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DELUXE PHOTOLAB
MANUAL
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.............................................1
ABOUT THE MANUAL.......................................1
CHAPTER ONE: GETTING STARTED.............................3
SOFTWARE...............................................3
HARDWARE...............................................3
ORGANIZING YOUR DISKS..................................4
POWER UP...............................................5
STARTING A PROGRAM.....................................6
THE MENUS..............................................7
QUITTING A PROGRAM.....................................10
PAINT
CHAPTER TWO: GUIDED TOUR...............................17
CHAPTER THREE: THE ELEMENTS............................37
CHAPTER FOUR: TUTORIALS................................59
CHAPTER FIVE: REFERENCE................................69
POSTERS
CHAPTER SIX: GUIDED TOUR...............................121
CHAPTER SEVEN: REFERENCE...............................129
COLORS
CHAPTER EIGHT: GUIDED TOUR.............................141
CHAPTER NINE: TUTORIALS................................157
CHAPTER TEN: REFERENCE.................................167
APPENDICES
A: COLOR THEORY........................................189
B: AMIGA DISPLAY MODES.................................193
C: ABOUT THE PICTURES..................................201
D: KEYBOARD COMMANDS...................................207
INDEX....................................................215
INTRODUCTION
DeluxePhotoLab is a collection of three powerful graphics tools in once
package. Each of the three programs - Paint, Colors, and Posters - is a
breakthrough in its class, and together they offer a comprehensive solution
for painting.
Paint lets you paint in every Amiga display mode, including Hold and Modify
Interlaced. Now you can create those photo quality images you've yearned
after, or you can touch up and combine digitized images without sacrificing
resolution or color. You can even work on multiple screens in different
display modes simultaneously, and your pictures can be as large as your
computer's memory can accommodate.
Colors helps you process your existing pictures. Whether you need to change
the colors, convert display modes, or resize the picture, Colors makes it
straightforward. You can upgrade your art from Low Resolution to Hold and
Modify Interlaced display mode without any fuss.
Posters prints your pictures in any size up to 100 square feet, and it can
anti-alias while it prints. You'll be amazed at the quality of the
printouts.
We've mentioned only a few of the things you can do with these programs,
and in a moment, you'll see for yourself just how powerful DeluxePhotoLab
is.
ABOUT THE MANUAL
We realize that you don't want to spend a lot of time reading a manual. You
just bought some great software, and you want to get started with it right
away. This manual is organized so you can use only as much of it as you
need, and so you can learn to use DeluxePhotoLab at a pace that suits you
best. Understanding how the manual is organized will help you get the most
from it in the least time, so be sure to read the next few paragraphs.
The first thing you'll notice is that the manual is divided into five major
sections.
The first section contains a general table of contents, this introduction,
and a Getting Started section, which covers the absolute fundamentals
everyone should know.
1
The next three sections cover Paint, Posters, and Colors as separate
programs. When you are using one of the programs, you can turn to the
section of the manual that applies to it to find information quickly. Each
of these sections contains a Guided Tour, for those who want a structured
introduction to the program's features, and a Reference, for information
about specific features. The Paint and Colors sections also contain
Tutorials that explain the more powerful and complex features of each
program. It isn't necessary to use all chapters for each program, but the
more chapters you use, the more likely you are to get the most out of the
programs.
The last section of this manual contains the Appendices and an Index. The
index is a valuable tool for finding information quickly.
2
GETTING STARTED
This chapter is designed to get you up and running quickly. To that end, we
tell you only the essentials. We recommend that all users read through this
chapter to make sure you have all of the necessary hardware and software.
You'll also learn how to start a program, how to load a picture, and how to
quit a program.
SOFTWARE
Your DeluxePhotoLab package contains two disks: the program disk,
containing three programs (Paint, Posters, and Colors)that give you
everything you need to perform high quality painting and image processing,
and the art disk, a collection of images you can use in your work and as
you learn to use the programs. These images are stored in two drawers,
labeled according to the display mode (HAMx400 or HAMx200-HAM is an
abbreviation of Hold And Modify) of the images they contain. As you will
see shortly, you access these images by first specifying the drawer, and
then specifying the image. You can save your work to disk in the same way.
HARDWARE
To use DeluxePhotoLab you will need an Amiga with at least one megabyte of
random access memory, a monitor, and some initialized blank disks for
saving your work. Finally, if you intend to print the files you create
using either the printing function in Paint or by creating a poster with
Posters, you will need a printer. Consult your Amiga Users Guide for
information about connecting printers and other peripherals to the Amiga.
3
ORGANIZING YOUR DISKS
We assume that you already know how to copy disks, how to delete files, and
how to move files from one disk to another. If you are not familiar with
all of these procedures, we suggest you consult your Amiga Users Guide
before going any further.
The first thing you should do is to make one or more working copies of your
DeluxePhotoLab disks to reduce the chance of anything happening to the
original. Your Amiga Users Guide has information on making copies. We will
be looking at some of the pictures on the art disk in the Guided Tours and
Tutorials.
You will need one or more blank initialized disks handy for saving your
work. Your Amiga Users Guide has information on initializing disks.
INSTALLING ON A HARD DISK
If you own a hard drive, you will probably want to install DeluxePhotoLab.
The following steps assume that you started the computer with a standard
Workbench that has been configured properly to support a hard disk. If you
wish to install the program using some other method, feel free to do so.
Create a Drawer named DeluxePhotoLab on your hard disk
(Click the Empty Drawer icon to select it. Choose Duplicate from the
Workbench menu. In a moment, a new drawer is created called "copy of
Empty". Click the "copy of Empty" drawer to select it. Choose Rename from
the Workbench menu. Press Del several times to erase the drawer name. Type
"DeluxePhotoLab" and press Return. You now have a drawer named
DeluxePhotoLab.)
Insert the DeluxePhotoLab program disk into a disk drive.
Double-click the program disk icon to view the contents of the disk.
Click the Paint icon. Then hold down the Shift key and click the other two
program icons-Colors, and Posters. You now have all three programs
selected.
4
Hold down the Shift key and drag the three icons so that the one you are
pointing to is directly over the DeluxePhotoLab drawer icon. Release the
mouse button. Now the Workbench copies the three programs into your hard
disk drawer.
Replace the program disk with the DeluxePhotoLab art disk.
Double-click the art disk icon to view the contents of the disk.
Drag the HAMx200 and HAMx400 icons onto the DeluxePhotoLab drawer icon the
same way you dragged the program icons above.
You now have copies of the three DeluxePhotoLab programs and the two art
drawers on your hard disk.
POWER UP
When you're ready to begin, just follow these instructions:
Turn on the computer and monitor. (Amiga1000 users, start by inserting the
Kickstart 1.2 disk in the internal disk drive before turning on the
computer.) When the request for the Workbench disk appears on the screen,
insert your working copy of the DeluxePhotoLab program disk.
The drive will spin for a few seconds, and then the DeluxePhotoLab disk
icon will appear on the right side of the screen.
Double-click the disk icon (move the mouse pointer onto the icon and click
the left mouse button twice in rapid succession) to open the disk window.
The disk window opens to reveal icons for the three programs in
DeluxePhotoLab (Paint, Colors, and Posters) plus the Amiga Preferences
program.
5
STARTING A PROGRAM
To start one of the programs, simply double-click that program's icon.
Right now let's start Paint, so we can show you how menus work, and how to
load a picture. (If you are an experienced Amiga user, you can simply start
the program and skip down to the description of the Load Requester, so
you'll know how to get the most out of it).
Double-click the Paint icon, the triangular icon with a hand holding a
paint brush in the center.
When you start Paint, the program presents a requester (a window that
requires some input from you) inviting you to select a display mode. This
requester (the Display Mode Requester) is explained in the first chapter of
the Paint section of this manual. The default settings, the ones the
program automatically uses unless you specify otherwise, are displayed in
the requester (Low Resolution, Non-Interlaced,5, and Full). We'll look at
some of the other options in the Paint section of the manual. For now,
we'll use the default settings.
Click Open with the left mouse button to tell Paint to use the default
settings.
This last command brings us to the Painting Screen, with the large painting
area and the Palette and Toolbox at the top.
6
THE MENUS
The menus in Paint work just like other Amiga menus: point to the Title Bar
and press the right mouse button to display the Menu Bar. Then, point to a
menu name to open that menu. Finally, drag the arrow down to one of the
menu options and release the mouse button to select that option. Let's try
it.
Point to the Title Bar and hold down the right mouse button to reveal the
Menu Bar. Point to the Project Menu to display its options. Now drag the
pointer down to the About option near the bottom of the menu. (Notice that
as you drag, the option you are pointing to becomes highlighted. This lets
you know exactly which option you are pointing to.) Finally, release the
mouse button. A requester appears, showing the programmer's name and the
copyright information for Paint.
7
You've just selected the About option from the Project menu. In the future,
that's how we'll write the instruction: "Select About from the Project
menu".
Click Cancel to close the About box.
Some menu options present submenus to the right side of the option. In
these cases, you can drag the highlight to the right and down again to
select an option from the submenu.
LOADING A PICTURE
Before you move on. Let's load a picture so you can see how the Load
Requester works. As an example, we'll load the picture called Airwar.
Select Load from the Project menu to bring up the Load Requester.
8
In the middle of the Load Requester is a list of files, directories, and
volumes. You can scroll through these file names (not all of them are
always visible at one time) by dragging the scroll box (the small rectangle
within the dark vertical column on the right side of the requester) up and
down. Just point to the scroll box, press the left mouse button, and drag
it up or down.
You can also scroll through the file listings one at a time by clicking on
the up and down arrows, or you can scroll one page at a time by clicking in
the areas above and below the scroll box. Incidentally, note that the size
of the scroll box is a function of the number of file names, the scroll box
is relatively small, to show that the ones currently visible are only a
small percentage of the whole. On the other hand, if all the file names are
visible at one time, the scroll box will fill the entire column.
Above the file list you see an edit field that displays the current volume
and directory names. This box is called the Path gadget. (By using
directories, to classify your pictures, you can keep related images
together, in the same way you keep related papers together in one file
folder. See your Amiga manual for information on creating directories, also
called drawers on the Amiga) . In this case, the setting is PhotoLab:,
which means that you are in the root directory of the PhotoLab disk. There
is a second edit field below the file list for entering the name of the
file you want to load.
9
If you are using only one disk drive, eject your working copy of the
DeluxePhotoLab program disk and replace it with your working copy of the
art disk. (If you are using two drives, put your art disk in the external
drive, press v on the keyboard--this keyboard equivalent displays the
volumes in the file list--and click the volume name of your art disk,
PHOTOLAB ART:.
Now press d on the keyboard to display the list of directories. Click the
directory HAMx200.
In a moment, this directory name is added in the Path gadget and the
contents of the directory are displayed in the file list.
Now click the file named Airwar (the file name appears in the File gadget)
and click Load.
The disk drive will spin for a few moments and the Airwar picture gradually
appears on the screen. (This load will take longer than normal, because
the picture you are loading is actually saved as a Hold and Modify image
with 4,096 colors, and it must be converted during the load process to
display the picture in only 32 colors. Later, be sure to load the picture
again to see what a difference an extra 4,064 colors can make).
QUITTING A PROGRAM
When you are finished using a program, you can exit by selecting Quit from
the Project menu. In all three programs, the Project menu is the first menu
on the left end of the Menu Bar, and Quit is at the bottom of the Project
menu. If you've made changes to a picture using Paint or Colors, and then
select Quit without saving your changes, a requester asks if you want to
save your changes before quitting the program.
10
Now that you've seen how to start a program and load a file, you might want
to explore the features of each program on your own. The Reference section
for each program will answer any questions you might have. If you'd like to
be introduced to the features in a more structured manner, with
explanations along the way, work through the Guided Tour for each program.
After that, if you want to learn even more about a program, work through
the additional chapters. This manual was organized so you can use only as
much as you need, but keep in mind that the more you read, the better you
will understand each program.
11
CONTENTS
CHAPTER TWO: GUIDED TOUR.........................................17
WHAT YOU'LL NEED...............................................17
SELECTING A DISPLAY MODE.......................................17
THE PAINTING SCREEN............................................19
THE TITLE BAR..................................................19
THE MENUS......................................................20
THE PALETTE....................................................20
PAINTING WITH THE MOUSE......................................22
COORDINATES..................................................23
PICKING COLORS FROM THE SCREEN...............................23
THE BUILT-IN BRUSHES...........................................24
THE TOOLBOX....................................................25
SAVING YOUR WORK...............................................32
OPENING A SECOND SCREEN........................................33
LOADING A PICTURE..............................................34
RESIZE DRAW....................................................35
CHAPTER THREE: THE ELEMENTS......................................37
WHAT YOU'LL NEED...............................................37
1. THE CUSTOM BRUSHES............................................38
CREATING A RECTANGULAR BRUSH..................................38
CREATING AN IRREGULAR SHAPED BRUSH............................39
DRAWING A BRUSH...............................................39
THE BACKGROUND COLOR IS TRANSPARENT...........................40
A BRUSH IS A LITTLE PICTURE...................................40
BRUSH ROTATIONS...............................................41
HANDLE........................................................42
2. THE SCREEN....................................................42
HIDING THE TOOLS, THE MENU BAR, AND THE POINTER...............42
MAGNIFYING AND ZOOMING........................................43
PAGE SIZE.....................................................44
AFFECT........................................................44
SHOW PAGE.....................................................45
SCREEN RESOLUTIONS............................................45
3. THE PALETTE...................................................47
THE PALETTE SCREEN............................................47
CREATING COLORS...............................................48
COPYING COLORS INTO THE PALETTE...............................49
COPYING COLORS FROM THE PICTURE...............................50
INDICATING A RANGE OF COLORS..................................51
CREATING A SPREAD OF COLORS...................................51
PAINTING WITH PAINT SET COLORS................................52
LOADING AND SAVING PALETTES AND PAINT SETS....................53
THE THREE PALETTES............................................53
THE COLOR PALETTE AND SCREEN FORMATS..........................53
4. THE TOOLS.....................................................54
MODIFYING TOOLS...............................................54
5. THE PAINT MODES...............................................57
6. TEXT..........................................................58
CHAPTER FOUR: TUTORIALS..........................................59
WHAT YOU'LL NEED..............................................59
1. THE PAINT MODES...............................................59
2. THE SHADE CONTROL.............................................62
3. BRUSH FILLS...................................................67
CHAPTER FIVE: REFERENCE..........................................69
1. STARTING PAINT................................................69
2. THE DISPLAY MODE REQUESTER....................................70
3. THE PAINTING SCREEN...........................................72
4. THE PALETTE SCREEN............................................75
5. THE TOOLBOX...................................................79
6. MENU ITEMS....................................................85
PROJECT MENU..................................................85
BRUSHES MENU..................................................95
MODES MENU....................................................99
OPTIONS MENU..................................................107
FONTS MENU....................................................115
7. MEMORY MANAGEMENT.............................................117
PAINT: GUIDED TOUR
This section of the manual tells you everything you need to know about
Paint, the multiple display mode painting program included in
DeluxePhotoLab. If you are familiar with DeluxePaint, you'll find that the
tools, menu options, and in some cases keyboard equivalents are much like
those in DeluxePaint, you'll find that the tools, menu options, and in some
cases keyboard equivalents are much like those in DeluxePaint. If you are
an experienced DeluxePaint user, you may want to jump right in and begin
using Paint and look in the Reference section for answers to any questions
you might have. However, even experienced DeluxePaint users will benefit
from reading sections of the manual that explain the Paint Modes, which
help you create paint effects in HAM display mode. The tutorial section
explains some of the painting options and gives suggestions for their
practical use.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
To complete this guided tour, you'll need your working copies of the
DeluxePhotoLab program disk and art disk. If you want to save your work,
you'll need an initialized disk with a fair amount of available space for
saving large files.
SELECTING A DISPLAY MODE
When you start Paint, the first thing you see is the Display Mode
Requester.
This requester lets you select the display mode you want to work in. To
change the settings in this requester, click the appropriate area. Right
now we'll show you how the gadgets work. In Chapter Two,"The Elements,"
we'll explain each of the display modes in more detail.
Point to the words Low Resolution and click once.
17
Each time you click the top half of the Screen Type gadget, it cycles to
the next setting. Paint supports all Amiga display modes: Low Resolution,
High Resolution, Extra HalfBrite, and Hold and Modify (HAM). In addition,
each of these modes can be either Interlaced or Non-Interlaced.
Click Non-Interlaced.
Each click on the bottom half of the Screen Type gadget toggles the
selection between Non-Interlaced and Interlaced.
The Depth gadget lets you select how many bit planes (and thus how many
colors) the display mode uses. The number of planes you can select depends
on the Screen Type you selected. (Appendix B: Amiga Display Modes explains
how the number of bit planes is related to the display modes and the number
of colors available).
Click the top half of the Screen Type gadget several times and watch as the
Depth setting changes.
When you select a screen type, the Depth setting is automatically changed
to the maximum number of bit planes supported by the screen type. You can
change the Depth setting to fewer bit planes as long as the setting is
supported by the screen type. The Depth gadget restricts you to the
acceptable settings. Let's take a look at how this affects a couple of
screen types.
Set Screen Type to Hold and Modify. Click the number below Depth. In Hold
and Modify mode, the screen can have either 5 or 6 bit planes.
Now set the Screen type to Low Resolution and click the Depth gadget. In
Low resolution, the screen can have 1 to 5 bit planes.
Finally, the Size gadget lets you select whether the page size will use the
full screen or only the top 3/4 of the screen. This is especially useful if
you want an extra screen to cut and paste to, but want to conserve on
memory.
When the Display Mode Requester shows the settings you want to use, (for
now, set the Screen Type to Low Resolution Non-Interlaced with a depth of 5
bit planes and a full size screen) click OPEN to open a screen in that
format.
18
THE PAINTING SCREEN
Now that you've started Paint and selected your screen format, you are
presented with the Painting Screen. Along the top of the screen are the
Title Bar, Palette, and Toolbox.
The area below the Toolbox is where you work on your pictures. This area is
called the page. The normal page size is the same as the screen size, but
in the next chapter you'll see that you can make the page much larger. When
your page is larger than the screen, you can scroll the page by pressing
the arrow (cursor) keys on the keyboard. When you use the arrow keys, think
of them as moving the screen rather than the picture; pressing the down
arrow moves the screen down, so it looks like the page is moving up.
THE TITLE BAR
The Title Bar lists the name of your picture (in this case Untitled A). It
also lists the current settings in the Modes menu and whether you are using
a custom brush or a built-in brush. At the moment, this information
probably doesn't mean anything to you, but as you become familiar with the
program, you'll find that the information in the Title Bar can save you a
lot of time.
19
THE MENUS
The menus in Paint work just like other Amiga menus: point to the Title Bar
and press the right mouse button to display the Menu Bar. Then, still
holding down the mouse button, point to a menu name to open that menu.
Finally, pull the highlight down to one of the menu options and release the
mouse button to select that option.
THE PALETTE
The upper left area of the Painting Screen contains the Palette where you
select the color you want to paint with. The number of colors in the
Palette depends on the display mode you are using. Note that the painting
area below the Palette is black. This is the default background color. If
you were to paint with the background color directly onto the background,
it would appear to have no effect, as if you were putting black paint onto
a black canvas. As you'll see in a moment, painting with the background
color is a way of erasing an image on the page.
To the right of the Palette is the Color Indicator, two rectangles side by
side. The left rectangle shows the foreground color. You can change this
color at anytime by clicking one of the other colors in the Palette with
the left mouse button. Try it.
20
Move the pointer to one of the colors in the Palette and click.
Notice that the left rectangle of the Color Indicator changes to show the
new foreground color. Click the other colors and see how the Color
Indicator changes each time. Also notice that numbers appear above the
Color Indicator when you click on a color for the first time, and these
numbers change each time you click a different color. These numbers show
you the RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) values of the color you clicked most
recently. We'll say a lot more about RGB values later in the manual, for
now, just remember that the values are listed above the Color Indicator.
The right rectangle in the Color Indicator shows the current background
color.
To change the background color, move the pointer to one of the colors in
the Palette and click the right mouse button.
Notice that the right rectangle in the Color Indicator is now filled with
the new background color; the painting area itself is still the old
background color. Paint lets you maintain the old background color as a
"wash" over the new background color, and will keep it there until you
clear the painting area. Try it now.
Click the button labeled CLR in the top right corner of the screen. This
clears the screen of the old background color and replaces it with the new
one.
Before you do anything else, let's look at one of the most important tools
in the Toolbox, the UND button. Located just below the CLR button, the UND
button will generally "undo" your last painting action.
Click UND now to bring back the old background color.
UND reverses your last action, provided there has not been an intervening
mouse click; if you were to click CLR twice, for example, clicking UND
would not reverse the clear command.
21
PAINTING WITH THE MOUSE
Now that you've seen how to choose colors from the Palette, let's put brush
to paper and create our first free form painting.
Select a foreground and background color by clicking with the appropriate
buttons on the palette. Choose contrasting colors such as light blue for
the foreground and gray for the background.
Click CLR to cover your page with the background color.
Move the pointer over to the page (where it turns into cross-hair) and,
while holding down the left mouse button, paint an image on the screen.
(If you've already played with some of the tools, make sure that the first
tool in the Toolbox is highlighted.) Don't worry about quality for the
moment--a squiggly line or a rough circle will do.
Now press the right mouse button and paint over your first image.
Note that the right mouse button has the effect of erasing your painting,
although what you are actually doing is painting over it with the
background color. Notice that this parallels the rule we noted above for
selecting colors from the Palette: select the foreground color by clicking
with the left button and the background color by clicking with the right
button.
Before we move on, let's scroll the page a bit so you see how this works.
Draw a little scribble on the screen so you'll be able to see it move. Now
press the down arrow on your keyboard to move the screen down to see lower
on your page.
As we mentioned earlier, the page is normally the same size as the screen.
You're able to scroll it up and down a little right now, because the Menu
Bar and Toolbox are hiding part of the page. If your page were wider, you
would be able to scroll it sideways also.
22
COORDINATES
You might have noticed that as you painted on the screen, the numbers to
the right of the color indicator changed. These numbers show you the
current position (the coordinates) of the cross-hair, and thus the position
of your brush.
When you are not pressing a mouse button, the Coordinates show you the
position of the brush relative to the upper left corner of your page. The
top number shows you the number of pixels from the left side of the page.
The bottom number shows you the number of pixels from the top of the page.
If you press a mouse button, the Coordinates reset to +000 and +000. As you
move the brush, the Coordinates show positive numbers for the number of
pixels the brush has moved to the right or down from it original position.
Negative numbers indicate the number of pixels the brush has moved to the
left or up from its original position.
PICKING COLORS FROM THE SCREEN
So far you've been selecting your colors by clicking the colors in the
Palette. If you like, you can also select your colors directly from the
screen. This is useful if you are working on fine details, or if you are
working with many shades of the same basic color. For example, if you are
painting a rose and are using eight different shades of red, it might be
easier to pick the color you need directly from the screen where you are
working.
To do this, click the Color Indicator and move the pointer back to the
screen. The pointer is labeled "Pick". Point to a color directly from the
screen and click either the left or the right mouse button to select a new
foreground or background color. (An even easier way to select a color from
the screen is to use the keyboard equivalent. Press the comma (,) key to
get the Pick pointer and then click a color).
Practice painting with the mouse for a while and try selecting colors from
the screen. Remember, you can always click UND to reverse your last action,
or CLR to clear the screen and start afresh. As soon as you're ready, move
on to the next section, where we will be examining Paint's collection of
brushes and tools.
23
THE BUILT IN BRUSHES
So far you've been painting with the single pixel brush that's selected
when you first load Paint (a pixel, short for picture element, is the
smallest unit observable on the screen). Paint includes sixteen built-in
brushes: four square ones, four round ones, and eight diagonal lines. The
built-in brushes are in the Shapes option of the Brushes menu. This is an
example of a menu item that presents a submenu.
Open the Brushes menu and pull the highlight down to Shapes; a submenu of
brush shapes appears. Now pull the highlight to the right and select one of
the brushes. When you release the mouse button, the new brush is attached
to the cross-hair.
With your new brush selected, paint as before, using the left button to
paint with the foreground color and the right button to paint (or erase)
with the background color. In the next section we will look at the painting
tools and how they interact with the brushes.
24
THE TOOLBOX
The fourteen icons along the top right portion of the Painting Screen
control the painting tools. Because any brush can operate with any given
painting tool (except the Text tool), you have a wide variety of
combinations at your fingertips.
To select a tool, click it with the left mouse button.
We'll describe the tool in order, moving left to right:
THE DOTTED FREEHAND TOOL allows fast freehand painting with a built-in
brush. No matter how fast you paint with this tool, it tries to keep up
with you; this makes it ideal for sketching out a shape quickly before
concentrating on the intricate details. Note, however, that the faster you
go, the bigger the gaps in your painting. Once you have roughed out a shape
with the Dotted Freehand tool, you can then refine your image using some of
the other tools. Try painting with it using different size brushes to get a
feeling for how it works.
THE CONTINUOUS FREEHAND TOOL. Because it produces unbroken lines, but
doesn't keep up with you if you paint quickly, the Continuous Freehand tool
is better suited for slower, more painstaking painting. Note, however, that
the smaller the brush, the better it is at keeping up. Try it with
different brushes to see how brush size affects speed.
25
THE STRAIGHT LINE TOOL lets you paint straight lines just by clicking and
dragging the mouse. Here's how it works:
First, click the Straight Line tool to activate it. Then move the
cross-hair to the point on the page where you would like the line to begin.
Now press the left mouse button to anchor the line at that point, and,
while holding the button down, drag the mouse to the point where you want
the line to end.
When you release the button, you have a straight line in your selected
foreground color and brush size.
THE CURVE TOOL paints curves that can be defined by four points, such as
S-curves. It works much line the Straight Line tool except that it requires
one additional mouse click to complete the curve. Here's how:
First, anchor the first point of the curve by pressing the mouse button.
Drag it to the point where you want the curve to end, and release the
button.
Now, you've defined the two endpoints of the curve. As you move the mouse
away from the endpoints, you'll notice that the line is still
"active,"behaving as though it were a rubber band attached to the
cross-hair. Accordingly, the line will curve to follow the cross-hair
wherever up drag it.
Drag the line until the arc for the end half of the S-curve is the shape
you want.
Then hold down the mouse button and move the cursor to the other side of
the line, to form the beginning half of the S-curve. Release the mouse
button to complete the curve.
With a little practice, you'll be able to make curves of any shape and
size, giving you much more flexibility than any collection of plastic
templates with their limited selection of shapes and sizes. Try joining a
series of curves to make flowing shapes with changes in curve direction.
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THE AIRBRUSH TOOL is a full-featured airbrush with adjustable tips and
nozzles. By using the Airbrush in combination with the different brushes,
you can create a variety of effects, ranging from a fine one-pixel spray to
a coarse spray made with the big brushes. In the following chapter we will
see how to adjust the width of the spray, but for now let's try it as is.
Click the Airbrush tool with the left button, and then try painting with it
using the various brushes.
Try it with t he single-pixel brush, and then try it with the big brushes.
Note that, just like a regular airbrush, if you keep the mouse button
pressed without moving the mouse, the paint continues to build up in one
spot.
THE TEXT TOOL lets you enter lines of text anywhere on the screen in
whatever color you choose.
Click the Text took and place the small rectangular cursor on the page by
clicking it down. Now type a line of text.
The letters you type appear in the current foreground color. If you make a
mistake, you can backspace on the same line and type again. You can press
Return to start a new line directly below the point where you first placed
the cursor. However, once you Return, or click the mouse again, your text
becomes part of the picture, and you can no longer backspace over the text.
If you type several lines by pressing Return between lines, and then find
that you made a mistake in one of the lines, you can remove all of the text
by clicking Undo before you click anywhere else on the screen.
You can select different fonts and styles for your text by selecting them
from the Fonts menu. We'll say more about this in Chapter two, but if you
like, experiment by selecting different fonts and styles from the menu.
THE FILL TOOL fills any enclosed shape with the current foreground or
background color.
To use the Fill tool, click the icon with the left mouse button, move the
cursor (which now looks like a paint can) to an enclosed shape, and click
one of the mouse buttons.
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Note that the Fill tool fills all the way to the boundaries of an enclosed
shape. If the shape is not completely enclosed (that is, if there is a hold
in its perimeter), the paint will "leak" through and fill the entire page.
If this ever happens, you can stop the filling process by pressing the
Spacebar. This aborts the current Fill command and returns the screen to
its pre-command state.
The paint can's spout--the part you must put inside the enclosed shape--is
the small (one-pixel) dot at the base of the icon. With careful
maneuvering, you can fill a space as small as one pixel, so long as the
spout coincides with that space.
THE RECTANGLE TOOL lets you paint squares or rectangles, either unfilled or
filled with the current foreground or background color. Note that the
rectangle icon is painted in two halves when it is not selected. This is
because it is actually two tools in one--the top one creates unfilled
shapes, while the bottom one creates shapes filled with the current
foreground or background color.
Let's try making a few rectangles.
Click the top half of the icon with the left mouse button. Move the pointer
onto the painting area (where it changes into a cross-hair), press the left
mouse button to anchor one of the corners of the rectangle, and, while
holding the mouse button down, drag the mouse away from the anchor point.
You can drag the mouse down and to the right (in which case the first
button press anchors the rectangle's top left corner), or in any other
direction you wish. In any case, the rectangle is completed as soon as you
release the button. Note that it is unfilled and bordered by the current
foreground color. You can also create an unfilled rectangle bordered by the
background by the current foreground color. You can also create an unfilled
rectangle bordered by the background color by using the right mouse button.
First, click another color on the Palette with the right mouse button, and
then make a rectangle using the right mouse button.
To create a filled rectangle, click the bottom half of the Rectangle icon
with the left mouse button and repeat the above procedure.
