QuickPaint V.0.1 is a Freeware release, identical with QuickPaint V.1.0, except for some disabled menu choices. For the enabled version, QuickPaint V.1.1, which includes file saving, printing, and cut-and-paste capabilities, send $5.00, a 3.5" disk, and a stamped disk mailer to the address above. Any other inquiries are also welcome!
QuickPaint V.1.1 is NOT Freeware or Shareware. It is very affordable, though, and too much effort has gone into it to distribute it otherwise. If you have not paid for your copy of V.1.1, it is unauthorized. Low budget software cannot have high budget support, so bug reports are welcome, but no guarantee of a debugged copy can be made. Check your favorite Bulletin Board for QuickPaint V.0.1, the limited Freeware release, and news of future versions. Send any other inquiries to the address above. Thank you for your support.
Some quick instructions...
QuickPaint is able to open and view PICT, older black-and-white MacPaint®, and GIF files. GIF files are good at saving space, and can be found in abundance on most bulletin boards. There is some loss of color information in GIF images: none with black-and-white, unnoticable between 2- and 8-bit, and appreciable at 32-bit pixel depths. Version 1.1 is capable of saving using the PICT and GIF formats, and printer output in color is limited to drivers that handle color (I had no problem with a Hewlett-Packard ColorJet, but a mulitcolor ribbon in an ImageWriter still makes black-and-white). The following paragraphs are fairly abreviated, but should pose no difficulty to anyone familiar with the the Macintosh interface.
MEMORY
QuickPaint is configured to request at least enough memory for manipulation of one 8.5 x 11" 8-bit color image. Up to three 8-bit images can be viewed, but the limited memory will make editing difficult. To work with 32-bit or multiple 8-bit images, the user must change QuickPaint's application memory size by using Get Info... in the Finder's File menu. If memory gets short, try decreasing your monitor's color resolution or close some windows.
COLOR
Remember, 32-bit color eats memory (see above). QuickPaint does not map colors at all between an image and a monitor with different color resolutions. For example, opening a 256 color picture with your screen set to 16 colors will look pretty ugly. Someday QuickPaint will implement color dithering, but for now, use a screen depth of 256 colors for best results. See also 'Lock/Unlock Colors...' in the Paint menu, described in MENUS below. What you see on the screen is exactly what you get!
PALETTE
The palette contains black & white (always), 32 editable solid patterns, and 64 two-color patterns. Currently, QuickPaint does not support editing of the two-color patterns. Any solid pattern can be edited by double-clicking. If QuickPaint is locked, changes to solid patterns will not be saved when application is quit.
The two leftmost squares, from left to right, display the outline and the fill pattern (if applicable) of the currently selected tool. Clicking in any of the other patterns changes the selected outline or fill. Outline or fill can be selected with a single click. Double clicking in outline or fill copies the opposite's pattern. If the current fill or outline is a two-color pattern, holding down the option key while selecting a solid pattern will change the tool pattern's foreground color, while option-shift will change the background. The 'No Fill' selection will specify that no fill pattern be used by the currently selected tool.
See also 'Lock/Unlock Colors...' in the Paint menu below.
MENUS - PAINT
The only menu that should require any explanation is the Paint menu. The Paint menu is used mainly to set and display the pattern transfer mode used by the currently selected tool, for both outline and fill :
Copy - replaces the destination with the source pattern.
Or - if destination is black, no change. If white, is replaced. Works the same for a black or white source. Useful for coloring black and white MacPaint® pictures.
Xor - Acts like inversion. Good for psychedelic effects.
Bic - Black source erases black destination.
Transparent - White source does not affect destination.
Blend - Source color is blended with destination, using a weight selected with the Set Blend... choice. The higher the values of the weight's RGB components, the more each source component dominates in the blend. This mode can be painfully slow with tools that affect large areas, and best effects are achieved with high color resolutions (8 bits or greater).
Generally speaking, applying Or, Xor, or Bic to two colors (neither of which black or white) is unpredictable.
*NOTE: There is a bug in System 6.0.7, I think, which is the cause of garbled effects when attempting to use xfer modes blend or transparent with two-color patterns. This bug doesn't show up using System 7, so don't blame QuickPaint!
Set Blend... as mentioned above, this prompts the user for an RGB weight, used by the currently selected tool for the blend pattern transfer mode.
The Paint menu's 'Lock/Unlock Colors' choice affects only the frontmost image. When an image's colors are locked, the palette's solid color patterns are approximated, or 'dithered' using a pattern of colors available from the image. If an image's colors are unlocked, the best matching image color for each palette color is changed to provide an exact match - this sometimes degrades the color quality of a picture, but enables the user to work with solid colors instead of poorly dithered approximations. Any previously created picture's colors are locked when opened, and a newly created file's colors are unlocked. An 8-bit image with 256 shades of gray displayed on a monitor set at 8-bit color, for example, should probably be kept locked, since unlocking it would change the best matching grays to palette colors, producing some pretty wild results.
TOOLS
The tool pallette contains the usual choices, for the most part. Double-clicking nearly every tool allows you to change its characteristics. There are some exceptions; the eraser will apply its pattern to the entire window if double-clicked, and the text tool does nothing. Holding down the option key while selecting a tool will copy the previous tool's transfer mode, blending weight, and outline & fill patterns. These items are owned by each tool.
Some tools are sometimes a little slow - keep the mouse depressed at the end of a stroke to ensure that it is completed, and be patient with the bucket.
Brush shapes are limited to rectangles. There are three brushes (four, counting the pen), which may customized in shape and colors.
The selector tools (lasso and box) are used in choosing a portion of an image for moving, scaling, or otherwise editing using the appropriate menu choice. Scaling is achieved by positioning the cursor near the outside of the selection rectangle, and dragging. The lasso selector will 'lasso' a selection, masking out a choice of white or the starting color, as well as neighboring colors within a specified tolerance. The lasso's mask 'leaks' from the border drawn by the user.
The paint bucket will apply it's patterns to an area that 'leaks' from the point where the user first depresses the mouse button. The paint 'leaks' from the starting color to all neighboring colors withing a specified tolerance. If the mouse is clicked once without a dragging action, the bucket will apply only it's outline pattern. If the mouse is dragged, and 'No-Fill' is not selected from the palette, the bucket will apply a gradient, starting with the outline pattern and fading to the fill, repeating itself as area allows. The user may choose a circular or linear gradient.
The smudger (finger) is like a brush, except that the starting pattern is gradually blended with whatever is in the background, depending on the 'finger pressure' that is selected. Useful for blurring effects over any size area or smoothing out 'jaggies' at the edges of objects. Best effects are achieved with high resolutions (greater than 8 bits). Its default setting, a white pattern with transparency selected from the Paint menu, will act as a 'clean' finger.
Text is editable while the user types, but if the user chooses another tool, clicks outside the current block of text, or otherwise moves on to something else, the text is no longer editable, except with the graphic cut-and-paste tools. No text cutting or pasting is supported.
The other tools should be self-explanatory with a little experimentation.
That's it... Have fun, and stay tuned for future versions!
