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Text File | 1991-11-18 | 17KB | 351 lines

MegaPaint® Professional Demo 4.00 (C)1991 TommySoftware North American Distribution: European Distribution: CodeHead Software Thomas Maier P.O. Box 74090 Selchower Straße 32 Los Angeles, CA 90004 W-1000 Berlin 44 Phone: (213) 386-5735 Telefon (49)(30) 621-4063 & 5931 FAX: (213) 386-5789 Telefax (49)(30) 621-4064 BBS: (213) 461-2095 Retail Price ..... $175 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- This demo version of MegaPaint® Professional Version 4.00 may be distributed freely as long as all of the original files remain intact and unaltered. None of these files may not be included with any commercial software products without the permission of Tommy Software. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The demo version has all features of the full version, apart from four limitations: - Saving of pictures and vector images is impossible. Settings of all kind, fonts and library can be saved, however. - Scanning is impossible. - Printing is only possible, if the picture to be printed comes directly from disk and is unchanged (e.g. the pictures in the folder PICTURES on the data disk). - External modules cannot be executed. The following text will explain some of the more complex or unusual functions to make it possible to test this programm without a manual. Because of its length, we recommend you to print this text for better handling. Within the program, pressing HELP displays a short description of the active function. First program start When starting the program for the first time, the file pathes are initialized in another way than in previous versions. The program assumes that the folder MEGPAINT contains all appertaining files and subfolders (PICTURES, PATTERNS, FONTS etc.) and sets the pathes in accordance. These pathes are now saved at >SAVE SETTINGS. They can be changed at any time by using the appertaining fileselectorbox and saving the settings afterwards. Extended keyboard functions Pressing and holding SHIFT deactivates the current snap in both parts of the program. This allows to move anywhere, no matter of the snap. A possible snap display remains active to allow a better orientation. Pressing and holding CONTROL activates the CATCH feature within the vector part. This means, when clicking into the window, the coordinates of the nearest existing definition or assistant point will be used. This point might be outside the visible part of the picture. A possible snap will be ignored, so the resulting point does not necessarily lie on the snap grid. When pressing ALTERNATE within the vector part AT ANY TIME, a window appears, where you can input a point in form of coordinates. This has the same effect as moving the cursor to this special position within the picture and clicking with the left button. The coordinates of the desired point can be outside the visible section of the picture. A possible snap will be ignored, so the resulting point does not necessarily lie on the snap grid. The ten function keys have been assigned to some often used or hard accessable function, different in each part of the program. Raster part: Vector part: F1 - Invert buffer F1 - Select object F2 - X-reflect buffer F2 - Deselect object F3 - Y-reflect buffer F3 - Select area F4 - Enlarge buffer F4 - Deselect area F5 - X-extend buffer F5 - Select all F6 - Y-extend buffer F6 - Deselect all F7 - Reduce buffer F7 - Zoom: Section F8 - X-compress buffer F8 - Zoom: Whole page F9 - Y-compress buffer F9 - Zoom: Standard F10 - Rotate buffer 90 degree F10 - Object info The keys TAB, ESC and SHIFT TAB have a special function within the functions SELECT OBJECT and DESLECT OBJECT in the vector part. Pressing TAB pre(de-)selects the non-(de-)selected object nearest to the cursor. Pressing TAB again pre(de-)selects the next nearest object and so on. If the same object remains pre(de-)selected (a "bing" sounds), it is the last object in the object list, and pressing TAB again will restart with the first object. Pressing ESC (de-)selects the pre(de-)selected object finally. Pressing SHIFT TAB erases the pre(de-)selection, so when pressing TAB, the process will begin again. This function is normally used to select totally or partly hidden objects without having to move the objects in front of it. The menu FILE in vector part - Save objects / Save all These two items have a submenu, where you can choose between NORMAL, i.e. the MegaPaint® standard file format *.VEK, and CVG-Format, i.e. the vector graphics file format of Calamus. This allows the export of MegaPaint® vector graphics to Calamus. When saving a CVG-file, >filling mode, >filling pattern, >line width and >line pattern are considered. Filling and line pattern are, as far as possible, replaced by Calamus-specific patterns. The routine assumes, that the current pattern is either MEGA.PAT, PINPRINT.PAT or LASER.PAT. Calamus does not work with a >drawing mode, so all objects are drawn in the drawing mode NORMAL. To get an impression of the look of the resulting graphic, the drawing modes of all objects can