This time, the rectangles you create will be filled with either the
foreground or the background color, depending on which mouse button you
press when you create the rectangle. Incidentally, if you hold down the
Ctrl key as you paint, you can constrain the rectangle so that its height
and width are equal. (Note: Because the Amiga's pixels are not perfectly
square,"constrained" rectangles will not appear exactly square on the
screen.)
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THE OVAL TOOL works like the Rectangle too:
Click the top part of the icon with the left mouse button to get an
unfilled shape, or the bottom part to get a filled shape. Move to the
painting area, then press and drag with the left button to create an oval
with the current foreground color, or with the right mouse button to create
an oval bordered or filled with the current background color.
If you hold down the Ctrl key as you paint, you can constrain the oval so
that it is a circle.
When you first load Paint, ovals are painted from corner-to-corner as you
drag the mouse. This means that the oval is painted to fit the rectangular
area defined by your mouse movement. The Center Oval option lets you paint
your ovals and circles from the center outward. This option is located in
the Preferences submenu of the Options menu. For more information on this
option, see the discussion in the Paint Reference section under Options
Menu.
THE FREEFORM SHAPE TOOL lets you paint a filled freeform shape, or a filled
polygon. Here's how it works:
To paint a filled freeform shape, click the top of the tool with the left
mouse button to select a freeform shape. Paint your freeform shape just as
you would with the Contentious Freehand tool. When you release the mouse
button, the shape you drew is filled with either the current foreground
color or the current background color, depending on which mouse button you
used to draw the shape.
Note that if the cross-hair is not at the starting point of your shape when
you release the mouse button, the shape is completed with a straight line
from the cursor position to the starting point.
To paint a filled polygon shape, click the bottom half of the tool with the
left mouse button, move the cross-hair into the painting area, hold down
the button and drag to paint the first line, as if you were using the
Straight Line tool. This time, however, you will notice that your
cross-hair is still connected to the first line by a second straight line.
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Click the button again to finish that line, and so on until you have
completed your polygon. The polygon is completed as soon as you click the
button with the cross-hair on your starting point.
Because it can sometimes be a little tricky to end up on the exact pixel
you started with, you can complete a polygon at anytime by clicking twice
without moving the mouse button between the clicks. This automatically
connects the current cursor position to the point of origin and fills the
polygon with the current foreground or background color, depending on which
mouse button you used to start drawing the polygon.
Try painting some five-pointed stars with the Filled Polygon tool and see
what happens.
THE BRUSH SELECTOR lets you select any part of your picture as a brush.
To see it in action, click the top half of the scissors icon with the left
mouse button, then move the cursor over to the painting area.
Notice that your cursor is now a large cross-hair that reaches to the edges
of the screen.
Select one of the stars you made earlier by putting the center of the
cross- hair to the upper left of the star. Then, while holding down the
left mouse button, drag the cursor to the lower right of the star, as if
you were using the Rectangle tool to enclose the star in a box. When you
release the mouse button, the cursor now has a copy of the star attached to
it.
This second star is your new brush! To stamp a star in a new location,
click the left mouse button. There's no need to stop with one--go ahead and
star-spangle the screen. We will be covering this powerful feature in
greater depth in the next chapter. For now, however, there is one aspect of
brush selection you should be aware of: if any parts of your brush consists
of the current background color, those parts will be transparent. In other
words, whenever you pick up a brush, it's as if you are picking up only the
non-background colors; any background colors in the brush will remain
invisible even after you change to a new background color. This means that
you can create brushes with intricate outlines without fear of picking up a
rectangle of the surrounding background color.
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(Note: Whether or not the background color is pickup up with the brush is
controlled by the Transparency option in the Preference submenu of the
Options menu. When you first start Paint, the Transparency option is on. If
you want to pick up the background color, turn the Transparency option off
by selecting it.)
Let's try one more trick.
Click the Brush Selector again and select a star from the painting area,
but this time use the right mouse button to drag the cross-hair over the
star.
Unlike the last exercise, which yielded two stars--one unmoving original,
plus the one on your brush--this time you are picking up and moving just
the one star. While the first feature lets you copy and move anything on
the screen, the second lets you move images from one part of the screen to
another, while leaving no trace behind.
THE MAGNIFY TOOL lets you magnify any section of your work, and view it
alongside the standard-sized image.
To magnify a section of your work, click the Magnify icon. When you move
the cursor onto the page, it becomes a rectangular outline. Move the
outline to the part of the image you want to magnify, and click the mouse
button.
The part of the image included in the rectangle now appears magnified on
the right part of the screen. The left part of the screen shows the image
in its original, unmagnified form. Another way to enter the Magnify mode is
to move your cursor to the area you want to magnify, and press the m key.
You can now perform any function on either side of the screen using any of
the tools in the Toolbox. Thus, you can paint circles and squares, fill in
shapes using the Fill tool, and use any of the brushes normally available
to you. Using the four arrow keys, you can move the image around under the
"magnifying glass." In addition, by pointing your cursor anywhere on the
unmagnified or magnified portion of the screen and pressing the n key, you
can center that part of the picture in the magnified area.
Once you've magnified a part of your picture, you can increase or decrease
the amount of magnification by using the Zoom tool (the Zoom icon is the
bottom half of the Magnify icon once magnify is activated).
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Click Zoom with the left mouse button to increase the magnification (zoom
in); click with the right mouse button to decrease the magnification (zoom
out).
To quit Magnify mode when you have magnified area on the screen, click the
Magnify tool (the top half of the icon) a second time.
SAVING YOUR WORK
Before moving on the next chapter, where you'll get a closer look at some
of Paint's elements, let's see how to save and load the pictures (or
"files") you create.
In the Getting Started section of this manual, we showed you how to load a
picture. Saving a picture works much the same way.
The Save option for pictures is in the Project menu. Selecting Save brings
up the Save Requester, which works exactly like the Load Requester, except
that clicking Save saves your picture to disk.
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If you want to save your current creation, this is your chance to do so.
If you are using only one disk drive, eject your working copy of the
DeluxePhotoLab disk and replace it with your data disk. Now click anywhere
in the File gadget, type in the name you have chosen for your new file, and
click Save.
If you are using two drives, put your data disk in the external drive,
press v on the keyboard--this keyboard equivalent displays the volumes in
the file list-- and click the volume name of your data disk. Now click the
File gadget and type the name for your file. Click Save to complete the
process.
The disk drive will spin for a few moments; when the red light goes out,
the file is saved.
The next time you save this file (it's a good idea to save work in progress
every 15 minutes or so, so that a power failure doesn't turn hours of work
into a bitter memory), the Save requester uses this same information, which
means you won't need to type anything more unless you want to change the
file name. You might want to do this to save it under another name, if you
want to save each version as a separate file. In that case, you would click
the file gadget as before, backspace over the old file name (or over those
parts you want to change) and type in the new name. Or you could just keep
adding suffixes, such as 1,2,3, etc., To signify succeeding versions.
OPENING A SECOND SCREEN
One of the very useful features of Paint, is the ability to work on more
than one screen at a time. Even more important, the screens can be in
different display modes. At the beginning of this chapter, you started
Paint and opened a screen in Low Resolution. With this screen still open,
you can open a second screen by selecting New from the Project menu.
New in the Project menu brings up the Display Mode Requester, for you to
select the display mode for your new screen. Set the Screen Type to Hold
and Modify, Interlaced mode and click Open.
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In a second, you have a second screen open in Hold and Modify mode. You can
confirm that your original screen is still open by pointing to the Title
Bar, holding down the left mouse button, and pulling down the screen to see
the ones beneath it. Your original screen is behind the Palette Screen, so
you'll need to pull the new screen all the way to the bottom to see the old
one. Click the Front and Back gadgets (the small overlapping squares in the
upper right corner of each Amiga screen) to move to a different screen when
you need to.
The active screen is always the last screen you clicked on. So, if you
wanted to make your original Low Resolution screen the currently active
screen, pull down the HAM screen and click the Low Resolution screen. Now
your Low Resolution screen is the current screen. This is particulary
important when working with the Palette Screen, because changes to the
Palette affect the currently active screen only. (We'll explain the
Palette Screen in detail in the next chapter).
LOADING A PICTURE
Now that we've seen how to save a file, and how to open a new screen, let's
see how to load one of the pictures on the Art Disk. Let's load the one
called Astronaut. (If you worked through Getting Started, you already know
how to do this. Try it without following the instructions to see how much
you remember. You can always check the instructions if you get stuck.)
First, make the HAM screen the current screen by clicking on it, then
insert your working copy of the DeluxePhotoLab art disk in your drive and
select Load from the Project menu. (If you have two disk drives, put the
art disk in the second drive. When the Load Requester first appears, press
V on the keyboard to display the volumes and click the volume PHOTOLAB ART.
Note that the Load Requester is just like the Save Requester in almost
every respect.
To load a file, open the directory you want by clicking on the directory
name (in this case,HAMx400). Then simply click the file name in the
requester window to put that name into the File gadget. Try it. Click any
name and watch it appear in the File gadget. Now click another name and
watch it change. When you're ready, click the file Astronaut, and then
click Load.
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The disk drive will spin for a few moments, and then the picture will
appear on the screen.
RESIZE DRAW
Before we move on to the next chapter, where we'll take a closer look at
the various elements of Paint, let's take a quick look at one of Paint's
powerful brush features. You've already seen how to select a custom brush.
Right now, we'll select the astronaut as a custom brush and then paint a
copy of him inside his helmet. Here's how it works:
Click the bottom half of the Brush Selector tool to get the freehand
selector.
Press F9 and F10 on the keyboard to remove the Title Bar and Toolbox.
Now, trace the outline of the astronaut while holding down the left mouse
button to select the entire image as a brush. You don't need to be exact in
your tracing, just cut him out quickly. When you release the mouse button,
you have the astronaut as a brush.
You probably won't be able to see the brush itself because the two screen
and the brush are using up a lot of memory, but Paint allows you to select
this large brush anyway, and shows you how big it is by displaying a
rectangle of the same dimensions. In the next steps you'll paint the brush
into the helmet.
Press F9 again to bring back the Title Bar, and select Resize Draw from the
Brushes menu.
When you move the pointer back to the painting, you'll see that it is now a
large cross-hair like the one you use to select a brush. It works the same
way, except that this option lets you select the area you want to paint the
brush into, and then puts the brush in that area in the proper size.
Move the cross-hair inside the helmet, hold down the left mouse button, and
drag down and to the right to form a rectangle with the cross-hair that
fits inside the helmet. Release the mouse button.
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In a moment, you'll see a small astronaut drawn inside the helmet. As
though the large astronaut was looking at a companion astronaut, and you
are seeing the companion's reflection in the faceplate of the helmet.
This chapter showed you some of the basics of Paint. In the next chapter,
we'll look at some of the more powerful features. In particular, we'll
introduce you to the Painting Modes in the Mode menu and show you how to
use the Palette to change your color selection. Before moving on, you might
want to load each the pictures on the art disk to see what is there.
Appendix C, About the Pictures, contains brief explanations of how some of
the pictures were created.
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PAINT: THE ELEMENTS
In this chapter we examine the fundamental "elements" that make up Paint.
If you have some experience with computer graphics software, you may want
to use this chapter to learn how Paint handles features you may have
encountered in other programs. As with any other part of this manual,
however, you should feel free to skip around and ready only those sections
that interest you at the time.
We have classified the elements as follows:
The Brushes examines Paint's custom brush capabilities. This part looks at
the various techniques available for selecting and modifying a custom
brush.
The Screen deals with those techniques that affect the entire Paint screen,
such as magnifying, zooming, screen resolutions, Page Size, and Show Page.
The Palette looks at Paint's color mixing capabilities and explains the
various operations you can perform in the Palette Screen.
The Tools looks at advanced tool techniques, and shows how to customize
some of the standard tools to create just the right tool for the job.
The Paint Modes briefly introduces how the modes affect the way paint is
applied to the page.
Text shows how to enter text, and how to move it about the page.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
To complete the examples in this section, you'll need your working copies
of the DeluxePhotoLab program disk and art disk. If you want to save your
work, you'll need an initialized disk with a fair amount of available space
for saving large files.
To begin this section, start Paint and open a single Hold and Modify
Interlaced screen. If you already have the program running, we recommend
that you restart so that the tools and option settings are all set to their
defaults.
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1. THE CUSTOM BRUSHES
As you saw in the Guided Tour in Chapter One, Paint's "anything can be a
brush" feature lets you select any image on the screen and define it as a
brush. Thus, you can keep a selection of images on a clear area of the
screen (or open a second screen for your brushes) and move them over to
your work area by picking them up as brushes. In addition, you can load and
save brushes in their own files, just as though they were pictures.
CREATING A RECTANGULAR BRUSH
To create a brush out of an on-screen image:
Click the top half of the Brush Selector (the scissors tool) with the left
mouse button. The icon changes to resemble a pair of facing brackets[].
Hold down the left mouse button, and drag the large cross-hair to form a
rectangle around the image. When you release the mouse button, an exact
copy of the image is attached to your cross-hair.
You can now paint with your new brush just as you would with any of the
builtin brushes (though painting with a custom brush is noticeably slower.)
You can drag the Brush Selector cross-hair to select an on-screen image
using either the left or the right mouse button. As we have already seen,
when you use the left button, Paint makes a duplicate of the image and
attaches it to the cross-hair, while leaving the original image in place on
the page. We also saw that if you use the right mouse button to surround
the image, the image itself becomes the brush, as if the original image had
been lifted up off the page. This technique provides an ideal method for
picking up images and moving them around the page as you experiment with
different compositions.
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CREATING AN IRREGULAR SHAPED BRUSH
As we saw earlier, clicking the top half of the Brush Selector with the
left button lets you draw a rectangle around any image on the page.
Clicking the bottom half lets you corral any image, thereby letting you
pick up shapes from a "crowded" background. To corral an image:
Click the bottom half of the Brush Selector. It becomes highlighted but the
icon remains a pair of scissors.
Outline the image you want, just as if you were drawing around it with the
Continuous Freehand tool (see "The Toolbox" in Chapter One). As soon as you
complete the outline, the complex shape becomes your new brush.
Note that the left button-right button convention works here as well:
corralling the shape with the left button duplicates the shape, while
corralling with the right button lifts it up off the background. Note also
that if you release the mouse button before you reach the starting point of
your outline, a straight line from the cross-hair position back to the
starting point completes the shape.
DRAWING A BRUSH
There is yet another way to select a custom brush for painting. The Grab
Last option in the Brush menu takes whatever you drew in your last painting
action and uses it as a custom brush. Try it out.
Simply paint on the page and then select Grab Last from the Brush Menu. You
can even paint with a custom brush and select Grab Last to create a more
complex brush.
That still isn't everything! If you hold down Shift when you select Grab
Last, you'll select what is beneath the area you painted onto. This feature
lets you select complex brushes using the tools as stencils. For example,
you could paint over an area with the Filled Oval tool, then select Grab
Last with the Shift key to select the area as a brush. Once you have your
brush, simply click UND to remove the solid circle you painted.
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THE BACKGROUND COLOR IS TRANSPARENT
When you pick up a custom brush (with either the left or right button), you
will notice that any part of the brush which matches the current background
color appears transparent. For example, if you pick up a round image
sitting on the background color, you pick up part of the background as well
(because the Brush Selector picks up rectangular shapes), but when you move
your new brush over to a contrasting image, the brush contours will appear
round and not rectangular. This is because Paint treats as transparent any
color that was designated as the background color when the brush was
created, which means you can create a brush out of a complex image (such as
intricate lace, for example) and be able to see through it to other images
behind the brush. The transparent parts of your brush remain transparent,
even after you change background colors.
There's a little more to the story than what we just told you. You can
actually choose whether or not the background color in your brush will be
transparent. Transparency is an option in the Preferences submenu in the
Options menu. Normally, you will want to have Transparency selected as
active (indicated by a check beside the option). Then you can make
different parts transparent or not simply by changing the current
background color. But if you are painting in HAM mode, it may be difficult
to find a color that isn't used in the area you want to select. (This is
especially true if you are working with a full-color digitized image). In
this case, it is much simpler to turn Transparency off, so that you can be
sure of grabbing all of the image you want for your brush.
A BRUSH IS A LITTLE PICTURE
You can treat brushes just like full pictures. Brushes even have their own
menu (the Brush menu, the second one from the left), from which you can
Load and Save brushes just as you can other pictures. When you load a
brush, it comes equipped with its own palette, the one that was in effect
when the brush was saved. If the current picture is using a palette
different from that of the newly-loaded brush, you can change the picture's
palette to the brush's palette by selecting Use Brush from the Palette
option of the Project menu. On the other hand, if you want to use the
newly-loaded brush with the current palette, select Remap from the Brush
menu. This is especially useful if you load a brush that was created in a
display mode with a different number of colors. The other items in the
Brush menu let you resize, rotate, and even print brushes.
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To load a brush, select Load from the Brush menu. This brings up a Load
Brush Requester, similar to the Load Picture Requester you used when you
loaded a picture in the Guided Tour (see Chapter One).
BRUSH ROTATIONS
Once you've selected or loaded a custom brush, you can rotate it in one of
the four ways listed in the Rotations submenu of the Brush menu. The four
rotations are:
Vert Flip (Vertical Flip)
Horz Flip (Horizontal Flip)
Rotate 90
Rotate Free
The first two options simply flip the brush either vertically or
horizontally. Rotate 90, rotates the brush 90 degrees to the right. Rotate
Free lets you rotate the brush any number of degrees to the right or left.
Because Amiga pixels are not square, rotating the brush will also distort
it.
As an example of rotation, do the following:
Select a brush that is asymmetrical so that you will be able to tell
whether or not it has been flipped or rotated. A flag and the numeral 4 are
good examples of images that display any change in orientation.
Select Rotate Free from the Rotations submenu in the Brushes menu.
Your brush changes to a rectangle with a triangle inside. The triangle
indicates the top of the brush. The pointer is attached to the center of
the rectangle by a line.
Rotate the rectangle by pressing the left mouse button and moving the
pointer down and to the left.
As you rotate the rectangle, it stretches and contracts to indicate the
distortion to the actual brush.
Release the mouse button.
Your brush is now attached to your pointer and ready for painting.
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HANDLE
This feature, which is available from the Brush menu, allows you to specify
whether your cross-hair will sit at the center of your custom brush, or at
some point offset from the brush. In the default setting, the cross-hair
sits at the center of the custom brush.
After you select Handle, you can press the mouse button and drag the
cross-hair to any position you like; releasing the button sets the
cross-hair in that position relative to the custom brush.
2. THE SCREEN
Some of Paint's features affect the entire screen, while others, such as
the tools and the brushes, affect the screen selectively. This section
considers those features that have a screen-wide effect.
HIDING THE TOOLS, THE MENU BAR, AND THE POINTER
Paint lets you paint on the entire screen, even under the Toolbox and the
Menu Bar.
To hide the Toolbox, press the F10 key. To hide the Menu Bar, press F9.
Pressing these keys a second time displays the Toolbox or Menu Bar. By
using these two keys, you can selectively display or hide either the
Toolbox, the Menu Bar, or both.
When the Menu Bar and Toolbox are hidden, you can still use many of the
menu options and all of the tools through the keyboard equivalents. See the
Reference section of this manual for a list of keyboard commands.
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When you paint with a small brush for fine details, you'll often want to
hide the cross-hair, so that you can see all of the area you are working on
and the exact position of the brush.
To hide the cross-hair press F8 on the keyboard. Press F8 again to bring it
back.
MAGNIFYING AND ZOOMING
As we mentioned in the Guided Tour, you can magnify any section of your
work, and view it alongside the standard-sized image.
To magnify a section of your work, click the Magnify tool (the one that
looks like a magnifying glass). When you move the cursor onto the page, it
becomes a rectangular outline. Move the outline to the part of the image
you want to magnify, and click the mouse button.
You can move around inside the magnified area by pressing the arrow
(cursor) keys on the keyboard. And you can increase or decrease the amount
of magnification by clicking on the lower half of the icon (now the Zoom
tool) with the left or right mouse button.
Another important feature of Magnify, is the ability to separate the pixels
so you can identify how many pixels are in an area, or where one pixel
stops and the next one starts. The Magnify option in the Options menu lets
you set three magnification types: Normal sets no pixel indicator, so the
pixels all merge together smoothly; Lines sets a single-pixel between the
magnified pixels; and, Dots sets a dot in the corner between magnified
pixels, in addition to separating the pixels with a single-pixel line.
(Note that in HAM mode, there are no vertical lines between pixels.)
To quit magnify mode, click the Magnify icon a second time.
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PAGE SIZE
In addition to the preset page sizes (320x200;320x400), Paint lets you
specify any height and width through the New Page Size Requester. You can
call up this requester by selecting Page Size from the Project menu. The
largest page size you can specify depends on the display mode you are using
and the amount of memory currently available in the computer. If you try to
specify a size larger than memory can accommodate, the numbers in the
requester revert to their previous setting, and the requester does not
close.
Note: If you are working on a page size larger than the screen, you can
preview the entire page at any time by selecting the Show Page command from
the Project menu. Press the right mouse button or any key to exit Show
Page.
AFFECT
The Affect option in the Modes menu lets you select which parts of the
screen are affected by a painting operation. The Affect option presents a
submenu with three options: All, Foreground, and Background.
All is the default mode; when it is selected, all pixels in the picture are
affected by your painting. If you select Foreground, only portions of the
picture that are not in the background color are affected by your painting.
If you select Background, only portions of the picture that are in the
background color are affected. Since you can change the background color
simply by clicking that color in the palette with the right mouse button,
it is easy to select exactly which pixels you want to change in the
picture. This feature is especially useful for working on pictures with a
lot of fine detail.
Note that Affect does not work in combination with Resize Draw or Load At.
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SHOW PAGE
If you are working on a page that is larger than the screen, show Page lets
you see a representation of the entire page at one time. There are three
options for viewing the page. The first two options, Fast and Smooth, show
you the entire page. You can view it quickly, as a rough approximation of
the page, or you can select smoothing, to get a better representation of
the picture. The Overscan option shows the amount of the page that would
appear in overscan mode.
When you select the Fast or Smooth options, the area of the page that was
displayed before you selected Show Page appears inside an outline. You can
move this outline to another area of the page by dragging it with the left
mouse button. When you return to the normal display, you will see the new
outlined area on the screen.
To exit the Show Page function, press the right mouse button or press any
key on the keyboard.
SCREEN RESOLUTIONS
Paint gives you a total of eight different screen resolutions (four basic
resolutions, each available in either Non-Interlaced or Interlaced mode).
And you can have multiple screens open at the same time in different
resolutions. As we noted in the Guided Tour, you are prompted to select a
screen format each time you start Paint, through the Display Mode Requester
(see Figure 2.1). Each screen format has its own limitations and memory
requirements.
The four resolution formats are as follows:
LOW RESOLUTION: This format uses a pixel array 320 wide by 200 high, and
can accommodate up to 32 colors on the screen at one time. This level of
screen resolution is adequate for most graphic purposes.
HIGH RESOLUTION: This format uses a pixel array of 640 wide by 200 high,
using pixels that are the same height as the Low Resolution pixels, but
only half as wide. High Resolution is ideal for putting text on the screen.
(See the discussion of Text mode below). Because High Resolution uses
pixels of a different size and shape, changing screen formats from Low
Resolution to High
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Resolution will affect the shape of your images. Thus, a Low Resolution
picture loaded in High Resolution mode will look skinny, while a High
Resolution picture loaded in Low Resolution mode will look fat (and take up
two screen widths). In addition, High Resolution limits the number of
colors available for a single picture to 16.
EXTRA HALFBRITE: This display format uses the same size pixel array as Low
Resolution (320x200), but it provides a palette of 64 colors. The first 32
colors in Extra Halfbrite are equivalent to the 32 color Low Resolution
Palette. The Palette in Extra Halfbrite gives you access to only the first
32 colors, and any changes made to one of those colors is also reflected in
the extra halfbrite equivalent.
Note: Not all Amiga 1000 computes support Extra Halfbrite. The easiest way
to find out whether or not your computer supports this display mode is to
try it. Open an Extra Halfbrite screen and look at the Palette (make sure
the pointer is not in the Menu Bar or Toolbox). If the last 32 colors are
the same as the first 32, you computer doesn't support Extra Halfbrite.
HOLD AND MODIFY (HAM): This powerful screen format lets you display all
4,096 possible colors on the screen simultaneously. The pixel array is the
same as in Low Resolution (320x200), but Paint makes it possible to use all
of the 4,096 colors at the same time instead of only 32.
INTERLACE: The Interlace option doubles the vertical dimension of the pixel
array in each of the screen formats. For example, Low Resolution
Non-interlaced mode provides a 320x200 pixel array. Low Resolution
Interlaced doubles the number of vertical pixels to provide a 320x400 pixel
array. Interlace pixels are the same width but half as tall as
non-interlaced pixels, which means that a Low Resolution Non-Interlaced
picture loaded into Low Resolution Interlace mode will look fat. The
advantage to Interlace is that it gives you greater vertical resolution
without reducing the maximum number of available colors. The disadvantage
is that with most monitors, Interlace produces a flickering effect, because
it paints the screen in two passes and in each pass paints every other
horizontal line. The lines painted in the first pass are already fading
before the lines that were skipped can be painted in the second pass. Thus
the lines seem to flicker. You can overcome this to some extent by using
special "high persistence" monitors, which cause the image to persist
longer than the rate of flicker. Turning down the contrast on a standard
monitor also reduces the flicker somewhat.
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3. THE PALETTE
The Palette Screen (See Figure 3.1) lets you mix your own custom set of
colors from a universe of 4,096.
To bring up the Palette Screen, press p on the keyboard, or select Adjust
from the Palette option of the Project menu.
As you can see from Figure 3.1, the Palette Screen is made up of several
parts. The following is a quick summary of what each part of the Palette
Screen does. In the next few pages, we'll explain how to use these
features.
The Title Bar shows the name of the screen, "Paint Palette,"and, once
you've selected a color, it also displays the RGB values of the currently
selected color (the color you clicked most recently).
The RGB or HSV sliders let you modify the currently selected color on any
of these color components. Clicking the RGB/HSV button (located to the
right of the sliders) toggles the sliders and Title Bar display between RGB
(Red, Green, and Blue) color components and HSV (Hue, Saturation, and
Value) color components. If these terms are new to you, don't worry. We'll
explain them in a moment.
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The Color Indicator displays the foreground and background color you most
recently selected. As you change the RGB or HSV values of the color you
most recently clicked, the new color is also shown in the color Indicator.
The 4,096 Color Palette displays all of the possible colors in a sixteen
square array below the RGB/HSV sliders. You can select a color from this
palette simply by clicking on the color you want.
The Palette is a duplicate of the palette in your current picture.
The Palette Gadgets let you copy and spread colors on the Palette Screen,
undo the last change you made, or cancel all of your changes.
The Paint Set lets you create large spreads of color and experiment with
color mixes before you copy the color into the Palette. In HAM mode you can
also select one of the colors in the Paint Set to paint with directly on
the painting screen.
CREATING COLORS
When you create new colors to paint with, you will usually want to start by
creating your color in the Paint Set and then copy the color into the
Palette. Changes you make to the Palette automatically affect the colors in
your picture but changes in the Paint Set have no effect on your picture,
so you can experiment with a color all you like. Here's how it works.
Click a square in the Paint Set to select it.
(When you click a square with the left mouse button, a solid white frame,
called the End Range Marker, appears around the square. When you click a
square with the right mouse button, a dotted frame, the Begin Range Marker,
appears. We'll explain these markers later in the discussion of ranges. But
you should also notice that you can use them as a guide to which squares
you most recently clicked on, and often what your current foreground and
background colors are.)
Drag the RGB sliders to mix red, green, and blue until you find the color
you want. (Or click the RGB/HSV button to change the sliders to HSV and
mix a color using Hue, Saturation, and Value.)
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In RGB color mixing, you combine red, green, and blue color components to
create a new color. The HSV method provides an alternative approach to
color mixing, but with identical results. The HSV method breaks each color
down into its Hue, Saturation, and Value. Hue simply refers to the color's
position on the color spectrum or rainbow -- Red, Orange, Yellow, Green,
Blue, or Violet, and the various shades in between. Saturation refers to
the strength of a particular hue -- whether it is relatively pure (and
hence highly saturated), or whether it contains some proportion of white.
Thus, the more white, the less saturated. Value refers to a color's
relative lightness or darkness (sometimes referred to as Luminosity). A
color with a high value would have little or no black, whereas colors with
low value would contain more black. Irrespective of Hue and Saturation, a
Value of zero produces a pure black.
Another way to get a color into your Paint Set is to select it from the
4,096 Color Palette.
Click a square in the Paint Set with the left mouse button.
Point to the 4.096 Color Palette, hold down the left mouse button and move
the pointer around until you find a color that is approximately the color
you want. Release the mouse button.
You can perform this same procedure by clicking a square with the right
mouse button, and holding down the right mouse button in the 4,096 Color
Palette.
Once you have a basic color to work with, you can easily use the sliders to
get exactly the right color. Remember, we showed you how to mix the color
in the Paint Set because we expect this is the way you will want to do it
most often, but you could just as easily mix the color in the Palette
portion of the Palette Screen.
COPYING COLORS INTO THE PALETTE
Once you've mixed your color with the RGB/HSV sliders, you might want to
copy that color into your Palette. To copy a color:
Click the color square you want to copy from with the left mouse button.
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This makes the color you clicked your current foreground color, as shown in
the Color Indicator.
Click Copy.
Click the color square you want to copy to with the left mouse button.
This Copies the current foreground color into the square you clicked. If
you click Copy and then click a square with the right mouse button, you
will copy the current background color into the square.
You can copy colors from any square in the Palette Screen to any other
square in the Palette Screen. Since you are able to load and save Palettes
and Paint Sets (as we'll explain in a moment) this is a very powerful
feature.
