation. Consult laser printer user manuals or
typesetting service bureau personnel, as appropriate.
Encapsulated PostScript files produced by PictureThis also
can be imported into many page layout programs.
EXERCISE 16. TYPESETTING A TEXT PAGE
1. For the previous drawing, you added text to a drawing. In
this exercise you will typeset a page that is entirely text,
from a previously prepared ASCII file. For this text page we
are going to use a standard ASCII file prepared with the
word processor PC-WRITE. Files made with word processors
usually include special coding used for formatting in the
word processor. It is usually advisable to strip the file of
these special codes by using the program CONVERT.EXE found
on one of the distribution disks. If you are currently
running PictureThis, exit it. Then, at the DOS prompt, type
CONVERT and press Enter. You will be asked for the file
which you want to convert; type in 34DIFF.TXT. You will then
be asked for the name of the file which you want to produce;
type in 34DIFF.ASC. Finally, you will be asked for the name
of the conversion file; type STANDARD.CVT. (All of these
file names can include path modifiers if necessary.)
STANDARD.CVT works for some word processors; see the user's
manual to learn how to change it to work with your word
processor. CONVERT will ask if you want to change multiple
spaces into single spaces and if you want to strip high
bits; answer both questions with Y. Now 34DIFF.ASC will be
created. If there are any file problems (like inadequate
space on your disk), you will be warned; try again.
2. Start PictureThis again. Press - to zoom to the 50%
screen. Then read in the layout drawing, TWOCOL.DRW. You
will see a frame shaped like a standard 8-1/2 by 11 inch
page (actually it is 8 by 10-1/2 inches to account for the
margins on many PostScript printers), and two long boxes
(made of construction lines so they won't show on the
output) showing where two columns of text will be placed.
There is also the standard margin in the middle of the
screen and two margins set at the column boxes. Cycle
between them by pressing F8 then + or - repeatedly, stopping
at the standard margin in the center of the page. TWOCOL.DRW
also has preset text parameters. Whenever you are going to
create a text page, especially if you will be creating more
than one page with the same format (as for a newsletter),
you should first create a page-layout drawing similar to
TWOCOL.DRW, and save it. For each new page of text, you can
read in the page-layout drawing with everything already set,
and then pour in the text. Page-layout drawings can also
include text blocks or drawings if they are an unvarying
part of the text page.
3. Move the cursor to the endpoint closest to the top left
corner of the screen (Ctrl-Home, then Del). Most of the text
will be placed in the two columns, but the title will reach
across the entire page. Then press F8, then P, then + or -
to get to the text parameter set with point size 20 and font
93 (Times-Roman Bold), and Position justification (JP).
Press Enter twice to get to the editor with the chosen text
parameters. Now press F10, R, and type in 34DIFF.ASC to read
in the ASCII text file. Since the editor cannot hold the
entire file at once, it will read as much of the file as
will fit in 3/4 of the editor. Delete the initial space in
the title line. You only want to set the title with these
text parameters, so move to the beginning of the second line
and press Ctrl Q. This places an END-OF-TEXT symbol (a left-
and-right arrow) at this position. This symbol marks where
you want to stop setting the text. When you press F5 the
text before this symbol will be set to the drawing, the rest
will remain in the editor. Now press F5. The title will be
set on the drawing screen. Small text is really too small to
be read on the 50% screen (and it also draws slowly and uses
a lot of memory), so press J twice to "greek" the text on
the drawing screen, but show it on the Quickshow screen.
4. Press Tab to move the cursor to the beginning of the
title (if it is not already there). Check the status box
(turn it on with W, if not on) to see what the cursor speed
is; if it is 1.0, press Ins to change it to 12.0. Press the
down arrow three times to move the cursor down 36 points.
(TWOCOL.DRW has the units preset to Points, and the "fast"
cursor speed set to 12 points, which is the same as the line
spacing for the column text. Each press of the down cursor
moves it conveniently to the the next line of text. See the
user's manual to learn how to set the cursor speeds.)
Press F8 to get to the text menu; then press + or -
repeatedly to change the margin to that of the left column.