be be set to NORMAL via the >OBJECT INFO before saving the objects. >LINES DIN 15 are exported as lines with fixed line width and line pattern. Due to some limitations in the Calamus file format, the line pattern is not exactly the same as in MegaPaint®. With >ARROWS DIN 406, the automatism turning the arrow-heads, when the arrow is shorter than 5 mm, does not work any more. The menu PRINT in vector part - Printing in the vector part It is possible to print directly from the vector part. But since today's printers have no vector printing capability, the planes of the raster part have to be used as a buffer to produce raster images, which the printers can print. This means that the raster planes might are ereased when printing in the vector part. The printer driver is identical with the one in the raster part and offers the same features like color printing and redirecting output. The printing routine itself is more flexible than the one in the raster part. You can print a picture of up to 7680 x 7680 pixels, bigger than your printer can produce on a single sheet. The printing routine automatically prints the picture on as many sheets as needed, with the size of the raster plane as the size of one sheet. So, to print a picture of 7680 x 7680 pixels on a laser printer with only DIN A4-capabilities, choose a plane size of DIN A4 in the raster part to tell the printing routine that this is the size of one sheet on your printer. Then simply select >PRINT ALL in the vector part, and the routine will print this picture on 4 x 3 sheets. The resulting picture has a size of 65 x 65 centimeters. When printing the same picture in 180 dpi on a 24-pin-printer, the same picture comes on 6 x 5 sheets with a size of 108 x 108 centimeters. If the picture to print is larger than one sheet, the routine asks wether to print marks or not. If so, it prints little marks in the edges of each sheet to simplify the cutting and sticking together of the separate sheets. The menu SPECIAL in vector part - What is an Outline ? An OUTLINE is an area described by one or multiple contours. Each contour is a closed line, made up by polylines and bezier curves. The area filled, when filling the outline, is the space between the single contours. If one contour lies completely within a second one, only the space between those contours is filled. This filling either takes a lot of time or a lot of space. We decided to make it as fast as possible, so a lot of memory was necessary. The buffer of the raster part offers this memory, so it is used as a buffer for filling the outlines. As a result, the buffer is normally changed within the vector part !!! - Outline An OUTLINE is defined by defining each of its contours completely, one by one. First choose the starting point of the first contour. A window appears, where the next function has to be specified. - BEZIER CURVE: The bezier curves are defined as a sequence of linked bezier curves. That means that the ending point of one curve is the starting point of the next curve, and the second control point defines the first control point of the next curve to garantuee a smooth and "floating" transition of the single curves. To produce a sharp bend, press the right button to stop the sequence and start a new one. This input of the bezier curves can be interpreted in another way. Instead of control points, you define the tangent in each connection point. This tangent passes the connection point and has the two control points as its ending points. This is how the input of the outline is displayed. While editing a tangent, its gradiant is shown in the status line. For the first curve, define the starting point directly and the tangent in this starting point by defining the ending point of the tangent opposite to the intended direction of the curve. Then, for each curve, define the ending point of the curve and the tangent in this ending point. Press the right mouse button to stop the sequence. A window appears. Choose the next function. If RETURN is selected, the program returns to the input of the last curve. - POLYLINE: Define the ending point of each line with the left button. Press the right button to stop the polyline and choose the next funtion in the appearing window. - STARTING POINT: The current contour is finished, a line is drawn from its starting point to its ending point. Now you can define the starting point of the next contour. After this definition, the window appears to choose the next function. - CANCEL: The complete outline is canceled and deleted without warning! - RETURN: Returns to the status before pressing the right button. After defining a new starting point, this button has the same effect as CANCEL !! - INSERT: The current contour is finished, a line is drawn from its starting point to its ending point. Then the input of the outline is ended, the outline is appended to the object list and displayed with the current settings. Points already defined within the current outline can be caught, even is they are not displayed yet. This is important if you want to ensure that the starting and ending point of a contour are