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Text File | 1992-12-11 | 20KB | 491 lines

JCVIEW v1.1F (c) John Charles 1991 ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ A clip - Art viewer and clip manipulation program for the Atari ST which needs 1 meg of memory and only works in hi - resolution. This program is public domain in that it may be distributed freely without charge and may be distributed through Public Domain Libraries for a nominal copying and administration charge. It may also be included on Bulletin Board Systems for free downloading. Under no circumstances is it to be sold for profit or included with any other software being sold for profit or included on any disk which is distributed with any magazine without the express written permission of the author, John Charles, who retains copyright to his code. Whilst reasonable care has been taken in writing and testing this program the author makes no guarantees as to its suitability for use for any particular purpose or for use on any computer set-up. Nor is any guarantee given as to its stability in use by itself or with other files or software. Any copies of JCVIEW must include the following files, unaltered, as they constitute the PD package: JCVUExxx.PRG JCVIEW.FNT JCVIEW.TXT NEW4V21.IMG NEW4V22.IMG Any fonts and clip-art included should be PD and though the names of the authors / artists may be unknown their copyright is respected and acknowledged. The program may be placed in a folder on any drive. The file JCVIEW.FNT may be in the root directory or in the same folder as JCVUExxx.PRG. Basically this program started out as a hi-res clipart viewer for all the formats of clipart I had at that time. It then grew to include facilities which enabled clips to be copied and new compilations of clip-art to be made. A facility to add text was added along with simple drawing facilities. The program can hold up to four screens of clipart at the same time which may be scrolled through at will. These are known as the Main Screens. In addition there is another screen known as the Build Screen which is the work screen for building up a new picture file, poster design or whatever takes your fancy. The Build Screen can be one of two sizes: 1) Screen size as per Doodle or Degas 2) My own (*.JCC) size which is approximately the size and shape of standard listing paper when using a 9 pin printer or slightly smaller when using a 24 pin printer. Printer codes used are for Epson compatibles and have been set up on LC10 and LC24 printers and found to work on Citizen, Panasonic and Epson printers. On loading the program you are presented with the intro screen. Clicking a mouse button will let you enter the program proper. It is a reasonably standard GEM program and all functions are found in the drop-down menus at the top of the screen. THE FILE MENU ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ This lists the formats of picture that JCVIEW can load and lets you know which Main Screens can be used for loading that type of picture and the number of Main Screens taken up by each. Click on the type of picture you wish to load and click the appropriate button in the alert presented to choose where the picture will be loaded. The only limitation here is that *.IMG files will only be loaded if they are no wider than the screen and no deeper than approximately two screens. Once one or more pictures have been loaded then moving the mouse near the right hand side of the screen will change the mouse cursor to an arrow and clicking the left or right buttons allows the picture to be scrolled up or down. The following formats of picture file may be loaded: Degas *.PI3 Degas Elite *.PC3 STAD *.PAC Tiny Stuffed *.TN3 Sticker *.ADD Printmaster *.SHP Macpaint *.MAC Doodle *.DOO Tiny Stuffed *.TNY (hi-res only) Public Painter *.DOO Public Painter Compressed *.CMP Public Painter double Screen *.PIC At the bottom of the File Menu are the choices for saving the finished Build Screen in one of three formats: 1) *.DOO (a screen of data with no colour information) 2) *.PI3 (A screen of data with colour information (Degas style) 3) *.JCC (A picture file larger than one screen.) There may be a delay before the actual SAVE routine appears to start as the program will check the Build Screen to make sure that there is data to be saved. Right at the bottom is the QUIT choice for exiting the program. IMPORTANT: By the nature of JCVIEW it is VERY IMPORTANT that the program is only exited by clicking on QUIT as the font pointers are altered and exiting the program any other way will mean that the ST will no longer know where its screen font is and you may not be able to read anything shown on the screen!! If that should happen then you will have to re-boot the ST and start again. THE SCREENS MENU ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ The choices under the heading MAIN allow you to jump between the four Main Screens and position them accurately on screen. Pressing the numbers 1, 2, 3 or 4 on the keyboard will have the same effect. REVERSE MAIN will change all the Main Screens black for white and vice versa. This will take a while as 128K of memory has to be altered. ERASE MAIN does just that and clears all four Main Screens in one go. Under the heading BUILD you can click on 'BUILD Screen' to jump straight to that screen. The same thing can be achieved by pressing 'B' on the keyboard. INVERT exchanges black / white on the Build Screen CLEAR clears the Build Screen M1 to BUILD transfers the contents of Main Screen One to the Build Screen M2 to BUILD transfers Main Screen Two to the Build Screen M1+M2 to BUILD