A.C.E. 3/ACE CD 3.iso/files/docs/ppaint6d.lha/PersonalPaint6.4Ch05.doc

Text File | 1996-03-16 | 26KB | 700 lines

                "Personal Paint 6.4 -  5. The Brush Menu"

 5. The Brush Menu
  5.1 Load Brush
  5.2 Save Brush
  5.3 Print Brush
  5.4 Process Brush
  5.5 Restore Brush
  5.6 Free Brush
  5.7 Paint Mode
       5.7.1 Matte
       5.7.2 Color
       5.7.3 Replace
       5.7.4 HBrite
  5.8 Color
       5.8.1 Remap
       5.8.2 Complement
       5.8.3 Change Background to Foreground
       5.8.4 Swap Background and Foreground
       5.8.5 New Transparency
       5.8.6 Flood Transparency
       5.8.7 Next Transparency
       5.8.8 Copy Image Palette
  5.9 Clipboard
       5.9.1 Read Brush
       5.9.2 Write Brush
       5.9.3 Empty
  5.10 Resize
       5.10.1 Stretch
       5.10.2 Smaller
       5.10.3 Bigger
       5.10.4 Halve
       5.10.5 Halve Horizontal
       5.10.6 Halve Vertical
       5.10.7 Double
       5.10.8 Double Horizontal
       5.10.9 Double Vertical
  5.11 Rotate
       5.11.1 Any Angle
       5.11.2 90 Degrees
       5.11.3 Horizontal Flip
       5.11.4 Vertical Flip
       5.11.5 Shear
  5.12 Chop
       5.12.1 Info
       5.12.2 Edges
       5.12.3 Planes
       5.12.4 Hidden
  5.13 Outline
       5.13.1 Simple
       5.13.2 Square
       5.13.3 Shadowed
       5.13.4 3-D
       5.13.5 Trim
  5.14 Handle
       5.14.1 Custom
       5.14.2 Upper Left
       5.14.3 Upper Right
       5.14.4 Center
       5.14.5 Lower Left
              5.14.6 Lower Right

5.         The Brush Menu

   Sections 3.1.1 ("Default and Custom Brushes") and 3.1.6 ("Define
Brush") introduce some general concepts about the brush and how it can be
used. This chapter explains in detail all the functions which can be
applied to the brush to load it, save it, set the drawing mode, apply
color changes, transform it or change the position of the handle.

   A custom brush must be defined before most of the functions explained
in this chapter can be used. Several menu items are automatically disabled
(section 1.9.6 "Menus") when the current brush is not a custom brush.


5.1        Load Brush

   This function is similar to Load Image (section 4.1), except that it
loads the selected picture into the current brush. In most file formats
supported by Personal Paint, there is no distinction between image and
brush files. Some programs may or may not store additional information
into the picture file (e.g. brush handle position or screen mode
information), but this does not make the file less portable. Any picture
can be loaded either as an image or a brush.

   Loading a picture as a brush does not automatically change the screen
mode (size, colors, interlace mode, etc.) Conversely, loading a picture as
an image adapts the screen mode to represent the image better, but also
limits the number of bitplanes to the maximum allowed by the Amiga system
being used.

   The screen format and colors are not changed when a brush is loaded.
This may cause the brush to appear distorted (twice as wide or as tall as
usual, etc.) over the underlying image, or with "random" colors.

   If the brush has different colors from the current image, it is
possible to apply the colors of the brush to the image palette (section
7.1.7), or vice versa (section 5.8.1). The former will only work if the
image has at least as many colors as the brush. Otherwise, the image
format can be changed manually to increase the maximum number of colors
which can be displayed (section 4.5.3). Personal Paint offers a more
"intelligent" way of dealing with images having different colors: the
Color Merge function (section 7.6).

   The fact that a brush can have more colors than the current image may
be very useful. For example, Original and Enhanced Architecture Amigas
cannot display 256-colors at the same time. Even on these systems,
however, a 256-color brush can be processed, saved and printed without
loss of data. The Chop Hidden Brush function (section 5.12.4) is most
useful for cutting undesired parts of a very large brush. On screen, only
as many bitplanes as are supported by the system are displayed. This
generally gives an incorrect display of the brush (something which looks
like "all colors wrong"). Internally, however, Personal Paint continues to
process the original brush data, in up to eight bitplanes.