Press P to get to the text parameter menu; then + or - to
show the set with point size 10, font 91 (Times-Roman), and
left justification (JL). Press Enter twice to get into the
editor with these parameters. You will notice that the text
for the title is no longer in the editor, but the rest of
the text is. Delete the top blank line (F2). Read and edit
the text if you want. Now move the cursor down the left
(PgDn and/or down arrow) until the last number in the top
status line (the Height Remaining) goes from a positive
number on one line to a negative number on the next line.
The last positive line is the last line that will fit in the
margin. Place an END-OF-TEXT symbol (Ctrl-Q) at the
beginning of the first negative line. Then press F5. The
drawing screen will reappear, and the first column should be
filled in with "greeked" text.
5. Move the cursor to the beginning of the left column text
block (Tab, + or -) if it isn't already there. Press F8,
then + or - repeatedly to choose the right column margin.
Press Esc to leave the text menu, then Ctrl-L to move the
cursor to the left side of the new margin. The cursor should
now be in the proper position to start the next column's
text block. Press F8 twice to enter the editor with the
current text parameters.
Since the editor has been partially emptied, we can read
in some more text from 34DIFF.ASC. To do this, press F10,
then C to continue reading the file where it previously
stopped reading it. The new text is added to the END of the
existing text and fills the editor at most 3/4 full.
Set the text for the right column, just as you did the
left. That is: edit it; move the cursor to the beginning of
the first line where the Height Remaining indicator is
negative; place an END-OF-TEXT symbol (Ctrl-Q) there; press
F5 to set the text to the drawing.
6. Your first page of text is complete. If you wish, look at
it on the Quickshow screen (this much text can take a while
to draw). Save your drawing both as a drawing and an EPS
file. Print it on a PostScript printer, if convenient, and
proofread it. (Always proof hard-copy output from any
computer program; it is much easier to catch mistakes on
paper than on the screen.) If you find errors, pull the
drawing back into PictureThis, cut the offending text block
into the editor, edit it, and set it again.
7. The page you just typeset was a very plain page. The only
variation made was to set the title at a larger point size
in a bold typeface. To make the page more interesting, the
header information (copyright, etc.) might have been set
with a different margin and in italic. It is also common to
set the subheadings in a larger and/or different typeface.
If you are adventurous, start over and make the page more
interesting.
Desktop publishing allows you to be very creative with
text. Laying out a text page is really an art, but there are
many guidelines that are good to follow. If you are going to
be doing much page layout, you should read some of the many
books or articles about good design for publishing.
8. If you want to, go ahead and typeset the next page (and
subsequent pages) also. Just read the TWOCOL.DRW page layout
drawing, back in to PictureThis, and proceed as before. The
editor contents do not change when you read a drawing, so
the text that should go in the first column of the next page
is still in the editor and/or can be continued to be read in
from 34DIFF.ASC.
EXERCISE 17. KARTOONS MODE
1. Kartoons mode allows -- as they say -- "kids of all ages"
to make an unlimited variety of cartoon faces very easily. It
was our 10-year-old son's idea (and he and his 7-year-old
brother contributed some of the Kartoons artwork included on
one of the distribution disks); but we enjoy 'tooning around
at least as much as he does!
To enter Kartoons mode, press K. (If there's a already a
regular-mode drawing, you're asked whether you really want to
clear it and enter Kartoons mode, and if the Kartoons part
files (!FOREHD.1, !NOSE.5, etc.) aren't in the current
directory, you're asked for a new directory.) A face appears
on the screen in parts, forehead first, then ears, chin,
eyebrows, eyes, and nose. We call him "Joe"; see what he
looks like on the Quickshow screen by pressing Q, then press
Esc to get back to the drawing screen. Notice that there is a
box drawn around the forehead. This indicates that the
forehead is the current part. Press U (for "Use part"); the
current forehead is erased and a new one appears. You can
cycle through all the possible foreheads (that is, those with
part files) by pressing U, +, or Space (for the "forward"
direction), or - (for the "backward" direction) repeatedly.
When you find a forehead you like, press Enter to keep that
forehead. Now press K (for "Khoose block"). The box moves to
the left ear. Continue pressing K (or +, Space, and/or -) to
cycle through the different parts. Stop at a box by pressing
U to start cycling through the parts for that box. You can
make a huge number of unique faces just using the supplied
parts! Look at some faces on the Quickshow screen.