is there to transfer a JCC picture previously loaded into Main Screens 1+2 to the Build Screen. SIZE OF BUILD lets you set the size of the Build Screen working area to Degas screen size or my own JCC size. The default is JCC. SET PRINTOUT This calls a screen dialogue where the built in printer drivers can be set up. Basic routines are built in to allow screens to be dumped to Epson type 9 or 24 pin printers and the LC10 Colour can be told to print a dump in any one colour. The area to be printed and the size or quality of print are chosen by left clicking on the appropriate button. If COLOUR is clicked on then the colour can be changed by right clicking on it. This is only for use with the Star LC10 Colour printer. HARDCOPY will call the printer driver you have set up and will remind you of the settings. THE CLIP MENU ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ GET CLIP will allow any rectangular section to be copied from any screen to a buffer for future use. Use the normal clipping method (Left click at the top left of the area to be clipped, keep hold of the left mouse button and drag the mouse to draw a rectangle round the section to be clipped. As soon as the mouse button is released that rectangular section will be copied to the buffer.) PUT CLIP Will place a previously cut clip to the Build Screen - even if you are looking at a Main Screen the program will switch to the Build Screen before carrying out this operation. If the clip is moved to the very top or bottom of the screen it will automatically scroll if there is more space to use in that direction. CUT & TRASH allows a clip to be cut (as in GET CLIP) but that section will be erased from the screen, though a copy of the clip will still be in the buffer. CLIP & MOVE is similar to the above in that it cuts a clip from the screen but it immediately presents it for replacing where you want. A right click on the mouse will exit this without putting the clip back on the screen. Left click to fix the clip in place on the screen. H-FLIP CLIP Whatever is in the clip buffer will be reversed from left to right. V-FLIP CLIP Whatever is in the clip buffer will be inverted top to bottom. ROTATE CLIP Whatever is in the clip buffer will be rotated through 90 degrees. Don't worry that your Build or Main Screen disappears as this process is done on a buffer screen which is shown while the rotated clip is built up. The original screen will be restored once the rotation is finished. Under the heading GRID It is sometimes helpful to have some indication as to where things are fitting on the screen. There is a large dotted grid or a small grid of solid lines. During some operations the grid will flicker as it is automatically removed for a short period while these operations are carried out. When scrolling the screen the grid does not scroll with the picture. THE PROCESS MENU ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ RUBBER Choose either a small or large(ish) rectangular rubber. For very large areas it is easier and much faster to use CLIP & TRASH and small areas are erased more easily and accurately by using the magnifier. MAGNIFY Click on this and a box will be shown which may be moved to any part of the screen you want to magnify. A left mouse click will magnify the chosen part, a right click will forget the whole thing and exit the magnify routine. Once the magnified view is showing then left clicking in the magnified area will set a pixel to black and right clicking will reset a pixel to white. When the mouse is outside the magnified part of the screen a left click will present the screen again so the magnifier can be moved to a new section or a right click will exit the magnification routine altogether. While the magnified view is shown on the right hand half of the screen the actual section being worked on is shown at the left hand side. STYLE SET Calls up a dialogue screen where the line thickness and line ends can be chosen. Left click on thickness to thicken the line, right click to reduce the thickness. Click on START or END to cycle through the three possible shapes for the ends of a line. Click on style to cycle through the range of dotted / dashed lines. (This only shows on the thinnest line thickness.) PENCIL A very simple freehand drawing tool. (I find it better and easier to use the magnify routine) LINE Click the left mouse where you want the line to start. Move the mouse to where the end of the line is to be. Left click again to fix the line in place or right click to forget the whole thing. FRAME Draws a rectangular frame in the same way as LINE RFRAME Draws a rectangular frame with rounded corners as in LINE POLY FRAME For drawing regular polygons. You will be presented with a box asking how many sides you want. Enter the number of sides and hit return. Click the left mouse where the centre of the shape is to go. Moving the mouse from left to right will alter the size of the polygon, moving the mouse up and down will rotate the shape. Left click to fix, right click to forget. ELLIPSE Click the left mouse where the centre of the ellipse is to go. Moving the mouse will then stretch the ellipse. Left click to fix, right click to forget. BORDER PAGE Unlike the other drawing routines this will only work on the Build Screen. Make sure the Build Screen is set to the size you want. As you move the mouse towards the top left of the screen lines will show you just where the border is going to fit. When you left click the full border will be drawn (even the parts which are not showing). If you were looking at the middle section of a JCC screen then this routine automatically jumps