Paint like a pro with SOFT PALETTE, a full-featured GS paint program!
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========= IMPORTANT! =========
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SOFT PALETTE v1.0 requires at least 768K of memory for the full operation of all its functions. You'll probably need 1.25 Meg to enjoy the complete Soft Palette program if you launch it from the Finder. OK, given that warning, let's see what Soft Palette is all about.
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ABOUT SOFT PALETTE
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Soft Palette contains all the features you expect in a paint program--paint, text, lasso, fill, and so on. In addition, Soft Palette lets you place up to 256 colors on the screen at once. You can create any of the 4096 different colors that can be displayed by your Apple IIgs.
Soft Palette also features two completely independent canvasses (pages) you can paint on and copy between. Everything between the menu bar at the top of the Soft Palette screen and the Tool/Color window at the bottom is a canvas.
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A PALETTE? WHATSA PALETTE?
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A palette, to a painter, is a small board which contains all the colors the painter can use. On the GS, a palette is a set of sixteen colors from which a computer artist can choose. Each line may use any of the sixteen palettes available. Thus 16 x 16 = 256 colors you can use on a screen. And since each color is defined by the amount of red, blue, and green (16 shades of each), you have 16 x 16 x 16 = 4096 colors available. Any 256 of those colors may be used on a GS screen. All this adds up to is a remarkable visual feast.
For those of you not familiar with color, any color can be made from red blue and green. This is how a TV works. No red, blue, nor green means black. All red, blue, and green means white. By mixing these three colors, you can make any color. (Note: this works with light, not crayons. Crayons are pigments and work a bit differently.)
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ON THE COLOR EFFECTS OF MOVING A MOUSE
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Choose "Load Picture" from the File menu, and find our pictures in /SDGS.3/SOFT.PALETTE/PICTURES/, and then load the "TIGER" picture in. Looks great, huh? Now move you mouse onto the menu bar. Whoa! All the colors go crazy! Why? Because if the program didn't change the colors on the screen, the pull-down menus it draws would be with the picture's palette--which may have been redefined. The new colors might render the menus unreadable. To make sure you can read what you're selecting, Soft Palette returns to the use of the default palette.
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ABOUT THE TOOL/COLOR WINDOW
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COLOR OR PATTERN SELECTION
To select a color or pattern, click the mouse on it and it will appear in the "current color rectangle" at the extreme left of the Tool/Color Window. All drawing will then be done in that color or pattern.
Text entry with the text tool is limited to the sixteen colors appearing just above the row of patterns along the bottom of the screen. Patterns are not available for text. When the text tool is active and a pattern is selected, the text color will be the same as the color above the pattern that has been selected.
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*** IMPORTANT NOTE! ***
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When using more than one color palette at a time, press the <Option> key to update the Tool/Color Window to the color palette of the line to which the mouse is pointing. The Tool/Color Window will remain that color until the <Option> key is pressed again on a line that has a different color palette.
COPY A COLOR
To copy a color from any palette on the screen to a color palette in the Color/Pattern Window, position the cursor in the current color rectangle, and click to put your system in "Color Copy" mode.
Position the hole in the cursor over the color you want to copy, and click the mouse. The color that was the current color will be replaced by the new color, and the system will be returned to "Normal Draw Mode."
To exit the Color Copy Mode without copying a color, press the <ESC> key.
FIND A COLOR
Pressing the <CONTROL> key will set the color and palette displayed in the Tool/Color Window to those located under the mouse cursor. This option is especially useful when you are using closely-hued colors and/or switching back and forth between several colors already on the canvas.
BRUSHES
A total of 12 different brushes are available: 6 solid brushes and 6 airbrush patterns, which are selectable only when the Airbrush is the current tool. Brushes appear in the center of the Tool/Color Window. To select a brush, move the cursor to the one you want and click the mouse. When moved onto the canvas, the cursor changes into the one you selected.
PAGE-CHANGING BUTTONS
The Soft Palette program features two independent pages, designated "page 1" and "page 2." Buttons to switch between these pages are located to the right of the "Coordinate Display Box" in the Tool/Color Window. To change pages, just click on the number of the page you wish to display.
Each page has its own set of 16 color palettes, each with 16 changeable colors. Any single color palette can be assigned to any one line, thus allowing a total of 256 colors on the screen at any given time. The assignment of color palettes to individual lines is controlled separately for each page.
All filing, printing, editing, and changes in color palette and line assignment affect only the currently-selected page.
SCROLL BUTTONS
The Scroll Buttons are located to the right of the Page-Changing Buttons. To scroll a page, just click on the button with the arrow pointing in the direction you want to scroll. The large arrows scroll 25 lines, and the small ones 5 lines at a time. Each page's scroll position is independent.
COORDINATE DISPLAY
Toggle the display of the cursor's coordinates by clicking in the "Coordinate Display Box," or by selecting it from the Special Menu. These coordinates reflect the cursor position in reference to the whole picture.
THE TOOL BAR
The Tool Bar, located inside the Tool/Color Window, contains icons for all the tools available to you.
With the exception of the AirBrush, Arc, Fill, Text, Wedge, and Zoom tools, all tools can be deactivated at any time you are using them by pressing and holding the <SHIFT> key. If the Stencil function is active, drawing will occur within the stencil.
The following is a description of all the tools available in Soft Palette with instructions on how to use them.
THE AIRBRUSH TOOL
This tool simulates an airbrush, with which you can "spray paint" in the selected Tool/Color. When you select it, the brush selection area in the Tool/Color Window changes to reflect the patterns available to the airbrush.
THE ARC TOOL
This tool creates curved lines. Move the cursor to the desired starting point for the arc and press the mouse button, then drag to the desired end point and release.
To change the bow's direction, swing the arc above and past your starting point, from left to right or right to left.
THE EDIT TOOL
This tool is used to create an "edit rectangle," an area you can define for editing and then drag around the canvas if desired. To create an edit rectangle, press and drag the mouse until a rectangle of the desired size is created, then release the button.
To drag the edit rectangle around, just press and hold the mouse button while the mouse cursor is within the edit rectangle, then move the mouse. If the mouse button is clicked outside the edit rectangle while the mouse cursor is on the canvas, the edit rectangle will disappear.
To cut, copy, or re-size between pages 1 and 2, simply position the edit rectangle over the area to be cut, copied, or re-sized, then select "Cut," "Copy," or " Resize" from the Edit Menu, and change pages.
To paste, position the edit rectangle at the desired location of the paste and select "Paste" from the Edit Menu. (If you paste after a re-sizing operation, you will need to create a new re-sized edit rectangle to accommodate the entire area being pasted.)
When the Stencil function is turned on, you can copy from anywhere on the canvas. However, cutting, inverting, pasting, and horizontal and vertical flipping will affect only the area contained within the stencil.
THE FILL TOOL
This tool is used to fill an enclosed area with the selec
