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Atari Mega Archive 1
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Atari Mega Archive - Volume 1.iso
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tt
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brshwrks.lzh
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README.DOC
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1992-08-26
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BRUSHWORKS TT
What is this anyway?
Brushworks TT is a full featured painting package for the TT' 256 color
graphics mode, it contains many features not found in even the most expensive
commercial programs and outperforms all in speed and ease of use.
Brushworks TT is SHAREWARE, it represents almost a year of coding and many
late nights hunched over my assembler. I have many more features I'd like to
add and only you can help me do it. If you use this demo of the program and
would like a version with the save options added as well as a couple of other
extras, please send in your registration fee. In return you'll get the latest
version of the program (with save enabled), a couple of my other handy TT
utilities (screen grabber etc.) and a warm fuzzy feeling deep inside.
You'll be helping a starving Australian programmer carry on his favourite
pastime, and I know you'll all want to see a version of this on the Falcon.
O.K. So what do I have to do?
Send me $40 AUD (Australian dollars) or the equivalent thereof to this
address:
Tony Barker
Moving Pixels
2/39 Frazer St
Leichhardt NSW 2040
AUSTRALIA
and make sure you include your address so I can send you your registered
version.
If your as poor as I am or a student and can't really afford that much or
you don't think it's worth that much in the first place then send what you
can afford or what you think it is worth. I'm also open to suggestions as to
features you'd like to see.
Possible troubles
If your tool bar flickers and jumps around then you've discovered a strange
bug that affects the program on some TT's. I'm using a very sophisticated
method for handling the toolbar involving some complex interrupts, this seems
to cause a problem on some machines. A fix is at hand and will be included in
all registered versions. You might try turning off the cache to remove the
problem as a temporary fix.
So what can this version do ?
The following description will work across the front tools menu describing
each icon in turn and anything special about it's function. There will be a
description for what happens when clicked with the left mouse button and also
the right mouse button.
First a few explanations-
The program uses the concept of a foreground color and a background color.
The palette can be activated by hitting 'P' on the keyboard and the currently
selected fore and background colors are shown in 2 differrent ways. Firstly
the current foreground color has a solid horizontal marker above it and a
large bar of it appears in the bottom right hand corner. The background color
is indicated by a stippled bar underneath the color and a large bar of it
appears to the left of the foreground color bar. The foreground color is set
by clicking on it with the left mouse button and the background by the right
mouse button. When drawing with a brush you can draw with the background
color by pressing the right mouse button. Transparency is a complex feature
and takes some time getting to know but can be very powerful .Some things to
remember when using transparency are that it will work better on some
pictures than others due to the make up of their palettes. The better the
range of each of the main hues in the palette the more effective the feature
works. The reasons for this is that although there are 4096 colors, only the
256 in the current picture are available so the transparency code has to do a
'best fit' to get it's in between colors, this also explains the speed (or
lack of it) of this function.
POINT DRAW:
left mouse button-
The top left most icon, and the startup default is the PointDraw icon
this allows freehand drawing with any one of the 8 predefined brushes
or the user definable brush.
right mouse button-
Brings up the brush preferences menu. See the description under User
definable brush.
CONTINUOUS DRAW:
left mouse button-
Switches to continuous draw mode, lines will not be made up of a
series of dots but will be continuous. This can make drawing very
slow with large user brushes.
right mouse button-
Brings up the brush preferences menu. See the description under User
definable brush.
BOX DRAW:
left mouse button-
Switches to box draw mode. Draws a box in the currently defined style
set by right mouse button.
right mouse button-
Brings up the line preferences menu.
When in the line preferences menu clicking on any of
the boxes under the words 'Line Style' will edit the line pattern
used when drawing boxes ,lines and curves. Clicking on
them with the Right mouse button clears the particular 'bit' and
clicking with the Right will set it. Clicking 'ALL' will set all the
bits in the line to on and clicking 'NONE will do the opposite.
Clicking on any of the 5 predefined line styles underneath the main
style editor will set the editor up with that pattern. Clicking any
of those boxes with the right mouse button will set the editor up
with the inverse of that line pattern.
Under the line style settings are 3 buttons allowing you to choose
the style of box drawn. "BRUSH" will draw the box filled with a
repeating pattern of the currently defined user brush (if none
defined the box will be empty or clear). "SOLID" will draw the box
filled with the current foreground color and "EMPTY" will just draw
the outline using the line preferences as described above.
ELIPSE DRAW:
left mouse button-
Switches to elipse drawing mode. Allows you to draw an elipse
using the currently selected line, fill and brush settings.
right mouse button-
Brings up the line style editor, see BOX DRAW mode.
LINE DRAW:
left mouse button-
Switches to line draw mode. Will draw a line using the currently
selected brush and linestyle.
right mouse button-
Brings up the line style editor, see BOX DRAW mode.
Note that the "BRUSH FILLED EMPTY" buttons will not appear as they
do not apply to this tool.
SPLINE DRAW:
left mouse button-
Switches to spline draw. A basic 4 point spline will be drawn on the
screen with thew control points visible. Clicking on the control
points allows you to "mould" the spline to how and where you want
it. When you have the spline as you require hitting the "SPACE" bar
will set it on the screen permanently. The spline will be drawn using
all the current settings.
right mouse button-
Brings up the line style editor, see BOX DRAW mode.
Note that the "BRUSH FILLED EMPTY" buttons will not appear as they
do not apply to this tool.
AIRBRUSH MODE:
left mouse button-
Switches to airbrush mode. Simulates a real airbrush with a
"centre weighted random elipsoidal dither". As usual the spray is
drawn using all the current settings and brush.
right mouse button-
Brings up the airbrush settings menu. From here you can change the
flow rate (how fast new pixels are drawn) and the spray size.
USER BRUSH:
left mouse button-
Allows the user to grab any rectangular area of the screen to use as
a brush. When the selection is made the current draw mode will be
returned (ie: line, box, pointdraw, linedraw etc)
right mouse button-
Brings up the brush preferences menu. This is one of the most complex
of the preference screens and should be read carefully.
The 5 buttons on the left of this menu are used to set the current
drawing mode for the brush. Only COLOR and CYCLE are applicable to
predefined brushes but all apply to the user brush. COLOR sets all
subsequent drawing to the currently selected foreground color
regardless of what colors the brush may have in it. CYCLE, sets all
drawing to be in colors cycling between the current foreground color
and the current background color (see the palette menu for more
info). MATTE, means the background color in the brush shall be
considered transparent. REPLACE means the background color will
replace any behind it making the brush appear as a solid block.
All of these 5 modes can be accessed by the Function keys 1 to 5.
TRANSPARENT means the brush will be drawn