COPYING COLORS FROM THE PICTURE
Copying colors from the picture into your palette or Paint Set is the same
as copying another color in the Palette Screen, except that you replace the
first step with picking the color off the screen.
Click the Color Indicator in the picture's Palette to get the Pick pointer.
Click a color in the picture using the left mouse button to pick a
foreground color. Notice that both Color Indicators (the one on the picture
screen and the one in the Palette Screen) show the new color you clicked.
Now click Copy and click a box in the Paint Set to copy the color to.
The color you selected is now in your Paint Set. The rule to remember is
that Copy always copies the color that appears in the Color Indicator. Your
first step is always to get the color you want into the Color Indicator,
either by selecting it in the Palette Screen, or selecting it from the
Picture.
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INDICATING A RANGE OF COLORS
The Palette Screen also lets you indicate a range, which is used in Paint's
Gradient Fill function. A range is made up of all the colors between the
Begin Range and End Ranger Marker. To select a range:
Click the first color in the range with the right mouse button to set the
Begin Range Marker, which is a dotted frame around the color box.
Click the last color with the left mouse button to set the End Range
Marker, which is a solid frame around the color box.
When you use your range as a fill, the range of colors is always used in
order from beginning to end. This means that you can reverse the direction
of the gradient by reversing the position of the markers.
Note: your range cannot cross between the Palette and the Paint Set in the
Palette Screen. Both the Begin and End colors must be selected from the
same portion of the Palette Screen.
CREATING A SPREAD OF COLORS
Spread lets you quickly produce a spread of colors between the current
Begin Range and End Range Markers. To do this, you define a range and
select spread to create the spread between the two markers.
Click the first color for your spread with the right mouse button.
Click the last color for the spread with the left mouse button.
Then click the Spread gadget to create a spread between the two markers.
You can create the spread either in RGB or HSV mode. The results of the two
spreads differs due to the way the spreads are calculated. In RGB mode, the
colors are spread based on the numerical values of each of the three color
components without regard to the position of colors on the color wheel. In
HSV the spread is calculated based primarily on the hue component of the
colors, and the spread always moves clockwise around the color wheel. (See
Appendix A for a brief discussion of color theory.)
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For an example of how the two spreads differ, do the following:
Set the mode to HSV.
Click the first color in the Paint Set with the right mouse button. Set the
Hue to 0 and the Saturation and Value each to 15.
Now, click the last color in the Paint Set with the left mouse button. Set
it's Hue to 240 and the Saturation and Value to 15. Click Spread.
The resulting spread runs through the orange, yellow, and green hues to
reach Blue.
Change the mode to RGB and click the Spread gadget.
Note that your spread runs from Red to Blue without passing through any of
the other colors.
PAINTING WITH PAINT SET COLORS
Painting with colors in your Paint Set is as simple as painting with the
Palette colors. Click the color you want and paint with it. (Remember that
if the Palette Screen is not active, you have to click once to activate the
screen, and a second time to pick the color. The Begin Range or End Range
marker will appear around the color box when you click it.)
If you are working in HAM mode, the Paint Set color you clicked is painted
onto the picture. If you are working in any other mode, only Palette colors
can be used in the picture; Paint will choose the Palette color that is
closest in shade to the Paint Set color you clicked and paint with that
Palette color.
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LOADING AND SAVING PALETTES AND PAINT SETS
If you create Palettes or Paint Sets that you especially like, you can save
them on disk by using the Save option in the Palette or Paint Set submenus
in the Project menu. Later, you can load the Palette or Paint Set to use
with a different picture. (You can also load Palettes from other pictures
or brushes, because the Palette is saved with pictures and brushes, and
Paint can extract the Palette information from a picture or brush file.)
Saving and loading Paint Sets is especially useful, because these colors do
not automatically affect the picture. You can load a Paint Set and select
only the colors you want to use, without inadvertently changing the colors
you already have in the picture.
THE THREE PALETTES
When you are working in Paint, there are as many as three palettes
available to be used with the picture. These three palettes are the picture
palette, the brush palette, or Paint's default palette. The Palette submenu
in the Project menu lets you choose which palette you want to use at any
given time.
When you first start Paint, you have only the default palette. Once you
load in a picture (or load a palette separately), you have two palettes:
the default palette and the picture palette. If you then load in a brush,
you have three palettes: default, picture, and brush, and you can switch
among them freely.
THE COLOR PALETTE AND SCREEN FORMATS
As we noted above, Paint contains a universe of 4,096 colors, from which
you can use up to 4,096 at any given time. This is the case with the HAM
formats; the other formats (Low Resolution, High Resolution, and Extra
Halfbrite) allow fewer colors on the screen at one time. Depending on your
memory availability, Low Resolution lets you use up to 32 colors, High
Resolution lets you use up to 16 colors in one picture, and Extra Halfbrite
lets you use up to 64 colors. See "Screen Resolutions" in this chapter for
information on the various screen formats.
53
Paint's painting tools are available through the Toolbox, the panel at the
top area of the screen. As we have already seen, you can activate any tool
by clicking its icon with the left mouse button. A tool remains active (and
its icon highlighted) until you select another tool or, in the case of
Magnify, deselect it by clicking the icon a second time.
MODIFYING TOOLS
In most cases, clicking a tool icon with the right mouse button lets you
modify some fundamental aspect of that tool. The following summarizes the
effects of right-button mouse clicks on the tools in the Toolbox:
THE AIRBRUSH: The Airbrush works with any of Paint's built-in brushes, or
with a custom brush of your own creation.
You can adjust the Airbrush's nozzle by clicking the Airbrush icon with the
right mouse button, moving the cursor over to the painting area, and then
pressing the left mouse button and dragging to adjust the size and shape of
the solid oval, which represents the spray area. Release the mouse button
when the solid circle is the desired size.
DOTTED AND CONTINUOUS FREEHAND, LINE, AND CURVE TOOLS: A right-button click
any of these tools restores the built-in brush you used most recently. This
is especially useful if you want to switch back and forth between a custom
brush and a built-in brush. See Brush Selector later in this section.
FILL AND FILLED SHAPE TOOLS: Clicking the Fill portion of these icons with
the right mouse button brings up the Fill Control (see Figure 3.2) allowing
you to specify the type of fill to be used by these tools. The following is
a summary of the Fill Control's features:
Solid Color fill is the default Fill Type and simply fills with either the
foreground or the background color.
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Brush Pattern fills shapes with a recurring pattern of your custom brush.
(The affect is as though the screen were filled with a recurring pattern of
the custom brush, but the pattern is hidden beneath your picture. The fill
operation reveals the hidden brush pattern.) The pattern is normally based
on the original position of the brush you selected from the screen, but the
Fill Offset option lets you set a new position for the pattern.
Trace Edges, adds a one-pixel outline to every edge of the item being
filled. Again, the tracing is done in either the foreground or background
color depending on the button pressed.
You can also choose to lay down your custom brush or a range of colors in
different ways.
Click Gradient and then click the box below Gradient Type until the name of
the gradient type you want appears. (The gradient types are explained in
full in the Reference section, but the best way to understand them is to
use them.)
Whichever kind of gradient type you choose, you can adjust its dither, the
amount of random overlap between each shade, by dragging the dither slider
left or right. You can monitor the current dither setting in the box below
the slider.
When you are done selecting a Fill Type, click OK to use the current
settings, or Cancel to return to your work without making any change.
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BRUSH SELECTOR: Clicking the Brush Selector with the right mouse button
restores the last captured brush. Thus, if you had created a custom brush
(see Part 1 of this chapter for details) and then made some modifications
(for example rotating the brush), clicking the Brush Selector with the
right mouse button would restore the previous (unrotated) custom brush.
This feature is also useful if you create a custom brush and then select a
built-in brush.
TEXT TOOL: Clicking on the Text Tool with the right mouse button brings up
the Load Font Requester for you to load a new font into your font list. To
load a font, simply click it's name in the requester. If you have more
fonts available than can be displayed at one time, use the scroll bar to
scroll through the list of available fonts.
When you bring up the Load Font Requester, Paint looks in the directory
Sys: Fonts on your start-up disk. Any fonts you wish to use must be in the
Fonts directory of the disk you use to start the computer. The fonts
provided with DeluxePhotoLab are kept in the Fonts directory of the
DeluxePhotoLab program disk. If you have fonts you wish to add, be sure you
add them to that directory.
The options in the Paint Mode submenu of the Modes menu let you make subtle
changes to the way paint is laid down on the page. The default Paint Mode
is Solid. This mode simply paints with the color as you selected it. The
other modes (except HLF and B&W) use the color values of the brush and the
picture to calculate a new color to be placed on the picture.
For a quick example of one of the painting modes:
Check that Solid is the selected mode, click the second red in the default
Palette with the right mouse button to make it the background color and
click CLR to make the page solid red.
Click a green for the foreground color and draw a filled rectangle of
green.
Because Solid is the painting mode, the rectangle is painted in the green
you selected.
Now select Average from the Paint Mode submenu and draw another green
rectangle. This time the color values for the red and green colors you are
using were averaged, and the rectangle was painted with the new average
color.
This example assumes you are following this chapter in HAM display mode as
we suggested. If you were using any other mode, the rectangle would be
painted with the color in your Palette that most closely matched the
average.
The next chapter contains a tutorial which illustrates several of the
painting modes, and the modes are also described in detail in the Reference
section. See the section covering the Mode menu for more information.
57
Paint's text editor lets you place text anywhere on the page, and the Brush
Selector lets you pick it up and reposition it if you didn't have it quite
right the first time.
To enter text on the screen, click the Text icon with the left mouse
button. You can also choose to enter text in Italic, Bold or Underline, by
making the appropriate choice from the Style submenu of the Fonts menu.
When you move the pointer over to the painting area, it becomes a small
rectangular cursor. Click either mouse button where you want the text to
begin, and start typing.
You can press Return to start a new line directly below the point where you
first placed the cursor. If you type past the edge of the screen, no
letters are placed on the picture past the screen edge, but you can
backspace or press Return to move the cursor back to the screen. You can
delete text by using the Backspace key. Note, however, that if after
entering a portion of text you click the cursor elsewhere on the screen,
press Return, or select a tool from the Toolbox, that text becomes part of
the picture, and no longer behaves as text. In other words, you cannot
Backspace over it as you could when it was still active as text.
Because HAM mode places colors on the screen by modifying the previous
pixel, typing text on an area of the picture that is composed of HAM pixels
may cause "fringing." This may make the text completely unreadable if the
area is exclusively HAM pixels, since Paint can't go back and clean up the
fringing created by the Text tool. However, if you place text onto the
screen as a brush, Paint corrects the fringing automatically. If you need
to place text on an area of HAM pixels, first type the text on an area of
register colors, then cut out the text and paste it onto any area you like.
The best method is to type the text in a Low Resolution 3/4 screen and
paste it into HAM.
In the next chapter you will learn a number of practical techniques,
through a series of tutorials, to help you get the most out of Paint. The
tutorials are simple, step-by-step exercises, designed with the assistance
of professional Paint artists. You won't know how powerful Paint can be
until you try it for yourself. And you don't even have to get your hands
dirty.
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This chapter takes you through some step by step tutorials on some of the
more advanced features of Paint. We encourage you to follow the steps
closely, and as soon as you think you understand what is happening,
experiment on your own. Our explanations won't be exhaustive, and you will
very likely find exciting things to do with the features you see here.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
To complete these tutorials, you'll need your working copies of the
DeluxePhotoLab program disk and art disk. If you want to save your work,
you'll need an initialized disk with a fair amount of available space for
saving large files.
To begin these tutorials, start Paint and open a single Hold and Modify
Interlaced screen. If you already have the program running, we recommend
that you restart so that the tools and option settings are all set to their
defaults.
THE PAINT MODES
As we explained in the previous chapter, The Elements, the Paint Modes
affect the way paint is applied to the picture. These modes affect all
drawing tools (though they will not affect a Resize Draw). Usually, you
will want to use a Paint Mode to achieve an unusual affect with a custom
brush. Sometimes you will simply want to subtly color an area of the
picture. The mode you choose will depend on many factors, the most
important being the desired outcome, the original colors in the picture,
and the colors in the brush.
In this tutorial, we'll take you through some simple Paint Mode effects.
Hopefully these will give you some ideas of your own.
To begin, load the picture Pinball from the art disk. You'll find this
picture in the HAMx400 drawer.
This picture offers some good opportunities for changing the colors of a
picture. We'll use three colorizing techniques. The first of which is to
add a flesh color to the hands.
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ADDING COLOR TO THE HANDS
Select Add from the Paint Modes submenu.
Add takes the color of the brush and adds it to the color of the picture.
This means that everything in the area you paint will become slightly
lighter. (As you add one color to another, the color approaches white,
which has the values R15 G15 B15. Usually you will want to add a dark brush
color--one with very low color values--so that you don't wash out the
picture.)
Press P on the keyboard to bring up the Palette Screen.
Click the first color in the Paint Set with the left mouse button.
Use the sliders to set the RGB color values to R3,G1,B0.
Press P again again to hide the Palette Screen.
Now you have a color ready to paint with. Notice that as expected, we chose
very low color values.
Select the Freeform Shape Tool (If you've been using the program, be sure
your fill is set to Solid.) Carefully outline each hand so it is filled
with the new color.
The pair of hands now has a light flesh tone that preserves the detail of
the hands.
COLORING THE TABLE
"And" is also an effective colorizing mode. We'll use this mode to add
color to the grid-like table.
Select And from the Paint Modes submenu.
Press P to open the Palette Screen. Click the first color in the Paint Set
with the left mouse button and set the RGB values to R0 G15 B0. Press P to
hide the Palette Screen.
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Select the Filled Polygon tool, and outline the grid-like table. (Since
this is only an example, don't worry about being exact as you outline.)
In a moment, the table is colored green, but the detail of the grid lines
is preserved. The And mode usually works best with fully saturated colors.
Try some different colors to see the results of other combinations.
Remember, seeing is the best test when working with Paint Modes. The Repeat
command makes it easy to try many combinations. Here's how:
Click Undo. Bring up the Palette Screen and change your color. Hide the
Palette Screen. Press R on the keyboard to repeat your most recent painting
operation (which was to fill the table).
When you've found a color you like, just leave it as it is, and move on to
the next example.
A GOLD BALL
Sometimes you'll want to use more than one Paint Mode to achieve the effect
you want. In this example we'll use three together to change the pinball to
a gold color. We'll start by removing all of the color from the ball.
Select the B&W Paint Mode.
(With Black and White, it doesn't matter what color you select, because the
brush is not used to calculate the new colors in the picture. Black and
White simply removes the color from the area you paint on.)
Use either the Freehand Shape tool or the Filled Oval tool to paint over
the Pinball.
This simple step changes the pinball to black and white. Now we'll mix in
some yellow.
Press P to bring up the Palette. Set a Paint Set color to R15 G15 B0. This
is pure yellow. Hide the Palette.
Select Mix from the Paint Modes submenu.
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Press R on the keyboard for repeat.
Remember, if you want to paint an area more than once. Just press R to
repeat your last painting action. Now we'll turn down the brightness of the
ball by subtracting a gray level. In HSV terms, this reduces the Value of
the color.
Bring up the palette. Set a color R1 G1 B1. (This is the lowest level
gray.) Hide the Palette.
Select Sub from the Paint Modes menu.
Press R to paint over the area again.
This is the last change we'll make to the Pinball picture. Now that you
have an idea of how the Paint Modes work, you might want to load some of
the other pictures and experiment. For example, you could load PackageCover
and achieve an interesting effect by using B&W on the window and the light
cast on the floor in the picture.
THE SHADE CONTROL
Shade mode is a special case of the Paint Modes. This mode lets you
customize the mode so that the paint is applied in gradual shades. As with
most of the tutorial matter, this is difficult to understand without seeing
it on the screen. We'll start with a few simple examples, and then show you
a practical use for this feature.
Select Use Default Palette from the Palette Submenu. Select black (Color 0)
as your background color, and clear the screen to black.
Select Shade from the Paint Mode submenu.
When you first start the program, the Shade Control has default settings in
place, so you'll be seeing the effect of these default settings in this
first example.
Select bright red (Color 2) as your foreground color. Select the Filled
Rectangle tool and paint a large rectangle (at least one quarter the screen
size) on the left side of the screen.
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Paint takes a moment to paint this rectangle on the screen. When it is
complete, you see a rectangle with many bands of different red shades in
it. The red shades are darkest at the outer edge of the rectangle; they
become gradually lighter until they reach the original shade you selected,
which appears as an irregular shape in the upper right quarter of the
rectangle. Figure 4.1 shows a black and white representation of what you
should see on the screen. If you move the pointer up into the Menu Bar, the
division between shades becomes very obvious.
Now that you've seen what the Shade Control does, let's take a look at how
it does it.
Select Shade Control from the Options menu.
This brings up the Shade Control. Before you do anything else, take a close
look at the gadgets in the Shade Control.
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HIGHLIGHT POSITION
Notice that the dot in the upper right corner of the Highlight Position
gadget of the Shade Control corresponds to the bright area in the rectangle
you painted. You can move this to change the position of the highlight when
you paint with Shade. Let's do it now to see how it works.
Point to the dot in the Highlight Position gadget. Hold down the left mouse
button and drag the dot down to the lower left corner of the gadget. Click
OK in the Shade Control.
Paint another large rectangle. (If there is enough room, leave the original
rectangle in place; otherwise clear the screen to make room for your new
rectangle.)
Once again you have a rectangle painted in several shades of red. But this
time the brightest area of the rectangle is in the lower left corner, just
as you indicated in the Shade Control.
DITHER
So far you have been working with distinct bands of color. The Shade
Control also lets you vary the amount of dither between bands in your
shaded area.
Select Shade Control from the Options menu.
Drag the Dither scroll box one fourth of the way to the right. (The number
above the scroll bar should be about 24.) Click OK.
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Paint another large rectangle.
Dither is the random mixing of colors. You instruct the Shade mode to mix
the colors at the edges of your shades. The result is a smoother look to
the fill. One area is still brighter than the outer edges, but the
separation between shades is not very noticeable. If you'd like to see the
dither, select the Magnify tool and magnify the area near where you expect
the edge of the brightest shade to be. Be sure to turn off Magnify when
you're done.
HOW HIGH AND HOW LOW
Select Shade Control from the Options menu.
Below the Dither slider in the Shade Control, there are two sliders for
setting the amount of paint to be applied at the Highlight and the amount
of paint to be applied at the points farthest from the Highlight. The
shades are calculated as bands of color between these two extremes.
Take a look at the settings for the High and Low sliders. At the moment,
High is set to 100%, which means that at the Highlight, the full value of
the color is applied to the picture. The Low slider is set to 0%, which
means that at the points farthest from the Highlight,0% of the color is
applied to the picture. The shades are calculated as intermediate values
between 100% and 0% of the color.
Let's try an illustration of what the last two paragraphs above are trying
to say.
Drag the Low slider all the way to the right so that the number beside Low
is 100%.
Drag the High slider all the way to the right so that the number is 0%.
Click OK.
Paint another large rectangle.
Your rectangle should be brightest in color in the upper right corner and
darkest in the lower left. Remember that the Highlight point was placed in
the lower left corner. This last rectangle clearly shows that High sets the
amount of color used at the Highlight, and that the setting can be for less
color than at the outer regions.
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MORE HIGHLIGHTS
Throughout this discussion, you've been looking at the Shade Control with
the Highlight set to Point. There are three other highlight types you
should know about.
Select Shade Control from the Options menu.
Click Point to change the setting to Vertical.
Vertical changes the Highlight to a bar across the Highlight Position
gadget. The bar runs horizontally, but the setting is Vertical, because the
shades will radiate outward from the bar in a Vertical fashion.
Click Vertical to change the setting to Horizontal.
Now the Highlight is a vertical bar, and the resulting shade would radiate
outward from the bar in a Horizontal fashion.
Click Horizontal to change the setting to All.
All changes the Highlight so that the entire Highlight Position gadget is
highlighted. In this setting, the area you paint receives an even amount of
the color value, and the amount of color applied is the average of the High
and Low slider settings. The result is that you have complete control over
what percent of the color is applied to the picture. (Note that because
the entire area is highlighted, there are no bands of shading when you
paint.)
ATTACK OF THE HUNTERS
Now that you've seen how the Shade Control works, this section quickly runs
through a practical example. In this example, you'll combine a picture and
a brush from the art disk using the Shade requester.
From the DeluxePhotoLab art disk, load the picture The Hunters. (It is in
the HAMx400 directory.)
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Select Load from the Brush menu and load Godzilla.Brush. (Also in the
HAMx400 directory on the art disk.)
Now you have the picture and the brush you want to combine. The trick is to
set the Shade control so that when you stamp down the Godzilla brush, he
appears to be in the clouds, just as the Godzilla in the picture seems to
be up in the clouds.
Select Shade Control from the Options menu.
Set the Highlight to Vertical and place the bar in the middle of the
Highlight Position gadget. Set Dither to 0. Set Low to 75%. Set High to
45%. Click OK.
Position the Godzilla brush along the bottom of the mountain on the left,
so that the head is over the clouds. (If you haven't put a handle on your
brush, the coordinates are 0072 and 0091; the brush has been cut out to
roughly match the contours of the mountain in the correct spot.) Stamp down
the brush.
Now the picture contains a second Godzilla coming from around the mountain.
The Shade mode let some of the clouds mix with the brush so that the head
seems to be in the clouds. You can add more clouds if you like.
This was a simple example of Shade. You can see that the original Godzilla
in this picture was also added to the picture using shade. If you would
like to see another example, load the picture PhotoGirl; the fading at the
bottom of the girl's dress was done using Shade.
BRUSH FILLS
This tutorial looks at one of the brush fills available in the Fill
Control. Brush Warp is especially interesting because of the bizarre
effects it can produce; Dali should have had it so good. After you work
through this example, feel free to try some of your own; the Fill Control
is one feature that can never be fully explored.
Before you begin the example, make sure that your Paint Mode is set to
Solid.
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BRUSH WARP
Load The Hunters from the DeluxePhotoLab art disk.
Select the hunter (including his gun and the small reptile) as a brush
using the rectangle Brush Selector.
Click the Fill tool with the right mouse button to open the Fill Control.
Select Gradient as your Fill type and click the Gradient Type gadget until
it is set to Brush Warp. Click OK.
Now the Fill type is set to use your custom brush. We'll paint some
different shapes using the brush to see how it reacts.
Select the Filled Oval tool and paint a filled circle about two inches in
diameter.
Painting the hunter into a circle with Brush Warp makes it appear as though
he is trapped inside inside a bubble. If you draw a series of bubbles with
the largest one near the bottom of the screen and the others shrinking
gradually as you move up the screen, it will look as though he is floating
away.
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This chapter summarizes all of the commands and functions in Paint. Because
this chapter is intended for reference only and not as a way to learn the
fundamentals of Paint, the descriptions are as concise as possible. If you
read an entry in this chapter, but don't fully understand how the feature
works, check the Index to see if the feature is explained with examples in
one of the earlier chapters.
The information in this reference is grouped into several general
categories:
Starting Paint explains the three ways you can start the program from the
Workbench and how to select a display mode.
The Painting Screen explains the basic parts of the Painting Screen.
The Palette Screen explains each part of the Palette Screen and how to use
it.
The Toolbox briefly explains each of the tools in order reading from left
to right across the Painting Screen.
The Menus covers each of the menu items in order working from left to right
across the screen and top to bottom down each menu and submenu.
Memory Management gives tips on how to recognize a low memory condition
when working with Paint, and suggests ways to free memory.
STARTING PAINT
There are three ways that you can start Paint from the Workbench.
Method 1: Double-click the Paint icon and then choose a display mode.
Method 2: Click a Picture icon to select it; then hold Shift and
double-click the Paint icon. This starts Paint and loads the selected
picture in the proper display mode and page size.
Method 3: Double-click a Picture icon.
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Method 3 is identical to Method 2 except that Workbench will look for Paint
on the volume named "PHOTOLAB:". If "PHOTOLAB:"is not currently assigned
volume, you are prompted to insert a disk with that name. If you are
running DeluxePhotoLab from a hard disk with that name, you can issue an
"ASSIGN PHOTOLAB: <hard disk name>:<directory name>" command from either
the CLI (Command Line Interlace) or in your STARTUP-SEQUENCE file. (For
example, if you are running Paint from the DeluxePhotoLab directory on your
hard disk DH0:, you would add the line:
ASSIGN PHOTOLAB: DH0:DeluxePhotoLab
to your STARTUP-SEQUENCE file.
THE DISPLAY MODE REQUESTER
When you first start Paint, you see the Display Mode Requester for
selecting the display mode in which you want to create or load your
pictures. You can change the settings in this requester simply by clicking
on the appropriate area. Once you've selected the display mode you want,
click Open to open a painting screen with those settings.
Note that the Display Mode Requester appears on a separate screen, which is
also the screen for the Palette. If you select New from the Project menu,
but do not click Cancel or Open in the Display Mode Requester, you will not
have a Palette Screen for your existing picture.
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SCREEN TYPE
The Screen Type gadget is divided into two sections.
Clicking on the top half of the Screen Type gadget cycles you through the
possible screen resolutions; the options are Low Resolution, High
Resolution, Extra HalfBrite, and Hold and Modify.
Clicking on the top bottom of the Screen Type gadget toggles the selection
between Non-Interlaced and Interlaced.
DEPTH
The Depth gadget lets you select how many bit planes the display mode will
use. (The number of bit planes determines how many colors a Screen Type can
support. Appendix B, "Amiga Display Modes" explains the relationship
between the number of bit planes and the number of colors available.) The
number of planes you can select depends on the Screen Type you selected.
For example, Low Resolution allows any depth setting between 1 and 5. Hold
and Modify normally uses 6 bit planes, but will support 5. The depth gadget
restricts you to the acceptable settings, so once you've selected the
Screen Type, you can choose any number of bit planes that appears in the
Depth gadget.
SIZE
Lets you select whether the page size will use the full screen or the top
3/4 of the screen. The 3/4 screen setting is useful for conserving memory,
particularly if you want to have two screens open for cutting and pasting.
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THE PAINTING SCREEN
Once you start Paint, select your screen format, and click Open, the Paint
screen appears. Along the top of the screen is the Title Bar, Palette, and
Toolbox. When you point to the Title Bar and press the right mouse button,
the Menu Bar appears. The Menu Bar and menus are explained in detail later
in this chapter.
The area below the Toolbox is where you work on your pictures. This area is
called the page. The normal page size is the same as the screen size. When
you're page is larger than the screen, you can scroll the page by pressing
the arrow (cursor) keys on the keyboard. When you use the arrow keys,
think of them as moving the screen rather than the picture; pressing the
down arrow moves the screen down, so it looks like the page is moving up.
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THE TITLE BAR
The Title Bar lists the name of your picture (in this case Untitled A). It
also lists the current settings in the Modes menu and whether you are using
a custom brush (C) or a built-in brush (I).
THE PALETTE
The upper left corner of the Painting Screen contains the Palette, where
you select the color you want to paint with. Clicking on a color in the
Palette with the left mouse button selects that color as the foreground
color, which you then paint with using the left mouse button. Clicking on a
color with the right mouse button selects the background color, which you
then paint with using the right mouse button.
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COLOR INDICATOR
The Color Indicator is to the right of the Palette. The left rectangle of
the indicator shows the foreground color. The right rectangle shows the
current background color. The numbers above the Color Indicator show the
Red, Green, and Blue values of the color you clicked most recently.
The Color Indicator also lets you pick colors from the screen. To do this,
click the Color Indicator and move the pointer back to the screen. The
pointer is labeled "Pick." Point to a color on the screen and click either
the left or the right mouse button to select a new foreground or background
color. The keyboard equivalent for clicking the Color Indicator is the
comma (,) key.
COORDINATES
These numbers show you the current position (the coordinates) of the
cross-hair, and thus the position of your brush.
When you are not pressing a mouse button, the Coordinates show the position
of the brush relative to the upper left corner of your page. The top number
shows you the number of pixels from the left side of the page. The bottom
number shows you the number of pixels from the top of the page.
If you press a mouse button, the Coordinates reset to +000 and +000. As you
move the brush, the Coordinates shows positive numbers for the number of
pixels the brush has moved to the right or down from it's original
position. Negative numbers indicate the number of pixels the brush has
moved to the left or up from it's original position.
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THE PALETTE SCREEN
The Palette Screen allows you to change the colors in your Palette. The
Palette Screen is actually opened at the same time you start Paint, but it
is a separate screen behind the Painting Screen. You can display the
Palette by using the Back Gadget on each screen until you reach the
Palette, by selecting Adjust from the Palette submenu in the Project menu,
or by pressing p on the keyboard. To activate the Palette Screen as the
current screen, click on it. (This is true of all screens in Paint: you
must click the screen before it becomes active. This is especially
important to remember if you are working with multiple pictures).
The Palette is divided into seven sections and gadgets.
The Title Bar shows the name of the screen,"Paint Palette,"and, once you've
selected a color, it also displays the RGB values of the currently selected
color (the color you clicked most recently). You can change the display in
the Title Bar to show the HSV values for the current color by clicking the
RGB button below the Title Bar on the right hand side. The button then
changes to HSV.
The RGB or HSV sliders below the Title Bar let you modify the currently
selected color on any of these color components. To change a component's
numeric value, drag the slider to the left or right or click to the left or
right side of the slider to move it one step at a time. As you move the
slider, the new value
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for that color component is shown in the Title Bar. (In HSV mode, you may
have to click more than once to change the value). You can toggle the
sliders between RGB and HSV by clicking the button to the right of the
sliders.
The Color Indicator, located just below the RGB/HSV button, displays the
foreground and background color you most recently selected. As you change
the RGB or HSV values of the color you most recently clicked on, the new
color is also shown in the Color Indicator.
