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Text File | 2021-04-19 | 11KB | 432 lines

ssible.


 [EXAMPLE WINDOW FILES]

    On this disk I've included the
example windows listed below.

 W.TREE
 W.BULLDOG
 SPORTS CAR

    Keep in mind when viewing these
windows that I don't consider myself
an artist to say the least.  Yet,
each of these windows, I feel, gives
many examples of the powerful editing
and drawing features of HI-RES
SKETCH.  For instance, the sports car
was drawn with line, ellipse,
compass, fill, window and zoom edit.
The tree was drawn with sprite stamp
and zoom while the bulldog was done
entirely in zoom mode.


 [FULL SCREEN SCROLL]

    As mentioned earlier, it's
possible to scroll the entire screen
in window edit mode.  But it would be
convenient to scroll the screen in
immediate (freehand) mode.  And you
can do just that by pressing the
cursor keys any time you need to
scroll the screen.  The only
difference is that scrolling in
immediate mode is coarse scrolling (8
bits at a time) while window edit
mode uses fine scroll (1 bit at a
time). Even though you'll still need
to use window edit to have complete
control over the entire screen,
coarse scrolling is very handy for
centering a drawing or using compass
mode.


 [CHANGING SCREEN COLORS/PAINT MODE]

    High resolution screens have only
two colors per 8 x 8 bit cell
(foreground and background).  There
are two ways these colors can be
changed.  All background and
foreground colors can be changed
collectively by holding down [CTRL]
and pressing [B] or [F] respectively.
Each time [B] or [F] is hit the
colors are toggled.  The pen color
can also be changed for contrast with
[CTRL-P].  [CTRL-D] will change all
colors to their default settings.

    Another way to change the
background and foreground colors is
paint.  Paint mode is entered by
typing [CTRL-1].  Once in paint mode,
you'll see a rectangle in the upper
left-hand corner of the screen.
Using [CTRL or CMDR-1 through 8] will
select the painting color while
pressing [SPACE] will toggle between
foreground and background paint.
Holding down [FIRE] and moving the
joystick will paint the screen.

  NOTE: HI-RES SKETCH was primarily
written as a two color editor.  If
you plan to use paint, make it the
last step in editing a picture.


 [SPRITE EDITOR]

    While this feature of HI-RES
SKETCH wasn't a necessity,  it's
handy for sprite stamping (explained
later in this article).  To enter the
sprite editor type [CTRL-S].  Sprites
are divided into four sets with eight
sprites in each set.  Numeric keys
[1-8] are used to access the sprites
while [UP ARROW] will access the
desired set.

    Many of the sprite editor's
features are similar to that of
window editing.  For instance, copy,
flip invert, and reverse all work in
the same manner, and all are accessed
by [f1], [f3], [f5] and [f7]
respectively. One major difference is
that on-screen documentation is given
for each function with the exception
being [CLR] which clears a sprite.

    Actual sprite editing is similar
to working in zoom mode.  Use the
joystick to move the cursor and keys
[T], [D], and [E] to select toggle,
draw, and erase.  You may notice that
the last line of the editing palette
can't be accessed.  This is because
the palette has 22 rows while a
sprite only has 21.

    After working on a sprite or
group of sprites as the case may be,
you'll probably want to save the
sprite(s) to disk.  To do this first
select where the save is to begin and
press [S].  Next select where the
save is to end and press [S] again.
After you press [S] the second time
you should see a cursor flashing in
the input box.  Type in the file name
and hit return.

    Retrieving a sprite file can be
accomplished by a much simpler
process.  First select where the load
is to begin and press [L].  Then just
type in the file name and hit return.


