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ART DEPARTMENT PROFESSIONAL
SOFTWARE & MANUAL BY ASDG INCORPORATED
DECEMBER 1, 1990
i
CONTENTS
I INTRODUCTION 3
1. NOTICES 5
1.1 COPYRIGHTS 5
1.2 TRADEMARKS 5
1.3 DISCLAIMER 6
1.4 LICENSE 7
1.5 SPECIFIC RESTRICTIONS 8
2. REGISTRATION,SUPPORT AND UPGRADES 9
3. WELCOME TO ADPRO 11
3.1 HOW ADPRO DIFFERS FROM TAD 12
3.2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 14
3.3 INSTALLING ADPRO 14
3.4 HOW ADPRO IS DOCUMENTED 16
3.5 HOW THIS MANUAL WAS PRODUCED 17
3.6 ABOUT ADPRO 17
3.7 ABOUTS ASDG 18
ii
4. ADPRO INTERNALS 20
4.1 ADPRO'S INTERNAL DATA TYPES 20
4.2 MEMORY REQUIREMENTS 22
4.3 LIMITING MEMORY USAGE 23
4.4 REDUCING MEMORY USAGE 24
4.5 ADPRO'S BUILDING BLOCKS 25
4.6 SAVING YOUR SETTINGS 26
5. LOADING AN IMAGE 27
5.1 INSTALLING NEW LOADERS 28
5.2 SELECTING A LOAD FORMAT 28
5.3 SELECTING A LOAD ORIENTATION 29
5.4 SELECTING IMAGE COMPOSTING 30
5.5 THE IMAGE COMPOSITING CONTROL PANEL 31
6. SAVING AN IMAGE 35
6.1 INSTALLING NEW SAVERS 36
6.2 SELECTING A SAVE FORMAT 36
6.3 SELECTING TYPE OF DATA TO BE SAVED 37
7. OPERATING UPON AN IMAGE 38
7.1 INSTALLING NEW OPERATORS 39
7.2 SELECTING AN OPERATOR 40
8. COLOR CONTROLS 42
8.1 BALANCING 42
8.1.1 BRIGHTNESS 43
iii
8.1.2 Contrast 45
8.1.3 Gamma 47
8.1.4 Red,Green,And Blue Adjustments 47
8.1.5 About the Balancing Control Panel 48
8.1.6 Saving And Loading Balance Settings 50
8.2 Dithering 51
8.3 Palette 53
8.3.1 When Are The Palette Controls Used? 53
8.3.2 Palette Status 54
8.3.3 Palette Accuracy 55
8.3.4 Colors(Total) 56
8.3.5 Colors(Used) 57
8.3.6 Offset Color Zero 58
8.3.7 Sort Direction 59
8.3.8 Edit 59
8.3.9 Load 61
8.3.10 Save 62
8.3.11 Get WB 62
9 Screen Controls 64
9.1 Horizontal Size 64
9.2 Vertical Size 65
9.3 Number of colors 65
iv
9.4 What Are A-RES and A-HAM? 67
9.5 Other Overscan Sizes 69
10 Other Commands 70
10.1 About 70
10.2 Save 70
10.3 ReDisplay 70
10.4 Orientation 71
10.5 Load 71
10.6 Exit 73
10.7 Separate 73
10.7.1 Using ADPro Separations With
Professional Page 77
10.8 Execute 78
11 The File Requester 79
11.1 What Am I Here? 79
11.2 Quitting The File Requester Without Selecting
A File 80
11.3 The File List 81
11.3.1 When The File List Is Being Created 81
11.3.2 Hidden Versus Visible Files 82
11.3.3 Scrolling The File List 83
11.3.4 Refreshing The File List 84
11.4 The Device List 84
11.5 The Current Directory Or Drawer 85
v
11.5.1 Setting The Current Directory Via
Keyboard 86
11.5.2 Setting The Current Directory With
The Mouse 87
11.5.3 Changing The Current Directory To
Its Parent 87
11.6 Selecting A File 87
11.7 The Hide And Show Gadgets 88
11.7.1 Toggling Between Hide And Show 89
11.7.2 Toggling Between Hide/Show and
Drawer/File 89
11.7.3 Pattern Matching In The Hide And
Show Gadgets 90
12 Tips And Tricks 91
12.1 Turn One bit Monochrome Images Into Gray Scale 91
12.2 Turn Low Color Images Into Higher Res Gray
Scale 92
12.3 Gray Scale Balancing 92
12.4 Approximating Charcoal Drawings 93
12.5 Mixing Picked And Computed Drawings 93
12.6 Eliminating Stray Dots 94
12.7 Creating Better Gradated Fills 95
12.8 Creating A Solarization 96
12.9 Merging A Color Image Into A Gray Scale Image 96
12.10 Creating Drop Shadows 97
vi
12.11 Focused Color Picking 98
12.12 Tips For Compositing 99
12.13 Creating An Embossed Look 101
II STANDARD LOADERS 103
13 Standard Loaders 105
13.1 DPIIE 105
13.2 DV21 106
13.3 BACKFROP 106
13.4 GIF 109
13.5 IFF 109
13.6 IMPULSE 111
13.7 PCX 112
13.8 SCREEN 112
13.9 SCULPT 114
III STANDARD SAVERS 117
14 Standard Savers 119
14.1 DPIIE 120
14.2 FRAMEBUFFERS 121
14.3 GIF 122
14.4 IFF 122
14.5 IMPULSE 124
14.6 PCX 124
vii
14.7 POSTSCRIPT 125
14.8 SCULPT 134
IV STANDARD OPERATORS 135
15 Standard Operators 137
15.1 Apply Map 137
15.2 Color To Gray 138
15.3 Cropping 139
15.4 Dynamic Range 140
15.5 Gray To Color 140
15.6 Horizontal Flip 141
15.7 Line Art 141
15.8 Negative 143
15.9 Rectangle 143
15.10 Remove Isolated Pixels 144
15.11 Scaling 145
15.11.1 Pixel Aspect 148
15.12 Transport Controller 149
15.13 Vertical Flip 149
V AREXX INTERFACE 151
16 ARexx Interface 153
16.1 Addressing ADPro 153
16.2 Results 154
viii
16.3 Opening ADPro Behind Other Screens 155
16.4 Launching ARexx Programs 156
16.5 General Syntax 157
16.6 ARexx Command Descriptions 158
16.6.1 Load And Save Format Specification 158
16.6.2 Calling A Loader 160
16.6.3 Calling A Saver 165
16.6.4 Balancing Commands 166
16.6.5 Dither Selection 171
16.6.6 Palette Control Commands 172
16.6.7 Scaling 180
16.6.8 Operators 181
16.6.9 Color Separation Commands 188
16.6.10 Execute 194
16.6.11 Render Type 194
16.6.12 Exiting ADPro 195
16.6.13 Screen Type 195
16.6.14 Load Orientation 196
16.6.15 Additionl ARexx Commands 197
16.7 Starting ADPro Via ARexx 205
VI INDEX 209
ix
LIST OF FIGURES
4.1 ADPro's Building Blocks 25
5.1 The image compositing control panel 31
7.1 The Image Operator box,showing the operator and
execute op buttons 40
8.1 Data flow within ADPro 43
8.2 A linear(or neutral)color map 44
8.3 A color map showing an increase in brightness 45
8.4 A color map showing a decrease in contrast 46
8.5 A color map showing an example of gamma correction 48
8.6 The Balance control panel 49
8.7 The Palette control panel 54
10.1 The Separation control panel 74
11.1 The file requester used in ADPro 80
x
13.1 The BACKDROP loader control panel 107
14.1 The primary PostScript saver control panel 126
14.2 Various PostScript metrics 128
14.3 The second PostScript saver control panel 129
14.4 The third and final PostScript saver control panel 132
15.1 The Rectangle control panel 144
15.2 The Scaling control panel 147
xi
LIST OF TABLES
5.1 What types of images can be merged into what types
of previously defined raw image data 32
5.2 Example mix levels and their effect 33
9.1 The horizontal resolutions supported by ADPro 65
9.2 The vertical resolutions supported by ADPro 66
9.3 Color modes and other information 66
16.1 Dither methods and their identifiers 171
16.2 Mask values for setting the screen type 195
1
(PAGES 2-10 NOT TYPED AS THEY CONTAIN INFO THAT PIRATES AREN'T INTERESTED IN)
CHAPTER 3 - WELCOME TO ADPRO
Art Department Professional(ADPro)is an integrated set of powerful image
processing tools which facilitate the creation of high quality pictures on the
Commodore Amiga personal computer. Examples of the intended users of ADPro
include:
ADPro can be used to convert images between diverse input file formats. ADPro
uses external programs to actually load and save images. As a result,ADPro can
be extended to read and write new of diffeent formats just by adding additional
modules.