The 4,096 Color Palette displays all of the colors possible on the Amiga
display. Each square of the display is 16x16 pixels to show the 16 values
of two of the color components. There are sixteen squares to show the 16
values of the third component. In essence, this display is a 16x16x16 color
cube that has been sliced into planes as shown in Figure 5.6.
When you first open the palette, the squares are arranged so that, in each
square, the Green component increments moving from left to right and the
Red component increments from top to bottom. The Blue component increments
by one for each of the 16 squares moving from left to right. You can change
the direction in which color increments in this display by pressing the
Help key on the keyboard.
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You can select a color from this palette by clicking on the color you want.
If you hold down the mouse button and move the pointer, the RGB or HSV
values in the Title Bar change continuously to show values for the color
under the pointer, and the color itself is shown in the Color Indicator of
the Palette Screen. Clicking on the 4,096 Color Palette with the left mouse
button changes the currently selected foreground color. Clicking with the
right mouse button changes the currently selected background color.
The Palette is below the 4,096 Color Palette and to the left of the Copy,
Spread, Undo, and Cancel gadgets. This palette is a duplicate of the
palette in your current picture. The number of colors depends on the
display mode you are using. Any changes to the Palette in the Palette
Screen also change the colors in the current picture's Palette and thus the
colors in the picture itself. You can load and save palettes from other
pictures using the options in the Palette submenu in the Project menu.
The Palette Gadgets let you copy and spread colors on the Palette Screen,
undo the last change you made, or cancel all of your changes.
Copy lets you copy the current foreground or background color to any other
color box in the palette, either in the Palette or in the Paint Set. Simply
click the Copy gadget, and click the color register you want to copy to. If
you click the color register with the left mouse button, you copy the
foreground color; if you click with the right mouse button, you copy the
background color.
Spread lets you quickly produce a spread of colors between the current
Range Markers. (Ranges are explains later in this section). Click the
first color for your spread with the right mouse button to place the Begin
Range Marker, click the last color for the spread with the left mouse
button to place the End Range Marker. Then click the Spread gadget to
create a spread between the two colors.
You can create the spread either in RGB or HSV mode. The results of the two
spreads will differ due to the way the spreads are calculated. In RGB mode,
the colors are spread based on each of the three components without regard
to the position of colors on the color wheel. In HSV the spread is
calculated based primarily on the hue component of the colors, and the
spread always moves clockwise around the color wheel. (See Appendix A,
Color Theory for an illustration of the color wheel.)
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Undo reverses all changes made to a single color in the Palette Screen
until another color is selected. Undo also reverses a Spread or Copy unless
you select another color before you select Undo.
Cancel reverses all changes made in the Palette Screen since the Palette
Screen became active. This means that you can make many changes in the
Palette Screen, but the changes can all be reversed until you make the
picture screen active by clicking on it.
The Paint Set is made up of 4 rows of 32 colors each. You can use this area
of the palette to create large spreads of color and to experiment with
color mixes before you copy the color into the Register Palette. In HAM
mode you can also select one of the colors in the Paint Set to paint with
directly on the painting screen. In other modes, painting with colors in
the Paint Set actually paints with the color in the Register Palette that
most closely matches the Paint Set color. You can load and save Paint Sets
using the options in the Paint Set submenu of the Project menu.
Ranges: The Spread operation and several of the Gradient Fill options in
the Fill Control use a "range" of colors to perform their function. You
indicate the colors in the range by marking the beginning and ending points
with the Begin Range and End Range Markers.
To create a range: click the first color in the range with the right mouse
button to place the Begin Range Marker, a dotted frame around the Color
box; click the last color in the range with the left mouse button to place
the End Range Marker, a solid frame around the color box.
Note: your range cannot cross between the Palette and the Paint Set in the
Palette Screen.
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Like some of the menu items above, most of the tools in the Toolbox are
available through keyboard equivalents. As you become proficient with
DeluxePhotoLab, you will find it more efficient to use these equivalents,
using one hand for the mouse and the other for the keyboard. The following
descriptions fo the tools include the keyboard equivalents, where
appropriate. To help you learn these, we have suggested a mnemonic for most
of them.
The painting tools paint with the current foreground color if you use the
left mouse button, and they paint with the current background color if you
use the right mouse button.
DOTTED FREEHAND TOOL
(Keyboard Equivalent: ;)
Paints the current brush shape in a series of "splats." The spacing between
the splats depends on how fast you move the mouse and what mode you are in.
HAM mode takes much longer to paint when you have a complex brush, so, to
produce narrowly spaced "splats" in this mode, you will need to move the
mouse much more slowly.
CONTINUOUS FREEHAND TOOL
(Keyboard Equivalent: ')
Paints a continuous freehand line. Depending on the complexity of the brush
and the display mode you are using, you may need to move the mouse slowly
to produce smooth curves, because the brush may have difficulty keeping up
with the mouse.
If you hold down Shift while painting with the Continuous Freehand tool,
your brush movement is constrained to straight lines running either
horizontally or vertically, depending on the direction you move the brush
immediately after pressing Shift.
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STRAIGHT LINE TOOL (Keyboard Equivalent: /)
Paint a straight line.
Click the Straight Line tool with the left mouse button; then position the
cursor at the beginning of the line, hold down the appropriate mouse
button, drag the mouse to the end of the line, and release the mouse
button.
If you hold down Shift while painting a straight line, the line is
constrained to be either horizontal or vertical, depending on the direction
you move immediately after pressing shift.
CURVE TOOL (Keyboard Equivalent: J)
Lets you paint a 4-point curve (an S-curve), or any sort of curve that can
be defined by four points.
Click with the left mouse button on the Curve tool to select it. Then,
positioning the cursor where you want the curve to begin, hold down the
left mouse button, drag the mouse to the place where you want the curve to
end, and release the button. The straight line, which is still connected to
the cursor, stretches into a curve as you move the cursor away. Drag it
until the arc for the end half of the S-curve is the shape you want. Then
hold down the mouse button and move the cursor to the other side of the
line, to form the beginning half of the S-curve. Release the mouse button
to complete it. (Note that you can create a three-point curve by clicking
the mouse button to place the middle points of the curve in the same
position.)
AIRBRUSH TOOL
(Keyboard Equivalent: 'accent grave)
Simulates the action of an air brush.
Click the Airbrush tool with the left mouse button to select it. Position
the cross-hair on the page and press either mouse button.
Clicking on the Airbrush tool with the right mouse button lets you size its
nozzle. After clicking with the right mouse button to select the tool, move
the cursor onto the page and hold down the left mouse button. Now drag the
mouse until the nozzle is the shape and size you want, and release the
mouse button to fix it.
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TEXT TOOL (Keyboard Equivalent: T)
Let's you type text onto your picture.
Click the Text tool with the left mouse button to select it. Position the
text cursor on the page by clicking where you want the text to begin.
Select a font from the Font menu and a type style from the Style option of
the Font menu. Type your text. Use the Backspace key to erase and the
Return key to begin a new line. Note that you can only backspace to erase
on the current line; once your press Return, the line of text becomes part
of the picture, and can only be erased the same way you'd erase a graphic
element.
Clicking on the Text tool with the right mouse button brings up the Load
Font requester where you can load a font into your fonts list. See, Load
New Font in the Fonts menu for more information on the Load Font requester.
FILL TOOL (Keyboard Equivalent: L)
Fills an enclosed area with the current color or pattern as set in the Fill
Control.
Click the Fill tool with the left mouse button to select it. Move the paint
can curser over the enclosed area to be filled, so that the spout is within
the shape you want to fill; then click the mouse button to fill it.
Clicking on the Fill tool with the right mouse button brings up the Fill
Control. This is the same requester that appears when you select Fill
Control from the Options menu. See Fill Control in this reference section
for an explanation of the options available in this requester.
UNFILLED/FILLED RECTANGLE TOOL
(Keyboard Equivalent: [--unfilled, and Shift-[--filled)
Lets you paint a rectangle shape using any brush. The top half of the tool
paints a rectangle outline, while the bottom half paints a filled rectangle
using the current settings of the Fill Control.
Click the Rectangle tool with the left mouse button to select it. Position
the cursor on the page where you want the rectangle to begin; then hold
down the mouse button and drag the diagonally to form a rectangle. When the
rectangle is the right size, release the mouse button.
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If you hold down the Ctrl while painting a rectangle, it is constrained to
a square Holding down the Shift key constrains the sizing of your rectangle
to either horizontal or vertical movement, depending on the direction you
move the brush immediately after pressing Shift.
Clicking on the bottom half of the Rectangle tool with the right mouse
button brings up the Fill Control.
UNFILLED/FILLED OVAL TOOL
(Keyboard Equivalent: E--unfilled, and Shift-E--filled)
Lets you paint an oval shape using any brush. The top half of the tool
paints an oval outline, and the bottom half paints a filled oval using the
current settings of the Fill Control.
Click the Oval tool with the left mouse button to select it. Then position
the cursor where you want the oval to appear on the page, hold down the
mouse button and drag the mouse diagonally to form an oval. If
corner-to-corner is set in the Option menu, the oval is painted within the
two corners defined by the beginning and ending points of your mouse click.
If center-out is selected in the Options menu, the oval is painted from the
center outward, with the center defined by your initial press of the mouse
button. When the oval is the size you want, release the mouse button.
If you hold down Ctrl while painting an oval, it is constrained to a
circle.
Clicking on the bottom half of the Oval tool with the right mouse button
brings up the Fill Control.
FREEFORM SHAPE TOOL
(Keyboard Equivalents: F--freeform, and Shift-F--polygon)
Lets you paint a freeform shape using the current settings of the Fill
Control. Selecting the top half of the tool paints a completely freeform
shape; selecting the bottom half paints a freeform polygon.
Click the top half of the Freeform Shape tool to select it as a freeform
shape; position the cursor on the page and hold down the mouse button to
paint whatever freeform shape you want. When you release the mouse button,
the shape is filled using the current fill settings.
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If you release the mouse button before the cursor has reached starting
point of your freeform shape, the shape is automatically completed with a
straight line from the cursor's last position to the starting point.
Click the bottom half of the Freeform Shape tool to select a freeform
polygon. Move the cursor onto the page and click the mouse button as many
times as you want to define the polygonal shape you want to fill. Each pair
of clicks is joined by a straight line. To close the polygon, click the
starting point, or click the mouse button twice without moving the mouse.
Clicking on the Freeform Shape tool with the right mouse button brings up
the Fill Control.
BRUSH SELECTOR
(Keyboard Equivalent: B--rectangular; Shift-B--freeform)
Lets you create a custom brush from any image on the page, or recall your
most recent custom brush.
To select a rectangular brush area, click the top half of the Brush
Selector tool with the left mouse button; once you move it to the page, the
cursor changes to a large cross-hair. Hold down the mouse button and drag
diagonally to enclose the area you want to use as a brush. Release the
mouse button to select it.
To select a freeform brush area, click the bottom half of the Brush
Selector tool with the left mouse button; once you move it to the page, a
single pixel marker appears in the center of the cursor. Holding down the
mouse button, trace a boundary around the area you want to use as a brush
and release the mouse button to select it. If you release the mouse button
before the cursor reaches the starting point of your freeform shape, the
shape is automatically completed with a straight line from the cursor
position to the starting point.
Using the left button to select the brush simply copies the selected area
onto the brush. Using the right button to select it cuts the selected area
from the page to make the brush, and replaces the area with the current
background color.
Clicking on the Brush Selector tool with the right mouse button restores
your most recent custom brush (if possible).
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MAGNIFY (Keyboard Equivalent: M)
/ZOOM (Keyboard Equivalent: I and O)
Lets you magnify an area of the screen and increase or decrease the amount
of magnification. Magnify is especially useful for detailed work on small
areas of your painting. While the painting is magnified, all other commands
are available. To turn off the Magnify tool, click the top half of the tool
a second time.
Click the Magnify tool with the left mouse button to select it. When you
move the cursor onto the page, it changes to a rectangle, and the lower
half of the Magnify tool changes to the Zoom tool. Move the rectangle over
the area you want to magnify and click the mouse button. The screen splits
into two sections, showing the normal picture on the left and the magnified
area on the right.
To increase the magnification, click the Zoom tool with the left mouse
button, or press I on the keyboard. To decrease the magnification, click
the Zoom tool with the right mouse button, or press O on the keyboard.
When in magnify mode, press N on the keyboard centers the area under your
cursor within the magnified area. You can also scroll the magnified area
using the arrow keys.
CLEAR (Keyboard Equivalent: K)
Clears the visible portion of the page to the current background color.
UNDO (Keyboard Equivalent: U)
Reverses your last painting operation, provided there have been no
intervening mouse clicks.
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MENU ITEMS
Them menus in Paint work just like other Amiga menus: point to the Title
Bar and press the right mouse button to display the Menu Bar. Then, point
to a menu name to open that menu. Finally, drag the arrow down to one of
the menu options and release the mouse button to select that option.
Some menu options present submenus to the right side of the option. In
these cases, you can drag the highlight down to the option to display the
submenu, then drag the highlight to the right and down again to select an
option from the submenu.
In many cases, you can select a menu item by using its keyboard equivalent.
A table of keyboard equivalents is included as Appendix D at the back of
this manual.
The menus, reading from left to right across the Menu Bar, are as follows:
PROJECT MENU
PROJECT
NEW AN
CLOSE AC
LOAD AL
LOAD AT AA
SAVE AS
SAVE FROM
PRINT
PALETTE
PAINT SET
PAGE SIZE AZ
SHOW PAGE
DELETE
ABOUT
QUIT
Figure 5.7 The Project Menu
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NEW (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-N)
Lets you set a new display mode and create a Paint screen.
Select New from the Project menu. The Display Mode requester appears,
asking you to select a display mode for the new picture. (See "Display
Mode Requester" at the beginning of this chapter for an explanation of
selecting a display mode.) Select a display mode and click Open. In a
moment the screen clears and the Palette and Tools are displayed. You are
now ready to begin your new creation or to load a picture.
Note that New creates a new painting screen rather than replacing the
previous screen. This means that you can work on more than one picture at a
time.
CLOSE (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-C)
Closes the current picture screen and releases that portion of memory. If
the current picture has been modified since it last was saved, a requester
appears giving you the option to save the picture before closing.
LOAD (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-L)
Brings up the Load Requester. See Figure 5.8. The requester contains Load
and Cancel buttons, a field to display the current directory path, a file
list window (with arrows and a slider for scrolling it), and an edit field
displaying the currently selected file.
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To load a picture, click the name of the file you want to open; then click
the Load button at the top of the requester.
In addition to files, the window displays Directories, Volumes, and
Clipboards. If you click a subdirectory name, the window displays all of
the files contained in that subdirectory. Clicking the listing "/ (parent)"
moves you into the parent directory of the current subdirectory. If you
click a Volume name, the contents of that volume are displayed. Also, if
you place a different disk in a drive while the Load Requester is
displayed, the Volume list is updated to show the new disk. If you inserted
the disk in the current drive, the window displays the files from the new
disk.
SHORTCUTS
Several shortcuts are available in the Load Requester.
Double-clicking on a file name is the same as clicking the file name and
clicking Load.
Clicking on a section title in the display window, such as "--Files--,"will
skip the window display down to the next section.
You can load a specific file by clicking on the file edit field,
backspacing over the previously listed file, typing the name of the file
you want (including it's path), and pressing Return.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS IN THE LOAD REQUESTER
Key Function
ESC Cancel
Up Arrow Move display up one line
Down Arrow Move display down one line
Shift-Up Arrow Move display up one section
Shift-Down Arrow Move display down one section
Return Same as clicking on Load
D Shows the directories
F Shows the files
V Shows the volumes
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TIP: If you don't know the size of the picture you want to load, use Load
At to see the size of the picture. The Width and Height gadgets in the Load
At Requester default to the size of the picture you selected. Once you know
the size of the picture, you can Cancel the Load At operation, change your
page size, and then load the picture.
LOAD AT (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-A)
Lets you load a picture file at a specific position in a larger picture.
You can also specify the size at which you want the picture loaded.
When you select Load At, the Load Requester appears for you to select the
picture to be loaded. (See Load in the Picture menu for a description of
the Load Requester.)
After you have selected the file you want, and clicked Load, a second
requester appears, so you can specify exactly where the picture should be
loaded, as well as the size you want it loaded at.
The edit fields for X Pos and Y Pos are used to indicate the position of
the upper left corner of the area you want to load. The Width and Height
edit fields are used to indicate the dimensions of the area you want to
load. This means that you can actually resize the image as you load it.
Note that the X and Y coordinates are based on the position on the page and
easily can be found using the Coordinates display in the Toolbox.
Note that the X Pos and Y Pos numbers can be negative; this allows you to
crop the picture along the left or top side as you load it.
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SAVE (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-S)
Brings up a requester for you to save a picture to disk. This requester
functions just like the Load Requester (described under Load in the Picture
menu), except that clicking Save saves the picture to disk. Be careful that
you do not use a file name that already exists on your disk, unless you
want to replace that file. You are not warned if you use an existing file
name.
When you save a picture, that picture's Palette is saved with it. However,
the Paint Set is not saved. If you want to save a Paint Set, you must save
it as a separate file using the Save option in the Paint Set submenu of the
Project menu.
SAVE FROM
Lets you save a partial picture file from a larger picture.
Selecting Save From brings up the Save File Requester, so you can save your
file. Once you have specified the path and file name under which to save
the picture, clicking Save brings up a second requester, in which you
specify the portion of the picture you want saved.
The edit fields for X Pos and Y Pos are used to indicate the position of
the upper left corner of the area you want to save. The Width and Height
edit fields are used to indicate the dimensions of the are you want to
save. Note that the X and Y coordinates are based on the position on the
page and easily can be found using the coordinates display in the Toolbox,
which also shows the cursor coordinates relative to the upper left corner
of the page.
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PRINT
Brings up the Picture Print Control, in which you select print settings,
and choose to print the current picture.
The options in this requester function as follows:
ORIENTATION: lets you set whether the printed picture is printed so that it
is upright when the page is held upright (Normal) or so that the picture is
upright when the page is held sideways (Sideways). The default setting is
Normal.
SHADE: lets you choose one of three printing shades. The default setting is
Color.
B&W prints only the pixels that use color register 0 (zero) in the
picture's palette. These pixels are printed in black.
Grey prints the picture as a grey scale image. This lets you print any
picture with a black ribbon.
Color prints the picture in full color. Though obviously this option will
work correctly only on color printers.
SIZE FACTORS: lets you set whether the size of the printed picture is
measured in inches (Inches), printer pixels (Pixels), or as a percent of
your page size (Percent). The default setting is Percent.
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WIDTH and HEIGHT: let you set the width and height of the printed picture.
If you place a 0 in either of these gadgets, only the other setting is used
to determine the size of the printout, and the picture is printed
proportionally. Otherwise, both numbers are used, and the printout may not
be proportional.
Depending on the setting in the Size Factor gadget, the number in these
gadgets can represent inches, pixels, or percent of the page size. The
default setting is 100 so that the Size Factor and Width combine to print
the picture at 100% the width of your page.
COPIES: lets you set the number of copies to be printed. Note that Paint
does not send line-or page-feeds to the printer, so each copy of your
picture prints directly below the previous copy.
CENTER: sets whether the picture is printed along the left side of the
page, or centered between the left and right side of the page. Center
always centers between the left and right side of the page, regardless of
whether the Orientation setting is Normal or Sideways.
PRINT: Once you have set your print settings, check that your printer is
powered on and on-line. Click Print to print the picture. While the picture
is printing a requester appears to tell you which copy is printing. This
requester also contains a button to cancel printing. Note, however, that
clicking Cancel or pressing the Spacebar to abort a print sometimes leaves
garbage printing at the beginning of the following printout. If this
happens, you need to reset the printer. If your printer doesn't have a
reset option, turn the power to the printer off and then on again.
CANCEL: closes the Picture Print Control without printing the picture. Your
most recent print setting are remembered even though you did not use them.
PALETTE
This option presents a submenu containing options for altering the color
palette.
ADJUST (Keyboard Equivalent: P)
Brings up the Palette Screen. Or, if the Palette Screen is already
displayed, Adjust closes it. See the discussion of the Palette Screen near
the beginning of this reference section.
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LOAD
Brings up the Load Requester, which lets you load a palette from another
picture. (For a full explanation of the gadgets in this requester, see
Load in the Picture menu.)
You can load either a palette that was saved separately (using the Palette
Save command) or you can load a palette directly from a picture file. When
you load a new palette, the colors in the current picture and Palette are
replaced with the corresponding colors from the palette you loaded.
SAVE
Brings up the Save Requester, which allows you to save the palette of the
current picture. (For a full explanation of the gadgets in this requester,
see Load and Save in the Picture menu.)
USE PICTURE
Causes the most recently loaded color palette to be used for the current
picture. If no palette has been loaded separately, this option causes the
current picture's palette to be used.
USE BRUSH
Causes the palette of the current custom brush to be used for the current
picture.
USE DEFAULT
Causes the "Default" palette to be used for the current picture.
PAINT SET
This option presents a submenu containing options for loading or saving
Paint Sets.
LOAD
Brings up the Load Requester, which lets you load a Paint Set from disk.
(For a full explanation of the gadgets in this requester, see Load in the
Picture menu.) Note that you can only load Paint Sets that have saved as
separate files. The Paint Set is not saved when you save a picture.
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SAVE
Brings up the Save Requester, which allows you to save the current Paint
Set to disk. (For a full explanation of the gadgets in this requester, see
Load and Save in the Picture menu.)
PAGE SIZE (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-Z)
Brings up the New Page Size Requester, which lets you change the width and
height of the current picture.
To change the size of your page, select Page Size from the Project menu. In
the requester, click in the Width gadget, press Backspace or Delete to
remove the current width setting, type the value for the new width
(measured in pixels), and press Return. Use the same steps to replace the
Height setting. Finally, click New Size to use the new settings, or Cancel
to close the requester without using the new settings. The page size will
increase or decrease by adding to or subtracting from the bottom and right
sides of the page. Note that the upper left corner of the screen is assumed
to be the upper left corner of the new page. If part of your picture is off
the screen to the left or above, that part is lost when you change the
size.
SHOW PAGE
This option presents a submenu that contains options displaying the full
page if it is larger than the screen. To return to the page after selecting
one of these options, click the right mouse button or press a key on the
keyboard. When you select the Fast or Smooth options, the area of the page
that was displayed before you selected Show Page appears inside an outline.
You can move this outline to another area of the page by dragging it with
the left mouse button. When you return to the normal display, you will see
the new outline area on the screen.
FAST (Keyboard Equivalent: S)
Shows the page quickly, without smoothing or overscan. The area of the page
that was displayed before you selected Show Page appears inside an outline.
You can move this outline to another area of the page by dragging it with
the left mouse button. When you return to the normal display, you will see
the new outlined area on the screen.
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SMOOTH (Keyboard Equivalent: Shift-S)
Shows the page with smoothing. The area of the page that was displayed
before you selected Show Page appears inside an outline. You can move this
outline to another area of the page by dragging it with the left mouse
button. When you return to the normal display, you will see the new
outlined area on the screen.
OVERSCAN (Keyboard Equivalent: D)
Shows the page as it would appear in overscan display mode. The display is
always aligned to the top left corner of the page. You can adjust the
position of the overscan image by using the arrow keys on the keyboard.
Note that Overscan only works if the page is large enough.
DELETE
Brings up a requester for deleting files from a disk. This requester
functions just like the Load Requester described under Load in the Picture
menu, except that clicking Delete deletes the selected file.
ABOUT
Brings up a requester that gives the name of the program, date and version
number, copyright information and the developers' names.
QUIT
Exits Paint. If you have made changes to a picture since it was last saved,
Paint prompts you to save the picture before quitting.
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BRUSHES MENU
LOAD (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-G)
Brings up the Load Brush Requester, which lets you load custom brushes from
a disk. (For a full explanation of the gadgets in this requester, see Load
in the Picture menu.) Note: if a picture can fit in chip memory, you can
load it as a brush.
SAVE (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-P)
Brings up a Save Brush Requester, which lets you save your current custom
brush to disk. (For a full explanation of the gadgets in this requester,
see Load in the Picture menu.)
SHAPES
Displays a pictorial list of built-in brushes, so you can select one
quickly for use.
Select Shapes, then select whichever brush you want from the built-in
brushes displayed. When you release the mouse button, your new brush will
be the one you selected.
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CUSTOM BRUSH
Restores the most recent custom brush. The brush is restored in its
modified form rather than in the form that it was selected. For example, if
you select a brush and rotate it, then select a built in brush, selecting
Custom Brush will restore your custom brush in its rotated form. (You can
also restore the original custom brush by clicking the Brush Selector with
the right mouse button.)
ROTATIONS
This option presents a submenu containing options for rotating the current
custom brush.
VERT FLIP (Keyboard Equivalent: Y)
Flips the current brush vertically.
HORZ FLIP (Keyboard Equivalent: X)
Flips the current brush horizontally.
ROTATE 90 (Keyboard Equivalent: Z clockwise; Shift-Z counter-clockwise)
Rotates the current brush 90 degrees clockwise. If you hold down Shift
while selecting the option, the brush will rotate 90 degrees
counter-clockwise. Because pixels on the Amiga display are not square,
rotating the brush also distorts it.
ROTATE FREE (Keyboard Equivalent: W)
Lets you rotate the current brush to any angle.
Select Rotate Free from the Rotations submenu in the Brushes menu. Your
brush changes to a rectangle with a triangle inside. The triangle indicates
the top of the brush. The pointer is attached to the center of the
rectangle by a line. Rotate the rectangle by pressing the left mouse button
and moving the pointer. Because pixels on the Amiga display are not square,
rotating the brush also distorts it. As you rotate the rectangle, it
stretches and contracts to indicate the distortion to the actual brush.
Release the mouse button.
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PRINT
Brings up the Brush Print Control, which lets you select print settings and
print the current brush.
The options in this requester function as follows:
ORIENTATION: lets you set whether the brush is printed so that it is
upright when the page is held upright (Normal) or so that the brush is
upright when the page is held sideways (Sideways). The default setting is
Normal.
SHADE: lets you choose one of three printing shades. The default setting is
Color.
B&W prints only the pixels that use color register 0 (zero) in the brush's
palette. These pixels are printed in black.
Grey prints the brush as a grey scale image. This lets you print any brush
with a black ribbon.
Color prints the brush in full color. Though obviously this option will
work correctly only on color printers.
SIZE FACTOR: lets you set whether the size of the printed brush is measured
in inches (Inches), printer pixels (Pixels), or as a percent of your page
size (Percent). The default setting is Percent.
WIDTH and HEIGHT: let you set the width and height of the printed brush. If
you place a 0 in either of these gadgets, only the other setting is used to
determine the size of the printout, and the brush is printed
proportionally. Otherwise, both numbers are used, and the printout may not
be proportional.
Depending on the setting in the Size Factor gadget, the number in these
gadgets can represent inches, printer pixels, or percent of the page size.
The default setting is 100 so that the Size Factor and Width combine to
print the picture at 100% the width of your page.
COPIES: lets you set the number of copies to be printed. Note that Paint
does not send line-or page-feeds to the printer, so each copy of your brush
prints directly below the previous copy.
97
CENTER: sets whether the brush is printed along the left side of the page,
or centered between the left and right side of the page. Center always
centers between the left and right side of the page, regardless of whether
the Orientation setting is Normal or Sideways.
PRINT: Once you have set your print settings, check that your printer is
powered on and on-line. Click Print to print the brush. While the brush is
printing, a requester appears to tell you which copy is printing. This
requester also contains a button to cancel printing.
CANCEL: closes the Print Brush Control without printing the brush. Your
most recent print settings are remembered even though you did not use them.
RESIZE
Lets you resize your custom brush.
Select Resize. When you move the cursor back onto the page, it is a large
cross- hair. Hold down the left mouse button, drag the mouse to form a
rectangle that is the size you want your brush to be, and release the mouse
button. The brush will be resized to the size of the rectangle you created.
Holding down the Ctrl button while dragging the mouse to define the new
brush size constrains the resizing to the same aspect ratio as the original
brush.
RESIZE DRAW (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-D)
Lets you paint the brush onto the picture in whatever size you select,
without resizing the original brush first. Note, however, that Resize Draw
does not work with any of the modes in the Modes menu.
Select Resize Draw. When you move the cursor back onto the page, it is a
large cross-hair. Place the cross-hair in one corner of the area you want
to paint over; then hold down the left mouse button, drag the cross-hair to
the opposite corner of the area you want to paint, and release the mouse
button. The current brush will be painted in the area you indicated, and it
will be the size you defined with the cross-hair cursor. (Click on any
tool to remove the cross-hair from the screen.)
98
Holding down the Ctrl button while dragging the mouse to define the size of
the painted image constrains the resizing to the same aspect ratio as the
original brush.
GRAB LAST (Keyboard Equivalent: G)
Grabs the last area painted on the screen and uses it as a brush. This
means that you can paint a shape with a built-in brush and then select Grab
Last to use that shape as a custom brush. You can also paint with a custom
brush and select Grab Last to select an even more complex brush.
HANDLE (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-H)
Lets you offset the cursor from the current custom brush in any direction.
Select Handle, move the cursor/brush onto the page, hold down the left
mouse button and drag the mouse in any direction. When the cursor is offset
by the desired amount, release the mouse button.
REMAP (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-R)
Remap looks at the colors used in the brush and finds the closet match in
the current picture's Palette. This is important if you are using a display
mode other than Hold and Modify. Paint automatically remaps brushes in HAM
mode when you paint them onto the picture. The Remap option lets you see
the brush as it will appear when you paint with it.
MODES MENU
MODES
BRUSH MODE
PAINT MODE
AFFECT
Figure 5.13 The Modes Menu
99
BRUSH MODE
This option presents a submenu containing brush mode options. These options
affect the way a custom brush is used to paint.