2. If you find a face you'd like to have easily accessible
in the future, you can save it as a face file. Press F10 and
then P (for "PutFAC"). You're asked for a filename. We
recommend that you use the extension .FAC.
You can retrieve this face, or any of several included on
the distribution disk. To do this, press F10 to see the file
menu, then press G (for "GetFAC"). Press Enter to see the
filenames of all the face files in the current directory.
Choose one with the block cursor; press Enter; the current
face is replaced by the one you selected. You can use K and U
to change the new face, too.
3. You can make your own part files. Our sons made many of
those on one of the distribution disks -- can you top those?
It's fun to try, and an excellent way to practice many of the
PictureThis operations. Part files actually are just
specially named clip art files, so they can be objects,
trails, and/or text blocks. You can use nearly all of the
normal PictureThis operations in Kartoons mode; the only ones
which you can't use are getting a drawing (you can get a face
instead) and plotting data (see Exercise 17).
Pressing C clears the face and returns you to normal
drawing mode (after a prompt). (If at any time you get a
message saying you're almost out of memory, press C to clear,
then K, and you're back in Kartoons mode with the same face,
and more free memory.)
Return to Kartoons mode, if necessary. To make a new pair
of eyebrows, press K until the current block is around the
left eyebrow. Erase the current left eyebrow by pressing F7
and E, choosing the eyebrow object in the normal manner, then
pressing Enter and answering Y to the prompt. Now draw a new
eyebrow in the general area of the current block. It can be a
single curve, a filled trail, or a number of trails. (It
DOESN'T need to be in the current box, but it probably will
fit in with other parts better if it is.) Check it on the
Quickshow screen, to make sure the line weight, etc., is
reasonable. If the eyebrow is made of more than one trail,
group the trails (see Exercise 11.1). Press Y (for "Yes save
part"). Choose the eyebrow in the normal manner (it should be
dashed) and press Enter; the eyebrow which you drew is added
to the left eyebrow part files; now it can be retrieved in
the usual manner, using U. You also should make a mirror-
image right eyebrow. To do this, press K one time to change
the current block to the right eyebrow; erase the current
right eyebrow; flip the left eyebrow over a vertical center
line (see Exercise 12.3); press Y and choose the new right
eyebrow to save. Of course, you don't have to erase a current
part object to make a new part. You can add to or change an
existing part, group it as an object, and save the new object
as a part file.
EXERCISE 18. PLOTTING DATA FROM A FILE
1. PictureThis allows numerical data from a file to be
plotted automatically in a two-dimensional graph. A simple
sample data file TEST1.DAT is on one of the distribution
disks. It consists of some comments and eleven lines of data
with two numbers in each, the first being the line number (0
through 10) and the second being the first number squared
(0,1,4,9,16,...,100), thus making two columns. (See the user
manual for acceptable formats for data file; files produced
by many spreadsheet and scientific programs can be used with
few or no changes.)
Before you start, make sure you're in the regular drawing
mode (not Kartoons), and toggle on the status box and "H+";
make sure that the default frame is the current one (F, Y),
and turn the position box on if it isn't on already. Set the
line weight to .25 points (L, W, ".25," Enter). If your
current units aren't inches, change to inches (F9, U, I,
Enter).
To plot the data in TEST1.DAT, begin by pressing F10 to see
the file menu. Then press U (for "UseDAT"); you will be asked
for the data file's file specification, so key in "TEST1.DAT"
(prefaced by its path, if it isn't in the current directory).
You're asked for the x field (x means horizontal, field means
(more or less) the column number), press Enter to accept the
default field 1. You're then asked for the y (vertical)
field; press Enter to accept the default field 2. PictureThis
then reads the data file and reports how many pairs (one
number of each pair in the first field of each line and the
other number of each pair in the second field of each line)
are in the file, and how many data points can be plotted with
the current memory available. You are asked for the 1st pair
to plot; press Enter to accept the default (pair 1, on the
first (non-comment) line of the file). Another prompt appears
asking if you want to plot EVERY pair, every 2ND pair, or
every 3RD pair, etc.; press Enter to accept the default
(every pair). You then are asked how many points to plot;
press Enter to accept 11 (the total number of pairs in
TEST1.DAT).