ADPro can be used as a high quality rendering engine for Amiga video use. That
is,any image data loaded into ADPro can be rendered in any Amiga video format
using ASDG's acclaimed rendering technology. ADPro has many applications in
animation and Desktop presentation.
ADPro supports image compositioning in full 24 bit-plane color. This affords
fantastic new power to the print and video user.
11
ADPro can be used as a source of high quality color separations for Desktop
publishing applications. ADPro can produce separations in both 12 and 24bit-
planes with excellent print quality.
ADPro can be used to render images to be used for heat-transfer onto materials
such as cotton shirts. Using ADPro's separation capabilities,films may be
prepared for three and four color silk screening.
ADPro may be used to augment the quality of the output from many 3D modelling
packages since ADPro can render images from 24 bit-planes faster and better
than most 3D packages can perform this function themselves.
3.1 HOW ADPRO DIFFERS FROM TAD
ADPro represents a quantum leap over the original Art Department in terms of
its power and flexibility. The Art Department(TAD)continues to be sold and
represents ASDG's entry level image processing system for the Commodore Amiga.
ADPro,on the other hand,represents a high end tool for the professional or
power user.
Some of the differences between ADPro and TAD are highlighted below:
ADPro can save in multiple formats using run-time loadable Saver modules. This
12
means that ADPro can be used for completely generalized image format
conversion. This new feature also allows ADPro to be used as a general purpose
front-end for image input,output and display hardware such as scanners and
display boards.
Many of the image processing functions built into TAD are now run-time
loadable. These modules are called Operators. Because Operators are run-time
loadable,ASDG can release additional Operators from time to time without
requiring an upgrade to the main program.
ADPro offers true color image compositing which TAD did not. Image compositing
allows you to actually edit 24 bit-lane images even if you do not have a 24 bit
display board or paint program.
ADPro can be controlled via ARexx making it a powerful automated image
processing engine for batch,bulk,or network applications.
ADPro allows the user to choose between standard Amiga palette support and a
more accurate enhanced palette mode. The enhanced palette mode yeilds higher
quality when producing images for display upon such hardware as IBM compatible
VGA and Super-VGA displays and the Commodore Hi-Res Graphics Adapter.
ADPro comes with many additional Loaders,Savers,and Operators as compared to
TAD.
13
3.2 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
ADPro is compatible with the entire family of Amiga computers. These include
the A500,A1000,A2000,A2500,A2500/30 and A3000 Amiga computers. ADPro was
designed to run under KickStart versions 1.2,1.3,and 2.0.
By its very nature,ADPro requires a lot of memory. In fact,ADPro can utilize as
much contiguous memory as you have on your machine. While it can run in as
little as one megabyte of memory,we suggest a minimum of four megabytes of
expansion memory in order to get any substantial work accomplished.
If your expansion memory is spread over multiple boards,be sure to invoke the
Commodore supplied command Mergemem in your Startup-Sequence if you don't
already do so.
If Mergemem is not run,you will not get the full benefit of your expanded
memory.
Remember that fast memory must be contiguous for ADPro to make full use of it.
For more information about ADPro's memory requirements and for a greater
understanding of how ADPro internally stores image data,please refer to Chapter
4.
3.3 INSTALLING ADPRO
We anticipate that most of ADPro will want to install the program on a hard
disk drive. To do so,simply double click on the Install icon found in the main
drawer of the ADPro distribution disk. The Install program performs the
following tasks for you:
1. It will copy the Dawson/Fox requester library found in the LIBS directory on
the ADPro distribution disk to your LIBS: directory. This library must be
present in your LIBS: directory in order for ADPro to operate.
2. It will ask you to select a directory in which to install ADPro. You should
select a directory which is accessible from the WorkBench. Once you have made
that selection,the Install program will copy the ADPro program and its icon to
the directory you've selected.
3. It will then create directories for the Loaders,Savers,and Operators which
come with ADPro and copy these from the distribution disk to the newly created
directories.
If you don't have a hard disk drive,you may want to create a bootable WorkBench
floppy with the ADPro program on it,or you might choose to boot from a standard
floppy and run ADPro from a copy of its distribution disk.
In either case,remember that the requester library used by ADPro must be copied
into your LIBS: directory. This can be done for you by the Install program.
If you choose not to install ADPro on your system floppy,simply terminate the
Install program after it has copied the requester library to your system disk.
If you intend to run ADPro only from the WorkBench,then you need to do nothing
else.
15
However,if you wish to run ADPro from the CLI,you will also need to add an
ASSIGN to your Startup-Sequence. For example,if you select the directory
DH1:Foo/Bar to contain ADPro,then the following line should appear in your
Startup-Sequence.
assign ADPro: DH1:Foo/Bar
3.4 HOW ADPRO IS DOCUMENTED
ADPro is a very easy program to use. However,its use does require at least a
passing familiarity with general Amiga usage and practices. This manual assumes
that thr eader has such a familiarity. If more basic information is required
about operating your Amiga than is provided in this manual,please consult the
introductory texts that cam with your machine. We also stongly suggest that new
Amiga owners contact their local Amiga user groups for basic training and help.
The documentation for ADPro is divided into several logical parts. These are:
Part 1 - Contains background and general information about the usage of ADPro.
Also contained in this part are numberous tips and tricks for advanced use of
ADPro.
Part 2 - Contains a detailed discussion of each of the standard Loaders.
Part 3 - Contains a detailed discussion of each of the standard Savers.
Part 4 - Contains a detailed discussion of each of the standard Operators.
Part 5 - Contains a dettailed discussion of how ADPro is controlled from ARexx.
Part 6 - Contains an index for the manual.
3.5 HOW THIS MANUAL WAS PRODUCED
This manual was created and typeset on a Commodore Amiga A2000 personal
computer using AmigaTeX from Radical Eye Software. The text itself was created
using ASDG's CygnusEd Professional Release 2. The master was printed full size,
two-up,on an Apple LaserWriter II driven at 57,600 baud by an ASDG Dual Serial
Board.
In order to produce the best product possible,ASDG routinely updates the
content of their manuals each time a print run is required. If you should find
any technical,typographical,grammatical or any other type of error in your
manual,please relay this information to ASDG so that we can correct future
print runs.
3.6 ABOUT ADPRO
ADPro represents the accumulated color processing technology developed at ASDG
Incorporated. ADPro borrows heavily from the work done in creating ASDG's color
scanner products(ScanLab/100 and Professional ScanLab)and in creating The Art
Department(TAD).
17
ASDG has been assisted by its beta testers and those you who have sent in
manual corrections and program suggestions. To all of you,we extend our
appreciation. We would also like to thank those of you who have supported our
company's efforts by not pirating our software.
3.7 ABOUT ASDG
ASDG Incorporated has been a leader in technological innovation and quality
since the Amiga premiered in 1985. The company has created a number of first in
the Amiga market place including the first recoverable ram disk,memory boards
for the A2000,floppy accelerator,IEEE-488 interface,expansion serial board,and
the first 24 bit-plane color image processing system.
In addition,the company has been honored by being the first inductee into
Commodore Magazine's "the Amiga Public Domain Hall of Fame",and the company
president Perry Kivolowitz,was given the first Amiga Community Service Award by
Amazing Computing Magazine.
In recent years we have refined our focus to be the input,processing and output
of color images. In this area,we're always looking for quality products which
will enhance our product line. Please feel free to contact us concerning our
possible publishing or marketing of your product.