   When the Copy Image Palette function (section 5.8.8) is applied to the
brush, the image colors also become those of the brush. Otherwise, the
brush retains its original colors in a separate color map (even if it has
to be displayed using the current screen colors).


5.2        Save Brush

   This function saves the current brush in exactly the same way that Save
Image stores an image. The brush can later be reloaded as a brush or an
image.

   If the IFF-ILBM format is selected to save the image, additional
information on the brush handle position and transparency is saved.

   Saving parts which are smaller than the screen as brushes, rather than
with the entire page which contains them, saves disk space. The "UIColors"
files (section 1.14), for example, are better saved as brushes if they are
stored on a limited capacity storage device like Personal Paint's program
disk.

   "UIColors" files are an example of a particular "tricky" file: they
should be saved as brushes if it is necessary to save disk space, but it
is easier to load them as images, in order to use the correct screen mode
and colors immediately. These files should always be saved in the IFF-ILBM
format, which for both images and pictures stores information regarding
the appropriate Amiga screen mode. Actually, if saving storage space has
the highest priority, the "UIColors" files could be saved as simple
palettes (section 7.1.2) as well.


5.3        Print Brush

   This function prints the current brush, in a similar way as the Print
Image function which is described in section 4.3.

   On Amigas employing chip sets prior to the AA release, images which
have more colors (bitplanes) than are supported by the system can only be
printed as brushes. Loading and printing such a picture as an image would
result in a loss of quality (which may be very small, using the advanced
options of Personal Paint), because the picture has to be adapted to the
best available Amiga screen format.

   The ratio of the current environment is used to print the brush. This
may result in the picture being distorted (just as it appears on the
screen - section 5.1), if the brush is taken from an environment having a
different display ratio. The appearance of an image can often be improved
by selecting the appropriate screen mode (section 4.5) before printing it.
For example, a GIF image measuring 320 by 200 pixels may appear "squeezed"
if printed from a low resolution 320 by 200 PAL-mode environment, while it
might look better if printed from an NTSC screen with the same
resolution.


5.4        Process Brush

   This command applies Personal Paint's image processing functions to the
current brush, as is described for images in section 3.1.4.

   When a Dispersed, Clustered or F-S Type filter is applied to the brush,
the color palette of the current environment is copied to the brush
palette, since these dithering techniques employ the current foreground
and background colors to simulate different color shades.


5.5        Restore Brush

   This command undoes the last transformation applied to the brush
(including a load operation), restoring its original appearance.

   If an operation of the same class has been consecutively applied
several times (e.g. a resize, rotation, transparency change, etc.), the
brush is restored to the appearance it had before the first of such
transformations was applied.


5.6        Free Brush

   This function clears the current brush and frees all the associated
memory resources. Since it cannot be reversed by Restore Brush, a warning
message asks for confirmation.


5.7        Paint Mode

   Different paint modes can be applied when using custom brushes. Each
mode yields different results when a brush is pasted onto the image with
the mouse. A different symbol on the title bar is associated with each
setting.

   Unless otherwise specified, the current background color is used for
the entire brush when the right mouse button is used for painting.


5.7.1      Matte

   In this mode, brushes are painted with their own colors. Areas defined
as transparent are not copied. By default, these areas are associated to
background colored areas when the brush is defined. Sections 5.8.5 to
5.8.7, and 8.14 explain how to further specify the areas which should be
considered transparent.


5.7.2      Color

   In this mode, the entire brush (except its transparent parts) is pasted
in the current foreground or background color (depending on which mouse
button is used.)


5.7.3      Replace

   Like Matte, this mode paints with the individual colors of the brush.
The brush transparency information is ignored.


5.7.4      HBrite

   When Painting in Extra Half Brite screen mode (section 4.5), where 32
colors can be freely set and the other 32 are darker shades of the first
32, it is particularly useful to alternate quickly between the two
associated states of a pixel.

   This mode is similar to Color, in that all non-transparent brush pixels
are treated in the same way. If the left mouse button is used for
painting, all image pixels under the brush are turned to their darker
HBrite color. Painting with the right button activates the lighter color
of each pair instead.


