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Smooth Draw ╜ 1992 by Devin Balkcom Version 2.0 SHAREWARE NOTICE This program is shareware. If you use it, you are expected to send a small registration fee to the author (me). With enough registrations I will be able to add new features and fix bugs quickly. In addition, registered owners of this program will get all new versions via GEnie E-mail or U.S surface mail. You will also get unlimited phone support and a printed manual. As shareware, this program may be used for a trial period of 60 days from receipt to make sure that Smooth Draw is the right program for you. After this period, you must either delete the program and all accompanying files or send in the registration fee of $15. If you do not, your are in possession of PIRATED software. Not only that, YOU are the pirate! To register, fill in the form contained in REGISTER.TXT and enclose a check for $15 made out to me (Devin Balkcom). Mail it to my address: Devin Balkcom 5371 Iron Pen Place Columbia, MD 21044 COMMENTS Even if you decide to delete this program, I would appreciate it if you would drop me a note by E-mail or US mail - I can't improve the program if I don't know what features you need and what bugs you've found. This will also allow me to notify you of new versions or different program which may indeed be just what you need! DISTRIBUTION This program should have arrived on your system in some form containing S_DRAW.PRG, S_DRAW.TXT, and REGISTER.TXT. There may also be other programs and art samples included to make Smooth Draw even more useful. If you wish to you are encouraged to distribute these files anywhere you want, with the following exceptions: No commercial distribution without my written consent, and the three files noted above must all be included in their original form. Use whatever compression method you prefer. Good distribution methods include GEnie, Public Domain bulletin boards/electronic networks, Public Domain/Shareware catalogs, magazine disks, and user groups. In addition, if you are registered and someone else registers the program with your serial number on it, you get $5 of that registration. So if you are registered and get 10 of your friends to register with your copy, you would get a profit of $35 dollars. (10 x $5)-$15 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS To run this program, you will need an Atari ST computer. TT resolutions are not supported, but the program will work fine on a TT in the ST resolutions. The program should also run on a standard STe. The extra color capabilities of the STe and TT computers are now supported (15 levels of colors instead of 7). KNOWN INCOMPATABILITIES Smooth Draw will not save files properly while the freeware program DC Showit is active. The commercial version, DC Shower, may work, but I have no way of testing this. To solve this problem, change the .PRG extension of DCSHOWIT.PRG in the auto folder to .PRX, or delete the entire file. Smooth Draw will probably not work on non-standard resolutions larger than 640 by 400. (Yet - this is the next addition I'm working on.) PROGRAM OPERATION and QUICK START When you load Smooth Draw, you will see a menu screen. This will be called the main menu. There may or may not be a title, depending on the resolution. In the first two columns of selections, one item will be selected, the Pencil tool. These two columns are the tool selection columns. Use them to select a tool that you will use when drawing or editing the picture. The third column is a list of things that take effect immediately when you click on them. This includes selection of different options and functions such as load, save, or quit. You can use the right mouse button to switch between the main menu and the picture, called the canvas. There are two columns to the right of the screen that will allow you to select tools to paint with on the canvas. Pencil will allow you to draw free-hand, with the left mouse button pressed down. Brush is similar, but will paint differently according to the line width. There are may types of geometrical objects that you can draw automatically. For a circle or ellipse, click the left mouse button at the center of where you want the circle. Release the button, and move the mouse away from this center point to determine the radius (or radii). Click the left mouse button again when you are satisfied, or click the right mouse button to relocate the center. With both circles and ellipses, you can hold the [SHIFT] key down to keep the center point constant for new objects. Releasing the shift key will allow you to draw in normal mode again. For squares and rectangles, simply click at where you want one corner to be. Move the mouse to establish the side lengths. Click again when you are finished. Once more, the right mouse button terminates if you change your mind. For all geometrical objects, pressing [HELP] while drawing will allow you to enter a specific number or measurement for each of the dimensions of the object (radius for circles, side length for squares, etc.) This also works with text. Filled objects are obviously filled with a pattern. These patterns are also sometimes called 'paints'. They affect not only the filled objects but the fill pattern for 'flood' fill and the spray paint nozzle. With the spray brush, you can fill an area by depressing the mouse button until the area is suitably filled. The area is filled with a specified fill pattern and with the specified color. You can use this to blur edges or for a dithering or shading