MATTE (Keyboard Equivalent: F1)
Uses the brush in its original form. Those areas of the brush that match
the current background color are transparent.
This is the default mode when you create a custom brush using the Brush
Selector. If you use your brush with Color or Pattern, and then re-select
Matte, your brush will be restored to its previous multi-color form.
COLOR (Keyboard Equivalent: F2)
Uses the shape of the custom brush, but paints with the current foreground
or background color depending on the mouse button you use. Those areas of
the brush that were transparent in the original brush remain transparent.
PATTERN (Keyboard Equivalent: F3)
Uses the current brush as a pattern behind the picture.
When you paint on the picture with the Dotted Freehand, Continuous
Freehand, Line, Curve, or Airbrush tools, you effectively remove the
existing paint to reveal the pattern beneath. The position of the pattern
is based on the original position of the area you selected as a brush,
unless you offset the pattern using the Fill Offset option in the Fill
Control.
If you selected an irregularly shaped brush, painting with the left mouse
button reveals only the selected brush area. Painting with the right mouse
button reveals the selected brush and the bounding rectangle that defines
the brush pattern. In Hold and Modify mode, the bounding rectangle is the
same as if you had selected the brush with the standard rectangular Brush
Selector. In display modes other than Hold And Modify, the bounding
rectangular area is filled with the current background color.
STORE (Keyboard Equivalent: F4)
Replaces the bounding rectangle of an irregular shaped brush as though you
had selected the brush using the rectangular Brush Selector. In HAM mode,
the rectangular area appears exactly as though you selected the brush using
the Brush Selector. In other modes, the area around the brush is filled
with the current background color.
PAINT MODES
Paint Modes presents a submenu of options that let you specify how the
colors of an object (brush, circle, etc.) are combined with the picture
colors while painting. These modes are available in every display mode,
though display modes other than HAM can only paint with colors in the
Palette. The Paint Modes can also be used with any painting tool, and with
the Fill Types.
In the descriptions that follow, the RGB values for the calculations are
included for those who might better understand the mode by seeing it's
mathematical implications. Most users will learn the modes more readily by
simply trying them under various circumstances.
SOLID (Keyboard Equivalent: Left Alt-F1; Left or Right Alt-F10)
Applies the full value of the object color without regard to the color
beneath it on the painting. This is the default painting mode.
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
4 9 6 7 3 8 4 9 6
1 2 3 3 2 1 1 2 3
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LOW MIX (Keyboard Equivalent: Left Alt-F2)
Applies the lightest amount of object color to the picture color. This is a
very useful mode if you are not sure how much of the object color you want
to apply. Paint one application of Low Mix and use Repeat to add more color
until you reach the desired level.
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
1 9 6 7 3 8 6 4 7
1 2 3 3 2 1 2 2 2
MIX (Keyboard Equivalent: Left Alt-F3)
Applies one-fourth of the object color to the picture.
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
1 9 6 7 3 8 5 4 7
1 2 3 3 2 1 2 2 2
AVERAGE (Keyboard Equivalent: Left Alt-F4)
Applies one-half of the object color to the picture.
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
4 9 6 7 3 8 5 6 7
1 2 3 3 2 1 2 2 2
BLEND (Keyboard Equivalent: Left Alt-F5)
Applies three-fourths of the object color to the picture.
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
4 9 6 7 3 8 4 7 6
1 2 3 3 2 1 1 2 2
102
SHADE (Keyboard Equivalent: Left Alt-F6)
Applies a proportional amount of the object color to the picture. You can
set the amount of object color applied by using the Shade option in the
Options menu. This mode also lets you apply the object color in a gradual
shading effect.
SUB PICT (Keyboard Equivalent: Left Alt-F7)
Applies the color value equal to the object color value minus the picture
color value. If the resulting value drops below 0, the minimum, the value 0
is used. (For example, if you have an object color value of 4 and a picture
color value of 8, the color value used will be 0, since 4 minus 8 equals
-4, which is below the minimum value.)
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
4 9 6 7 3 8 0 6 0
1 2 3 3 2 1 0 0 2
SCALE (Keyboard Equivalent: Left Alt-F8)
Applies the color that results from multiplying the picture color value by
the object color value, and then dividing by 15. By doing this, you are
scaling the picture color by the object color painted over it. You might
think of this option as "embossing" the object into the picture.
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
4 9 6 7 3 8 2 2 3
1 2 3 3 2 1 0 0 0
SCALE2 (Keyboard Equivalent: Left Alt-F9)
Applies the color that is the product of multiplying the picture color
value by the object color value, and dividing the result by 8. You can
reduce contrast in the picture by using a gray brush with a value less than
8, or increase contrast by using a gray brush with a value greater than 8.
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
4 9 6 7 3 8 4 3 6
1 2 3 3 2 1 0 1 0
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ADD (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Alt-F1)
Applies the color that is the sum of the object color value and the picture
color value. If the result exceeds 15, the maximum color value, then 15 is
used. (For example, if you have an object color value of 6 and a picture
color value of 11, the color value used will be 15, since 6 plus 11 equals
17, which is above the maximum color value.)
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
4 9 6 7 3 8 11 12 14
1 2 3 3 2 1 4 4 4
SUB (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Alt-F2)
Applies the color that is equal to the picture color value minus the object
color value. The general effect is to darken the picture. If the color
value drops below 0, the minimum,0 is used (For example, if you have a
picture color value of 4 and an object color value of 8, the color value
used will be 0, since 4 minus 8 equals -4 below the minimum color value.)
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
4 9 6 7 3 8 3 0 2
1 2 3 3 2 1 2 0 0
MAX (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Alt-F3)
Applies the color that results from combining the highest RGB value
components of the object color and the picture color.
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
4 9 6 7 3 8 7 9 8
1 2 3 3 2 1 3 2 3
104
MIN (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Alt-F4)
Applies the color that results from combining the lowest RGB value
components of the object color and the picture color.
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
4 9 6 7 3 8 4 3 6
1 2 3 3 2 1 1 2 1
XOR (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Alt-F5)
Applies the color that results from the logical operation "exclusive-or"
between the object color value and the picture color value. Applying a gray
with a value less than 8 tends to move the colors toward gray. Applying a
gray with a value greater than 8 moves secondary and primary colors to
their complements. If you apply white to the picture using this mode, the
resulting colors are the complements of the original picture colors. In
other words, this mode used with a white brush produces a negative image.
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
4 9 6 7 3 8 3 10 14
1 2 3 3 2 1 2 0 2
OR (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Alt-F6)
Applies the color that results from the logical operation "or" between the
object color value and the picture color value. (The result is a little
like Max.)
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
4 9 6 7 3 8 7 11 14
1 2 3 3 2 1 3 2 3
105
AND (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Alt-F7)
Applies the color that results from the logical operation "and" between the
object color value and the picture color value. (The result is a little
like Min, described above.)
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
4 9 6 7 3 8 4 1 0
1 2 3 3 2 1 1 2 1
HLF (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Alt-F8)
At those positions where the object color would normally take effect,
reduces the picture color by half.
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
ANY ANY ANY 7 3 8 3 1 4
ANY ANY ANY 3 2 1 1 1 0
B&W (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Alt-F9)
At those positions where the object color would normally take effect,
converts the picture color to its gray level. The effect on the painted
area is the same as turning the color knob all the way down on a television
set. Note that unless the Palette contains the full range of grays, Paint
may not be able to convert the painted area entirely to grays.
OBJECT PICTURE RESULT
R G B R G B R G B
ANY ANY ANY 7 3 8 5 5 5
ANY ANY ANY 3 2 1 2 2 2
AFFECT
Presents a submenu that contains options for selecting which pixels in the
picture are affected by a painting operation.
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ALL (Keyboard Equivalent: F5)
A painting operation effects all pixels in the picture.
FOREGROUND (Keyboard Equivalent: F6)
A painting operation effects only those pixels that are not of the
background color.
BACKGROUND (Keyboard Equivalent: F7)
A painting operation effects only pixels of the background color.
OPTIONS MENU
REPEAT (Keyboard Equivalent: R)
Repeats the last painting action using the current Paint Mode, Affect Mode,
and either Color or Pattern Brush Mode. If the currently selected tool is a
fill tool (Fill, Filled Rectangle, etc.), it also uses the Fill Control
settings. If the currently selected tool is not a fill tool, Matte and
Store Brush Modes work like Color Brush Mode. Note, however, that when you
use Repeat, the color is applied to the pixels that were last painted. So
if you last painted with Store mode active, Repeat will act like Color plus
Store mode.
This lets you paint an area, then change colors or mode settings and
repaint the exact same area in a single keystroke. This is useful with
Paint Modes such as Low Mix, because it allows you to apply the brush color
in gradual increments until you reach the color you want, without your
having to manually paint over the area several times.
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SHADE CONTROL (Keyboard Equivalent: V)
Brings up the Shade Control, where you select the shade settings to be used
when painting in the Shade Paint Mode. How Shade is applies depends
somewhat on the painting operation you've chosen. If you paint a filled
shape, or fill a shape with a solid color, the Shade effect is applied over
the area of the shape. If you paint with a custom brush, the Shade effect
is applied over the area of the custom brush. If you paint with a built-in
brush, the Shade effect is applied over the area of the screen.
HIGHLIGHT POSITION: Positions the highlight (the area of the Shade effect
controlled by the High setting) relative to the total affected area. The
affected area is represented by the square box (though your actual affected
area may be any shape). The type of highlight to be used is set in the
Highlight gadget and is represented by a dot, a bar, or the entire
highlight position area.
When the highlight type is set to anything other than All, you can position
the highlight by dragging it around in the box.
HIGHLIGHT: Determines the type of highlight to be used in the shade
operation. Clicking on the Highlight box cycles you through the four
possible highlight types: Point, Vertical, Horizontal, and All.
As you click the Highlight box to change the setting, the box to the left
shows a graphic representation of the highlight. For example, if you set
the highlight to point, the highlight area is shown in the large box as a
point. The highlight area of the box is the area that will receive the
maximum effect of the brush. The maximum effect is set using the High
slider.
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If the Highlight is set to All, the object color is applied evenly across
the area of the object. The level of color that is applied is the average
of the High and Low slider settings.
DITHER: Lets you set the amount of randomness between bands in the shading.
Note that the number of bands is determined by the difference between the
Low and High settings.
LOW: Lets you set the percent of brush color applied to the painting in the
area farthest from the highlight in shaded area.
HIGH: Lets you set the percent of brush color applied to the painting in
highlight area.
FILL CONTROL
Brings up the Fill Control, which lets you set the type of fill to be used
by fill commands. The four basic types of fill available are Solid Color,
Trace Edges, Brush Pattern, and Gradient. The currently selected fill type
is highlighted in the window. To select a different one, click its gadget.
Each of the fill types is explained in detail below.
SOLID COLOR: Fills the area with the current color. There are no additional
gadgets associated with this type in the Fill Control.
TRACE EDGES: Traces the edges of the area with a single pixel layer of the
current color. This is useful for outlining text.
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BRUSH PATTERN: Fills the area with a pattern of the current custom brush.
You can realign the position of the pattern by using the Fill Offset
gadget.
GRADIENT: Fills all shapes using the currently selected gradient type and
color range.
GRADIENT TYPE: Clicking the box below Gradient Type cycles you through the
thirteen available gradient types listed below.
Options that use a range of colors take their range from the Palette
Screen, where the range is defined as the colors between the Begin Range
Marker and End Range Marker. (For information on selecting ranges, see
Palette Screen in this chapter). The thickness of the bands of color used
in the fill depends on the number of colors in the range and the area that
those colors are spread over. Figure 5.18 shows the four bounding areas
used to determine the width of the bands of color used in fills.
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Figure 5.19 shows the result of filling the same circle with the same six
color range, based on the seven different fill types that use ranges.
Notice that the fills assume that the page is larger than the screen.
HORIZONTAL BORDER: Fills the area with the current range of colors within
the borders of each individual horizontal line in the areas, so that the
gradient follows the contours of the area being filled. This lets you
create "pseudo- shaded" objects, if you choose low-contrast colors.
HORIZONTAL WIDTH: Fills the area with the current range of colors, using
bands of color wide enough to spread one full set over the rectangle
defined by the area's widest point--the object width. The effect is as
though the rectangle defined by the object width were filled with bands of
color, and then the filled area was cut from within that rectangle.
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HORIZONTAL SCREEN: Fills the area with the current range of colors, using
bands of color wide enough to spread one full set over the screen width.
This is a good way to paint a background pattern into an area of the
picture that is the width of the screen. Also, it allows you to use
multiple fills, with all of them fitting the same pattern of colors.
HORIZONTAL PAGE: Fills the area with the current range of colors, using
bands wide enough to spread one full set over the page width. The filled
area will contain only the colors that would be used in that area of the
screen if the entire page were filled.
VERTICAL HEIGHT: Fills the area with the current range of colors, using
bands of colors fitted to the area's height, as though it were enclosed in
a rectangle. This lets you create bounded areas that are smoothly textured,
as though lit from above or below.
VERTICAL SCREEN: Fills the area with the current range of colors spread
uniformly across the height of the screen. This is a good way to paint a
background pattern into an area of the picture the same height as the
screen. Also, it allows you to use multiple fills, with all of them fitting
the same pattern of colors.
VERTICAL PAGE: Fills the area with the current range of colors in bands
wide enough to spread a full set over the page height. The filled area will
contain only the colors that would be used in the area of the screen if it
were filled. This lets you create a background pattern that spans the full
picture vertically.
In addition to the range fills that use the current brush and either
distort it to fill the area, or fill with a pattern made from the brush. As
with the range fills, each of the brush fills can also be used with a level
of Dither to mix the colors in the filled area.
BRUSH BORDER: Fills the area using the current brush pattern, fitting the
lines of the brush within each horizontal line segment found in the area.
In the resulting fill, the brush pattern may be unusually stretched or
shrunk. You can adjust the vertical positioning of the brush pattern by
using the Fill Offset option.
BRUSH PATTERN: Fills the area with the current brush pattern. With Dither
set to its minimum value (for no dither), this gives you the same fill as
the Brush Pattern gadget at the top of the requester. As you increase the
amount of Dither, the pixels in the brush pattern move random distances
from their normal position.
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This lets you create patterned backgrounds that are not entirely regular.
It's also a nice way to paint a background with a pattern that's fuzzy, but
still recognizable.
BRUSH STRETCH: Stretches the current brush both horizontally and vertically
to fit the rectangle defined by the object. Brush Stretch fills the area
with the current brush pattern fitted to the area's width and height, as
though it were enclosed in a rectangle.
BRUSH WARP: Fills the area with the current brush pattern, resized to match
the brush edges to the edges of the filled area. This fill often results in
distortion of the brush. Used creatively, this can produce surrealistic
effects.
HORIZONTAL BRUSH: Stretches the current brush horizontally to match the
object width and then fits the brush between the area's vertical borders.
VERT BRUSH: Stretches the current brush vertically to match the object
height and then fits the brush between the area's horizontal borders.
DITHER: Lets you set the amount of random overlap between colors. To set
the dither, drag the dither slider left or right. When the slider is at the
far left, dither is turned off. You can see a representation of the current
dither setting in the box below the slider.
HAM CLOSENESS: Lets you set how different from each other two shades must
be before they are considered separate shades. This slider operates only in
Hold And Modify mode, where two colors can be so similar that it is
difficult to distinguish them, and yet the differences in their color
values might prevent you from filling an area in one fill.
If you fill an area, and many of the pixels do not take the color of your
fill, set the slider farther to the right to increase the amount of
difference necessary to distinguish between the colors, If you fill an area
and the fill bleeds out of the area you want to fill, set the slider
farther to the left to decrease the amount of difference necessary to
distinguish between the colors.
The values for the slider range from 0 to 80. The default setting when you
start Paint is 15.
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FILL OFFSET: Lets you set a new position for the pattern in Brush Pattern
modes.
Brush Pattern modes are normally based on the original position from which
your custom brush was selected. To change that position, and thus move the
pattern, click Fill Offset. The Fill Control will disappear. Stamp down the
custom brush where you want it to appear in the pattern. The brush is not
painted, but this position is now remembered as the brushes origin. The
Fill Control reappears after you stamp the brush. Click OK in the Fill
Control to accept your new setting.
MAGNIFY
Presents a submenu of options that let you select how the pixels in magnify
mode are separated from one another. (Note: no vertical break lines appear
in HAM mode.)
NORMAL sets no pixel indicator, so the pixels all merge together smoothly.
This is the default mode when you start Paint.
LINES sets a single-pixel line between the magnified pixels. (Note that in
HAM mode, there are no vertical lines between pixels.)
DOTS sets a dot in the corner between magnified pixels, in addition to
separating the pixels with a single-pixel line.
PREFERENCES
Presents a submenu of options that can be toggled on or off. When an option
is toggled on, a check mark appears beside it.
WORKBENCH
Lets you choose whether to display the workbench. When Workbench is
selected, the Workbench is opened; this is the default setting when you
first start the program. Closing the Workbench frees up additional memory
for use by Paint.
TRANSPARENCY (Keyboard Equivalent: Q--on; Shift-Q--off)
Lets you choose whether the background color is treated as transparent when
a custom brush is selected. On treats the current background color as
transparent. Note that pressing lowercase q on the keyboard turns
Transparency on. Pressing uppercase Q on the keyboard turns Transparency
off.
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SMOOTH (Keyboard Equivalent: \)
Lets you choose the degree to which the edges of a shape are smoothed
(using the anti-aliasing algorithm) when it is sized. This option affects
resizing functions such as Resize, Resize Draw, and Load At. If Smooth is
checked in the menu, Paint applies a higher degree of smoothing than when
the option is not checked. However, some degree of smoothing is always
applied.
CENTER OVALS (Keyboard Equivalents: C--on; Shift-C--off.)
Lets you choose how to paint ovals. On lets you paint them from the center
outward as you drag the mouse; off paints them in the area defined by the
crosshair as you drag the mouse from corner to corner.
NO BACKGROUND
Lets you choose whether the Paint Modes can select Color 0, the background
color, when painting. On prevents a painting mode from selecting Color 0;
off allows a painting mode to select it. (This mode is especially useful
when using GenLocks.)
FONTS MENU
LOAD NEW FONT (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-F)
Brings up the Load Font Requester, which lets you select a font to be added
to the font list.
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Select Load New Font and click in the font requester on the name of the
font you want. If its name is not visible, use the scroll gadget on the
left to scroll through the listings. New fonts are added at the top of the
list. You can have only six fonts in the Fonts menu at a time. If you have
six fonts already and you load in a new one, it is added to the top of the
list, with the font at the bottom removed automatically.
TIP: A handy way to use custom fonts from a font directory other than the
system's: Open a new screen in Paint; Use the CLI (sorry) to reassign your
fonts path (for example, ASSIGN Fonts: df1:fonts); then use the fonts menu
of the new screen to select your custom font.
STYLE
Presents a submenu of text styles. With the exception of Plain, selecting a
style from the submenu turns it on, with a check mark appearing beside its
name on the list. You can apply any combination of styles to your text.
Selecting Plain turns all of them off.
PLAIN (Keyboard Equivalent: Ctrl-P)
UNDERLINE (Keyboard Equivalent: Ctrl-U)
ITALIC (Keyboard Equivalent: Ctrl-I)
BOLD (Keyboard Equivalent: Ctrl-B)
Note: Using the Italic style with a font larger than 50 points will greatly
distort the font.
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[FONT NAMES]
(Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-1 through 6)
The lower portion of the Fonts menu lists the last six fonts used in Paint.
You can select a font by choosing it from the menu, or by typing its
keyboard equivalent.
MEMORY MANAGEMENT
To give you the flexibility of large page sizes, custom brushes, Affect
Modes, and Paint Modes, Paint uses a large amount of memory. As a result,
you may occasionally encounter memory shortage while performing a
memory-intensive operation.
Memory shortage can manifest itself in various ways. For example, if you
are at the limits of available memory, and you select a large brush, Paint
conserves memory by displaying just the outline of the brush rather than
the brush itself. When you paint with the brush, the image will appear on
the screen as usual, even though it may not be visible as you move it
around the screen. When this happens, you should take some action to free
some memory. Other symptoms of low memory are: the menus or submenus don't
open; you can't select a custom brush; you can't rotate a brush; you can't
open a new screen.
Some ways to free memory are: Close the Workbench; select a smaller custom
brush; or close some open screens. When all else fails; restart the
computer so that memory isn't fragmented.
If you ever select a custom brush and then can't display the Brushes menu
to save the brush, use the keyboard equivalent Right Amiga-P.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER SIX: GUIDED TOUR......................................121
THE POSTERS SCREEN....................................121
SETTING YOUR PAGE SIZE................................122
LOADING A PICTURE.....................................122
SIZING YOUR POSTER....................................123
DRAGGING THE POSTER...........................123
CLICKING THE ARROWS...........................123
ASPECT RATIO..................................124
PREVIEW...............................................124
HORIZONTAL PRINTING...................................125
WHICH PAGE IS NEXT?...................................125
THE PRINT REQUESTER...................................126
CHAPTER SEVEN: REFERENCE......................................129
1. THE POSTERS SCREEN.................................129
TITLE BAR..........................................129
MENU BAR...........................................130
THE PAGE GRID......................................130
POSTER SIZE GADGETS................................130
PAGE SIZE GADGETS..................................131
2. MENU ITEMS.........................................131
PROJECT MENU.......................................132
MODE MENU..........................................135
This chapter takes you through a quick tour of Posters. In the process,
you'll learn about almost every feature of the program, and you'll finish
by printing a poster.
THE POSTERS SCREEN
When you first start Posters, the Posters Screen appears. The screen is
made up of a Title/Menu Bar, the Page Grid, Poster Size gadgets, and Page
Size gadgets as shown in Figure 6.1 below.
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SETTING YOUR PAGE SIZE
Each rectangle in the Page Grid represents one page. When you first start
Posters, the program uses your current Preferences setting. (If you are
not familiar with Preferences, see your Amiga User's Guide.)
To change the page size to match the size of the paper you are using, click
the arrows of the Page Width and Page Height gadgets.
As you change the size of the pages, you'll see that the rectangles in the
Page Grid adjust to reflect the new page size and the number settings show
the new size in inches. Clicking the Page Width arrow that points left
makes the pages in the grid narrower. Clicking the arrow that points right
makes the pages wider. The arrows beside Page Height work the same way: the
top arrow (pointing up) makes the pages longer.
Use the Page Width and Page Height arrows to set the page size to match the
size of your paper. (You won't have to do this step if your Amiga
Preferences were already set to the correct paper size.)
This is the first step you'll want to do every time you use Posters.
LOADING A PICTURE
To load a picture, select Load from the Project menu. (To do this, hold
down the right mouse button to display the menus, point to the Project
menu, pull the highlight down to Load, and release the mouse button.)
The Load Requester appears for you to select a file to load. The requester
works exactly like the requester described in the Getting Started section
of this manual.
Press V to display the volumes. Click the volume PhotoLab Art to display
the contents of the art disk. Click the directory HAMx400 to display the
contents of that directory. Click the file ComicPoster and click Open to
load that picture.
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The picture appears as a gray rectangle in the upper half of the first page
in the Page Grid.
SIZING YOUR POSTER
When you first load a picture, it is sized to fit the current Page Width.
Poster Width and Page Width are now the same. There are two ways to change
the size of your poster. One way is to drag the lower right corner of the
gray picture rectangle with the pointer. The other is to click the arrows
beside Poster Width and Poster Height. You will usually want to use both of
these methods.
DRAGGING THE POSTER
Place the pointer anywhere on the Page Grid and press down the left mouse
button.
The poster size adjusts so that either the right or bottom side of the
poster aligns with the position of the pointer. (The other edge of the
poster may not meet the pointer, because at the moment Posters is set to
maintain the aspect ratio of the picture.)
With the mouse button held down, drag the pointer around in the Page Grid
to see how the poster size responds.
CLICKING THE ARROWS
To fine tune the size of your poster, click the Poster Width or Poster
Height arrow gadgets.
Notice how clicking the arrows changes the poster size. The numbers for
Poster Width and Poster Height also change one tenth of an inch for each
click. This allows you to carefully size your poster to make the best use
of your page size. If you point to one of the arrows and hold down the
mouse button, the poster size changes continually until you release the
mouse button.
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ASPECT RATIO
As you changed the poster size above, the picture's aspect ratio was always
maintained. If you like, you can size the poster to any dimensions by
turning off the Aspect Ratio option in the Mode menu.
Select Aspect Ratio from the Mode menu to remove the check mark beside the
option.
Now you can set the width and height of the poster independently, so the
poster can be any size. (Though selecting a size that is not a multiple of
the normal picture size will result in a distorted printout.)Try sizing the
poster now, and you will see that the lower right corner of your poster
always meets the pointer as you drag.
When you turn Aspect Ratio back on, the poster height automatically adjusts
to the proper size to preserve the aspect ratio.
Select Aspect Ratio from the Mode menu now and watch the Poster Height
adjust.
PREVIEW
The Preview option in the Mode menu replaces the standard gray poster
rectangle with a representation of the picture you are working with.
Make the picture fairly large and then select Preview from the Mode menu to
see how this works.
This function is useful if you want to see how the printed pages will be
combined, or if you want to print an area that is smaller than the total
picture. Note that Posters displays the picture representation only until
you select another function.
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HORIZONTAL PRINTING
Posters lets you choose how the picture is oriented on the pages in the
printed poster. At the moment, the Horizontal Printing option in the Mode
menu is selected, so the poster prints horizontally across upright pages.
You can see this is true if you select Preview to see the picture in
relationship to the pages.
Select Horizontal Printing from the Mode menu to turn the option off.
The Page Grid turns sideways in relation to the picture. Now you can see
that if you held one of the 8 1/2 by 11 pages upright, the picture would be
printed vertically in relation to the page.
Whether it is advantageous to have Horizontal Printing on or off depends on
the original size of your picture and the finished size you want your
poster to be. For example, if you want to create the largest poster of
ComicPoster that you can fit on a single 8.5 x 11.0 inch page without
changing the aspect ration, you want Horizontal Printing off. If you want
to create the largest poster of ComicPoster that you can fit on eight
pages, you would want Horizontal Printing on.
Remember that the best combination of printing orientation and poster size
depend on the size of your original picture, so you should always try
different settings for Horizontal printing to see which is best.
WHICH PAGE IS NEXT?
As you look at the Page Grid, it might not be apparent to you what order
the pages print in. Posters provides a simple way to see the page ordering
scheme:
Place the pointer over a page of the poster and look in the bottom left
corner of the screen; the number beside Page is the number of the page you
are pointing to.
Now move the pointer around to see how the page numbers change. The upper
left corner of the poster is always page one, and page two is either to the
right or down.
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If you ever want to print an area of your picture that is smaller than the
total poster, you can identify the pages for that area by selecting Preview
and using the pointer to find the page numbers. In a moment, you'll see
that the Print Requester lets you specify exactly which pages you want to
print. So you can print a small section, or start over in the middle if you
run out of paper or ribbon while you are printing.
THE PRINT REQUESTER
Right now, let's set up the poster size and print a small poster. The
instructions that follow assume that you are using paper that is 8.5 x 11
inches and in continuous form rather than single sheets.
Open the Mode menu to confirm that Aspect Ratio and Horizontal Printing are
both checked as on.
Check that your Page Width is 8.5 and Page Height is 11.0.
Drag the poster to be approximately two pages wide. Then use the Poster
Width and Height arrows to set the poster size to exactly 17.0 inches wide
and 10.6 inches high. Look in the lower right corner of the screen to
confirm that the poster takes two pages to print.
Now select Print from the Project menu.
The Print Requester will appear and look something like this:
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The function of most of the gadgets in this requester are probably clear to
you without explanation, but just in case, we'll quickly run though each of
them. Don't change any settings yet, we'll tell you which options to change
after we run through the explanations.
Number of Copies: simply lets you set the number of copies you want to
print of your poster. To change the number of copies, click the number,
press Del or Backspace to remove the old number, then type the new number
and press Return. When you select more than one copy, Posters prints the
poster the number of times you requested.
Start and Stop: let you specify which page in the poster should be the
first page printed and which should be the last. As we mentioned above,
this is useful if you want to print a poster-size image that is only a
small part of a picture, or if you run out of paper or ribbon in the middle
of printing a poster, you can start over from where you left off.
Pause Printer At: lets you pause the printer after each page or each
column. The default setting is for the printer to print continuously
without pausing. If you are using single sheets, you'll want to pause after
each page, or if you're printer doesn't hold the alignment very well, you
might want to pause after each column to adjust the alignment. To select
one of these options, simply click that button. If you want to turn off a
selection, click the button again.
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Eject Paper At: lets you set the paper to eject after each page or each
column. The default is for the printer to print without intervening paper
ejects. If you want each strip of your poster to line up identically, you
probably want to eject after each column to reset the top of form.
Smooth: reduces the "jaggedness" of the image as the poster is printed
using a function known as anti-aliasing. This is similar to the smooth
function in Paint. Note that smooth requires additional memory to perform
the smoothing calculations. Depending on the amount of memory in your
computer, you may not be able to use smooth if you are trying to print a
large poster.
White Background: When this option is set, any area of your picture that
uses Color 0 will not be printed. Thus, if your background color is Color 0
and you are printing on white paper, the result is a white background. This
is a great ribbon and ink saver and also speeds up the printing.
Now let's actually print the poster.
Make sure that your printer is properly connected to the computer and is
turned on.
If you are using continuous paper, don't change any of the settings in the
Print Requester. Just click Print.
If you are using single sheets of paper, click Pages in the Pause Printer
At: option and then click Print.
A requester appears to tell you which column is being printed. This
requester also contains a Stop button for you to cancel printing if you
wish. How long it takes to print a poster will depend mainly on how fast
your printer can print. In any case, we think you'll find the results are
worth the wait.