5.8        Color

   All items in this menu are used to apply color and transparency changes
to the brush.


5.8.1      Remap

   When a brush is loaded or imported from an environment having a
different color palette, it may become necessary to render the original
brush as accurately as possible without disturbing the colors of the
current image. While Color Merge (section 7.6) compares, changes, combines
and mixes all colors of all pictures involved, Remap only changes the
current brush.

   Remap chooses the colors in the image palette which most closely
resemble the original colors of the brush. Dithering and error diffusion
are applied to the brush if the corresponding options have been activated
(section 8.7). After a remap, the brush has the same number of bitplanes
as the current screen.


5.8.2      Complement

   This command exchanges the colors of the brush by selecting for each
color position in the palette the complement of the binary number
associated to that position. This may be useful, for example, for
programmers to see how an image might look with Intuition's complement
highlighting (which is used for gadgets, icons, etc.)


5.8.3      Change Background to Foreground

   This function sets all background-colored pixels in the brush to the
foreground color. It provides a very selective way of changing only
certain colors in the brush.

   When working on images rather than brushes, similar area-oriented
results can be obtained by masking the color which is not to be changed
(section 7.2.3) and then painting a filled rectangle (section 3.1.2.6)
over the desired area.


5.8.4      Swap Background and Foreground

   This command exchanges the brush's background colored pixels with those
in the foreground color, and vice versa.

   This function can be used, for example, to recolor Workbench icon
images originally designed for 1.x operating systems for use in newer
versions. To do this, the foreground and background colors should be set
to the second and third color in the palette, respectively.


5.8.5      New Transparency

   Each brush may have transparent areas which do not affect underlying
parts of an image when pasting. The transparent area is defined by an
additional bitplane which may either be associated to a particular color
(e.g. the background color), or have a custom defined shape. This bitplane
is loaded and saved with the brush in the IFF-ILBM file format.

   By default, this command redefines the transparent area, making it
equal to the parts having the current background color.

   The setting of the Backfill Transparency option (section 8.14)
determines whether, upon definition of a brush, its transparency is to be
equal to the background color, or to the single-colored area which
surrounds the brush. The New Transparency option makes it possible to
apply the new transparency to an already defined brush.


5.8.6      Flood Transparency

   The position of the brush handle, which can be set as explained in
section 5.14, is used as the starting point of a "flood fill" operation
which makes the selected area (i.e. group of pixels having the same color)
transparent. The brush image itself is not modified: only the bitmap which
defines the transparency is modified. Conversely, if the selected area is
already transparent, it is made opaque again.


5.8.7      Next Transparency

   As explained before, each brush has an associated bitplane which
describes the areas to be considered transparent or opaque. Personal Paint
allows the user to define and use up to nine different brushes at the same
time. If the brushes have the same size, the transparency plane of one
brush can be used for another brush.

   This command applies the transparency plane of the next brush to the
current one. In this process, empty brushes are skipped. If necessary,
Personal Paint searches through all brushes, starting again with brush
number one after reaching the last one.

   By painting and defining a two-color brush with the appropriate size,
it is possible to manually create a transparency plane to be used for
another brush with higher precision than can be achieved with the normal
background and fill transparency modes.


5.8.8      Copy Image Palette

   When a brush is loaded or imported from an environment having different
colors from the current one, it conserves its original color palette even
if it has to be displayed in the current environment colors. This command
resets the brush's internal palette and makes it the same as the current
environment palette.


5.9        Clipboard

   The Amiga operating system provides for a standard way of exchanging
data (mainly text and graphics) between one application and another,
called the Clipboard. The content of the Clipboard is public, i.e. the
data in it can be read and written by any program.

   Thanks to the Amiga Clipboard, for example, the user can drag a
Workbench icon on IconEdit, pass it to Personal Paint, edit it and go back
and use IconEdit again to save the the new image as an icon.

   If Personal Paint cannot open the Amiga Clipboard device
("clipboard.device" file in the system "devs" drawer), the functions which
depend on it will not work.

   Some incorrectly written programs may lock the Clipboard under certain
circumstances. This may happen, for example, with text editors that expect
the Clipboard to contain only text, or software that does not read the
Clipboard up to its end, and therefore does not release the resource for
use by other programs. The Empty Clipboard function can be used to prevent
similar problems where they are known.