to the top while you place the border and then returns you to wherever you were on that screen. Putting several border lines next, or close, to each other can be a quick and easy way of building up an attractive border. Don't be surprised if the screen seems to jump when a border is drawn - it does! UNDO gives a list of the drawing facitities and clicking on one will make an attempt to undo the last operation under this heading. As Exclusive Or is used for placing things on the screen, undoing something which crosses other parts of the drawing will leave holes in it. Use the magnifier to repair any damaged areas of the picture. SELECT FONT presents a dialogue screen for choosing which font will be used for writing on the screen. The choice is basically between 'desktop' and 'custom' fonts. There are eight 'desktop' fonts built in to the program and can be chosen by clicking on the one you wish to use so that it is highlighted. Then click on USE DESKTOP. The style can be chosen by clicking on the boxes just under the Font View Window. These 'buttons' can be toggled on and off by repeated clicking on them. At the bottom, the size of the desktop font can be chosen. SMALL always uses the STs built in small font. If you want a fancier font then it is possible to load many GEM screen or printer font with the extender .FNT To achieve this click on USE CUSTOM so you can see the font in use displayed in the Font View Window. Now click on LOAD CUSTOM and use the fileselector to load a font. If it is suitable for this program to use then it will be shown in the window. Often the font size info in the font file is not suitable for this program so you can use the arrow buttons at the top left of the screen to change the size of the font. This is not true scaling but it often manages to alter a font enough for it to be printed clearly. Watch the font as you change its size. When it appears clearest then it is at the right size for screen use. It is as well to have tried out any new font files first before trying to load them into your 'masterpiece' as there are just a few which crash the program and, as explained earlier, the ST loses track of its own desktop font so a reboot is the only cure to this!! Once you have made up your mind which font you wish to use, click O.K. to return to the program. WRITE TEXT enables the chosen font to be used for text on screen - just type in what you want to say. Use BACKSPACE to erase the last character typed, DELETE to erase the whole line of text, RETURN to rotate the text. Moving the mouse will position the line of text, clicking the left button will fix the text in place or right clicking will forget the whole thing. After fixing the text (which can only be one line long) the same line of text is presented again, press DELETE and enter the next line of text or right click to exit the text routine. Rotated Custom fonts do not always work well, and further adjustment to the size of the text may be needed for best results. BOX TEXT attempts to draw a rectangular box round the text as it is being typed. RBOX TEXT as above with rounded corners SCROLL SPEED Lets you choose from three speeds of scrolling. ******************************************* Known 'kinks' in JCVIEW: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Using ACCS will leave a grey hole in the screen The screen can be restored by scrolling the screen slightly. Clicking outside a dropped menu and in the mouse scroll area of the screen will leave a part copy of the menu on the screen. This is also restored by scrolling the screen slightly. A few font files may cause the program to bomb. The only solution here is to reboot the ST. Others may have 'different' information in the header and cause JCView to display them vastly over size! Possible improvements for a future update: ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Change the *.JCC format to *.IMG so the resulting file can be loaded into a DTP program. Get the program to check the whereabouts of JCVIEW.FNT Any observations on the program, suggestions for improvements, thanks, reports of problems or bugs may be made to me via any of the following 'addresses': John Charles "Ash Tree" Priory Lane Grimoldby Louth Lincolnshire LN11 8SP England To leave messages or download any new version contact: FolkeSTone QBBS (0303) 245203 9pm to 8am SysOp Robert Darling System ST BBS (0533) 413443 10pm to 7am SysOp Mark Matts or you may contact me by netmail via: FidoNet 2:255/375.1 NeST 90:102/131.1 My thanks go to John Pegg who spent many frustrating hours testing JCVIEW as it grew and took shape, Mark Matts and Robert Darling for encouraging me to release the program, Robert for tidying up the docs for me, GFA for a superb Basic and to ST Format for permission to include the 'desktop' fonts first released on cover disk 14 - these were originally intended for use with Harlekin. John Charles, 20th March 1992 Alterations and additions to the latest version of JCView are shown in the accompanying IMG file which can be loaded into JCView and printed out if required. Use of the built in 'desktop' fonts may be unpredictable when run with Warp9. Use the Warp9 ACC to switch off any external font you may be using and JCView will perform properly. Use of NVDI can also cause some interference with JCView's built-in desktop fonts when used at double height. My thanks also go to Peter Hibs, Mike Kerslake and David Flight for taking the time and trouble to write to me with comments and suggestions for improvements. Load, read and or print NEW4V21.IMG and NEW4V22.IMG to find out what has been added or changed. John Charles, December 1992