We can be reached at:
18
ASDG INCORPORATED
925 STEWART SREET
MADISON, WISCONSIN 53713
(608)273-6585(voice)
19
CHAPTER 4 - ADPRO INTERNALS
This chapter describes how ADPro internally stores and manages image data in
memory. This information is critical to understanding ADPro's memory
requirements as well as providing insight into the internal operation of ADPro.
4.1 ADPRO'S INTERNAL DATA TYPES
Internally to ADPro,image data can be only one of several types. Understanding
the differences between these data types will help you understand how and why
ADPro works the way it does.
The first distinction between image data types is that of between raw and
rendered image data. Rendered image data is data which contains color mapped
information. Images such as those which are displayable on the Amiga's screen
are examples of rendered image data. An IFF file(for example) which contains a
20
16 color image and can be displayed with any viewing program contains a color
map describing what actual color each value in the image should be displayed
as. Without the color map information,the image data can be unregnizable.
ADPro can create,read,process,or write rendered data with up to 256 color
mapped colors. A 256 color rendered image contains 8 bit-planes. Therefore,
ADPro can create,read,process or write rendered data with up to 8 bit-planes.
Raw image data is divided into color and gray scale types. Common to both types
of raw image data is that a color map is not required in order to make the
image data recognizable. Gray scale raw image data is stored internally in
ADPro in 8 bit-planes or 256 shades of gray. Color raw image data is stored
internally in ADPro in 24 bit-planes or 16.7 million shades of color.
Memory permitting,ADPro always converts rendered image data into raw image data
during a load operation. The color map of a rendered image file is examined. if
it contains only shades of gray,the rendered image data is converted into an 8
bit-plane raw gray image. If any non-gray colors are detected,the image is
converted into a 24 bit-plane raw color image.
The execute button causes ADPro to process raw image data into rendered image
data.
Nearly all of the functions which ADPro can perform require the presence of raw
image data. Only one of color or gray raw image data. Only one of color or gray
raw image data can be processed at one time. Operators are provided to convert
between the internal formats of color and gray raw image data.
Some functions of ADPro require rendered image data,and some require only one
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type of raw image data but not the other. ADPro will tell you anytime you
request an operation for which the appropriate type of data is not currently
available.
While you cannot process both raw color and raw gray scale image data at the
same time,ADPro does permit one of these types of image data to be resident in
memory along with rendered image data.
4.2 MEMORY REQUIREMENTS
ADPro can use all of the contiguous fast memory available on your system. The
more contiguous fast memory you have,the larger the bit-maps(images)you will be
able to process.
Ignoring the differences between the different file formats that ADPro can
process,ADPro really loads only two types of images:color and gray scale.
ADPro defines a gray scale image to be any image in which every color in the
image's palette is a shade of gray(i.e.:the red,green,and blue content of each
color are equal). ADPro considers anything which is not a gray scale image
under this definition to be a color image.
To calculate how much memory would be required for a given color image,you can
use the following formula as a guide:
Minimum Bytes Needed =
color
Width * Height *4
pixels pixels
This guide will tell you the approximate minimum amount of contiguous fast
memory(in bytes)required to process a color image of a given size. The multi-
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plication by 4 to give the number of bytes required is actually a short hand
for 32/8. The 32 is the number of bit-planes that ADPro uses for all of its
processing. The division by 8 turns the number of bits into bytes(8 bits in a
byte).
Take as example,an image measuring 640 by 400 pixels in size. This would
require a minimum of 1024000 bytes of contiguous available memory to be able to
take advantage of all of ADPro's processing capabilities. Of this space,three
quarters will be used for 24 bit-plane raw image data. The remaining quarter is
used to hold rendered display data.
ADPro converts all color images into 24 bit-plane data when the image is
loaded. Gray scale image data is converted into 8 bit-planes rather than 24.
This produces a memory requirement rule-of-thumb as follows:
Minimum Bytes Needed =
gray
Width * Height * 2
pixels pixels
The same 640 by 400 pixel image(as in the previous example)would require a
minimum of 512000 bytes of contiguous memory if it were a gray scale image
rather than color.
4.3 LIMITING MEMORY USAGE
On systems with a great deal of memory,you can limit the amount of fast memory
which ADPro will allocate. By default,ADPro will allocate 128K less than the
largest fast memory block which is available. If you wish ADPro to use less
23
memory than this default amount,you can specify this in two ways.
From the WorkBench,you can set a tool type called MAXMEM to the number of bytes
to which you wish to limit ADPro's primary image buffer. For example,specifying
MAXMEM=3000000 will limit ADPro's primary image buffer to 3,000,000 bytes even
if you have 8 megabytes of free contiguous fast memory available.
Tool types can be set from the WorkBench using the WorkBench Info command. For
more information about how this is done,please consult your introductory Amiga
texts.
From the CLI,you may specify a command line option of -m BYTES. For example,
specifying ADPRO -m 3000000 will have the same effect as above.
The amount of fast memory used will be slightly larger than the amount
specified as a memory limit. This extra space is used to hold the program's
code in memory as well as some small data structures.
4.4 REDUCING MEMORY USAGE
ADPro's enhanced palette support consumes as much as 300,000 bytes of memory.
If you know that you will not make use of this feature,you can disable it and
reclaim the memory it would have used.
From the command line,if you include the -3 option,enhanced palette operation
will be disabled.
From the WorkBench,you can specify a tool type called NOENHANCED which must(if
present)be set to eith a zero or non-zero value. If set to a non-zero value,en-
24
FIGURE 4.1:ADPRO'S BULDING BLOCKS
hanced palette operations are disabled. For example,specifying NOENHANCED=0
permits enhanced palette operations while NOENHANCED=1 disables enhanced
palette operations.
See section 8.3.3 for more information about enhanced palette operations.
4.5 ADPRO'S BUILDING BLOCKS
Modules called Loaders,Savers,and Operators have already been mentioned many
times. Figure 4.1 indicates how these modules interact within ADPro.
As you can see,Loaders are a source of image data. In general,Loaders are
programs which read and interpret diverse image file formats from disk. However
Loaders can read or generate their data from many other sources besides simply
reading data from a disk drive. For example,a Loader can be written which
controls a video digitizer allowing ADPro to seamlessly load images directly
from the digitizer.
Savers are used as a destination for image data. Savers generally encode raw or
25
rendered image data into a particular image file format for writing to a hard
disk drive. However,Savers can also be used for controlling devices which are
output in nature. For example,a Saver can be written which controls a
particular frame buffer. The act of "saving" an image to such a device would
cause the raw or rendered image data to be transferred to,and displayed upon,
the fram buffer.
Finally,Operators are general purpose processing modules which are used to
perform the various image processing functions which ADPro supports. Operators
are extremely flexible since they allow input,processing and output of either
raw or rendered image data.
4.6 SAVING YOUR SETTINGS
When each of the loaders,savers,and operators are considered,along with ADPro
itself,there are hundred of individual settings which may be made. As a
convenience,ADPro will store most of these settings in a file called
ADProDefaults.
When ADPro is exited,these settings will be updated. The next time ADPro is
executed,these settings will be restored.
26
CHAPTER 5 - LOADING AN IMAGE
This chapter discusses the general nature of loading an image into ADPro.
Specific information about individual Loaders is contained in Part 2 of this
manual. Also,most Loaders make use of the Dawson/Fox file requester included
with ADPro. For more information about the file requester,please turn to
Chapter 11.
One of the design goals of ADPro was to allow it to work with as many diverse
file formats as possible. ADPro was designed with a modular Loader interface so
that diverse formats could be added as they became available without requiring
any change to ADPro.
As has been said,Loaders are separate programs which are run by ADPro when you
select the load command. These programs must reside in a specific directory so
that ADPro can locate them at run time. The Install program that comes with
ADPro automatically creates a directory called Loaders2 in the same directory
in which ADPro is installed.
If you execute ADPro from the WorkBench,ADPro can automatically locate the
Loaders2 directory because it is in the same directory as ADPro.
27
However,if you want to execute ADPro from the CLI,you must first execute an
ASSIGN of ADPro: to the directory in which ADPro is located. Preferably,the
ASSIGN should be done in your startup-sequence. For an example of this,please
see the section Installing ADPro.