effect. To enter text, you should first select a font point size and face. This is done by clicking on the button under the font sample display area to the right of your screen. If you have GDOS installed with a proper ASSIGN.SYS file, and you answered yes when asked if you wanted to load GDOS fonts (on first loading Smooth Draw), you should have a selection of fonts to choose from. If you don't have GDOS, you can only show text in standard system mode. Once you have selected face, size, style, and color, you can click the right mouse button to display your picture. You can now enter your text. Once you have entered your text, you can position it on screen. If you press [TAB] at this point, the text will be automatically centered for you by the computer. If you press [HELP] you can enter x and y coordinate values of where the bottom left corner of the text should be placed. If you don't press either of these keys, you can place the text by moving the mouse around until you have it where you want it. When it is positioned properly, click the mouse button. Then move the mouse from side to side to select a width for your text. Click the left mouse button when you are done. I know all this sounds very complicated right now, but it will appear obvious while you are actually in the program. Other tools include eraser, magnify, and clipping tools. Most are easy to figure out with a little experimentation. Don't forget - many tools are affected by color choice, fill pattern, line thickness, and graphic modes (found under Options), along with other things. HINTS ON DRAWING Although nothing can substitute for artistic skill, many tips and tricks may help you create a neat and clean picture quickly. 1. Use the geometric shapes. Once you have a basic design, you can go back and 'mold' the figure or object over the wire frame shapes. This gives you a basic guide and insures that everything will be in the right proportions. 2. If you want a colored background, don't just fill the whole screen. Use [Set color] on the first color, white. This will set the background for both the screen and the outside border. However, be sure to change the second color, black, to something contrasting FIRST, so that the main menu does not disappear. 3. Use magnify often - it's not just for fixing errors, it's for detail work as well. 4. Set your colors to a pallette that you like. It may be helpful to set many colors near to each other for shading purposes. Remember, 1000 is light and 0 is dark. 5. Save your files as .CLP (Smooth Clip), .PI? (Degas), or .NEO (Neochrome). These files, though slightly larger, will keep your pallette saved for you so that you don't have to create a new one every time you load the picture. 6. Don't move the pencil too fast - you will leave jaggies. However, if you need a smooth, long curve, it is best to move the mouse moderately quickly. If you move it too slowly, you may not be able to keep the mouse moving in the right direction at all times. Also, avoid using the freehand pencil as much as possible - it is more exact to use the computer-automated tools and then to shade your outline with spray paint and a brush. (Unless, of course, you happen to be VERY coordinated. LOADING A PICTURE Currently, the following picture formats can be loaded and edited: .PI? Degas or Degas Elite .PC? Degas compressed .NEO Neochrome .BL? GFA basic block .MUR C.O.L.O.R Mural .DOO Doodle .ART GFA Artist .CL? Clip .CLP Smooth Clip .PLT Pallette data To load a file, simply select the file you want to load with the file selector after clicking on the LOAD function. The file will only be loaded if it has one of the above extenders. If one of your files has the wrong extender on it, Smooth Draw may crash, or it may load the file incorrectly. If you don't know, chances are that the file is Degas or Neochrome. High resolution files can also be loaded if you are in medium or low resolution, and medium resolution files can be loaded into high resolution. Simply select the file, and the conversion will be performed automatically. This can be done only with the full uncompressed picture formats (No clips and no PC?). Medium resolution is STRONGLY recommended for this. A status bar will keep you informed of how fast the picture is being converted. SAVING A PICTURE To save a file, select the save function from the third column near the bottom. You will be presented with a box containing these names: Degas, GFA Basic Block, INLINE, Smooth Clip, Neochrome, and pure pallette data. Degas is a regular Degas uncompressed file. GFA Basic Block is a raw data form, and a clip or inline is a part of the screen. Neochrome files are identical to those created with the Neochrome paint program. Since .MUR files are identical to .BL1 files, and .DOO files are identical to .BL3 files, you could save a picture in one of these formats by saving it as a GFA Basic Block and changing the name from the desktop. If you select clip, you will be taken to the canvas, where you can use the mouse to 'cut out' a rectangular portion of the screen. With all three formats, you will then be presented with the GEM file selector, or if you have them, the UIS or the Little Green Selector. Enter the name you wish to save the picture under. It is not neccessary to input the ending after the period - .PI?, .BL?, .CLP, .NEO, or .PLT will be added to the filename automatically. SMOOTH CLIP FORMAT A Smooth Clip picture file is really a library of pictures stored in a DEGAS-like format with resolution and pallette data. To delete a picture from the