 [CHARACTER EDITOR]

    The character editor is very
similar to the sprite editor.  In
fact every function in the sprite
editor is available here.  And since
most functions are identical, I'll
only discuss the few differences.
First, copying is much easier.  To
copy a character move the icon over
it and press fire.  Next move the
icon over the destination character
and press fire again.  Another
difference is you have to press
[SPACE] to edit a selected character.
Hitting [SPACE] again will exit edit
mode.  Yet another difference is [f1]
is used to turn a character 90
degrees counter-clockwise.  Finally,
the last difference is the way
characters are saved and loaded.
Instead of being able to save a
desired number of characters,
characters are saved as a set (128
characters/set).  There can be four
sets in memory at once.  Pay close
attention to the set you're in when
saving or loading.  The current set
is denoted at the bottom of the
screen.

 [SPRITE STAMP]

    After you have created or loaded
a sprite, you can use sprite stamp to
stamp sprite bits right into the high
resolution screen.  To enter sprite
stamp mode type [SHIFT-*].  Use the
joystick to move the sprite around
the screen.  When you hit [FIRE] the
image will be stamped.  Pressing [U]
will undo the last stamp. Cursor up
and down or [SHIFT] [A-Z] will select
which sprite.  Using [SHIFT] [A-Z]
will only select the first 26 sprites
but is ideal for the creation of a
large sprite alphabet. [SPACE] is
used to toggle between stamp/stamp
erase.  Stamp erase is useful for
stamping on reverse fields.


 [SPRITE STAMP AS A DRAWING MODE]

    Sprite stamping not only can be
used for repetitive images, but also
as a powerful freehand drawing mode.
To take advantage of this you'll have
to turn off the buffer using [CTRL-0]
[RVS OFF].  Use [CTRL-9] to turn the
buffer on again.  Incidentally, the
buffer will always be on when
entering sprite stamp mode.  To help
get you started I've included a file
called "S.TOOLS" on this disk.

    As a final note, remember, you're
not limited to what I've created.
With the sprite editor built right
into the program it's easy to test
different sprites and save them if
you find them useful.

 [TYPING CHARACTERS]

    To type characters on the screen
press [T].  The icon is moved with
the cursor keys.  When using the
default set all characters are
available.  [f1, f3, f5, f7] will
select which of the four character
sets.  DELete is available for
erasing characters. You can't,
however, use INSert to insert
characters.

     As an added feature to typing
normal size characters, you can also
change the character size to those
listed below.

 [f2]...selects 8 x 8 (normal)
 [f4]...selects 7 x 8 (45 chars/line)
 [f6]...selects 6 x 8 (53 chars/line)
 [f8]...selects 5 x 8 (64 chars/line)

    If you choose to create a
character set of an alternate size,
you should use type mode to set the
size before saving.  This way you
won't have to change the size when an
alternate character set is selected.

    I have included two alternate
character sets on this disk. They are
listed below.

 "c.medium"... 6 x 8 size
 "c.small".... 5 x 8 size

  NOTE: Use the character editor to
LOAD/SAVE a character set from/to
disk.

 [SAVING/LOADING A HI-RES SCREEN]

    To save a high resolution screen
to disk simply press [SHIFT-S], type
in the file name and hit return.  To
load a high resolution screen use
[SHIFT-L].

 [DIRECTORY]

    Load the directory by typing [$].
After the directory has loaded, it
will be listed to the screen.  You
can list the directory over and over
again by pressing [L].  When the
listing reaches the bottom of the
screen, you can slow it by pressing
[CTRL].  After you've found the file
you're looking for, press [E] to
exit.

  NOTE: Because the directory stays
in memory using an 8K buffer to
protect what's overwritten, don't
load a directory with more than 255
files.  A large directory could
overwrite part of the hi-res screen
or even worse crash the program.  If
you're using a 1541 disk drive, you
don't have anything to worry about.


 [FINAL NOTES]

    There are a few final things I
have to say about this program.
First, don't under use window edit.
Window editing is one of the most
powerful editing features of this
program.  Second, when creating a
screen, think carefully about the
design and the best way to accomplish
it.  And finally, the be