5.1 INSTALLING NEW LOADERS
Should you purchase additional Module Packs in the future,they can be installed
using the installation procedures which they contain. Please consult the manual
which accompanies each Module Pack for more information.
5.2 SELECING A LOAD FORMAT
In the upper left corner of the ADPro screen,you'll see the word Load. Next to
this word there is a button which(upon entering ADPro for the first time)is
labeled IFf. This button is called the load format button. Repeatedly selecting
the load format button(by clicking the left mouse button when the mouse cursor
is located over the load format button)causes ADPro to cycle through the
Loaders which are currently installed.
Since there may be many Loaders installed,the sequence in which they will be
successively displayed in the load format button can become quite lengthy. As a
convenience,the load format button is logically divided into two halves. If you
28
click on the left half of the button,the order in which it sequences through
the installed Loaders will be the opposite of that which is displayed if you
click upon the right half of the button.
Thus,if you successively click on the right half of the button but accidentally
advance too far,click on the left half of the button to quickly return to the
load format you want.
notice that the loaders are sorted alphabetically.
once you have selected the load format you wish to employ,selecting the load
button will cause the selected Loader to execute.
5.3 SELECTING A LOAD ORIENTATION
ADPro can perform a 90 degree counter-clockwise rotation of the image data
during a load operation. This is accomplished using the orientation button
which is immediately to the left of the load button.
Note that the orientation button affects data only during a load operation.
Using a combination of the vertical and horizontal flip operators and the
orientation button,ADPro can produce 90 degree rotations through 0,90,180 and
270 degrees.
These can be performed as follows:
0 Defrees - Load the image in the Port or portrait orientation.
29
180 Degress - Load the image in the Port or portrait orientation and then
perform both a horizontal and vertical flip. The resulting data will be rotated
180 degrees with resepct to the data loaded from disk.
270 Degrees - Load the image in the Land or landscape orientation. The
resulting image will be rotated 270 degrees with respect to the data residing
on disk.
90 Degrees - Load the image in Land or landscape orientation and then perform
both a horizontal and vertical flip. The resulting data will be rotated 90
degrees with respect to the data loaded from disk.
5.4 SELECTING IMAGE COMPOSITING
ADPro supports a very powerful image compositing feature which can be enabled
by setting the compositing button to Comp. The default value for this button is
to disable image compositing. In this case,the button will be marked Replc.
When the compositing button is in the Comp setting,and a load operation is
performed,you will be presented with the image compositing control panel if the
currently selected Loader supports image compositing. If the currently selected
Loader does not support image compositing,the setting of this button has no
effect.
30
FIGURE 5.1:THE IMAGE COMPOSITING CONTROL PANEL.
5.5 THE IMAGE COMPOSITING CONTROL PANEL
If a loader supports image compositing,and compositing is enabled,after you
select a file to be loaded the loader will display the image compositing
control panel. This panel is shown in Figure 5.1.
When performing a non-compositing load operation,the loader discards the
previous raw and rendered data before loading new data. When compositing,the
loader merges the previously defined raw data with the new image being loaded.
The exact balance of the merging operation is under your control.
A file containing a gray scale image can be merged(composited)into gray scale
or color raw image data. A color image may not be directly merged into gray
31
CONTENTS TYPE OF RAW DATA IN MEMORY
FILE GRAY COLOR
GRAY YES YES
COLOR NO YES
TABLE 5.1: WHAT TYPES OF IMAGES CAN BE MERGED INTO WHAT TYPES OF PREVIOUSLY
DEFINED RAW IMAGE DATA.
scale raw image data. Table 5.1 summariezes this restriction.
To merge a color image into a gray scale image,first convert the logical
structure of the gray scale image into that of a color image using the gray to
color operator described in section 15.5.
In the compositing control panel shown in Figure 5.1,the destination sizes
correspond to the width and height of the previously defined raw image into
which the file to be loaded will be merged.
The Source width and height denotes the full size of the image to be loaded.
The offsets(x and y)give the position of the top left corner of the image to be
loaded relative to the top left corner of the destination image. An offset of
0,0 means that the top left corner of both the source and the destination will
coincide.
Typing offsets into the supplied gadgets can be used to set the offset of the
top left-hand corner of the image to be merged relative to the top left-hand
corner of the original image. Note that negative offsets are perfectly
acceptable.
The mix level,which can range from 0 to 100,can be set by typing the desired
value to be used in the supplied gadget. It represents what weighting the
pixels in the new image should have when being averaged with pixels from the
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MIX WEIGHT OF PIXELS WEIGHT OF PIXELS
LEVEL FROM LOADED IMAGE FROM PREVIOUS IMAGE
100 100 0
50 50 50
25 25 75
TABLE 5.2:EXAMPLE MIX LEVELS AND THEIR EFFECT.
destination image. Table 5.2 shows how various mix levels affect the weighted
average between the new and old images.
So,for example,a mix level of 100 means that the new image data is given a
weighting of 100 percent. Thus,the new pixel completely replaces the old pixel
where the new image and the old image overlap. A mix level of 50 means that you
will get a straight arithmetic average between new and old pixels.
The gadgets marked R,G and B are used to specify a 24 bit color value which
will be regarded as completely transparant during the image compositing
operation. One hundred percent of the old image data will be preserved for each
pixel in the newly loaded data which matches the color specified in these
gadgets.
When compositing a gray scale image,the value of the gadget marked R is used
for the transparancy operation. A value of -1 in any of the gadgets disables
the transparancy check.
The button marked OK will merge the specified image into the currently defined
raw image. The button marked CANCEL will abort the compositing as well as the
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load operation.
The button marked No Comp will continue with the load operation but not perform
compositing. This will cause the raw image to be completely replaced by the
newly loaded data as if you had disabled image compositing.
Typing SHIFT-RETURN is equivalent to selecting the OK button. Typing RETURN
while cursor is in either of the offset gadgets will cause you to alternate to
the other gadget. Typing RETURN while the cursor is in any of the transparancy
gadgets or the mix gadget will cause the cursor to apear in the next gadget in
sequence. Typing ALT-RETURN causes the cursor to alternate between the offset
gadgets and the mix and transparancy gadgets.
With creative use of the image compositing capability,a myriad of special
effects can be performed. For example,you can use a combination of a standard
Amiga paint package and the image compositing function in ADPro to perform true
color(24 bit-plane)image masking. Specifically,you can do things such as remove
just one person from a scan of a group photo and place that person into the
middle of a 24 bit-plane ray tracing.
34
CHAPTER 6 - SAVING AN IMAGE
This chapter discusses the general nature of saving an image from ADPro.
Specific information about individual Savers is contained in Part 3 of this
manual. Also,most Savers make use of the Dawson/Fox file requester included
with ADPro. For more information specifically about the file requester,please
turn to Chapter 11.
As mentioned previously,a design goal of ADPro was to allow it to work with as
many diverse file formats as possible. ADPro was designed with a modular Saver
interface so that diverse formats could be added as they because available
without requiring any change to ADPro.
Savers are separate programs which are run by ADPro when you select the save
command. These programs must reside in a specific directory so that ADPro can
locate them at run time. The Install program that comes with ADPro
automatically creates a directory called Savers2 in the same directory in which
ADPro is installed.
35
If you execute ADPro from the WorkBench,ADPro can automatically locate the
Savers2 directory because it is in the same directory as ADPro.
However,if you execute ADPro from the CLI,you must first execute an ASSIGN
(preferably from your startup-sequence)of ADPro: to the directory in which
ADPro is located. For an example of this,please see the section Installing
ADPro.
6.1 INSTALLING NEW SAVERS
Should you purchase additional Module Packs in the future,they can be installed
using the installation procedures which they contain. Please consult the manual
which accompanies each Module Pack for more information.
6.2 SELECTING A SAVE FORMAT
In the upper left corner of the ADPro screen,you'll see the word Save. Next to
this word there is a button which(upon entering ADPro for the first tme)is
labeled IFF. This button is called the save format button. Repeatedly selecting
the save format button(by clicking the left mouse button when the mouse cursor
is located over the button)causes ADPro to cycle throught the Savers which are
currently installed.