identical. - Edit outline This function is used to edit an existing outline. Any definition point of the outline can be moved. To edit an outline, select this outline. If several outlines are selected, the newest one is edited. The selected outline is faded out (the screen has to be drawn again) and its contour is shown in dashed lines. In addition, all defintion points and all tangents of the bezier curves are displayed. Click with left button on any definition point to move it. Due to timing problems, the outline cannot be moved simultaniously. Press left button in each position, where you want the resulting outline to be calculated and displayed. This selection is not final and can be done as often as wanted. Press right button to confirm the last selection. A window appears, asking wether to move another point or not. If you move a starting or ending point of a bezier curve, the whole tangent in this point is moved (including its ending points). If you move an ending point of a tangent, the other ending point is moved corresponding to ensure the smoothness of the curve. - Link outlines This function links several outlines. This is necessary, when an existing outline shall be equipped with as "whole" inside. Select all outlines to be linked together and call this funtion. All selected outlines will be linked, if the resulting "big" outline does not exceed 32 KB. The new, "big" outline is moved to the end of the object list, so it is displayed in front of all other objects. - Separate outline This function cuts an outlines into its contours. The result are several outlines made up by one contour each. This function can be used to extract one or several contours from an existing outline. The new, simple outlines are moved to the end of the object list, so they are displayed in front of all other objects. The menu SYMBOL in vector part - Read symbol All selected objects make up a new symbol. The total size of all objects may not exceed 32 KB. A table appears, where the position of the symbol within the library can be selected. The numbers are only to shows the order of the symbols, you do not have to remember this number afterwards. The letters are used, if the library shall be used as a font (see LINE EDITOR, below), to show the characters the symbol represents. If an entry in the table is grayed, this symbol is already assigned. By clicking on this entry, the new symbol replaces the old one. - Insert symbol After clicking with left button, a window appears. Choose the symbol by moving through the library with the scrollbar and click on OK to select the visible symbol. Move the frame appearing to the desired position of the symbol and click left again. All objects of the symbol are selected afterwards, to allow immediate manipulation. - Symbol info / Scale library These functions work like the corresponding functions for objects, but they always affect all symbols in the specified library. - Line editor Libraries can be used as fonts. This allows to use them within this line editor. You can edit a line of up to 64 characters. The program then assembles the corresponding symbols out of the library and inserts them into the picture. A special function has the library #8. This library is intended to hold the library DINDRAFT.VLB or DIN_LQ.VLB. They contain a vector script normally used to add texts to technical drawings, the first in DRAFT quality, the second in LQ-quality. Normally, the draft quality is good enough. It is necessary to have one of these two libraries loaded to #8 before you can use the measuring functions in the menu SPECIAL. Font-libraries contain letters that have a heigth of 20 mm in 600 dpi. This is too large for most applications. So the >LINE EDITOR has some additional functions. The script size can be specified directly within the editor window between 1.3 and 20 mm, and the script can be displayed in ITALIC (i.e. about 18 degree sheered) and/or CONDENSED (i.e. horizontally scaled to 66.7%). Both possiblities can be combined. They are not avaiable when the symbols shall be used in scale 1:1. When inserting a text in mode ITALIC, the dashed frame can overlap the cursor in left direction. This shows how the script it sheered. You always set the upper left corner of the first character. The menu VECTOR in vector part - Select object While the function SELECT OBJECT is active, an existing object can be scaled and moved directly with the mouse. Click into one of the eight grey squares of the object's selection frame to scale it, click into any other region of the selection frame to move the object. These manipulations always work on single objects, even if they might be members of a group. If you still have problems after reading this text, write to us. We will aswer, if possible. Have some fun while testing MegaPaint® Professional Version 4.00 !!! Berlin, May 1991 Stefan Malz Olaf Kassner ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MegaPaint is available NOW, and retails for $175. For more information, contact your local dealer, or CodeHead Software, PO Box 74090, Los Angeles, CA 90004; voice (213) 386-5735, fax (213) 386-5789.