Now you need to define the limits of plotting. All data
points which fall outside the boundary you define (by
specifying its lower-left and upper-right corners) are NOT
plotted. A prompt appears telling you to move the cursor to
xlow, ylow (defining the lower-left corner of the boundary)
and press F3; move the cursor to about 1.0, 4.5; press F3. A
prompt shows the minimum value of x in the file and asks you
to enter XLOW (the value of x at the plot boundary's lower-
left corner); press Enter to accept 0. Similarly, press Enter
at the next prompt to accept 0 for YLOW (the value of y at
the plot boundary's upper-left corner). You see a prompt
telling you to move the cursor to xhigh, yhigh (defining the
upper-right corner of the boundary). Move the cursor to
about 7.0, 1.0; press F3. Press "Enter" twice to accept the
default values of XHIGH (10) and YHIGH (100). PictureThis
automatically scales the data points between xlow, ylow and
xhigh, yhigh. Finally, you can choose whether to plot dots or
lines; in this case, press L to plot lines. The file is read;
a graph is plotted between xlow, ylow and xhigh, yhigh; and
you are shown how many data pairs were plotted, as well as
the number of the last pair plotted. Press a key to continue.
2. Import the clip art file AXIS.CLP included on one of the
distribution disks. As you can see, this consists of labeled
horizontal and vertical axes for the graph. It was made by
importing SCALE.CLP (also on a distribution disk), scaling it
larger for the horizontal axis, rotating, flipping, and
scaling smaller for the vertical axis, and adding appropriate
labels. You can try all that for practice if you want.
3. To highlight the graph's data points, a small object can
be copied to each endpoint on the curve. PictureThis allows
multicopying of an object to every, or selected, endpoints of
a trail. To do this, first import the clip art file
GRAPHBOX.CLP. This is a small white-filled box. Move the
cursor to near the bottom left of the drawing, then press
F6 to see the trails menu, followed by O (for "Object to
Endpoints"). Now you must select a trail; choose the trail
which was plotted (+ or -) and press Enter. Now select the
small square as the object to copy, and press Enter. A prompt
appears asking you to move the cursor to the start point of
the object and press F3 (the start point is the point which
will be copied directly over each endpoint); move the cursor
close to 2.0, 3.0 (the center of the clip-art box) and press
F3. You're asked if you want to copy to ALL endpoints of the
trail; answer Y. The small box automatically is copied to
all of the endpoints. This multicopying ability is useful not
only for data plots; it can make interesting designs quickly.
Erase the original box, since it is no longer needed.
4. Finally, the graph needs a label. Move the cursor to
approximately 2.3, 1.9. Press F8. Press P to change the
parameters; set the point size to 30, and make sure that the
font is 91, and that the justification is position. Press
Enter twice to get into the editor. Now key in: "y =
x<spo>2<spx>" (with the "<'s" and ">'s" replaced by Ctrl A
and Ctrl Z, respectively). (The "spo" typesetting code means
start a superscript; the "spx" code means end a superscript.
The superscript text (in this case a "2") is made smaller and
moved up to form a superscript. The text returns to normal
with the "spx" code. Similar codes ("sbo" and "sbx") work for
subscripts. Subscripts and superscripts can be nested.) Press
F5 to set the text. If you are satisfied, your data plot
drawing is complete. Save it as both DRW and EPS files, and
print the EPS file if you want. Exit from PictureThis by
pressing Esc and Y.
EXERCISE 19. CAPTURING SCREENS FOR USE AS TEMPLATES
1. To install the memory-resident CaptureThis program used
for capturing screens, with CAPTHIS.COM in the current
directory, key in "CAPTHIS" and press Enter.
A message noting that CaptureThis has been installed should
appear, and the DOS prompt should return.