Since there may be many Savers installed,the sequence in which they will be
successively displayed in the save format button can become quite lengthy. As a
convenience,the save format button is logically divided into two halves. If you
36
click on the left half of the button,the order in which it sequences through
the installed Savers will be the opposite of that which is displayed if you
click upon the right half of the button.
Thus,if you successively click on the right half of the button but accidentally
advance too far,click on the left half of the button to quickly return to the
format you want.
Notice that the savers are presented in alphabetical order.
Once you have selected the format you wish to employ,selecting the save button
will cause the selected Saver to execute.
6.3 SELECTING TYPE OF DATA TO BE SAVED
Recall from Chapter 4 that ADPro can maintain up to two different types of
image data internally,rendered and raw. Most Savers will give you an
opportunity to select which type of image data it will accept. If you do not
have the appropriate type of data available at the time the Saver is executed,
it will alert you to this deficiency.
37
CHAPTER 7 - OPERATING UPON AN IMAGE
This chapter discusses the general nature of Operators within ADPro,
interrupting an Operator in mid-operation will leave partially operated-upon
data in memory or may in some cases cause all data to be lost(if interrupted).
Operators are separate programs which are run by ADPro when you select the
execute op button located in the Image Operator area of the ADPro screen. These
programs must reside in a specific directory so that ADPro can locate them at
run time. The Install program that comes with ADPro automatically creates a
directory called Operators2 in the same directory in which ADPro is installed.
If you execute ADPro from the WorkBench,ADPro can automatically locate the
Operators2 directory because it is in the same directory as ADPro.
However,if you want to execute ADPro from the CLI,you must first execute an
ASSIGN of ADPro: to the directory in which ADPro is located. For an example of
this,please see the section Installing ADPro.
7.1 INSTALLING NEW OPERATORS
Should you purchase additional Module Packs in the future,they can be installed
using the installation procedures which they contain. Please consult the manual
which accompanies each Module Pack for more information.
39
IMAGE OPERATORS
COLOR_TO_GRAY
EXECUTE OP
SCALE
IMAGE SIZE
W: 0 H: 0
FIGURE 7.1:THE IMAGE OPERATOR BOX,SHOWING THE OPERATOR AND EXECUTE OP BUTTONS.
7.2 SELECTING AN OPERATOR
In the lower left corner of the ADPro screen,you'll see the box marked Image
Operators. This box is depicted in Figure 7.1. In this box there are three
buttons(with the middle one being marked Execute Op. The button above the one
marked Execute Op is used to select which Operator will be invoked when the
execute op button is depressed.
For convenience,the scale operator has a button of its own located beneath the
Execute Op button.
Repeatedly selecting the Operator button(by clicking the left mouse button when
the mouse cursor is located over the button)causes ADPro to cycle through the
Operators which are currently installed.
Since there may be many operators installed,the sequence in which they will be
40
successively displayed in the operator button can become quite lengthy. As a
convenience,the operator button is logically divided into two halves. If you
click on the left half of the button,the order in which it sequences through
the installed Operators will be the opposite of that which is displayed if you
click upon the right half of the button.
Thus,if you successively click on the right half of the button but accidentally
advance too far,click on the left half of the button to quickly return to the
format you want.
Once you have selected the Operator you wish to employ,selecting the execute op
button immediately below the operator button will cause the selected Operator
to execute.
41
CHAPTER 8 - COLOR CONTROLS
This chapter describes the functions located in the Color Controls area of
ADPro. Each of the functions located in this area contributes to or affects the
choice of colors which will be used in the rendering calculation.
Figure 8.1 depicts how these controls fit in to the flow of data through ADPro.
Notice that the color controls merely filter but do not actually modify the raw
data. Therefore,you can always undo a change made to a color control and get
back to the original rendered image.
8.1 BALANCING
Whenever ADPro renders an image,it passes all of the raw color or gray scale
data through a series of adjustments before actually using them in the
rendering calculation. Before discussing the color balancing features of ADPro,
let's first give some background information about how the adjustments are
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Raw Color Final
Data Adjustments Dithering Rendering Image
Color
Palette
FIGURE 8.1:DATA FLOW WITHIN ADPRO
applied.
ADPro stores each pixel of a color image as 3 values(one each for red,green and
blue)each of which can range from 0 to 255. Gray scale pixels are stored as a
single value which can range from 0 to 255.
Figure 8.2 shows a linear or neutral color map. A color map is a relationship
between input intensities and output intensities. Internally,ADPro maintains a
color map for each of the red,green,and blue components of colored data,and a
gray scale map for gray data.
The color map shown in Figure 8.2 is said to be linear or neutral because it is
a single straight line going from corner to corner in the color map. Notice
that an incoming intensity of 128 is output unchanged as 128. The same is true
for all intensities from 0 to 255,that is,they are output unchanged.
8.1.1 BRIGHTNESS
The brightness adjustment globally modifies the general brightness of an image.
It does this by uniformly shifting the color map upwards or downwards. This is
43
FIGURE 8.2:A LINEAR(OR NEUTRAL) COLOR MAP.
shown in Figure 8.3. Here,the two input intensities are 128 and 160(a
difference of 32 intensity levels). Notice that they are output as 192 and 224
(with exactly the same difference in intensity levels). Similarly,all input
intensities will be shifted upwards(or made brighter)by the color map shown in
Figure 8.3.
The brightness adjustment is not without its drawbacks. Notice that an input
value of 0(in the color map shown in Figure 8.3)is output as 64. This means
that the darkest intensity in the image will have an intensity of at least 64
which may not be acceptable. Also,note that all values from 192 to 255 all map
to the same value,255. This means all details which had intensity levels in
that range will become lost.
The brightness control in ADPro ranges from -50 to 50 with 0 being the neutral
value. Setting the brightness control to a positive value uniformly shifts the
44
FIGURE 8.3:A COLOR MAP SHOWING AN INCREASE IN BRIGHTNESS.
color map upward(towards a brighter image). Similarly,a negative value causes
the image to be shifted towards darkness.
8.1.2 CONTRAST
The contrast control globally modifies the contrast of an image. Contrast
adjustments can be visualized by thinking of the neutral color map being
pivoted around its center point. At one extreme,the color map becomes flat
which means that all input intensities map to the same output intensity(no
contrast). The other extreme is a vertical line for a color map. This produces
an image with exactly two intensities(maximum contrast).
Figure 8.4 shows how input intensities 128 and 160(a differnce of 32 intensity
45
FIGURE 8.4:A COLOR MAP SHOWING A DEVEASE IN CONTRAST.
levels)are mapped to output intensities 128 and 144(a differnece of only 16
intensity levels). Notice that the difference between two input intensities has
been reduced. This produces a commensurate decrease in visible contrast.
Notice,again,that contrast loses some amount of visual detail just as the
brightness adjustment. Specifically,you note that in the color map shown in
Figure 8.4 input intensities which could have ranged from 0 to 255 are now
restricted to the range of 64 to 192. This may or may not be acceptable for any
given image.
The contrast control in ADPro ranges from -50 to 50 with 0 being the neutral
value. Setting the contrast control to a positive value uniformly pivots the
color map around its center in counter-clockwise direction(toward the vertical)
which increases visible contrast.
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8.1.3 GAMMA
The gamma adjustment provides a way to significantly brighten an image without
losing much detail. It does this by introducing a curve into the color map
whereby the color map is shifted upwards(made brighter)but no portion of the
color map gets clipped to the maximum or minimum values.
Figure 8.5 shows an example color map which has a gamma adjustment. Notice that
the two input intensities,128 and 160 are output as intensities 192 and 216.
They are,therefore,brighter.
The gamma adjustment also effects the contrast of the image. In the darker part
of the spectrum,contrast is increased. However,in the lighter part of the
spectrum,contrast is decreased.
The gamma control in ADPro ranges from 0 to 100 where 0 represents no gamma
adjustments. The overall effect of the gamma adjustment is usually quite
satisfactory and we recommend its libral use.
8.1.4 RED,GREEN AND BLUE ADJUSTMENTS
In addition to the previously described methods of color adjustments,ADPro also
offers control over the individual brightness of the red,green,and blue data.