5.9.1      Read Brush

   This command searches the Clipboard for graphical data. If a picture is
found, it is copied to the current brush. The original data is not removed
from the Clipboard.


5.9.2      Write Brush

   This function places a copy of the current brush to the Clipboard,
where it can be used by other programs (as well as by Personal Paint). Any
data previously contained in the Clipboard will be replaced by the new
picture.


5.9.3      Empty

   This command clears the entire contents of the Amiga Clipboard,
regardless of its type (graphics, text, etc.) This is useful in low memory
conditions, especially if a very large brush which does not need to be
used any more is still stored in the Clipboard.


5.10       Resize

  The functions described in the following subsections modify the size of
the current brush, which can be either a program default brush, or a
custom (user defined) brush. The brush is stretched to the new size.

  Section 8.15 explains how the Color Average Resize option affects brush
resizing.


5.10.1     Stretch

   This function stretches the brush to any size indicated with the mouse.
When this function is selected, the mouse pointer changes to the stretch
symbol to indicate that the brush stretch mode is active.

   When the left mouse button is held down, the upper left corner of the
brush remains "anchored", while the lower right corner reflects mouse
movements, changing the size and shape of the brush. The new size can be
specified by clicking the left mouse button, moving the mouse and
releasing the button.

   If <Shift> is held down, the brush can only be resized in accordance
with its original aspect ratio. This means that the image can be resized
smoothly, but not distorted (i.e. made taller or wider).


5.10.2     Smaller

   This command makes the brush smaller by the smallest possible step,
maintaining the correct display ratio (i.e. X/Y proportions).


5.10.3     Bigger

   As with Smaller, this function makes the brush slightly bigger.


5.10.4     Halve

   This function halves the brush. The width and the height are halved,
therefore the total brush surface is reduced to a quarter of the original
brush.


5.10.5     Halve Horizontal

   This function is a subset of Halve. Only the width is halved, while the
height is left unchanged.


5.10.6     Halve Vertical

   This function "flattens" the brush. The width is not varied, but the
brush height is halved.


5.10.7     Double

   This function doubles both the horizontal and vertical brush
dimensions. The resulting brush will have four times as many dots as the
original brush.


5.10.8     Double Horizontal

   This function is a subset of Double. The brush is doubled only
horizontally. While the width is doubled, the height remains the same.


5.10.9     Double Vertical

   This function is a subset of Double. The brush is doubled only
vertically. While the height is doubled, the width remains the same as
that of the original brush.


5.11       Rotate

   These functions perform various rotation operations on the brush.


5.11.1     Any Angle

   This command locks the lower left corner of the brush as soon as the
left mouse button is pressed, and allows the entire brush to be rotated by
moving the mouse pointer around. For speed reasons, an outline of the
brush may be displayed while the rotation angle is defined.


5.11.2     90 Degrees

   This function rotates the brush clockwise by 90 degrees. The horizontal
and vertical dimensions of the brush are reversed. If the brush is square
(i.e. if it is as wide as it is tall, in dots) the dimensions do not
change.

   The brush handle is repositioned in accordance with the rotation. If
the function is executed four (or a multiple of four) times on the same
brush, the resulting brush will be identical to the original brush.


5.11.3     Horizontal Flip

   The same flip functions already described in section 4.7, which modify
the content of the entire image, also exist for brushes.

   This function transforms the image contained in the brush into its
"mirror" image. The columns of dots, from the left to the right, which
originally made up the brush image, are re-arranged in reversed order
(from the right to the left).


5.11.4     Vertical Flip

   This function, like Horizontal Flip, modifies the brush image. The
brush is turned upside-down each time the function is selected.

   The effect of this function can be undone by repeating the function an
even number of times on the same brush. This is also true for Horizontal
Flip.


5.11.5     Shear

   This command is similar to a combination of Stretch and Rotate. It can
be used to freely apply different levels of distortion to the brush. As in
these former modes, the lower right corner of the brush can be freely
moved while the left mouse button is held down. If the mouse is moved
horizontally, the top of the brush remains still, while its left part
remains anchored if the mouse is moved vertically. Combined mouse moves
produce intermediate results. It's a bit like pulling a thin sheet made of
rubber. Like many other image processing tools, this one is easier to see
and use than it is to explain.

