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OPTIKS Graphics Editor by Keith P. Graham Thank you for choosing OPTIKS. OPTIKS is a system for changing 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 OKPRIV.EXE (or OKFREE.EXE if you are testing out the free version) 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: OKPRIV and press return. (enter OKFREE if you are testing the free version). 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. Renaming the OPTIKS program. The name OKPRIV is not that easy to type. After you install OPTIKS it might be a good idea to rename the OKPRIV.EXE program to OK.EXE. This makes it easy to remember how to start the program. If you rename the program, make a note to yourself that you enter OK and press return to start up OPTIKS. CHAPTER 2. Starting Up OPTIKS Change to the OPTIKS directory by entering: CD\OK and pressing return. The main OPTIKS program is called OKPRIV.EXE (I always rename this file to OK.EXE to make it short.) If you are using floppies, you can start up OPTIKS by typing OKPRIV 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 OKPRIV command to work, OKPRIV.EXE must be on the current disk and current directory OR there must be a PATH set so that DOS can find the OKPRIV.EXE file. If you want to start OKPRIV then you either have to be on the C: disk in the OK directory or you have to set the path so that OKPRIV 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 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. File types which the DEMO version of OPTIKS can write are marked with an asterisk (*). 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 overwriting 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 (or OKPRIV if you have a private version) 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: OKPRIV 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: OKPRIV ;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. OPTIKS comes in a DEMO version called OKFREE and a private version called OKPRIV. If you are using the DEMO version which is distributed through shareware you will not be able to save your picture in any format except BASIC and the PCR format. BASIC formats are called BLOAD/BSAVE files or PUT/GET files. Both types of file can be used in programs written in basic. In addition, a lot of older programs use the BLOAD BSAVE option to store and retrieve images. PUT/GET files are used by Fontasy. 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 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: OKPRIV ? 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 OKPRIV ? 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 OKPRIV ? 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 - 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. ╔══════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 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. 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. (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 yo 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 OKFREE or OKPRIV 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 ? Where OK is the name of you version of OPTIKS (OKFREE or OKPRIV). 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. b) Can't save a file. I frequently get calls with a very angry person saying they paid a disk copying company $3.00 to get OPTIKS and now they can't save in any of the formats that they want to save in. I hear the word Rip-Off a lot. Let me explain about the real world. There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. I have produced over 80 shareware programs. Except for OPTIKS I receive very little. On a good week I could receive ten or fifteen dollars (not even beer money). This is on programs such as FastFind and TXT2COM which have been reviewed in national magazines and given high marks. The great-grandfather of OPTIKS was FMAC which is still one of the most highly circulated programs ever put on BBS's and I receive nothing for it. As soon as I crippled OPTIKS I started to make money. It is sad but true. TANSTAAFL. I receive nothing from companies which copy my programs without permission and tout OKFREE as being fully functional. They distribute version as much as two years out of date. I have never given permission to anyone except "Public Software Library" to distribute my shareware. I am the one that gets the phone calls a two in the morning. If OPTIKS refuses to save in a format other than PCR or Basic, then you have the free version. Send me $129.95 and you will get the latest fully functional version of OPTIKS. If you paid the money and are having problems with OKPRIV then I apologize for the emotional outburst I just finished writing. Your disk may be full or write protected, or you have found a legitimate (or illegitimate) bug and I need to know. Give me a call at (914) 623-4161 so I can get to work. 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 PC-Rockland. 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 PC- Rockland. Canon has given me permission to distribute it to paid 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 OKPRIV and press return. If you have renamed the OKPRIV.EXE program to OK.EXE you can start up OPTIKS by entering OK. 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 (also basic programs) .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 ? HP Gallery on Exhibit, Graphics Gallery .GEM No V GEM Draw .GMF No V Computer Graphics Metafile - Various Vendors .GIF Some R Compuserve 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 (graphics) .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 Professional Graphics 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 (OPTIKS reference only) .RLE Yes R Compuserve, 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 Files (TIFF) .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