Now run PictureThis. If you get an "OUT OF MEMORY" error
message, your computer doesn't have enough memory to run
PictureThis with CaptureThis installed. If you have other
memory-resident programs installed, remove them or reboot
without them and try again. If you still cannot install
CaptureThis and then run PictureThis, you should try
capturing a screen using CaptureThis from a CGA, EGA, or VGA
graphics program that needs less memory than does
PictureThis, or you should try Alternate CaptureThis with
PictureThis (see below).
As soon as the title screen is completely displayed (when
it says "PictureThis" in script), press Shift PrtSc. After
these keys are pressed, CaptureThis checks your computer's
BIOS to determine the current video mode; if, according to
the BIOS, the current video mode is one of CGA (320 x 200 or
640 x 200), EGA (640 x 350), or VGA (640 x 480), a message
appears: "Perform Screen Capture? (Y/N)"/"ESC to exit." This
is the message you should be seeing now. To capture the
screen in a template file for importing into PictureThis,
press Y. Now key in "PTTITLE.TMP" and press Enter. Directory
specifications can be used for files (this might be
necessary, to write the file on a different disk, if you get
a "disk full" error message). Each template file for CGA
takes about 16 KB. Template files for EGA and VGA are
compressed, so they vary in size depending on the complexity
of the drawing. Again, we recommend that you use the
extension ".TMP" for template files.
If, instead, you wanted a normal screen dump to a printer,
you would press N. Caution: If your printer is not connected,
or if it is turned off, the computer may hang up. For a
graphics screen dump, you must have installed an appropriate
memory-resident graphics printer driver program (such as
GRAPHICS.COM, supplied with PC-DOS for screen dumps to IBM-
compatible dot matrix printers) PRIOR to installing
CaptureThis.
Alternatively, to proceed without capturing or dumping the
screen, you would have pressed Esc.
If CaptureThis doesn't work correctly with your computer
or with particular programs (examples are those which "take
over" the keyboard), you should try the Alternate
CaptureThis program instead. Once installed, this program
doesn't require any keyboard input other than Shift PrtSc to
capture graphics mode screens, and thus will work even with
programs which "take over" the keyboard (unless they take
over the Print Screen interrupt.)
To install Alternate CaptureThis, reboot your computer;
then, at the DOS prompt corresponding to the drive containing
the disk with ACAPTHIS.COM, key in "ACAPTHIS"; then press
Enter. A message noting that Alternate CaptureThis has been
installed should appear, and the DOS prompt should return.
Now run PictureThis. As soon as the title screen is
completely displayed (when it says "PictureThis" in script),
press Shift PrtSc. If Alternate CaptureThis determines (from
your computer's BIOS) that the current video mode is NOT an
allowable graphics mode, it performs a normal screen dump to
a printer. This should NOT happen unless you pressed Shift
PrtSc too late--when the copyright/ordering information
screen (in text mode) is displayed. Caution: If a printer is
not connected, or if it is turned off, your computer might
hang up.
If, according to the BIOS, the current video mode IS an
allowable graphics mode, Alternate CaptureThis will capture
the screen in a file named A0.TMP (in the current
directory). Subsequently captured screens will be saved in
files having the following sequence of names:
A1.TMP, ..., A9.TMP, B0.TMP, ..., B9.TMP, ..., C0.TMP, ...
Caution: Each time ACAPTHIS is installed, it saves screens in
files (beginning with A0.TMP) WRITING OVER ANY EXISTING FILES
IN THE CURRENT DIRECTORY WITH THE SAME NAMES WITHOUT WARNING
-- so after saving a series of files with ACAPTHIS, you
should rename them before installing ACAPTHIS again, to guard
against overwriting, and to provide more descriptive names.
2. In PictureThis, press F10 to access the file operations
menu, then press R and key in the name of the file you just
saved (PTTITLE.TMP if you used CaptureThis, or A0.TMP if you
used Alternate CaptureThis), with a directory specification
if necessary. And there's the template!
Now that you've completed this tutorial, we recommend that
you explore PictureThis and CaptureThis on your own,
referring as necessary to the user manual to learn more about
the details of how these programs work. The user manual
contains more details and examples on areas covered by this
tutorial AND information on how to use the MANY features NOT
covered in this tutorial (working in different units,
changing the cursor speed, using a grid, scaling the drawing,
noting points, measuring distances, many more text features,
etc.) Have fun!