Gray scale brightness is directly controled by the main brightness control so
no additional control is necessary.
Having this individual control allows for simple global color balancing
changes. For example,an image which has far too much red can be balanced by
47
FIGURE 8.5:A COLOR MAP SHOWING AN EXAMPLE OF GAMMA CORRECTION.
decreasing the global brightness of all of the red data in the image.
Note that the individual brightness controls suffer from the same drawback as
the main brightness control. That is,the more heavily they are used,the more
detail will be lost due to the color map being clipped against its minimum and
maximum values.
The red,green,and blue adjustments in ADPro all range from -50 to 50 with 0
being the neutral value.
8.1.5 ABOUT THE BALANCING CONTROL PANEL
The panel which appears when you select the balance button(shown in Figure 8.6)
contains the 6 color adjustments described above. Each is laid out as a
horizontal sliding gadget. You can use the left mouse button to select anywhere
48
FIGURE 8.6:THE BALANCE CONTROL PANEL.
within each gadget to change that gadget's value.
You can also use the left mouse button to select the "knob" within a gadget and
drag it to a new position. As you drag the knob,the value of the gadget will be
updated in real-time in the integer gadget immediately to the right of the
slider.
If you prefer to directly type in the value of any one of the color controls,
simply click the left mouse button within the integer gadget to the right of
the desired control. Be sure to press the return key after entering a new
value.
At the bottom of the panel you'll find three buttons which will either accept,
reset,or cancel any of the changes you've made to the color controls.
Additionally,depressing either SHIFT-RETURN or ALT-RETURN from the keyboard
49
will also accept any new values entered into the control panel.
8.1.6 SAVING AND LOADING BALANCE SETTINGS
Whenever raw image data is saved in the IFF format,ADPro will include the
current locations of each of the balance settings. The positions of each
balance setting will be restored whenever an 8 or 24 bit-plane IFf file is
loaded which contains stored settings.
The saving and restoring of the positions of the balance settings are not
supported in any other format other than the IFF format. However,the effect of
the balance settings will be preserved whenever raw image data is saved
regardless of format.
After loading a raw image(an image which is not color mapped),you may be
presented with a panel which states that the "current balance settings do not
correspond to actual data" when attempting to enter the balancing control
panel. This means that the image which was loaded did not contain ADPro
specific information about where to place the knobs in the balancing control
panel.
If the loaded data contained a color look-up table(such as in some TIFF images)
that color look-up table will be loaded and effective until balance settings
are "accepted". So,should you wish to use the color look-up table actually
contained in a raw image,do not perform an "accept" in the balancing control
panel. If you should enter the balancing control panel,depress "cancel" to
preserve the color look-up table loaded from the file.
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"Accepting" a set of balancing controls has the effect of completely
overwritting any color look-up table which might have been loaded with image
data.
8.2 DITHERING
Dithering is a technique for achieving greater color fidelity at the expense of
spatial fidelity(image sharpness). ADPro supports six dithering types. These
are:none,Floyd-Steinberg,Burkes,Sierra,Jarvis,Stucki,and Random dithers.
With the exception of the random dither,the dithers are presented in the order
of greatest to least effect on the image. However,counter to intuition,they
range from fastest to slowest.
Floyd-Steinberg(1)is the tightest of the dithers and produces good results for
all video modes. The Stucki(5)dither is the sparest(and most time consuming to
compute)and produces good results where just a little dithering is desired.
Dithers 1 through 5 are each "error diffusion" dithers. The added computation
time of the higher numbered dithers results from incorporating a greater number
of pixels into each dithering computation. This also accounts for why the
higher numbered dithers affect the image less. That is,the error diffusion is
spread over a larger number of pixels(thus affecting each pixel less).
The random dither is useful in the preparation of successive images which will
become part of an animation. While the other dithering techniques produce
superior results,they may also produce an undesired flickering when multiple
images are animated. The random dither does not have this problem when
51
animating.
After selecting the dithering style of your choice,and any other modifications
to the image using ADPro's other image processing capabilities,select the
execute button(located in the lower right hand corner of the screen)to render
the image.
The sequence of dithers which will be successively displayed in the dither
button is quite lengthy. As a convenience,the dither button is logically
divided into two halves. If you click on the left half of the button,the order
in which it sequences through the dithers will be the opposite of that which is
displayed if you click upon the right half of the button.
Thus,if you suceessively click on the right half of the button but accidentally
advance too far,click on the left half of the button to quickly return to the
dither you want.
Dithering is applied during rendering and has no effect on the raw 8 bit-plane
gray scale data or 24 bit-plane color data. Therefore,you may change and
rechange the dithering setting at will without affecting the original data.
Dithering gives its best results when displayed in the high resolution video
modes. Dithering provides a benefit in the HAM modes but can slightly increase
the amount of HAM fringing present in the rendered image. Of the dithering
choices available,the random dither is the least likely to introduce HAM
fringing. Dithering is not recommended in the A-RES modes.
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8.3 PALETTE
ADPro provides very flexible and powerful palette controls. The palette control
panel is shown in Figure 8.7 and is described in this section. We'd like to
mention that because the palette controls are so flexible and powerful,we
cannot envision all the different effects and uses they may have. This section
will describe the basic operation of the palette controls. We encourage you to
experiment with the palette controls to discover new uses.
8.3.1 WHEN ARE THE PALETTE CONTROLS USED?
In general,the palette controls are used in the rendering calculation only when
the number of colors button(one of the screen controls)is set to CUST.
If this button is not set to CUST,changes to the palette controls will not be
honored except for the palette's status and depth.
As described in the next section,a palette's status can be Locked or Unlocked.
When locked,the palette is "write-protected" which means that ADPro's own color
picking tenchology is disabled. The effect of a Locked palette is in force
regardless of the setting of the number of color button.
As described in section 8.3.3,when ADPro selects colors,it can do so at two
levels of accuracy. For typical applications,an accuracy of 12 bits is
appropriate. However,some applications such as creating imagery for display on
53
FIGURE 8.7: THE PALETTE CONTROL PANEL
non-Amiga computers,may benefit from the ability to choose colors at a 15 bit
accuracy. The palette depth selection is in force any time ADPro selects a
color on its own.
8.3.2 PALETTE STATUS
The palette status button can be set to one of two values:Locked and Unlocked.
This defines whether or not ADPro will execute its color choosing routines
prior to rendering or will skip directly to rendering using the pre-existing
palette contents.
When the palette is Unlocked,ADPro will analyze the raw image data and
catalogue various statistics about the colors it contains. It will then
optimally choose a set of colors which best approximates the entire image.
When the palette is Locked,ADPro will use the prior contents of the palette and
will not choose a new one.
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Each pixel in the image will be rendered in the color chosen from the palette
which best matches the intended color.
Referring to Figure 8.1,you can see that color adjustments and dithering still
affect the final image even when the palette is Locked.
The palette Locked condition can also affect image loading. If the palette is
in the Locked state and the image you wish to load contains a palette,ADPro
will ask you if you wish to load the palette from the file or keep the
previously defined palette. This will occur whether or not the number of colors
button is set to CUST.
8.3.3 PALETTE ACCURACY
When ADPro selects colors,it can do so at two levels of accuracy. Typically,the
standard palette accuracy is sufficient for nearly all imagery intended for use
on an Amiga based computer.
Other computer systems or display technologies can take advantage of more
accurate color palettes. For example,VGA systems can display up to 256 colors
simultaneously chosen from an 18 bit-wide palette. Commodore's Hi-Res graphics
card can display up to 256 colors chosen from a palette 24 bits wide.
Consider the difference between a palette's depth and its width(accuracy).
Palette depth can be thought of as the number of colors which can be
simultaneously displayed. In the case of VGA,this is 8 bits deep(256 colors).
The width of the palette can be though of as the precision with which each
color can be chosen. In the case of VGA,this is 18 bits wide.
55
A 32 color image can be displayed on both the Amiga's own screen and on
Commodore's A2410 Hi-Res graphics card. For display on the Amiga's own screen,
the 32 colors are chosen from a total spectrum of 4096 choices. For display on
Commodore's Hi-Res graphics card,the 32 colors can be chosen from a spectrum of
16.7 million choices.