   Holding <Shift> down restricts the mouse to moving along the axis in
which it is moved first.


5.12       Chop

   The items in this menu are used to examine and optimize the amount of
memory used to store a brush.


5.12.1     Info

   This requester displays information about the size and quantity of
bitplanes actually used for the current brush, and the minimum size and
number of bitplanes which could store the same brush without any loss of
data.

   This information is useful for checking whether some bitplanes are not
even needed (for example, a brush may use only some of the very first
image colors) and whether there are external transparent zones which could
be removed. If more bitplanes than necessary are used, or if border parts
of those bitplanes are used to store transparent data, memory can be saved
with the other functions in this menu.


5.12.2     Edges

   This command cuts ("chops") all strips on the borders of the brush
which contain only transparent pixels.


5.12.3     Planes

   This function removes the last unused bitplanes of the current brush.
For example, if the second half of colors in the brush palette is never
used, the last bitplane is removed.

   The resulting brush palette will lose the information relative to the
unused colors.


5.12.4     Hidden

   This command removes all parts of the brush which are not visible (e.g.
hidden by the title bar, tool bar or beyond the limits of the screen or
those of the magnification window).

   For example, to print only the central part of a 256-color brush which
is larger than the screen, the brush handle would be placed at the center
of the brush (section 5.14.4). Then, the brush would be moved towards a
corner of the screen and this command would be executed by typing its
keyboard shortcut. The remaining part of the brush could then be moved to
the opposite part of the screen, where the other edges could be cut.
Finally, the desired central rectangle could be printed.

   Due to the visual interaction required to move the mouse and select the
parts to be cut, this command should only be executed through its
associated keyboard shortcut. Moving the mouse pointer to select the menu
might cause unpredictable results.


5.13       Outline

   These functions create different outline effects around non-transparent
parts of brush, using the current foreground color. For three-dimensional
effects, the light source is assumed to be on the top left of the brush,
with shadows cast to the lower right.


5.13.1     Simple

   This command draws a simple border around the brush, using the
foreground color. No outline is added around corners.


5.13.2     Square

   This effect is similar to the Simple one, but produces sharper edges.


5.13.3     Shadowed

   This function is similar to Simple, but applies a border twice as thick
as normal to the bottom and right edges of the brush.


5.13.4     3-D

   This effect adds a border in the current background color around the
top and left of the brush, and uses the foreground color for the outline
around the bottom and right edges. If a combination of light and dark
colors is selected, the resulting brush will look like a raised object.
Conversely, if the background color is dark and the foreground color is
light, the brush will appear recessed.


5.13.5     Trim

   This command removes the outermost circle of pixels around the brush
(i.e. an outline 1 pixel thick). Technically, this is accomplished by
temporarily inverting the transparency plane and using it to delete the
pixels.


5.14       Handle

   The handle of the brush is the position which is linked to the mouse
pointer. It can be positioned anywhere (and may even be outside the
brush). This is especially useful when working with large brushes.

   The position of the brush handle is stored and loaded with the brush
data when using the IFF-ILBM file format.

   Some functions may automatically reposition the handle (e.g. brush
rotation, resizing, etc.)


5.14.1     Custom

   This option allows the user to freely define the brush handle position
by clicking on the left mouse button, moving the mouse over the brush
(which is temporarily anchored to the screen) and releasing the button
when the pointer is over the desired position.

   This command, combined with Flood Transparency (section 5.8.6), can be
used to select the parts to be made transparent by "flood filling".


5.14.2     Upper Left

   This option places the brush handle on the top left corner of the
brush.

   This brush position is the only one which is guaranteed not to be moved
by a brush resizing operation.


5.14.3     Upper Right

   This option links the brush handle with the top right corner of the
rectangle which contains the brush.


5.14.4     Center

   The brush handle position is placed at the center of the brush. If the
center falls between two dots, the lowest of two dots on the same column,
or the rightmost of two horizontally adjacent dots is selected.

   This is the default initial brush handle position of Personal Paint.


5.14.5     Lower Left

   This option places the handle at the lower left corner of the brush.


5.14.6     Lower Right

   This option links the brush handle with the lower right corner of the
brush rectangle.

@ENDNODE