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Atari Mega Archive 1
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Atari Mega Archive - Volume 1.iso
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dtpaint.lzh
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DTPAINT.ASC
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1985-11-20
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DTPaint Desk Accessory w/Active Windows v1.0md
Monochrome Version
all code and documentation Copyright 1989, 1990
by Michael Bergman
Well, It's been a long year since I originally wrote ImageEditor
DA and I promised a more friendlier user interface. I said that
it would take no longer than a couple of months and I was right.
What I didn't bargain for was the time it would take to develop
some more sophisticated graphic tools.
What you have here is a demo version of that effort. This desk
accessory does not save in .IMG format, although it will save
blocked images in a propriatary format.
You may have noticed that the only other file in the archive is
the desk accessory itself. There are no "support files". DTPaint
is totally self-sufficient. All code, resources, and images are
embedded in the accessory. This way, you are not surprised to
find that you have less memory that what you expected. Also, it
makes resource handling a tad more stable.
Over and over again I get the same questions: "Why a desk
accessory?" "Don't you think a desk accessory is less effective
than a 'real' program?"
The reason for a desk accessory paint program is that regular
paint programs are a dime a dozen. You can probably name that
many right now, both commercial and shareware. The idea of a desk
accessory paint program is to let you, the user, create or edit
pictures without having to leave the program you are currently
using. This allows greater flexiblity of the environment and
interactivity with the current job. In other words, you don't
have to quit the current job, start up another graphics creation
program, load the picture, edit, save, quit, load in the original
program, load the saved files and then load the editted picture.
All you have to do is call up the desk accessory, edit a picture,
save it and import to your current program. It almost qualifies
as a multitasking environment!
The differences between this program--DTPaint--and ImageEditor are
vast although DTPaint was borne from ImageEditor. DTPaint is a
full paint program. In other words, you can not only edit
existing pictures but create them from scratch as well. I have
maintained some of the keycommands from ImageEditor, but
everything can be accessed from "The Menu" (press <Help> or select
the DTPaint desk accessory menu) and the Toolbox (press
<Alternate> t or select "Show Toolbox" from "The Menu"). Both
will pop-up under the mouse so you don't have to go hunting for
them.
Page 1 of 8
What is "Active Windows"?
Active Windows is a convenience feature. It allows you to access
the Toolbox without actually having to click on it to activate it.
The Toolbox, if it is open, will automatically activate as soon as
the mouse leaves the picture window and will deactivate when the
mouse enters the work area of the picture, except if the mouse is
also over the Toolbox itself. You can toggle the Active Windows
feature by pressing <F3>. By making the Active Windows feature
"inactive", the windows will act just like every other GEM
windowing system. If you do decide to use Active Windows, it is
best to keep the Toolbox up at the menu bar on the right. That
way, you won't "lose" the Toolbox under a full window. Just move
the move into the menu bar, wait for the Toolbox to activate then
bring the mouse over the Toolbox and make a selection or move the
Toolbox.
How about a tour of DTPaint?
Let's start with "The Menu". The easiest way is to press the
<Help> key and "The Menu" will appear under the mouse. The
entres include:
About DTPaint Brings up the obligatory "About..." box.
New Lets you create a new picture.
Load Load in an existing .IMG, MacPaint or
Degas Elite picture.
Quick Save Saves the picture under the existing file
name.
Save As... Lets you save the current picture under
another name.
Show/Hide Tools Shows or hides the Toolbox.
Show Information Shows picture's width, height, resolution
and compression.
Save Preferences Lets you save the Tools' attributes and
memory configuration.
Memory Allows you to free or allocate memory
dynamically.
Page 2 of 8
Next, let's look at the Toolbox:
First off, the Toolbox, which should have come up under your mouse
(unless it is in the menu bar, in which case it will be just under
the menu bar), is movable. All you have to do is press the left
mouse button anywhere in the Toolbox area and drag it across the
screen. It should be noted that, although you can press the mouse
button anywhere in the Toolbox, if you presss it while the mouse
is above an icon or fill pattern or brush pattern, you will
activate that particular tool or pattern. It is always best to
drag the Toolbox at the middle of the Toolbox, at the Fill Pattern
Display (at the bottom right corner) or on an active icon/tool.
Along the bottom of the Toolbox are the standard Atari fill
patterns. All fill patterns are auto-locked which means that it
doesn't matter where the window is or what section of the picture
you are editing, the fill pattern will automaticlly lock onto the
left edge of the actual picture. The program will adjust the fill
pattern to match the section of the picture you are working on.
The patterns are editable and loadable. If you double-click on
one of the fill patterns you will get a dialogue box that will let
you edit the pattern, save it to file, or load in a new pattern
file. When you exit the dialogue box, the new pattern will appear
in the box where the old one was and a 32 pixel representation
will appear in the Fill Pattern Display. Next to the Fill Pattern
Display is a white and a black box. The box that is outlined is
the active box. By selecting these boxes, you can reverse the
colors of all of the fill patterns in the pallette.
At the top right corner are the brush patterns and the line
patterns. You may only select or edit brush patterns when the
brush tool icon is active. Brushes can be editted, saved and
loaded just like fill patterns. In fact, their file formats are
identical so they can also be interchanged. In other words, fill
patterns can be used as brush patterns and vice versa.
Line patterns can only selected when using the line, oval, arc,
pie, box, round box and polygon tool icons are active. Line
patterns can only be editted. They cannot be saved or loaded.
Page 3 of 8
At the top left corner are the tool icons. The are, from left to
right and top to bottom:
Pencil
Just a simple drawing tool used for scribbling and
scratching. The Pencil has three modes: black, white and
opposite. Double-click on the Pencil icon and an alert box will
open up to let you choose which mode you want to use. In the
opposite mode, the pencil will draw in the color opposite of the
color under the mouse when you press the left mouse button.
Release the left mouse button to stop drawing.
Brush
Use the brush patterns at the top right of the Toolbox plus
the fill patterns to brush patterns over the picture. Press the
left mouse button and apply the "paint". Release the left mouse
button to stop "painting". The fills will be applied opaquely
unless you hold the <Alternate> key down when you first press the
left mouse button, then it will apply the fills transparently.
Airbrush
A random pixel changer that will change the pixel to fit the
chosen fill pattern. The radius can be adjusted from 1 to 50 by
double-clicking on the Airbrush icon. Hold the left mouse button
down while