By offering selectable palette accuracy,ADPro makes it possible to prepare high
quality imagery for nearly any computer display hardware. The enhanced palette
mode,while taking longer to computer,provides exceedingly smooth shading for
images to be displayed on non-Amiga standard display devices.
In the enhanced palette mode,renderings in Amiga specific formats such as HAM,
EHB and the ARES modes are not supported. The enhanced palette can slightly
improve 2 through 32 color renderings which are displayable on the Amiga.
However,this benefit may not be noticeable enough to warrant the extra
computation time.
8.3.4 COLORS(TOTAL)
If you set the number of colors button to CUST,the total colors button takes
over the function of the number of colors button in deciding what format the
image will be rendered in. The choices include:2,4,8,16,128,and 256 colors,as
well as EHB and HAM.
The choice you make here determines how many colors can occupy the image's
palette. Therefore,the total colors button directly effects the colors used and
offset color zero values.
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8.3.5 COLORS(USED)
The colors used gadget allows you to enter a number which ranges from 2 to the
total number of colors chosen. Normally,the number of colors used would be set
to the maximum number possible for a given screen format. However,there are
many situations where it is necessary to render in fewer colors than the screen
format will permit.
For example,Amiga based genlocks show full color video through regions of the
screen which are set to color 0. If a bit map were to be rendered including
color 0 and then genlocked,bits of genlocked video would poke through the bit
map anywhere a pixel with color 0 is found.
To create an image which will appear solid when used with a genlock,simply
don't use color 0 anywhere in the image. This can be accomplished by
instructing ADPro to use one fewer color than is available. Then specify a
value of 1 in the offset color zero gadget. This will instruct ADPro to start
filling in colors starting at color 1 rather than at 0. The result will be an
image which contains n - 1(where n is the total number of colors possible)
colors starting at color 1.
As another example,suppose you are reuired to use a specific 16 color palette
and have to render an image with 4 colors(but in 4 rather than 2 bit-planes).
This sort of example is a common requirement for animators. To do this,load and
lock the required palette. Select a total number of colors of 16 but a number
of colors to be used as 4. Specify a value in offset color zero which will
offset the colors used to the first of the 4 colors you wish to use. Note that
this requires the 4 colors you wish to use to be stored contiguously in the
57
palette.
The number of colors used cannot exceed the total number of colors. Also,the
sum of colors used and offset color zero cannot exceed the total number of
colors.
8.3.6 OFFSET COLOR ZERO
The value in the offset color zero gadget is interpreted in different ways at
different times. For example:
When rendering and the palette is Unlocked,offset color zero defines where in
the palette ADPro will begin its choosing of new colors. For example,if offset
color zero is set to 4,colors 0 through 3 will not be changed and ADPro will
start choosing new colors beginning at color 4.
When rendering and the palette is Locked,offset color zero defines where in the
palette ADPro begins fetching colors for the rendering calculation. For
example,if you wanted ro render a 16 color screen with only 15 colors,you can
either render with the first 15 colors or the last 15 colors. Setting offset
color zero to 0 will render with the first 15 colors while setting offset color
zero to 1 will render with the last 15 colors.
When loading a color palette,offset color zero defines where in the palette
ADPro will begin storing the loaded values. For example,to create a 16 color
58
palette from two 8 color palettes,load the first 8 color palette with offset
color zero set to 0. Load the second 8 color palette with offset color zero set
to 8. Then,lock the palette,and you're ready to render.
The value in offset color zero can be in the range of 0 to the total number of
colors minus 2. Also,the sum of colors used and offset color zero cannot exceed
the total number of colors.
8.3.7 SORT DIRECTION
When ADPro chooses colors and places them into the palette,it can sort them by
increasing or decreasing brightness. Thus button is a toggle which controls the
sort direction. Of particular note is that color 0 is the color which will be
shown as a border around non-overscanned images. In general,you'd like this to
be as dark as possible(Darkest To Lightest)so as not to be distracting.
However,this can be overridden by selecting Lightest To Darkest.
8.3.8 EDIT
Selecting the Edit button will bring up a standard color requester.
You may manipulate one color at a time,chosen by clicking the left mouse button
over one of the colored boxes at the right hand top of the color requester.
These boxes represent the colors contained in each color register. The number
of boxes displayed will correspond to the number of user definable colors in
59
the screen mode you have selected in the number of colors button.
The color which you have chosen to manipulate will be rendered in a rectangular
area in the left hand top of the color requester.
Along the left hand edge of the color requester,three sliding gadgets can be
found which correspond to the red,green,and blue composition of the color being
modified.
Below the color boxes(at the right middle of the color requester)are four
command gadgets. These are:
Copy - After selecting the Copy command,the current color values will be copied
to the next color register you click the left mouse button in. This will cause
the two color registers to have the same value.
The current color register will become the register you copied to.
Swap - After selecting the Swap command the contents of the current color
register will be swapped with the contents of the next color register you
select with the left mouse button.
The current color register will become the register you swapped to.
Undo - After selecting the Undo command the previous Swap,Copy or Spread
command will be undone.
The current register is unchanged.
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Spread - After selecting a color register to begin spreading from,select the
Spread command with your left mouse button. Then select another color register
to spread to.
The color registers you select become end points. Any color registers in
between them are changed to a color in between the two end points.
After editing,the effect of the new palette is immediately viewable by
selecting the redisplay button in the commands area. However,the image which
will be displayed will simply be the previously rendered image with a new set
of colors. To rerender the image(that is,go through the entire data flow as
shown in Figure 8.1)you can select the execute button.
Editing the palette is not permitted while in the enhanced palette mode.
8.3.9 LOAD
Selecting the load button causes the file requester to appear. Using it,you can
select a file from which ADPro will attempt to read a palette. All Amiga format
images such as 2,4,8,and 16 color images have color palettes. However,raw image
data such as 18,21 or 24 bit-plane files do not. Palettes can also be loaded
from IFF "brush" files as well.
Palette loading is affected by several other factors in the palette control
panel. Specifically,if the number of colors in the palette to be loaded exceeds
the number of colors available to be loaded into,the excss colors will be
ignored.
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For example,if the total number of colors permissable at the time load is
selected(as defined by the value in the colors used button)is 15,and the
palette to be loaded contains 32 colors,no more than the first 15 will be
loaded.
In fact,if the value in offset color zero is non-zero at the time load is
selected,then the number of colors which will be loaded(in the example cited in
the previous paragraph)will be lower than 16.
Note that a loaded palette will be overwritten if the palette is not in a
Locked condition and you select the execute button to render an image.
8.3.10 SAVE
The currently defined palette can be saved to a file by selecting the save
button. Upondoing so,the file requester will appear. After selecting a file
name,the palette will be stored to disk.
Note that the saved file will contain only a palette. It will not contain any
image data. Therefore,use caution when selecting a pre-existing file to store
the palette,as that file will be overwritten with palette information. Its
previous contents will be lost.
8.3.11 GET WB
This command is very useful for creating imagery which will be displayed on the
Amiga WorkBench. Selecting this command will cause ADPro to load the currently
defined WorkBench colors into the palette starting at the color defined by
offset color zero.
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This command fetches the up to four colors found in the Preferences structure.
Operating system 2.0 allows the WorkBench to contain more than four colors.
However,these colors are not found in the Preferences structure as defined by
earlier versions of the operating system.
Therefore,consider the GETWB command as a short hand for loading only the first
four colors of the WorkBench. Should you require access to the palette of a
more than four colored WorkBench(possible only under Version 2.0 or later),use
the palette loading facility to load a palette from ENV:SYS/PALETTE.
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CHAPTER 9 - SCREEN CONTROLS
ADPro's screen controls offer a selection of 208 possible video modes,as many
or more than any other Amiga program at this time. Once an image has been fully
rendered,many of the changes from one screen mode to another are instantaneous.
Note that changes to any of the screen controls do not affect the raw or
rendered data in any way. Therefore,such changes can be quickly undone.
9.1 HORIZONTAL SIZE
The various horizontal sizes are shown in Table 9.1. Note that some color modes
preclude some horizontal sizes. These limitations are shown in Table 9.3.