This chapter walked you through almost every function of Posters. If you
have specific questions about how a particular feature works, you may find
more information in the Posters Reference section. The Posters Reference
will come in handy later, when you just want to look something up quickly.
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This chapter summarizes the commands and functions in Poster. Because this
chapter is intended for reference only and not as a way to learn the
program, the descriptions are as concise as possible. If you read an entry
in this chapter and don't fully understand how the feature works, look
through the Posters Guided Tour to see if there is a step-by-step example.
1 THE POSTERS SCREEN
When you start Posters, the first thing you will see is the Posters Screen.
See Figure 7.1. This screen consists of a Title Bar/Menu Bar, a Page Grid,
gadgets for setting your Poster Size and Page Size, and a display to show
you the current size of your poster.
TITLE BAR
The Title Bar at the top of the Posters Screen shows the name of the
program and the name of the last file you loaded, if any. The Front Gadget
and Back Gadget on the right side of the title bar work as they do on
normal Amiga screens.
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MENU BAR
When you press the right mouse button, the Menu Bar displays the menu
names. Then pointing to the menu name opens that menu.
THE PAGE GRID
The large checkerboard area of the screen is the Page Grid. Each rectangle
in the grid represents one page. The size of each page (and thus each
rectangle) is set using the Page Size gadgets. The page size is initially
set to the same size indicated in Preferences.
When you load a picture to be printed, it is represented on the grid as a
solid rectangle on the first page (in the upper left corner of the Page
Grid). When the picture is first loaded, the poster width is sized to fit
the current page width and the poster height is sized to maintain the
picture's aspect ratio.
You can size the poster by placing the pointer on the Page Grid and holding
down the mouse button. The solid rectangle representing the poster enlarges
or shrinks so that the lower right corner aligns with the pointer. (If you
have Aspect Ratio in the Mode menu selected on, either the right or bottom
edge of the poster aligns with the pointer position, but the poster sizes
to maintain the picture's aspect ratio.) When you release the mouse button,
the poster stays the size you selected with the pointer. Notice that the
numbers in the Poster Width and Poster Height gadgets show the new poster
size.
You can also size the poster by using the Poster Width and Poster Height
gadgets.
POSTER SIZE GADGETS
Clicking on the arrows beside Poster Width and Poster Height changes the
size of the poster by one tenth of an inch for each click. If you point to
an arrow and hold down the mouse button, the poster size increases
continuously until the maximum size is reached. Notice that the numbers in
the gadgets show the new poster size as it changes.
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PAGE SIZE GADGETS
The Page Size gadgets allow you to change the size of the paper you use,
without changing the settings in Preferences. Clicking on the arrows beside
Page Width and Page Height changes the size of the pages by one tenth of an
inch for each click. If you point to an arrow and hold down the mouse
button, the page size increases continuously until the maximum size is
reached. (The maximum width or height is 120 inches.) The rectangles in the
Page Grid immediately adjust to represent the new page size. The numbers in
the Page Width and Page Height gadgets display the new size in inches.
2 MENU ITEMS
Poster's menu items remain hidden until you move the cursor to the top of
the screen and press the right mouse button. As you move the cursor
horizontally across the Menu Bar, one after another of the menus drops down
to reveal its selection of options. Moving the cursor down the selection of
options highlights each one. Releasing the mouse button when a menu option
is highlighted selects that option.
In many cases, you can select a menu item by using its keyboard equivalent.
Keyboard equivalents, where available, are shown next to the corresponding
item in the menus and in the descriptions that follow. You can find a table
of keyboard equivalents at the end of this reference section.
The menus, reading from left to right across the Menu Bar, are as follows:
PROJECT MENU
LOAD ... (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: RIGHT AMIGA-L)
Brings up the Load File Requester. See figure 7.3. The requester contains
Open and Cancel buttons, a field to display the current directory path, a
file list window with arrows and a slider for scrolling the window, and an
edit field that displays the currently selected file.
To load a picture, click the name of the file you want to open and then
click the Open button at the top of the requester.
In addition to files, the window displays Directories, Volumes, and
Clipboards. If you click a subdirectory name, the window displays all of
the files contained in that subdirectory. Clicking the listing / (parent)
moves you into the parent directory of the current subdirectory. If you
click a Volume name, the contents of that volume are displayed. Also, if
you place a different disk in a drive while
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the Load File requester is displayed, the Volume list is updated to show
the new disk. If that drive was the current drive, the window displays the
files in the new disk.
Shortcuts
Several shortcuts are available in the Load File Requester.
Double clicking on a file name is the same as clicking the file name and
clicking Open.
Clicking on a section title in the display window such as "--Files--" will
skip the window display down to the next section.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Key Function
ESC Cancel
Up Arrow Move display up one line
Down Arrow Move display down one line
Shift Up Arrow Move display up one section
Shift Down Arrow Move display down one section
Return Same as clicking on Open
D Shows the directories
F Shows the files
V Shows the volumes
PRINT (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-P)
Brings up the Print requester, which contains various printing options and
lets you print your poster. (Note that you cannot select Print until you
have opened a picture file.) The options in this requester are as follows:
NUMBER OF COPIES
Lets you set the number of copies you want to print of a single poster. To
change the setting, click in the gadget, backspace to erase the current
setting and type a new number.
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START AND STOP
These gadgets let you set the range of pages to be printed. When you first
select the Print option these gadgets are set to print the whole poster
(Start is set to 1, and Stop is set to the last page number). If you want
to print a section smaller than the total poster, you can change the
settings to print any range. To change each setting, click in the number
box, use Backspace or Delete to remove the existing number, type the new
number of copies, and press Enter.
PAUSE PRINTER AT:
This feature lets you pause the printing at either page or column
boundaries. With continuous feed paper, this feature lets you adjust the
paper occasionally to ensure that the alignment is correct. If you are
printing on single sheets of paper, select Page. This interrupts printing
after each page so you can insert the next sheet of paper.
EJECT PAPER AT:
This feature lets you eject the paper at the end of each page or column.
Ejecting the paper ensure that the next page or column will begin at the
top of a sheet of paper.
SMOOTH
When Smooth is not selected, the individual pixels of enlarged pictures
print as small rectangular areas. With Smooth selected the contents of
adjacent pixels are considered during the printing process and the edges
between pixels are "smoothed" (in a process known as anti-aliasing). This
smoothing increases the apparent resolution of the picture. (Note that the
effectiveness of this feature will vary from printer to printer. Also, the
extra calculations required for the smoothing effect will noticeably slow
the printing process.)
WHITE BACKGROUND
When White Background is selected, areas of the picture that use color
register 0 (zero) are not printed. For example, if you had a picture of a
bird on a solid blue background, only the bird would be printed if the blue
background color was in color register 0.
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CANCEL
Closes the Print requester without printing the poster.
PRINT
Prints the poster. Once printing has started, a requester box appears to
tell you what range of pages is printing. This requester contains a Stop
button so you can abort printing at any time.
Note: Do not change the Amiga printer preferences while you are printing.
Any changes could adversely affect the poster.
ABOUT
Brings up a requester that gives the name of the program, copyright
information and the developers' names.
QUIT (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-Q)
Exits Posters.
MODE MENU
PREVIEW (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-V)
Changes the rectangle in the Page Grid from a solid color into a
representation of the picture you are working with. This lets you see the
relationship of the picture you are working with. This lets you see the
relationship between the individual strips of paper and the completed
poster.
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ASPECT RATION (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-A)
When this option is selected, the poster can only be enlarged or reduced to
a width and height combination that maintains the picture's original aspect
ratio. This means that when you try to resize the poster by dragging the
pointer on the Page Grid, the right edge of the poster moves to align with
the pointer, but the height adjusts to a setting that maintains the
picture's aspect ratio. If you use the arrows beside Poster Width or Poster
Height to change the size of the poster, any arrow will change both the
width and height.
When this option is not selected, you can change the poster's width and
height independently, and Posters will not attempt to maintain the aspect
ratio.
HORIZONTAL PRINTING (Keyboard Equivalent: Right Amiga-H)
When Horizontal Printing is selected, the poster is printed horizontally in
relation to the paper. In other words, if you are printing on 8 1/2 by 11
inch paper and you have Horizontal Printing selected, the finished poster
is assembled from sheets of paper that are upright, and the poster will
have printed horizontally across each page from left to right.
When Horizontal Printing is not selected, the poster is printed vertically
in relation to the paper. If you are using 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper, the
finished poster is assembled from sheets of paper that are sideways, and
the poster will have printed vertically across each page from top to
bottom.
To see the order in which the pages will be printed, place the pointer in
the upper left corner of the poster and look at the number to the right of
Page in the bottom right corner of the screen. (The upper left corner of
the Page Grid is always the first page to print.) Next, move the pointer
one page down or one page to the right and check the page numbers. You'll
quickly find the order in which the pages are printed. This feature is also
important if you want to print only a small section of the picture. Using
the pointer, you can find the starting and ending page numbers for the
section you want to print.
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER EIGHT: GUIDED TOUR..................................141
WHEN YOU START......................................141
LOADING A PICTURE...................................141
THE COMMAND SCREEN..................................142
WHICH SCREEN IS ACTIVE?.............................142
MOVING THE SCREEN OR PICTURE........................143
THE COLOR STATISTICS DISPLAY........................143
THE REGISTER GRAPH..................................145
RGBHSVP BUTTONS.............................145
ARROW BUTTONS...............................146
LOCKING REGISTERS...........................147
SORTING THE GRAPH...........................147
OOPS, THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANTED......................148
THE FLAGS...........................................149
REAL/TEST...................................149
THE OPERATIONS......................................150
THE PALETTE.........................................151
SOME QUICK EFFECTS..................................151
SEPARATE....................................152
MATCH PALETTE...............................152
MAKE B/W....................................153
NEGATIVE....................................153
CHANGING DISPLAY MODES..............................154
REVERT..............................................155
CHAPTER NINE: TUTORIALS.............................................157
WHAT YOU'LL NEED....................................157
1. REDUCING THE NUMBER OF COLOR REGISTERS USED..............158
THE REDUCE OPERATION.....................................158
SETTING A NEW DISPLAY MODE...............................160
STRIPPING AWAY BIT PLANES................................161
PALETTE MANIPULATIONS....................................161
SWAP COLORS.........................................162
SWAP REGISTERS......................................163
COPY COLORS.........................................163
MELD BY AVERAGE.....................................164
MELD BY WEIGHT......................................164
MELD REGISTERS......................................164
2. RESIZING THE PICTURE.....................................165
THE RESIZE OPERATION.....................................165
SAVE RESIZED.............................................166
CHAPTER TEN: REFERENCE..............................................167
1. THE PICTURE SCREEN.......................................167
2. THE COMMAND SCREEN.......................................167
3. MENU ITEMS...............................................175
PROJECT MENU.............................................176
COLOR MENU...............................................179
VIEW MODES MENU..........................................184
This chapter takes you through a quick tour of Color's primary features.
Although it doesn't cover every aspect of the program, the tour will show
you how each of the gadgets on the Command Screen work with step-by-step
examples. Once you've completed this tour, you'll be well equipped to use
the program on your own. If you need information about a feature not
specifically covered in the Guided Tour, take a look in the Colors
Reference Section. There you'll find each feature of the program explained
in detail.
WHEN YOU START
When you first start Colors, the Colors Command Screen opens in the lower
half of your monitor and the upper half of the monitor shows the Workbench
screen below the Command Screen. The gadgets on the command screen are not
active until you load a picture with which to work. So let's do that now.
LOADING A PICTURE
To load a picture, select Load from the Project menu. (To do this, move
the cursor onto the Command Screen, hold down the right mouse button to
display the menus, point to the Project menu, pull the highlight down to
Load, and release the mouse button.)
The Load Requester appears for selecting a picture to load. This requester
works exactly like the requester described in the Getting Started section
of this manual.
Press V to display the volumes. Click the volume PhotoLab Art to display
the contents of that disk. Click the directory HAMx400 to display the
contents of that directory. Click the file PhotoGirl and click Load to load
that picture.
In a moment, a picture of the photo girl holding a camera appears behind
the Command screen.
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THE COMMAND SCREEN
Now that you have a picture loaded, more information appears in the Colors
Command Screen. As you can see, there are many gadgets on this screen.
Figure 8.1 below shows the Command Screen with each of the parts labeled
for easy reference. In the rest of this chapter, we'll take a quick look at
all parts of the screen. Then we'll use a few options in the menus.
WHICH SCREEN IS ACTIVE?
When you have two screens open in addition to the Workbench, it's important
to know which screen is the active screen. The Colors Command Screen helps
you with this by displaying the name of the active screen on the right side
of the Title Bar. At the moment, the Title Bar displays "Active: Command"
to tell you that the Command Screen is the currently active screen.
To make a screen the active screen, you simply click on it with the left
mouse button. Click on the picture screen now to see how this works.
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The Title Bar on the Command Screen now displays "Active: Picture". When
the Colors Palette is active (you will see the Palette later in this
chapter), the Title Bar displays "Active: Palette." If a screen other than
one of these three is active, Colors cannot identify the screen and
displays "Active Unknown" in the Title Bar.
MOVING THE SCREEN OR PICTURE
You can move Colors screens just as you would any other Amiga Screen.
Point to the title bar of the screen you want to move, hold down the left
mouse button and drag the screen up or down.
You can also move the picture inside its screen. Here's how:
Make the Picture Screen current by clicking on it, then point to the
picture, hold down the right mouse button and drag up or down. (If it
doesn't move, you're at the top or bottom of the picture.)
If the picture is wider than the Picture Screen (PhotoGirl is the same size
as the screen), you can also drag the picture to the left or right in the
same way.
THE COLOR STATISTICS DISPLAY
Directly below the Title Bar in the Command Screen, you see the Color
Statistics Display. This area shows information about the components of any
color in the picture.
To obtain information about a color, place the cross-hair on that color in
the Picture Screen and press the left mouse button.
If you hold down the mouse button and move the cross-hair around, the Color
Statistics Display will continually update to show information for the
color under the cross-hair.
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To get a closer look at the pixels you are pointing to, press Shift while
you hold the mouse button down.
This brings up a small grid of magnified pixels, which shows the area
around the cross-hair. The pixel in the center of the grid is the selected
pixel, the one directly in the center of the cross-hair. If you hold down
Shift, the grid of magnified pixels remains beneath the cross-hair. If you
release Shift, the grid remains at the point where you released Shift, but
the grid continues to show the pixels under the cross-hair.
The Color Statistics Display gives values for the following color
components:
Red, Green, and Blue (RGB)
Hue, Saturation, and Value (HSV)
Yellow, Cyan, and Magenta (YCM)
These values identify a color more exactly than you can by looking at it on
the screen. This is particularly true if you are working with fine shadings
of what appears to be the same basic color. If you aren't familiar with
color theory, take a look at Appendix A: A Little Color Theory, where
you'll find information about how Red, Green, and Blue are combined to form
a color in additive color theory.
In addition to information about a color's components, you can determine
the number of pixels on the screen that are using that color. This pixel
count is called the Population (P) of the color. You can also see the
percent (%) of the total pixels that the Population number represents. At
the moment, all of the colors show a zero population, because this pixel
count is not calculated until you click the P button in the lower left
corner of the Command Screen. (We'll explain this button in a moment.)
The area on the left side of the Color Statistics Display shows the
currently selected color and the color register number that the color is
assigned to.
For example, if you hold down the mouse button and move the cross-hair
around in the red lettering of the slogan, you'll find that this color area
is entirely dark red and the dark red color is assigned to color register
10.
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In HAM display modes, colors that are not register colors (called HAM
colors) are labeled by the color component that was changed, and the value
to which it was changed. For example,R3 would indicate that the current HAM
pixel is the same color as the pixel before it (to the left), except that
the Red component has been changed to a value of 3. This means that HAM
pixels with the same identifying number could be different colors depending
on the color that preceded them. If you'd like a more detailed explanation
of how Hold and Modify modes work, take a look at Appendix B: Amiga Display
Modes.
THE REGISTER GRAPH
The large bar graph below the Color Statistics Display is the Register
Graph. It shows the relative content of a color component in each of the
color registers. At the moment it displays the relative red content of each
register.
The leftmost bar in the Register Graph is always Color Register 0, the next
bar to the right is Color 1, and so on. You can see which color is assigned
to a particular register by clicking on that register.
Click the first bar to see the color that is assigned to Color 0.
(Clicking anywhere in the space above a bar is the same as clicking on the
bar.)
The information for Color 0 appears in the Color Statistics display. (The
bar also turned red to indicate that the register is now locked, we'll
explain what that means in a moment.) The bars in the register graph also
help you to see which areas of the picture are using a particular color
register.
Point to the bar representing Color 0 and hold down the left mouse button.
This causes all of the pixels that use Color 0 to flash.
RGBHSVP BUTTONS
The buttons to the left of the Register Graph determine which color
component is represented by the graph. These are buttons for Red (R), Green
(G), Blue (B), Hue (H), Saturation (S), Value (V), and Population (P). When
you first start Colors and load a picture, the Register Graph displays the
relative red content
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of each register. (The word Red just below the Register Graph reminds you
that the red content is being displayed.) If you click the G button, the
relative green content of the registers is displayed.
The Population button (P) is particularly important.
Click P now.
When you click P, Colors counts the pixels in the picture and displays the
relative pixel count for each register in the graph. Also, the Color
Statistics Display now shows the pixel count for the current color and the
percent of the total that this count represents.
ARROW BUTTONS
The arrow buttons to the right of the Register Graph let you change the
color content of pixels. For example:
Click the R button to display the red content of the pixels. Finally, click
the up arrow twice (wait for the first change to complete before clicking
the arrow the second time).
You'll see that the picture becomes very slightly redder and the bars in
the graph increase in height. (Notice that the bars change proportionally.
That is, tall bars grow or shrink faster than short bars in order to retain
the relative heights).
Click the down arrow twice to return the picture to its original state.
Finally, click somewhere else in the Command Screen.
You'll see the message "Commit Changes" in the Progress Display. After
you've made changes to the Red, Green, or Blue color values with the arrow
buttons, clicking on an area of the screen other than the RGB buttons, the
arrows, or the Undo button "commits" your changes. (This extra step isn't
necessary when you use HSV. You'll find more information about this in
Chapter 10, Colors Reference).
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LOCKING REGISTERS
You've already seen that a register can be locked or unlocked. This is an
important distinction, because locked registers are not affected by changes
to the Register Graph. This means that you can change the values in
selected registers, and thus change only selected colors of a picture.
Let's see how that works by changing everything except the slogan and the
word PHOTOLAB at the bottom of the picture.
First you need to identify the register colors that you want to lock. You
can do this by pointing to each of the register bars and holding down the
left mouse button to see which areas of the picture flash. You want to lock
the red that is used in the slogan and the blue of PHOTOLAB. (We'll tell
you right now that you want to lock registers 5 and 10--remember that the
first bar on the left is register 0.)
Once you have identified the registers you want to change, and have locked
the others, click the G button.
Click the Up-arrow three times (wait for each change to complete before
clicking again) and watch as the picture becomes greener while the slogan
and PHOTOLAB remain the same.
Now click the Down-arrow three times to return the picture to its original
colors.
In addition to locking and unlocking registers individually, you can lock
all of them at once by clicking Set or unlock all of them by clicking Clr.
SORTING THE GRAPH
You can sort the Register Graph by selecting a sort from the menus. Here's
how it works:
Click Clr to unlock all of the registers.
Select Sort On from the Color menu and select Population from the submenu
presented by Sort On.
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In a moment your Register Graph is sorted based on the pixel count of each
color register. Notice that the Register Graph automatically changed over
from displaying the Green content to displaying the Population.
When you sort the Register Graph, you are also sorting the picture's
palette and, as a result, pixels in the picture may receive their color
from a different color register. The colors in the picture don't change,
but the register number they use does. For example, when we explained how
locking a register works, we had you lock register 5 to keep the word
PHOTOLAB from changing color. If you check now, you'll see that the blue in
PHOTOLAB is now assigned to register 6 as a result of sorting on
Population. If you sorted the picture on Red content, this color blue would
be assigned to color register 14.
Sorting the picture on Population is especially useful because it allows
you to quickly determine which colors in your picture are using the fewest
pixels. This is important if you need to reduce the number of color
registers being used in the picture. In the next chapter, we'll show you
how to use the Sort option and the Palette to reduce the number of color
registers used by a picture.
You can sort the graph on any one of the attributes, in the Sort On
submenu. You'll notice that the first seven options are the same as the
attributes represented by the RGBHSVP buttons. The last option, Locks,
sorts the graph so that all locked registers are moved to one end of the
graph.
OOPS, THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANTED
There is one very important gadget on the Command Screen that you need to
know about now; it's the Undo button in the lower right corner. Clicking
Undo reverses the last operation you performed, as long as there was not an
intervening mouse click or keyboard command.
Click Undo now.
If you didn't click anything after selecting Population from the Sort On
submenu, the Register Graph returns to it's unsorted state. Note that you
can't Undo an Undo.
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THE FLAGS
The black buttons around Undo are the Flags. Each of these buttons has two
settings.
Click the Srt HiLo button, above the Undo button.
When you click this button it changes to Srt LoHi. This button controls
whether your sort of the registers is arranged from the highest value to
the lowest (Srt HiLo) or from the lowest value to the highest (Srt LoHi).
To see how this works do the following:
Set the button to Srt HiLo and select Red in the Sort On submenu of the
Color menu.
The result is a Register Graph displaying color registers in descending
order based on their red content.
Now set the button to Srt LoHi and select Red sort again.
This time the Register Graph displays the registers in ascending order
based on their red content.
The other flags work in a similar fashion: each has two settings, and the
setting determines how some other operation is performed. You'll find
information about all of these flags in the Reference section for Colors.
In that section, each flag description lists the operations that are
affected by the flag.
REAL/TEST
The most important flag for you to understand right now is the Real/Test
flag. While you've been working with Colors, you've been working with the
Real flag set, so that your changes and operations have actually affected
the picture. If you change the setting to Test, most operations will only
affect the appearance on the screen, and changes that might otherwise be
permanent can now be reversed.
Set the Real/Test button to Test now so that you will be able to undo the
operations we'll show you next.
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THE OPERATIONS
Above the Flags there are three red Operation buttons. These buttons
perform some operation on the picture that requires you to set values
before you select the operation. The three Operation buttons are Mosaic,
Resize, and Reduce. Let's take a quick look at Mosaic to see how the
Operations work.
Mosaic breaks the picture up into regions and changes all of the pixels in
each region to a single color. (The color used for a region depends on the
colors in the region, and on whether the Sample/Smooth flag is set to
Sample or Smooth. You'll find more information in the Reference section
about Sample and Smooth. For now, leave the flag set to Sample.)
The first thing you need to do is to set the numbers beside Mosaic. These
numbers determine the horizontal and vertical dimensions for each region.
The regions are measured in pixels.
Place the pointer on the top half of the number 1 beside Mosaic and click
the left mouse button three times to set the number to 4. Do the same with
the other number.
Clicking with the pointer on the top half of a number increments the
number. Clicking on the button half of the number decrements the number.
You can also position the pointer and hold down the mouse button to
increment or decrement the number continuously until you release the mouse
button.
Once you've set both numbers beside the Mosaic button to 4, click Mosaic.
In a second, the picture changes to a mosaic of rectangles.
Click Undo to reverse this change and try some other Mosaic settings. Be
sure to Undo after each change so that the picture will be back to normal
when you move on to the next section.
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THE PALETTE
Select Palette from the Color menu to bring up the Palette window.
The Palette is a color coded version of the Register Graph, but it has a
different function. The Palette gives you control over the arrangement of
registers and how colors are mapped to the registers. This is important if
you want to combine elements from different pictures. You'll learn more
about the Palette in the next chapter if you work through the Palette
tutorial or you could simply use the Colors Reference section to learn how
the Palette functions work.
To close the Palette, click the close box in the upper left corner of the
Palette window.
SOME QUICK EFFECTS
In this section you'll get a quick look at some powerful features of Colors
that are available through simple menu selections. The best way to
understand these features is to see them work, so we'll have you select
them one by one and then Undo the change.
Make sure that the Test flag is set before you perform these operations,
because some of them are not undoable otherwise.
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SEPARATE:
The Separate option in the color menu offers a submenu of options to
separate the colors of your picture on Red, Green, Blue, Yellow, Cyan,
Magenta, and Black. Selecting Green, for example, will provide a
"green-only" separation of the picture.
To understand how this works, click any color in the picture and look at
the RGB values shown in the Color Statistics Display.
Now, select Green from the Separate submenu of the Color Menu.
The picture turns completely Green, and you'll notice that Red and Blue
values for the color you clicked are now zero, but the Green value is the
same as it was before separation.
Click Undo to reverse this change.
MATCH PALETTE
This option lets you match the current picture to the Palette of another
picture. In effect, your current picture will use the colors from the other
picture, but attempt to preserve the appearance of the current picture as
closely as possible using the new colors. In HAM mode, the results can be
surprisingly good. Let's see how it works:
First, select Palette from the Color menu to bring up the palette, and look
at the colors that appear there.
You'll see that the register colors are mostly dull greens and browns with
a single red register and a single blue register.
Now, select Match from the Color menu.
This brings up the Match Requester, which works just like the Load
Requester, except that it loads only the Palette of the file you select.
Click the volume PHOTOLAB ART: to display the contents of the arts disk.
Click the directory HAMx400 to open it. Click the file Astronaut and click
Match.
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It will take a minute or two for Colors to remap the PhotoGirl picture to
the Palette from Astronaut. As the operation is underway, the Register
Graph shows you the progress of the operation. Notice that the picture
looks almost exactly as it did before. Some of the detail at the edges of
the lettering was lost, but it takes a good eye to notice this. Notice that
the palette contains no medium blues, and yet the blue lettering of
PHOTOLAB is preserved. (Drag the picture up to see for yourself.) Colors
was able to duplicate the medium blue pixels by using HAM colors instead of
register colors from the Palette.
Click Undo to reverse the Match operation.
MAKE B/W
The Make B/W command converts your picture to a Black & White image.
Simply select Make B/W from the Color menu and watch as the picture is
converted.
When the operation is complete, the Palette will consist exclusively of
grays. Click Undo to return to a color image.
NEGATIVE
The Negative option instantly converts your color picture to a negative
image.
Select Negative from the Color menu.
Notice that the reddish areas of the picture change to cyan and the blue
areas become orange. The resulting colors are the colors that appear on the
opposite side of the color wheel. The blue lettering would have become
yellow if it were a true blue, but the blue that is used contains a large
amount of green.
Click Undo to return to the color image.
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CHANGING DISPLAY MODES
With Colors, you no longer have to worry about whether your pictures are in
compatible display modes. In one simple step, Colors will convert a picture
in any mode, to any other mode. You'll probably want to convert Low
Resolution and High Resolution pictures to HAM mode, but, as an example,
we'll convert the PhotoGirl picture to a Low Resolution Interlaced picture.
Open the View Modes menu to see the options there.
This menu contains only one option, Set To. Below the Set To option, the
menu lists the Current Info for the picture you have loaded. Notice that
our picture is in HAM Interlaced mode.
Select Set To from the menu.
This option presents a list of all the possible display modes. We want to
convert to Low Resolution Interlaced.
Select 320x400 from the submenu.
You receive a warning that this operation may not be undoable.
Click Okay to proceed.
Next you are asked to select the color reduction sensitivity for the
operation. There are three options. Essentially, Colors performs more
precise calculations if you select High, but the trade off is that a large
picture may take a long time to convert.
Right now, click Low so that the operation takes as little time as
possible.
You can come back later and choose one of the other options to see how much
it improves the conversion. As the conversion proceeds, you'll see the
messages Counting Pixels, Reducing Colors, and Redraw Pictures appear in
the left side of the Color Statistics Display, and the Register Graph will
change to the Progress Display to show you how much of the process is
completed.
When you're picture is completely converted, open the View Mode menu to see
the Current Info for the picture.
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Keep in mind that this conversion only affects the picture in memory, it
does not affect the disk file. Right now, we'll show you how to revert to
the disk version of PhotoGirl.
REVERT
When you use Colors, you'll probably want to experiment with different Flag
settings and Operations. To make it easier to experiment, Colors includes a
Revert option. This option automatically loads the most recently saved or
loaded file. Let's use it now to get the original PhotoGirl picture back.
Select Revert from the Project menu.
A requester displays the name of the file you last saved or loaded and asks
if you want to revert to the old version from disk.
Click Okay.
In a second, you have the original picture back, without having to use the
Load Requester.
This chapter introduced some of the primary features of Colors and
explained how the gadgets in the Command Screen work. This is probably
enough to get you started, but it is by no means a complete introduction to
Colors. For example, this chapter only briefly mentioned the Palette, but
the next chapter will show you how it's used. You'll find information about
other features in the Reference section. Here are some of the features we
particularly recommend reading more about:
Save options in the Project menu. (In particular, you may want to enlarge
a picture to a size much larger than Colors can hold in memory. To do this,
you would use the Save Resized option.)
Planes option in the Color menu. (This option lets you reduce the number
of bit planes used by the picture, and Colors recalculates the picture to
give you the best possible image with fewer colors.)
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The Resize and Reduce operations. (These options let you change the size
of the picture or the number of colors the picture uses.)
The Bstfit/Trunc, Sample/Smooth, and Resize/SizeOK flags. (Since these
flags affect how the Operations and menu options are performed, you'll want
to be familiar with which commands each Flag affects.)
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This chapter takes you through step-by-step exercises that cover some of
the major features of Colors. You'll learn how to reduce the number of
color registers used by a picture, how to change the display mode of the
picture, how to manipulate the Palette, and how to change the size of the
picture.
