The Picture Tool enables conversion of pictures into text, and vice versa.
Pictures are converted into text by using the 窶廚haracters to use for Pictures窶 setting in the Preferences dialog, viewable by choosing Preferences from the Email menu. Pixels in a picture are automatically sampled for darkness and compared to these characters in the current display font and size. The correct character is chosen based on this comparison. A white pixel in the picture will always correspond to the lightest character, and a black pixel to the darkest.
Text is converted into pictures by sampling the darkness of each character on screen, and converting the result into a grayscale value. A space will be converted to a white pixel, and the darkest possible character will be a black pixel in the picture.
Make a selection by dragging out a rectangular area. Choosing choose Select All from the Edit menu (when the picture tool is selected) will select the entire document. If no selection has been made, any pictures being pasted or dragged in will automatically create a selection of the required size.
The Transparent button on the toolbar controls whether a picture is transparent or opaque. If it is transparent, blank space characters in the picture will let the underlying design show through.
The Picture Mode button on the toolbar toggles between direct and proportional, allowing fine control over picture scaling during pasting.
If set to Direct, the height/width ratio of the picture will be the same as the rows/columns ratio of the characters produced. This will produce accurate results for pixel-accurate visual elements such as icons, but the results will be elongated (because characters on screen are taller than they are wide).
If set to Proportional, the height/width ratio of the picture will be the same as the height/width ratio of the results on the screen. This will produce natural-looking results for pictures, but will result in a reduction of the vertical resolution. This may cause problems with pixel-accurate visual elements such as icons.
Copy the selected area to the clipboard (as a picture) by choosing Copy from the Edit menu (from within the Picture Tool). The selected area can also be dragged directly to another window or program (as a picture) by dragging it outside the document window and dropping it into the desired destination. This feature requires Macintosh Drag and Drop, included with System 7.5 or later. The receiving program must also support this feature.
Paste a picture (converted into text) by choosing Paste from the Edit menu. A picture may also be dragged into the document from another program for conversion.
Delete the picture just entered by pressing the delete or escape key on the keyboard, or choosing Clear from the Edit menu.
Move the selection, and the picture it contains, by pressing the arrow keys on the keyboard, or dragging it from within the selected area.