file, select load. When the selector for the different pictures appears, hold down the [SHIFT] key and select the picture you want to delete. The program will give an alert box to make sure that you DO want to delete the picture. When the picture library is empty, it too will be deleted. (I know this is hard to remember, but I didn't want to take up a whole menu option for this.) PRINTING Currently, Smooth Draw only prints to an EPSON compatible printer from high or medium resolution. If you want to print to another printer, you'll have to use the [ALT] + [Help] screen dump or save the picture and print it from another program. If you have it, High resolution is best for this. This is because the printer is black and white, and is closer in resolution to the high resolution screen. This will cause a delay when printing medium resolution pictures. Medium resolution pictures will be recognizable, but not pretty. High resolution pictures should look pretty good. To give a more decent picture for medium resolution, I have provide the option of printing the picture out in a lighter printer mode. This may reduce smearing and blockiness for medium resolution pictures. USING GEM ACCESSORIES To use an accessory, simply click the left mouse button near the top of the screen. A blank screen will be presented where you can use your accessories. When you're finished, select [Done] from the menu and you will be returned to the main screen. FONTS If you have GDOS, you can install it with an ASSING.SYS file with Smooth Draw. Only screen fonts will be used, however. Also, you must make sure that the font disk is in the drive (or on the hard disk) when you are asked whether or not to load the fonts. Smooth Draw will work perfectly with the older versions of GDOS. Although Font GDOS has a few bugs, Smooth Draw will work with it if you do not mind a little garbage in the font display box on the main menu. FSM GDOS with outline fonts should work, but since I don't have it, I haven't tried it. You may need more than 512k to use GDOS fonts. Let me know if you do and I'll try to shave down the memory requirements for you. USER DEFINED LINES When using brush and most of the geometrical objects, you may find it usefull to create your own line pattern. From the Line Edit menu option in the third column, you can change the thickness of your brush, define a symbol to start and end a line with, and create a pattern to use with your line (width=1 only). In addition, there are some line styles already pre-defined. Pressing 1-6 while editing a line will change the line to a pre-defined pattern. USING SMOOTH DRAW WITH GFA BASIC If you have GFA Basic, you may find the .INL function of Smooth Draw of great interest. Using INLINE, you can imbed .INL files directly into your program. Like this: INLINE addr,1024 'if the .INL file is 1024 bytes picture$=space$(1024) BMOVE addr,V:picture$ Press [Help] on the INLINE line to load the picture file. The variable picture$ can then be placed anywhere on the screen, with PUT x,y. This is how the version blurb and the title were created for Smooth Draw. Merging pictures in this way puts everything into one nice file that can't be hacked into as easily. There is another feature that I have added targetted mainly towards programmers, though it can be used by non-programmers. This is the mouse and sprite editor. This lets you define and save a mouse or sprite file and then merge it into your program by the above method. This mouse or sprite can then be moved with SPRITE sprite,x,y or DEFMOUSE mouse$. Smooth Draw used this to create the drawing mouse shape for most of the tools. The DefMouse accessory included lets you load a mouse shape you've created either for the Desktop or for another program. The next time the program sets the mouse shape this will be destroyed, but you can usually use this for a while first. This lets you create special purpose shapes for other GEM applications. WARNING: Don't save this as a list file, or you will have to reload the INLINE file. KNOWN BUGS 1. When using filled circles or ellipses, the top few pixels are left empty. This is an operating system error. 2. Won't work with DCSHOWIT freeware program - probably will with DCSHOWER program. Has something to do with the way GFA Basic is accessing the file and screen. TO REGISTER Send a check for $15 and the following information: There should be an accompanying file that you can print out that contains a form that can be filled out instead of this information (REGISTER.TXT. Name Adress Serial # of your current version (#00001 in this case) Any ideas for additions to the program Any bugs you have encountered GEnie mail address (If you have one) If you have no GEnie account, also send a disk and a SASE and disk-mailer. Send any bug reports or suggestions to me at either of these locations. (Whether you're registered or not) If it's a good idea and not too hard to add, you may be registered for free. Smooth Draw was written in GFA Basic. If you send in a useful routine or routines that is more efficient or adds a new function to Smooth Draw, you may be registered, depending on the utility of the code. Membership will ensure more frequent updates and I will send new versions to you automatically. You will also get unlimited phone, mail, and GEnie mail support as well as a printed manual. You may also request special customized features to fit your needs. (I can't guarantee anything.) My address: Devin Balkcom 5371 Iron Pen Place Columbia, MD 21044 GEnie mail: BALKCOM Phone #: (410) 730-3309 Have fun!