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
To complete these tutorials, you'll need your working copies of the
DeluxePhotoLab program disk and art disk. If you want to save your work,
you'll need an initialized disk with a fair amount of available space for
saving large files. Finally, you'll need a little time if you want to
complete this chapter in one sitting. We estimate this tutorial takes
twenty minutes to complete, because the operations you'll perform give the
Amiga a number-crunching workout.
To begin these tutorials:
Start Colors and load PackageCover from the HAMx400 directory on the
DeluxePhotoLab art disk.
Select Sort On: Population from the Color menu.
We have you sort on populations to place the least used color registers at
the right end of the Register Graph and Palette. This way, we know exactly
which colors are where, and the Reduce operation will clear the two
registers with the lowest population count.
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1. REDUCING THE NUMBER OF COLOR REGISTERS USED
There are three ways you can reduce the number of color registers used by
the picture:
Use the Reduce operation on the Control Screen, which performs the color
reduction in a completely automatic fashion.
Strip away bit planes, which also automatically reduces the number of color
registers.
Meld registers in the Palette Window.
We'll look at each one of these methods. And in the course of the tutorial,
we'll also change the display mode of a picture.
THE REDUCE OPERATION
Before you do anything else, take a look at some of the RGB values for
color registers in the graph. After you perform the color reduction, only
the last two registers will retain the same values (but no pixels in the
picture will use them). The other color registers will change RGB values as
Colors tries to maintain the look of the picture. Here's how to reduce the
colors automatically:
Click CLR so that no color registers are locked.
Set the number beside Reduce to 14.
Click Reduce.
A message reminds you that this operation cannot be undone.
Click Okay.
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A second message asks which level of color reduction sensitivity you want
to use.
Click Low.
This operation will take a moment; we had you click Low because it takes
the least time, though it generally doesn't produce the best results. The
Progress Display flashes the messages Count Pixels, Filter Colors, Reduce
Colors, Redraw Picture as it performs the reduction.
When the Reduce operation is complete, click P so the Register Graph
displays the population of each register.
Note that the graph is no longer sorted on Population. Also, if you check
the color values of the registers, you'll find that none of the registers
maintained their color values (except the last two which are no longer
being used by the picture). This is because Colors tries to preserve the
appearance of the picture with fewer registers, and to do so, it needed to
change the colors in the registers that are used.
Select Sort On: Population from the Color menu.
Now the graph is once again sorted by population, and you can clearly see
that no pixels are using the last two color registers. Note that although
the color registers are not used in the picture, they still exists, so if
you loaded the picture into Paint, you could set new colors in these color
registers without affecting the rest of the picture.
Another important point to remember is that, although the number of color
registers used by the picture is now reduced, the number of colors in the
picture is the same. This is because we are working with a Hold and Modify
picture. In Hold and Modify display mode, Reduce converts the register
colors to HAM colors when it empties a color register. If this were a Low
Resolution picture, Reduce would only have register colors to work with,
and the number of colors in the picture would be equal to the number of
color registers being used.
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SETTING A NEW DISPLAY MODE
Changing the display mode of PackageCover from HAM to Low Resolution will
result in an increase in the number of color registers (from 16 in HAM to
32 in Low Resolution), but a decrease in the number of colors actually in
the picture, (because HAM can use colors that do not come from color
registers, but Low Resolution uses only colors from color registers.)
Select Revert from the Project menu to get back the original PackageCover
picture.
Select Sort On Population from the Color menu to sort the color registers
on population.
Select Set To: 320x400 from the View Modes menu to convert the picture to
Low Resolution Interlaced mode.
A message appears to remind you that this operation cannot be undone.
Click Okay.
A second message asks which level of color reductions sensitivity you want
to use.
Click Low.
The Progress Display flashes the messages Count Pixels, Filter Colors,
Reduce Colors, Redraw Picture as it performs the display mode conversion.
Now the picture has twice as many color registers, but it uses far fewer
colors than before. You'll use the picture in the next section to see how
stripping planes from the picture affects the number of color registers
available.
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STRIPPING AWAY BIT PLANES
The number of bit planes used by a picture determines the number of color
registers available in the picture. (See Appendix B: Amiga Display Modes
for more information about the relationship between bit planes and color
registers.) Colors lets you remove or add bit planes. Right now we'll
reduce the number of colors in a picture by stripping away a bit plane. In
the case of our Low Resolution Interlace picture, removing one bit plane
will reduce the number of color registers from 32 to 16.
Select Panes: 4 Planes from the Color menu.
Answer Okay and Low to the messages that appear.
In a moment, your picture is reduced to sixteen colors. Notice that
reducing the number of bit planes both removes the colors from the picture
and deletes the color registers from the Palette. The Reduce operation
removed the colors from the picture but left the color registers in the
Palette.
PALETTE MANIPULATIONS
If you simply want to rearrange color registers, or if you want to make a
very specific color reduction, the Palette Window is a good place to do it.
Before you begin this series of Palette manipulations, do the following:
Revert to the original picture from disk.
Click P to display the Register Graph based on Population.
Select Palette from the Color menu.
Press F5 on the keyboard to hide the Command Screen. Now drag the Palette
Window down to the lower half of the screen so you can see the upper area
of the picture clearly.
As you briefly saw in the Colors Guided Tour, the Palette Window presents
another graph of the color registers. Each bar in the graph is drawn in the
color of the register it represents. This helps you make a decisions about
which registers to manipulate.
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Below the graph in the Palette Window, you see six operations that can be
performed with the Palette. These are fairly easy to understand, but we'll
run through them quickly anyway. If you are confident you already
understand any of these operations, feel free to skip the explanation and
move to the next. The Meld operations are most important to this exercise.
They let you reduce the number of registers used, without making global
changes to the color values as the Reduce operation does.
SWAP COLORS
This operation simply swaps the color values assigned to two registers.
Click Color 1, the second register from the left in the Palette Window.
(It's color should be white at the moment.)
When you click a register in the Palette Window, a small rectangle at the
bottom of the register bar marks marks it as the currently selected
register.
Click Swap Colors.
Click Color 15, the last register in the Palette Window.
When you swap colors in the Palette, the colors in the picture also change,
because the pixels are pointing to the same registers as before, but those
registers now contain different colors. In our case, the skylight in the
ceiling above the world now has a yellow light rather than white, and the
bright area behind the world is white instead of yellow.
You can undo changes in the Palette as long as you don't perform any other
operation before you click Undo.
Press F4 on the keyboard to bring up the Command Screen.
Click Undo.
Press F5 to hide the Command Screen again.
Now your picture and the colors in the palette are restored to their
original order.
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SWAP REGISTERS
This operation changes the order of colors in the Palette without changing
your picture.
Click Color 1 (white).
Click Swap Registers.
Click Color 15 (yellow).
Now Color 1 is yellow and color Color 15 is white. (You can't actually see
the color of Color 1 because the rectangular marker is covering it. Click
another register to move the marker.)
The ability to swap color registers is important, because the Reduce
operation always reduces by eliminating the color registers at the right
end of the graph (the highest register numbers). This gives you some
control over which color registers are eliminated in a reduction.
Reverse this last change by clicking Undo in the Command Screen. (Press
F4. Click Undo in the Command Screen. Press F5.)
COPY COLORS
This operation copies the current color into the register you select.
Click Color 1 (white).
Click Copy Color.
Click Color 15 (yellow).
Color 15 becomes white, so you have two white registers.
Reverse this last change by clicking Undo in the Command Screen.
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MELD BY AVERAGE
This operation lets you change two colors to a third color that is the
average of the first two. In the Palette for PackageCover, Color 0 is black
and Color 1 is almost white. We'll meld these two together to make them the
same color.
Click Color 0.
Click Meld By Average.
Click Color 1.
The resulting color is gray. And both registers contain grey because you
performed a meld.
Reverse this change by clicking Undo in the Command Screen.
MELD BY WEIGHT
Meld By Weight works exactly like Meld By Average. But instead of combining
the colors in a simple Average, Colors uses the population (number of
pixels) of each register to determine which should receive the most weight
when mixing the two colors.
Click Color 0.
Click Meld By Weight.
Click Color 1.
This time the resulting color is black, because Color 0 (black) is used by
many more pixels in the picture than Color 1 (white).
MELD REGISTERS
Meld Registers takes all of the pixels from one register and points them to
a different register, so that no pixels are using the first register. The
register is now free to be used by any other color, without affecting the
picture.
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Click Color 1.
Click Meld Registers.
Click Color 0.
Now Color 1 is not used by any pixels in the picture. If you click another
color register to move the rectangular marker, you'll see that Color 1 is
crossed by diagonal slashes to indicate that it is not in use.
Remember, if you ever need to free up a single color register without
changing the colors assigned to the other registers, use Meld Registers in
the Palette Window.
RESIZING THE PICTURE
Colors is especially good at resizing pictures, and it's Save Resized
option lets you create pictures that are larger than can fit in the
computer's memory. Right now we just want to take a quick look at the
Resize operation on the Command Screen and say a word or two about Save
Resized.
THE RESIZE OPERATION
To resize a picture in the computer's memory, and continue to work on it
afterward, use Resize. The Resize operation is affected by the
Sample/Smooth flag. If this flag is set to Sample, the resize operation is
done without anti- aliasing, and resizing the picture larger results in
some "jaggedness." When the flag is set to Smooth, Colors removes the
"jaggedness" through anti-aliasing. In our example, we'll size the picture
only slightly larger, sine the image is in HAM Interlace mode and therefore
takes up a great deal of memory already.
Bring up the Command Screen and select Revert from the Project menu to
restore the original picture.
Set the Sample/Smooth flag to Smooth.
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Set the first number to the right of Resize to 352. (Point to the upper
half of each digit and click to raise the number.) Set the second number to
the right of Resize to 440.
Click Resize. Then click Okay when the message reminds you that this
process is not undoable.
This operation is going to take a while, but if you ever need to enlarge a
picture, you'll happily spend the extra time for the remarkably sharp
result it produces. When the Resize operation is complete, make the picture
screen active, then click the picture with the right mouse button and drag
it back and forth to prove to yourself that it is in fact wider. We doubt
that you can see any degradation in the picture quality.
SAVE RESIZED
We won't have you perform this operation, but we thought we should mention
that the Save Resized option works exactly like the Resize operation. The
Sample/ Smooth flag determines whether or not the picture should be
smoothed when sized larger, and you set the width and height dimensions
using the number beside Resize on the Command Screen.
Try it out if you like. Resize the picture to twice it's normal size and
load it into Paint to prove that it is larger. One caution though, be sure
there is enough room on your disk to hold the picture file.
These tutorials showed you two of the important features of Colors. We
couldn't tell you everything though. If you ever need information about an
option, be sure to check the next chapter, Reference. There you'll find a
complete explanation of all features.
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This chapter summaries all of the commands and functions in Colors. Because
this chapter is intended for reference only and not as a way to learn the
fundamentals of Colors, the descriptions are as concise as possible. If you
read an entry in this chapter, but don't fully understand how the feature
works, check the Index to see if the feature is explained with examples in
one of the earlier chapters.
The information is this reference is organized into two major sections. The
first half of the chapter explains the gadgets on the Command Screen. The
second half of the chapter describes the function of each of the menu
options working through the menus from left to right and top to bottom.
1. THE PICTURE SCREEN
When you load a picture in Colors, the picture is held on a separate screen
behind the Command Screen. You won't be able to see all of the screen at
one time. If you want to see a part of the screen that isn't visible, you
can scroll the screen using the arrow (cursor) keys. Holding down Shift
with the arrow keys moves the screen in larger jumps. You also can point to
the picture, click the left mouse button (the pointer changes to a four
arrow cursor), and drag the picture in any direction you like. Once you
have reached an edge of the picture, you can not drag any further.
2. THE COMMAND SCREEN
When you first start Colors you see the Command Screen. This screen has
several parts with different functions, as you can see in Figure 10.1. The
following pages describe the functions of each part of the Command Screen.
There is one important thing you should understand about working with the
Command Screen and a Picture Screen. The first time you click on a screen,
it will have no effect. The first click only makes the screen active. Then
you can work with that screen. In the case of the Command Screen, you can
then use one of the functions. In the case of the Picture screen, you can
then move the picture around with the right mouse button as explained
above. To be on the safe side, it is
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advisable always to click on the Color Statistics Display when you want to
make the Command Screen active. Since the Color Statistics Display doesn't
perform any function other than to display information, you can click there
without any fear of changing your picture inadvertently.
TITLE BAR
The Title Bar at the top of the Colors Command Screen shows the name of the
program on the left side and the name of the active screen on the right
side. The screens are called"Command"for the Command Screen,"Picture"for
the screen of the picture you are working on, and"Palette"for the palette
window. If none of these screens is active, then the active screen is
listed as "Unknown."
If the Command and Picture screens become separated from each other, and
one of the screens is the active screen, you can bring them both to the
front together by pressing F4.
The Front Gadget and Back Gadget on the right side of the title bar work as
they do on normal Amiga screens.
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MENU BAR
When the Command Screen is active and you press the right mouse button, the
Menu Bar displays the menu names. Then pointing to the menu name opens that
menu.
COLOR STATISTICS DISPLAY
The area below the menu bar displays information about color values. The
information given is for the currently selected color in the Register
Graph, the Palette, or the Picture. (See Palette in the Color menu for
information about the Palette.) To get color information about any color in
the picture, click that pixel with the left mouse button.
The rectangle on the far left of the Color Statistics Display shows the
register number currently selected and the color that occupies that
register. If the pixel is a HAM pixel selected from the picture, the letter
and number displayed indicates which component of the preceding pixel (the
pixel to the left) was modified and to what value. For example,R15 means
that the current pixel is the preceding pixel with the Red component
changed to a value of 15. If you are using Extra-Halfbrite and the pixel is
an Extra-Halfbrite pixel, this is indicated by an E before the register
number. For example E24 indicates the Extra-Halfbrite equivalent of color
register 24.
The long rectangle in the Color Statistics Display shows numeric values for
the red (R), green (G), blue (B), hue (H), saturation (S), value (V),
yellow (Y), cyan (C), and magenta (M) content of the currently selected
color register. This area also lists the number of pixels mapped to that
color register, referred to as the Population (P) of the color, and the
percentage (%) of the total picture that the population number represents.
Values for population are not displayed until the P button has been
clicked.
The levels of red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta, saturation and value
are assigned values between 0 and 15, with 0 representing minimum
contribution and 15 representing maximum contribution.
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Hue is measure in degrees from 0 to 360, where 0 degrees represents pure
red. As the hue is increased, the color gradually advances along the color
spectrum through yellow, green, cyan, blue, magenta and finally back to
pure red.
(For a discussion of RGB color theory, see Appendix A.)
PROGRESS DISPLAY
The Progress Display appears whenever you select a function that takes a
while to complete. At these times the cursor changes to the cloud shape and
no input is accepted. The rectangular area on the left side of the Color
Statistics Display changes to a message explaining what function is in
progress. Sometimes the Register Graph also changes to graphically
represent how much of the current function has been completed; this display
gradually fills from left to right until the function if completed.
Note: operations that cause the Progress Display to appear can be
terminated by pressing the spacebar. After your terminate one of these
operations, you can clean up the display by clicking Undo or selecting
Revert from the Project menu.
R, B, G, H, S, V, P BUTTONS (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENTS: R, G, B, H, S, V, P)
These buttons are used to select the register attribute displayed in the
Register Graph. The buttons correspond to the red (R), green (G), blue (B),
hue (H), saturation (S), value (V), and population (P) values of the
registers.
To change the attribute displayed, click one of the buttons. The Register
Graph changes to display the relative content of the attribute you
selected, and the area below the Register Graph lists the selected
attribute. For example, if you click R, the Register Graph displays the
relative red content in each of the color registers, and the area below the
graph contains the text "Red."
If you click P to display the population, the relative number of pixels
that use each register is displayed in the Register Graph. In HAM and
Extra-HalfBrite not all pixels are counted; therefore the percentages shown
won't add up to 100%. the first time you select P there will be a short
delay while the population for each register is calculated.
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Note: Holding down the Shift key and clicking on one of the RGBHSVP Buttons
displays the Palette Window, which contains a graph with each of the bars
drawn in the register's corresponding color.
REGISTER GRAPH
The Register Graph shows the relative content of the attribute selected
using the RGBHSVP Buttons. The first bar on the left side of the graph
corresponds to color register 0, the second bar corresponds to register 1,
etc.
The Register Graph is also used to lock and unlock the registers. If a
register is locked, it is not affected by changes made to RGB or HSV
values. Click a bar (or anywhere in the area above the bar) to lock or
unlock the corresponding register. When a register is locked, its bar is
read.
Below the Register Graph are two buttons for locking or unlocking all of
the registers.
SET: locks all of the registers (Keyboard Equivalent: L)
CLR: unlocks all of the registers. (Keyboard Equivalent: N)
Pointing to a bar and holding down the left mouse button causes the pixels
in the picture that correspond to that color register to flash.
Holding down the Shift key and clicking on one of the RGBHSVP Buttons
displays the Palette Window, which contains a graph with each of the color
bars drawn in the register's corresponding color.
ARROW BUTTONS
Used to increment or decrement the currently selected color attribute
(selected using the RGBHSVP Buttons) in all unlocked color registers.
(Note: HAM colors cannot be locked because their color is not take from
color registers. Locking a color in Extra-HalfBrite also locks its
Extra-HalfBrite component.)
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The amount of change in a register attribute is proportional to the initial
values in the current picture. In other words, the registers with larger
initial values will increment or decrement in larger steps to maintain the
relative balance of all the register values.
If you increment or decrement the R, G, or B component in a HAM picture,
all unlocked colors (including all HAM colors) are affected. However, the
change is only temporary. Once you select some function other than R, G, B
or Undo, the change becomes permanent. You will notice that a message
"Commit Changes" appears at the left side of the Color Statistics Display
as soon as you click another function. (Note that the temporary nature of
the changes does not mean that clicking Undo reverses all of the changes
you've made using the Arrow Buttons; Undo only reverses the last change.)
The changes are made only temporarily at first so that each click of the
Up- Arrow has an equal and opposite effect to clicking the Down-Arrow. If
you click the Up-Arrow, Commit the changes, and then click the Down-Arrow,
clicking the Down-Arrow may not exactly reverse your earlier click of the
Up-Arrow. This is because information about the original relationship
between color values (particularly of HAM pixels) no longer exists; you are
changing the new image, where the relationship between color values may be
different.
If you increment or decrement the H, S, or V attribute in a HAM picture,
the change affects only pixels that get their color directly from the color
registers. HAM pixels retain their original color.
OPERATIONS
There are four operations available directly from the Command Screen.
MOSAIC (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: M)
Reduces the resolution of the current picture by replacing the colors in
the selected region size with a single color.
The numbers to the right of the Mosaic button determine the size of each
region that is converted to a single color. The first number determines the
width of the region in pixels, and the second number determines the height
of the region in pixels. The maximum setting for each dimension is 50.
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To increase the size of the mosaic regions, place the pointer on the top
half of a number and click the left mouse button. The number increases by
one for each click. If you hold down the mouse button, the number continues
to increase until you release the button. To decrease the number setting,
place the pointer on the bottom half of the number and click or hold down
the mouse button.
This operation is affected by the Smooth/Sample flag. If Smooth is active,
Mosaic will average the pixels in a region to determine the new color for
that region. If Sample is active, the new color for each region is the
color that occurs in it's top left pixel.
RESIZE (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: Z)
Resizes the current picture to the dimensions in the number gadgets to the
right of the Resize gadget. The first number sets the new width of the
picture and the second number sets the new height. When you first open
Colors, the resize dimensions are set to 1x1. The maximum setting is
9999x9999, though the actual maximum is determined by the amount of
computer memory available. If you set the dimensions for a size larger than
can be created, a requester tells you that Colors could not get enough
memory for the function.
To change the dimensions settings, place the pointer on the top half of a
number and click the left mouse button. The number increases by one for
each click. If you hold down the mouse button, the number continues to
increase until you release the button. To decrease the number setting,
place the pointer on the bottom half of the number and click or hold down
the mouse button.
In Test mode, Resize only affects the screen image, and any attempt to move
the screen returns the picture to its "real"state in memory.
This operation is affected by the setting in the Sample/Smooth flag.
REDUCE (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: C)
Used to reduce the number of color registers used in the current picture.
The number to the right of the Reduce button shows the number of color
registers available in the current display mode. You can change this number
to a number less than the current number of registers used, but you cannot
set it to a higher number.
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To change the color register number, place the pointer on the top half of a
number and click the left mouse button. The number increases by one for
each click. If you hold down the mouse button, the number continues to
increase until you release the button. To decrease the number setting,
place the pointer on the bottom half of the number and click or hold down
the mouse button.
When you click Reduce, a message asks you what level of color reduction
sensitivity you want to use. The choices are High, Medium, and Low. High
generally produces the best result, but the results depend on many factors,
and occasionally a picture looks better when converted using Medium or Low
color reduction sensitivity.
Note that you won't be able to see that color registers have a zero
population until you perform a population count by clicking the P button or
by sorting the palette on population.
UNDO (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: U)
Reverses the last operation if that operation is undoable.
FLAGS
BSTFIT/TRUNC (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: F)
Changes in display mode made by selecting from the Set To: submenu, and
changes in the number of Planes are affected by this flag.
When Bestfit is active, changes in the number of color registers also remap
the picture to maintain the "look" of it's color content. If Truncate is
active, the picture is not remapped to preserve it's "look".
SAMPLE/SMOOTH (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: O)
This flag affects the Mosaic and Resize operations (including display mode
changes). When Sample is active, changes in the size of the picture simply
expand or reduce the original without attempting to preserve the look of
the content. When Smooth is active, the contents of the picture are
considered in the resizing operation and the edges between pixels are
"smoothed" (in a process knows as anti-aliasing) so that the resized
picture more closely resembles the original.
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RESIZE/SIZE OK (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: K)
This flag affects display mode changes made using the Set To: option in the
View Modes menu. When Re-size is active, changes in mode also resize the
picture to scale when necessary to preserve the proportions of the image.
If Size OK is active, the picture is not scaled when the mode is changed
and the resulting picture may be out of proportion.
SRT HiLo/SORT LoHi (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: I)
This flag affects sorting of the Register Graph and Palette done with the
Sort On: option in the Color menu. If Srt HiLo is active, sorts will place
the registers with the highest values to the left. If Srt LoHi is active,
sorts will place the registers with the lowest values to the left.
REAL/TEST (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: T)
This flag affects Resize, Mosaic, HAM color changes from the Color menu,
and some Match operations. When Real is active, all operations affect the
actual picture data. When Test is active, only the screen image is affected
by changes you make with the commands listed above; the picture data in
memory remains unchanged. You can only perform one operation on the screen
in Test; subsequent operations automatically return the picture to its
"real" state before performing the new operation. Some operations that are
not undoable in Real mode, become undoable in Test mode.
3. MENU ITEMS
Color's menu items remain hidden until you move the cursor to the top of
the screen and press the right mouse button. As you move the cursor
horizontally across the Menu Bar, one after another of the menus drops down
to reveal its selection of options. Moving the cursor down the selection of
options highlights each one. Releasing the mouse button when a menu option
is highlighted selects that option. Some options reveal secondary menus to
their right. To select a secondary menu item, move the cursor to the right
(while continuing to hold the button down) to highlight the secondary menu
item, and then release the button.
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In many cases, you can select a menu item by using its keyboard equivalent.
Keyboard equivalents, where available, are shown next to the corresponding
item in the menus and in the descriptions that follow. You will find a
table of keyboard equivalents at the back of this manual as Appendix D.
The menus, reading from left to right across the Menu Bar, are as follows:
PROJECT MENU
LOAD
Brings up the Load File requester. See Figure 10.3. the requester contains
Load and Cancel buttons, a field to display the current directory path, a
file list window with arrows and a slider for scrolling the window, and an
edit field that displays the currently selected file.
To load a picture, click the name of the file you want to open and then
click the Load button at the top of the requester.
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In addition to files, the window displays Directories, Volumes, and
Clipboards. If you click a subdirectory name, the window displays all of
the files contained in that subdirectory. Clicking the listing / (parent)
moves you into the parent directory of the current subdirectory. If you
click a Volume name, the contents of that volume are displayed. Also, if
you place a different disk in a drive while the Load File requester is
displayed, the Volume list is updated to show the new disk. If that drive
was the current drive, the window displays the files in the new disk.
SHORTCUTS
Several shortcuts are available in the Load File Requester.
Double clicking on a file name is the same as clicking the file name and
clicking Load.
Clicking on a section title in the display window such as "--Files--" will
skip the window display down to the next section.
KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS:
KEY FUNCTION
ESC Cancel
Up Arrow Move display up one line
Down Arrow Move display down one line
Shift-Up Arrow Move display up one section
Shift-Down Arrow Move display down one section
Return Same as clicking on Load
D Shows the directories
F Shows the files
V Shows the volumes
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SAVE
This option presents a submenu for selecting the type of save you want to
perform. The two save options are:
NORMALLY: Brings up a requester for you to save a picture to disk. This
requester functions the same as the Load File Requester described under
Load in the Picture menu, except that clicking Save saves the picture to
disk.
RESIZED: Brings up a requester for you to resize the picture as it is saved
to disk. This requester functions the same as the other save file
requesters, except that clicking the Resize button resizes and saves the
picture to disk. The dimensions for the resized picture are determined by
the width and height number settings beside the Resize gadget on the
Command Screen. These gadgets are explained in detail under Resize in the
Operations section above.
SAVE FAST (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: (RIGHT AMIGA-S)
Saves your work to disk under the current file name. A requester appears
for you to confirm your selection. If you want to save your file, click
Okay. If you selected Save Fast by mistake or do not wish to save the
current file, click No.
REVERT (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT-R)
Reverts to the most recently saved version of the picture currently
displayed. A requester appears for you to confirm your selection. If you
want to revert, click Okay. If you selected Revert by mistake, click No.
Note: Once you have clicked Okay to confirm the Revert option, you cannot
restore the picture you reverted from (the most recently displayed
picture).
WORKBENCH (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: RIGHT AMIGA-W)
Closes the Workbench. This option is useful to free up some extra RAM (chip
and fast). If the Workbench is open, a check mark appears beside Workbench,
and selecting the option closes the Workbench.
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ABOUT
Brings up a requester that gives the name of the program, copyright
information, and the developers' names.
QUIT (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: RIGHT AMIGA-Q)
Exits Colors.
COLOR MENU
SEPARATE:
Presents a submenu of colors. Selecting one of the colors in the submenu
performs a color separation on the current picture. For example, selecting
Red, produces a red-only separation. The Red, Green, and Blue separations
can be used to create transparencies that produce a full-color image when
used together. With a single-color printer, and the appropriate color
ribbons (yellow, cyan, and magenta), you can create a color printout by
printing the Yellow, Cyan, Magenta, and Black separations on top of each
other.
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The colors in the Separate submenu are:
COLOR KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT
RED RIGHT AMIGA-D
GREEN RIGHT AMIGA-E
BLUE RIGHT AMIGA-U
YELLOW RIGHT AMIGA-Y
CYAN RIGHT AMIGA-C
MAGENTA RIGHT AMIGA-G
BLACK RIGHT AMIGA-K
PLANES:
Sets the number of bit planes used to draw the picture. The number of bit
planes determines the maximum number of colors available from the palette.
Not all bit plane settings are available in all modes. If a selected plane
setting is not available, the option appears in dimmed type, and you are
not able to select it. (See Appendix B: Amiga Display Modes for an
explanation of how the number of bit planes relates to the number of colors
available in a display mode).
1 PLANE: Sets a single plane image with a maximum of 2 colors.
2 PLANES: Sets a 2 plane image with a maximum of 4 colors.
3 PLANES: Sets a 3 plane image with a maximum of 8 colors.
4 PLANES: Sets a 4 plane image with a maximum of 16 colors.
5 PLANES: Sets a 5 plane image with a maximum of 32 colors, or HAM
mode.
6 PLANES: Used to change from 5 to 6 bit HAM mode.
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SORT ON:
Presents a submenu of color register attributes. Selecting one of the
options in the submenu performs a sort of the color registers (in the
Palette and the Register Graph) based on the attribute you selected. The
color registers are sorted according to the value of the attribute. The
direction of the sort depends on the setting of the Srt HiLo/Srt LoHi flag.
The options in the submenu are:
COLOR KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT
RED RIGHT AMIGA-1
GREEN RIGHT AMIGA-2
BLUE RIGHT AMIGA-3
HUE RIGHT AMIGA-4
SATURATION RIGHT AMIGA-5
VALUE RIGHT AMIGA-6
POPULATION RIGHT AMIGA-7
LOCKS RIGHT AMIGA-8
The Locks option is a special case. It allows you to sort all of the locked
registers to one end of the graph. It does not rearrange the locked
registers according to any other attribute.
MATCH (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: RIGHT AMIGA-M)
Remaps the colors of the current picture to use the palette of a second
picture (called the match picture) chosen in the file requester.
Select Match from the Color menu. A file requester appears for you to
select the picture you wish to match to. This requester functions the same
as the Load Picture requester explained above. When the Match button in the
requester is clicked, the current picture is remapped.
When a picture is remapped, the colors of the current picture are
re-arranged to maintain its original appearance as closely as possible
using the match pictures palette.
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If the palette of the match picture is larger than the current picture, you
are asked if you want to use the partial palette. If you click Okay in the
requester, the match is performed using as much of the match picture's
palette as the current picture can accommodate. If you select No, the match
operation is not performed and you are returned to the Command Screen,
where you can add bit planes before trying the Match operation again. Note
that any color registers that are locked in the current picture will be
maintained and the remaining registers will use colors from the match
picture.
MAKE B/W (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: RIGHT AMIGA-B)
Converts the current picture to gray scale values. This feature is
especially useful if you want to see how the picture will appear when
printed in gray scale mode.
NEGATIVE (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: RIGHT AMIGA-N)
Converts the current picture to a negative image.
PALETTE (KEYBOARD EQUIVALENT: RIGHT AMIGA-P)
Brings up the Palette window where you see a graph of the color registers
with each bar drawn in the color that register contains. Color registers
that have a zero population may be rendered in a hashed pattern. This only
happens if the population has been determined for the first time after a
remapping or size change function. Otherwise all color registers are
rendered in solid shades. A rectangular marker in the bottom of a palette
register indicates that the register is currently selected.
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The lower area of the window lists the commands for manipulating palette
colors and registers. To use any of the palette commands, click a register
with the left mouse button to make it the current register, click the
command you want (the cursor changes to an arrow with "To" under it), then
click a second register. To cancel an operation when the "To" cursor is
displayed, click the current register again.
SWAP COLORS: Swaps the contents of two color registers.
SWAP REGS: Swaps the registers currently used by two colors.
MELD BY AVERAGE: Changes the color of two registers to the color that is
the average of the two original colors. For example, if Color 1 has the
values R:3, G:6, B:7 and Color 2 has the values R:10, G:8, B:6, a Meld By
Average operation changes both registers to the color with values R:6, G:7,
B:6. Note that in this operation, if the average falls between two numbers,
the lower number is used. In our example the average of 3 and 10 would be
6.5, so 6 was used for the red value.
MELD BY WEIGHT: Changes the color of two registers to the color that is the
weighted average of the two original colors. The operation uses the
population count of the two registers to determine the weight each should
receive in creating the new color. If register A contains 75% more pixels
than Register B, and you are melding by weight, the resulting color will
have 75% more of color A than of color B. Note that this option is not
available if you have not performed a population count.
MELD REGISTERS: Remaps all pixels that point to the first register you
select so that they point to the second register. After this function, the
first register will be drawn with hash marks to show the register has a
population of zero (no pixels are using it).
Note that this option is not available until you click the P button or
select Sort On: Population to perform a population count.
COPY COLOR: Copies the color of the current register to the register you
select.
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VIEW MODES MENU
SET TO:
This option presents a submenu of display modes that you can select to
change the display mode used by the current picture. The modes available in
the submenu are:
320x200 Low resolution
320x400 Low resolution with interlace
640x200 High resolution
640x400 High resolution with interlace
HAMx200 Hold and Modify
HAMx400 Hold and Modify with interlace
EHBx200 Extra-HalfBrite
EHBx400 Extra-HalfBrite with interlace
Three of the flags in the Colors Command Screen (Best Fit, Resize, and
Smooth) affect how Colors changes the display mode:
If the Best Fit flag is set, any reduction in the number of colors will
cause a restructuring of the original. This is done in an effort to
preserve as much of its appearance as possible. Note: ham pictures that
have many colors (2000 or more) can take as long as 24 minutes to convert
with Best Fit set.
If the Resize flag is set, the picture will be expanded or shrunk (with or
without smoothing, depending on whether the Smoothing flag is set) to fit
the new mode.
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CURRENT INFO:
Displays information about your current picture.
MODE displays the mode your current picture is in. For example,HAMx400.
DEPTH displays the number of bit planes your current picture is using.
WIDTH displays the width of the picture in pixels.
HEIGHT displays the height of the picture in pixels.
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APPENDIX A: COLOR THEORY
In DeluxePhotoLab, there are two ways to describe, and mix, colors. One
method describes colors as a combination of three primary colors: Red,
Green, and Blue. We refer to this as RGB color mixing. The other method
describes colors as made up of the three properties of Hue, Saturation, and
Value. We refer to this as HSV color mixing. It is most important that you
understand RGB color mixing, since this is the method DeluxePhotoLab uses
when it calculates color values, but HSV color mixing has some advantages
of its own, and an understanding of its relationship to RGB is useful.
RGB COLOR MIXING
The Amiga computer uses RGB color mixing based on sixteen levels of each of
the color components from 0 to 15. This yields a universe of 4,096 colors
(16x16x16 =4,096). This universe of possible colors is best imagined as a
cube in which each dimension is measured in one of the three primary
colors. Figure A.1 shows a sketch of the RGB color cube.
Notice that black is the absence of color (R0,G0,B0) and white is the
maximum level of the three colors (R15,G15,B15). The line running
diagonally through the center of the cube from black to white shows the
positions of the grays, which are formed by combining equal amounts of red,
green, and blue. Thus R7,G7,B7 would yield a medium gray.
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The corners of the cube that are not labeled are the three secondary
colors: cyan, yellow, and magenta. If you move backwards along the edge of
the cube to add Blue to Green, you would eventually reach cyan
(R0,G15,B15). Likewise, moving down from Green to add Red produces yellow
(R15,G15,B0), and moving backwards from Red to add Blue produces magenta
(R15,G0,B15).
Each secondary color is also the complement of the primary color not
contained in it. So cyan (R0,G15,B15) is the complement of Red. Notice that
in the color cube, cyan and Red are at opposite corners. In a moment,
you'll see that this arrangement parallels the position of colors on the
color wheel in HSV color mixing. Also notice that if you add a primary
color and its complement, the result is always white: 15,0,0 added to
0,15,15 yields 15,15,15. In fact, adding any two colors always moves the
result closer to white.
HSV COLOR MIXING
The HSV method of color mixing breaks each color down into its Hue,
Saturation, and Value.
Hue simply refers to the color's position on the color spectrum or
rainbow-- Red, Yellow, Green, Cyan, Blue, or Magenta, and the various
shades in between. (Note that this spectrum is based on the mixing of
colored light and not on that of reflected light or pigment. The spectrum
based on the mixing of pigment is based on the primary colors of Red,
Yellow, and Blue and it's order is Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, and
Violet.)
The spectrum of hues is normally arranged as a circle or "color wheel" as
shown in Figure A. Thus, Hue is measured in degrees. Red is at the top of
the circle by convention. If you are trying to select a color using HSV, it
helps a great deal to be familiar with the color's position on the color
wheel. Notice that, as we mentioned in the discussion of RGB, each color's
complement is located at the opposite end of the circle.
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Saturation refers to the strength of a particular hue--whether it is
relatively pure (and hence saturated), or whether it contains some
proportion of white. Thus, the more white, the less saturated.
Value refers to a color's relative lightness or darkness (sometimes
referred to as Luminosity). A color with a high value would have little or
no back, whereas colors with low value would contain more black.
Irrespective of Hue and Saturation, a Value of zero produces a pure black.
Even at their highest saturation, hues are not all of the same value. For
example, fully saturated green has a higher value than fully saturated red.
You will notice this difference in value in particular in you use B&W mode
in Paint to convert a color picture to black and white only.
Another important concept you should remember is that Value cannot change
independent of Saturation. As a color moves closer to white to black, its
Saturation also changes. On the other hand, Saturation can change without
any change to Value; the color simply moves toward its level of gray.
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COMPARING RGB AND HSV
When you work with DeluxePhotoLab, you will usually want to work in RGB,
particularly since the RGB color values are used to calculate changes in
color. However, sometimes it is easier to find the color you want to paint
with by locating its Hue and then adjusting the Saturation and Value.
Producing grays is one instance where it is easier to mix the color in HSV.
Since a hue with no saturation is a gray level by definition, to produce
any gray, move the Saturation slider to 0 and adjust the Value slider until
you have the gray level you want. This is much easier than setting each of
the R, G, and B sliders to the same value, and then adjusting all three of
them until you find the right gray level.
To give you a point of reference, the table below shows the name of a color
ad its respective RGB and HSV values.
COLOR RGB HSV
BLACK 0 0 0 ANY ANY 0
MEDIUM GRAY 7 7 7 ANY 0 7
WHITE 15 15 15 ANY O 15
RED 15 0 0 0 15 15
YELLOW 15 15 0 60 15 15
GREEN 0 15 0 120 15 15
CYAN 0 15 15 180 15 15
BLUE 0 0 15 240 15 15
MAGENTA 15 0 15 300 15 15
Notice that when you work in HSV, all pure colors have Saturation and Value
of 15. This makes is much easier to find a basic color if you are not
familiar with how Red, Green, and Blue mix to form it.
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APPENDIX B: AMIGA DISPLAY MODES
DeluxePhotoLab supports all of the Amiga graphic display modes--low
resolution, high resolution, extra-halfbrite, and hold and modify. (Dual
playfield mode is not directly supported, since it is really a variation of
the low and high resolution modes). You don't need to know much about the
different display modes to create great are with DeluxePhotoLab. But some
understanding of how the display modes work, and in particular, how they
affect the number of colors available in the palette, can help you work
more effectively.
This Appendix explains how a pixel derives its color, and how the display
mode and the number of bit planes determines the number of colors available
in the palette. We've tried to avoid overly-technical explanations, but the
material is still very technical. If you don't understand everything you
read here, don't be discouraged, just remember that you don't really need
to know this.
WHAT IS A BIT PLANE?
A bit plane can be thought of as a flat grid of dots--a plane of dots,
where each dot represents a bit. So when we say "bit,"think dot.
If you look ahead to Figure B.1, you'll see that we draw the bit planes as
flat surfaces. The best way to think of this surface is as a flat grid
behind your computer screen. (This isn't actually how it works, but it may
help you visualize how the colors are assigned to pixels.) The grid is the
same dimensions as your screen resolution. For example, if your screen is
320 pixels wide and 200 pixels high, each bit plane is also 320x200 bits.
BIT PLANES AND AVAILABLE COLORS
Now imagine that each dot is either filled in or it's not. If the dot is
filled in, it has a value of 1 and is said to be "on." If it is not filled
in, the dot has a value of 0 and is said to be "off." In the simplest case
of a display mode with only one bit plane, the picture can have only two
colors. A pixel is one color if its corresponding bit is on or a different
color if the bit is off.
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The bit planes themselves don't determine the color of the pixel, they
simply determine which color register the pixel looks to for its color.
With a single bit plane, the pixel points to either Color 0 or Color 1. If
you add another bit plane behind the first, the number of possible color
registers doubles to four. Each additional bit plane doubles the number of
colors again. The color register contains the numbers for the amount of
red, green, and blue in the color.
LOW RESOLUTION AND HIGH RESOLUTION DISPLAY MODES
Figure B.1 illustrates how the bit planes determine which color register a
pixel points to in Low Resolution display with five bit planes. Take a look
at this figure for a moment. Notice that we've numbered the bit planes 0
through 4. Notice also that the number of each bit plane corresponds to the
power of two by which each bit plane value is multiplied. For example, the
dot in bit plane 3 has a value of 1, and because it is in bit plane 3, the
1 is multiplied by 2 (3rd power), which equals 8 (2x2x2). The numbers from
the five bits are then added together to obtain the number of the color
register the pixel points to.
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Low and High Resolutions work exactly alike, except that High resolution
does not support as many bit planes, and therefore provides fewer colors.
Figure B.2 lists the graphics modes and the number of bit planes and colors
each supports. Notice that Hold and Modify mode is a departure from the
notion that each additional bit plane doubles the number of colors
available. Hold and Modify is a special case that we'll explain in a
moment.
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320x200 320x400 640x200 640x400 EHBx200 EHBx400 HAMx200 HAMx400
1 2 2 2 2 N/A N/A N/A N/A
2 4 4 4 4 N/A N/A N/A N/A
3 8 8 8 8 N/A N/A N/A N/A
4 16 16 16 16 N/A N/A N/A N/A
5 32 32 N/A N/A N/A N/A 240 240
6 N/A N/A N/A N/A 64 64 4096 4096
FIGURE B.2 NUMBER OF COLORS IN EACH DISPLAY MODE
EXTRA-HALFBRITE DISPLAY MODE
Extra-Halfbrite uses a trick to increase the number of colors available on
the screen. The Amiga supports only 32 color registers directly, but
Extra-Halfbrite uses a sixth bit plane to indicate an additional 32
registers that don't really exist. The first 32 registers are standard
color registers; the second 32 are halfbrite equivalents. Pixels that use
halfbrite colors point to one of the standard color registers and indicate
that the color should be displayed at half its normal intensity. This means
that the second 32 pixels are not independent of the first 32; you can
change the color values only in the first 32 registers, and the change is
automatically reflected in the halfbrite equivalent. Figure B.3 shows how
Extra-Halfbrite uses the bit planes and color registers.
Note: Not all Amiga 1000 computers support Extra-Halfbrite. The easiest way
to find out whether or not your computer supports this display mode is to
try it. Open an Extra-Halfbrite screen and look at the Palette (make sure
the pointer is not in the Menu Bar or Toolbox). If the last 32 colors are
the same as the first 32, your computer doesn't support Extra-Halfbrite.
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HOLD AND MODIFY DISPLAY MODE
Hold and Modify display modes uses only 16 color registers, but manages to
display all 4,096 colors on the screen at the same time. To accomplish
this, HAM display mode uses the first four bit planes to address the 16
color registers, and uses the fifth and sixth bit plane to determine
whether the register color or a HAM color should be used.
A HAM color is formed by taking the RGB value of the preceding pixel on the
screen, and substituting a new value for one of the RGB components. The new
value is the number derived from the first four bit planes. Here's a quick
example:
Assume the color values of one pixel (a register color) are R3,G15,B11. The
following pixel (a HAM color) would have the color values R13,G15,B11, if
bit planes 0 through 3 pointed to register 13 and bit planes 4 and 5
indicated that the register value should be used to modify the red
component of the preceding color. (Figure B.4 shows how the six bit planes
are used to select a color in Hold and Modify mode.)
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Because HAM colors are based on color values of the preceding pixel, and
only one color value can be changed at one time, it may take three pixels
to reach the color you really wanted. In Figure B.5 it takes three pixels
to change black (R0, G0, B0) to white (R15, G15, B15). Note that this
example assumes there are no intermediate colors in the normal color
registers. This gradual change from one color to the next is sometimes
referred to as "ramping" the color, and appears on the screen to the left
of HAM pixels. If you need fine details into your picture, you will want to
use a color from the color registers, because those colors do not require
ramping.
In Paint, if you hold a brush over an area made up of HAM pixels, you may
see an effect called "fringing." The fringing appears as streaks running to
the right from the edge of the brush. This effect is only temporary. When
you paint the brush onto the picture, Paint corrects the fringing, but you
may see the "ramping" effect where Paint recreates the HAM color to the
right of your brush.
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APPENDIX C: ABOUT THE PICTURES
This appendix briefly describes some of the techniques and processes
involved in creating a few of the pictures on your DeluxePhotoLab art disk.
This appendix is included so that you can match the effect you see on the
screen with the techniques used to create the effect.
EVOLUTION OF THE PACKAGE COVER
Larry Keenan based the cover photo for DeluxePhotoLab on a photograph from
his stock photo file. The original photograph was a 16"x20" photo/collage
of the room with the world and the hourglass. Larry re-photographed the
collage as a transparency and then digitized the transparency on the Amiga.
Digitizing from a transparency is a great way to get sufficient lighting in
the digitized image.
Next, Larry set-up the camera lens (with the room/world reflecting in the
lens) and the cable release in the studio and shot them in 34mm. Lighting
was very important to maintain continuity in the assembled photograph. He
let both items in warm tones to give the feeling of being in the room.
Larry then digitized the two best shots.
At this point, Larry had three digitized images in HAM Interlace: the room,
the lens with the Globe reflected, and the cable release. These three
elements were combined with DeluxePhotoLab to create the package cover
photograph.
To start, Larry had to enlarge the room to fit the width of the layout for
the software package cover. He made sections of the right and left walls
into brushes and used the brushes to extend the walls outward for more
width.
Next he cut out the lens as a brush and dropped it into the room. Once the
lens was properly placed, Larry touched up (softened and blended) the
edges. He then proceeded to refine the rest of the picture, particularly
the clouds, skylight, window edges and the tones in the walls.
Larry selected the cable release brush in four sections and placed it in
the room. Notice how the cable release arches back to the floating globe
and flows smoothly forward to give a dramatic perspective. This 3-D
perspective creates a sense of reality in the picture. Larry also carefully
added color to the edges of the cable release to give the feeling of light
coming in through the window.
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Larry also sharpened the sand in the hourglass at the top to make a
stronger pyramid to symbolize part of the Electronic Arts logo. (You'll
find some form of each of the three shapes in the picture).
When Larry submitted his first version of the cover to Electronic Arts, we
requested that he reduce the size of the world floating in the room to make
the lens seem larger and thus increase the 3-D quality of the picture. We
also suggested a change to the angle and flow of the cable release. To
accomplish these changes, Larry went back to an earlier version of the
picture before the cable release was added. He then created brushes from
the wall and carefully painted out the globe, which he digitized again
about 25% smaller and dropped back into the picture. He set up the cable
release and re-photographed it. To help find the right size and position
for the new cable release, Larry drew the changes on the monitor screen in
felt tip pen, and then arranged the cable release to match the drawing as
he shot it with the digitizing camera. This is a great way to position
element and minimize guess-work.
Once again, Larry added the cable release to the pictures as several
smaller brushes. Because of the size of the cable release, Larry had to cut
the release into four sections as brushes. He then "beefed-up" the cable
release to give it more dimension using the Paint Modes, such as blend,
average, and mix. He then touched up the cable release and globe on all
sides.
When this version of the cover was finished, another color stat was made
and presented to Electronic Arts showing full mock-up with type. Only minor
refinements were suggested, one of which was to smooth out the bend in the
cable release. When looking at the computer screen, the eye could detect no
need for correction, but the camera and film see the digitized image
differently. On film, the image tends to show greater contrast and some
areas tend to block-up. So Larry had to over-do or over-enhance some
textures and tones especially for the camera.
Larry finds it is very important to view the work with a clear version. To
do this, he uses the Pola Palette from Liquid Light to make test prints of
his progress. He finds these test polaroids are helpful in checking his
progress and telling him the "real" from the surreal. This was especially
important in this project, since he had to keep in mind how the image would
print as a package cover. We think he did a great job.
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PICTURES BY GENE BRAWN
In addition to spending countless hours testing DeluxePhotoLab and
assisting with the design of tutorials, Gene Brawn put the program through
its paces by building pictures. In the process, Gene created three
excellent pictures which found their way onto the art disk.
THE HUNTERS
The Hunters is by far the most complex image he created for DeluxePhotoLab.
The hunter, his face, the small lizard, the Godzilla, and the Easter Island
background are all separate HAM Interlace images. The images were created
at different times with different times with different palettes and had to
be matched and modified to combine them into a single picture.
The hunter was originally created as a black and white image and then
colorized with a combination of the Add, And, Low Mix, and Mix Paint Modes.
The head was a digitized image of Gene's own head, which he smoothed and
reduced to fit the body.
The lizard, which Gene calls a Mylarasaurus because of the mylar effect he
created on it, began life as a digitized image of a toy dinosaur. Gene cut
this into its major pieces (head, torso, and legs) and made solid color
mattes from them. He then created a one pixel wide brush of the grays
ranging from dark to light and back to dark. Using the Brush Warp setting
of the Fill Control, he filled each piece of the lizard to give it a mylar
look. He then reassembled the pieces and saved it as a brush.
Godzilla was also a digitized toy model. The image was cut out, touched-up,
smoothed and then used at its full size.
Gene's most important task in assembling the final picture was to set the
palette correctly. He began by reducing the number of colors in the Easter
Island background picture as far as possible. He used Colors to reduced the
number of colors in small steps until he was satisfied with the result.
Then he removed all of the blues and added a basic range of grays for the
hunter and mylarasaurus because it is usually faster to create a HAM color
from a gray scale color and the grays don't change the look of the colors
beside them. The original background picture (before color reduction and
palette changes) was then remapped to the new palette using the Match
option in Colors.
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Gene loaded his new background picture in Paint, and cut the statue out as
a brush to move it to the right. He used pieces of the surrounding grass
and sky to rebuild the space vacated by the head.
To make Godzilla seem larger, Gene placed the image behind the hill so that
its legs and feet would be hidden. To make Godzilla seem farther away, and
thus even larger, he made it look as though its head was in the clouds.
Gene accomplished both of these effects in a few easy steps. First he cut
out the sky and surrounding areas (leaving a black hole) and saved the
screen without sky. He cleared the page and stamped down the sky and
surrounding area. Then he loaded Godzilla as a brush. Using the Shade
Control, Gene set the Highlight with the horizontal bar at the top of the
region so that the image would be most solid above the clouds. He then
stamped Godzilla into position, and erased every part of the image that was
outside of the cutout area (the lower legs and feet). Finally, he picked up
his new sky with Godzilla, reloaded the background picture without sky, and
stamped the sky and Godzilla back into position.
To finish it all off, Gene loaded the hunter and the mylarasaurus brushes,
stamped them in their final positions, and touched them up around the
edges.
PHOTOGIRL
The original image of the girl in this picture was digitized in Black and
White from an old magazine ad. In DeluxePhotoLab, the girl was cut out from
the background and the edges were smoothed by hand. The face and dress were
redrawn to be smoother and flatter. Using the Paint Modes, Gene added color
to the hair in Low Mix, added color to the sash and collar in And, and to
the face and hands in Add. Gene then saved the girl as a brush.
Next Gene cleared the screen and created a 4x4 pixel brush consisting of
the main colors from the palette randomly arranged. With Brush Pattern set
in the Fill Control, Gene filled the empty screen with this pattern to
create a new background. Then he loaded the girl brush and placed her on
the left side of the screen.
Since he planned to place the title over the lower part of the girl's
striped dress, Gene faded the dress into the background so that the
vertical stripes wouldn't make the horizontal title difficult to read. Here
are the steps Gene followed:
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Select the lower part of the dress as a brush
Bring up the Shade Control
Set the Dither and High sliders to the maximum settings and set the
highlight low in the box
Select Color from the Brush Mode menu
Select the dominant color from the background as the brush color and stamp
the brush over the dress in the original position
The typeface Gene wanted to use for the slogan and title was a custom font
that he didn't have in his system fonts directory. So, to make the font
usable from Paint, Gene returned briefly to the Workbench screen, opened a
new CLI window, and assigned fonts: to a font directory on his second
drive. (The command to assign fonts in this case was:
assign fonts: df1:fonts
We thought this was a neat tip you might want to remember.
When he returned to Paint, Gene loaded the font directory from the Font
menu and typed his slogan on a clear screen. He saved each block of text as
a brush. Typing text on a clear screen and using the text as a brush is the
best way to use text in HAM.
Gene created the drop-shadow effect for the text by using a gray with a
Value of 1 (RGB values are 1, 1, 1) with Color Brush Mode and Sub Paint
Mode.
Finally, on a different screen, Gene made the main title including the drop
shadow. Then he loaded it into the main screen as a brush and used Resize
Draw from the Brushes menu to place the text and make it slightly smaller
and smoother all in a single operation.
COMICPOSTER
Like The Hunters, this picture was composed from separate digitized images:
the red figure below the earth, the figures on the left, and the earth.
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Before combining the images, each was matched to the palette of the figures
on the left using the Match option in Colors. Then, each of the characters
was cut out and saved as a separate brush. Gene drew over them to remove
the textures produced in the digitizing process so that the overall "look"
would be flatter and more like a comic.
Gene then created the diagonal background area on a new screen using the
same technique described for PhotoGirl. The title was also added using a
method similar to adding the slogan in PhotoGirl. Finally, the figure
brushes were loaded in order from back to front (earth, figures on the
left, and red figure) so that they could be easily stamped. Notice that
Gene added a shadow below the arm of the red figure to give dimension to
the picture.
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APPENDIX D: KEYBOARD COMMANDS
PROJECT MENU
RIGHT AMIGA-N NEW
RIGHT AMIGA-C CLOSE
RIGHT AMIGA-L LOAD
RIGHT AMIGA-A LOAD AT
RIGHT AMIGA-S SAVE
RIGHT AMIGA-Z PAGE SIZE
P PALETTE SCREEN
D SHOWPAGE OVERSCAN
S SHOW PAGE FAST
SHIFT-S SHOW PAGE SMOOTH
BRUSHES MENU
RIGHT AMIGA-G LOAD BRUSH
RIGHT AMIGA-P SAVE BRUSH
X HORIZONTAL FLIP
Y VERTICAL FLIP
Z ROTATE 90 DEGREES CLOCKWISE
SHIFT-Z ROTATE 90 DEGREES COUNTER-CLOCKWISE
W ROTATE FREE
G GRAB LAST DRAWN
SHIFT-G GRAB UNDERNEATH LAST DRAWN
RIGHT AMIGA-D RESIZE DRAW
RIGHT AMIGA-H HANDLE
RIGHT AMIGA-R REMAP
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OPTIONS MENU
Q TRANSPARENCY ON
SHIFT-Q TRANSPARENCY OFF
C CORNER TO CORNER OVALS
SHIFT-C CENTER OVALS
V SHADE REQUESTER
R REPEAT LAST DRAW OPERATION
\ SMOOTH
FONTS MENU
RIGHT AMIGA-F LOAD NEW FONT
RIGHT AMIGA-1 THRU 6 ACTIVATE FONT
CTRL-P PLAIN
CTRL-U UNDERLINE
CTRL-I ITALIC
CTRL-B BOLD
MODES MENU
BRUSH MODES
F1 MATTE MODE
F2 COLOR MODE
F3 PATTERN MODE
F4 STORE MODE
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PAINT MODES
LEFT ALT-F1 SOLID
LEFT ALT-F2 LOW MIX
LEFT ALT-F3 MIX
LEFT ALT-F4 AVERAGE
LEFT ALT-F5 BLEND
LEFT ALT-F6 SHADE
LEFT ALT-F7 SUBPICT
LEFT ALT-F8 SCALE
LEFT ALT-F9 SCALE 2
RIGHT ALT-F1 ADD
RIGHT ALT-F2 SUB
RIGHT ALT-F3 MAX
RIGHT ALT-F4 MIN
RIGHT ALT-F5 XOR
RIGHT ALT-F6 OR
RIGHT ALT-F7 AND
RIGHT ALT-F8 HLF
RIGHT ALT-F9 B&W
LEFT OR RIGHT ALT-F10 SOLID
AFFECT
ALL F5
FOREGROUND F6
BACKGROUND F7
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TOOLBOX/PAINT SET COMMANDS
; DOTTED FREEHAND
' CONTINUOUS FREEHAND
/ STRAIGHT LINE
J CURVE TOOL
' AIRBRUSH
T TEXT TOOL
L FILL TOOL
[ UNFILLED RECTANGLE
SHIFT-[ FILLED RECTANGLE
E UNFILLED OVAL
SHIFT-E FILLED OVAL
F FREEFORM FILL TOOL
SHIFT-F POLYGON FILL TOOL
B BRUSH SELECTOR
SHIFT-B FREEFORM BRUSH SELECTOR
M MAGNIFY TOOL
I ZOOM IN
O ZOOM OUT
K CLEAR SCREEN
U UNDO TOOL
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SPECIAL KEYS
. GET LAST BUILT-IN BRUSH
, PICK CURSOR
A AGAIN (REPEAT LAST MENU)
HELP ROTATES THROUGH HAM COLOR COMBINATIONS
F8 TOGGLE CURSOR
F9 TOGGLE MENU BAR
F10 TOGGLE TOOLBOX
SPACEBAR ABORT
ESC ABORT TEXT MODE
N NEW POSITION IN MAGNIFY
(ARROW KEYS) SCROLL THE PICTURE
SHIFT-(ARROW KEYS) SCROLL THE PICTURE IN LARGER JUMPS
TAB CYCLE THROUGH THE PICTURE SCREENS
FILE REQUESTER
ESC SAME AS CLICKING CANCEL
UP ARROW MOVE DISPLAY UP ONE LINE
DOWN ARROW MOVE DISPLAY DOWN ONE LINE
SHIFT-UP ARROW MOVE DISPLAY UP ONE SECTION
SHIFT-DOWN ARROW MOVE DISPLAY DOWN ONE SECTION
RETURN SAME AS CLICKING LOAD
D SHOWS THE DIRECTORIES
F SHOWS THE FILES
V SHOWS THE VOLUMES
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POSTERS
RIGHT AMIGA-L LOAD
RIGHT AMIGA-P PRINT
RIGHT AMIGA-Q QUIT
RIGHT AMIGA-V PREVIEW
RIGHT AMIGA-A ASPECT RATIO
RIGHT AMIGA-H HORIZONTAL PRINTING
COLORS
COMMAND SCREEN
R, G, B, H, S, V, P RGVHSVP BUTTONS
L LOCK ALL REGISTERS
N CLEAR ALL LOCKS
M MOSAIC
Z RESIZE
C REDUCE
U UNDO
F BSTFIT/TRUNC
O SAMPLE/SMOOTH
K RESIZE/SIZE OK
I SRT HiLo/SORT LoHi
T REAL/TEST
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MENU OPTIONS
RIGHT AMIGA-S SAVE FAST
RIGHT AMIGA-R REVERT
RIGHT AMIGA-W WORKBENCH
RIGHT AMIGA-Q QUIT
RIGHT AMIGA-M MATCH
RIGHT AMIGA-B MAKE B/W
RIGHT AMIGA-N NEGATIVE
RIGHT AMIGA-P PALETTE
SEPARATIONS
RIGHT AMIGA-D RED
RIGHT AMIGA-E GREEN
RIGHT AMIGA-U BLUE
RIGHT AMIGA-U BLUE
RIGHT AMIGA-Y YELLOW
RIGHT AMIGA-C CYAN
RIGHT AMIGA-G MAGENTA
RIGHT AMIGA-K BLACK
SORTS
RIGHT AMIGA-1 RED
RIGHT AMIGA-2 GREEN
RIGHT AMIGA-3 BLUE
RIGHT AMIGA-4 HUE
RIGHT AMIGA-5 SATURATION
RIGHT AMIGA-6 VALUE
RIGHT AMIGA-7 POPULATION
RIGHT AMIGA-8 LOCKS
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DOCS PROVIDED BY RAP AND -+*+-THE SOUTHERN STAR-+*+- for M.A.A.D.
============================================================================