Given a fully rendered image,changes from low resolution to high resolution
will be instantaneous if the color mode chosen is allowed in both low and high
resolution.
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MODE WIDTH
Low Res 320
Low Res/OverScan 368
Hi Res 640
Hi Res/OverScan 736
TABLE 9.1: THE HORIZONTAL RESOLUTIONS SUPPORTED BY ADPRO.
9.2 VERTICAL SIZE
The various vertical sizes are shown in Table 9.2. All color modes are
supported in all vertical sizes. Selecting an NTSC vertical size on a PAL
machine simply truncates the screen size at the NTSC lower boundary. Selecting
a PAL vertical size on an NTSC machine simply extends the screen size below the
visible lower border of your NTSC screen.
Given a fully rendered image,changes from one vertical size to another are
instantaneous. Aspect correction for changing between interlaced and non-
interlaced screens can be accomplished using the digital scaling capability of
ADPro.
9.3 NUMBER OF COLORS
The various choices of color mode are given in Table 9.3. This table also
indicates the restrictions that the choice of color mode places on the
horizontal size.
The color mode is selected using the number of colors button. Since the number
of choices for this button is large,the order in which the choices are selected
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MODE HEIGHT
NTSC 200
NTSC/OVERSCAN 240
NTSC/LACED 400
NTSC/LACED/OVERSCAN 480
PAL 256
PAL/OVERSCAN 296
PAL/LACED 512
PAL/LACED/OVERSCAN 592
TABLE 9.2: THE VERTICAL RESOLUTIONS SUPPORTED BY ADPRO.
SETTING COLORS BITPLANES LOW RES HI RES
2 2 1 Y Y
4 4 5 Y Y
8 8 3 Y Y
16 16 4 Y Y
32 32 5 Y N
64 64 6 N N
128 128 7 N N
256 256 8 N N
EHB 64 6 Y N
HAM 4096 6 Y N
AHAM 4096 6 Y N
ARZ0 4096 4 N Y
ARZ1 4096 4 N Y
TABLE 9.3: COLOR MODES AND OTHER INFORMATION.
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can be reversed. Clicking on the right half of the button sequences through the
list in ascending order while clicking on the left half of the button sequences
through the list in the opposite order.
Notice that some entries in Table 9.3 indicate that that particular mode will
not work in either low or high resolution Amiga screen modes. This indicates a
number of colors which is not supported by the Amiga's own display
capabilities. When rendering an image in 64 to 256 colors,no image will be
displayable on the Amiga's screen. Rendered image data is still available,
however,for display on non-standard display devices such as the Commodore A2410
Hi-Res graphics card or for saving using a Saver which supports that particular
number of colors.
For a detailed description of the CUST setting,please see sections 8.3.1 and
8.3.4.
9.4 WHAT ARE A-RES AND A-HAM?
The A-HAM data format is a variation on Sliced HAM(SHAM)popularized by Rhett
Anderson formerly of Compute Magazine. In A-HAM,a new set of 16 base color
registers is chosen for each line in the image. This increases the color
fidelity of a HAM image at the expense of increased machine and display
overhead.
Rendering an A-HAM from image data which contained fewer than 4096 colors to
start with will probably not produce any better results than a normal HAM
rendering.
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ADPro will read and write A-HAM images in the same file format(as registered
with Commodore Amiga Technical Support)used by Newtek's Dynamic HAM image
files.
The A-RES modes are 16 color hi-res variants developed by ASDG Incorporated.
The A-RES file format was designed to be backwards compatible with Newtek's
Dynamic Hi-Res format as registed with Commodore Amiga Technical Support.
A-RES allows all 4096 colors supported by the Amiga to be present on one hi-res
screen at the expense of extreme processor overhead while an A-RES image is
being displayed.
Do not think the A-RES modes are as general purpose as the standard Amiga
display modes. There are many limitations to what can be done while displaying
an A-RES image and not all images lend themselves to rendering in this mode. As
such,think of A-RES as a tool which can only sometimes prove useful.
A-RES images can be generated in one of two variations.
ARZ0 allows all 16 color registers to change on each line. The advantage of
ARZ0 is that it is the better looking of the two A-RES variants. The down-side
of ARZ0 is that changes in color register 0 will be visible in the border of
non-horizontally overscanned images.
ARZ1 allows at most 15 color registers to change from line to line and always
clamps color register to 0 to black. This advantage of ARZ1 is that non-
overscanned images have a solid black border. The disadvantage is that ARZ1
images make use of one less color register than ARZ0 images. This may make some
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images appear less attractive than the same image rendered in ARZ0.
Images displayed in the A-RES or A-HAM modes cannot be scrolled or used with
MicroIllusions' Transport Controller. Also,after displaying an A-RES or A-HAM
image,ADPro will cause each of your floppy drives to be re-examined for the
possibility of disk changes. The drive gronking you hear is normal.
A-RES and A-HAM are compatible with the Amiga 3000 when running version 2.02 of
the operating system or later.
9.5 OTHER OVERSCAN SIZES
Tables 9.1 and 9.2 provide the dimensions of the overscan screens directly
supported by ADPro. These values were suggested by the hardware documentation
provided by Commodore. However,the Amiga can produce horizontal and vertical
overscans larger than the values directly supported by ADPro.
If you wish to produce an image conforming to a different overscan size,simply
render the image to the desired size(since ADPro will render at any size)and
use a program other than ADPro for display purposes.
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CHAPTER 10 - OTHER COMMANDS
10.1 ABOUT
Selecting this command(by depressing the HELP key)will display credits due to
the authors of ADPro as well as the ADPro program's version ID.
10.2 SAVE
Please refer to Chapter 6 for general information about how to save images with
ADPro. Please refer to Part 3 for specific information about individual savers.
10.3 REDISPLAY
Selecting the redisplay button will cause any Amiga compatible rendered image
data to be displayed. No image will be displayed if there is no rendered image
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data available,or the available rendered image data is not in an Amiga
compatible format.
If you have made any changes to the color or screen controls and not hit the
execute button,the image displayed after selecting redisplay will not show the
effect of any of these changes.
In all modes except the A-HAM and A-RES modes you can scroll about the image
using the four arrow keys(provided that the image is larger than the screen).
To return to the ADPro control screen,simply click the left mouse button
anywhere in the image.
10.4 ORIENTATION
The orientation button is described more fully in the chapter entitled Loading
An Image. To summarize that information,the orientation button toggles between
a portrait and landscape setting. The state of this button influences which
orientation the next image to be loaded will have. Using this feature in
conjunction with horizontal and vertical flips can produce 90 degree rotations
through 0,90,180,270 degrees.
10.5 LOAD
Aspects of the load function are described more fully in Chapter 5. To
summarize that information,the load function in ADPro is actually implemented
in separate programs called Loaders. All Loaders must be placed in a specific
directory for ADPro to be able to find them.
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A specific Loader is selected by toggling the Load Format button until the
desired format is displayed. Then,select the load button. This will actually
cause the selected Loader to begin running. The Loader may request some
additional information from you before actually displaying the file requester
one or more times.
Each file to be loaded is searched for a color map. If a color map is contained
in the file,it will be loaded along with the image data provided that the ADPro
palette is not in a Locked state. If the palette is Locked,ADPro will
ultimately ask you if you really do wish to load the palette from the file.
If found,the palette will be inspected to see if it contains only shades of
gray. If it does,the file's data will be expanded out into an 8 bit-plane gray
scale image. If not,the file will be expanded out into a 24 bit-plane color
image.
Depending upon the state of the orientation button,the image may be rotated 270
degrees while it is being read from disk.
The expansion into 8 or 24 bit-planes is usually performed after the file has
been loaded. However,if you are loading an Amiga displayable file and there
isn't enough memory to hold the displayable data,then it will be loaded without
the conversion to 8 or 24 bit-planes. In this case,the image can be displayed
but none of the processing commands which depend on having raw data around will
function.
When loading files which are already in an Amiga displayable format,the image
is directly viewable immediately after loading by selecting the redisplay
command.
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Depending on the load format,aborting a load while in progress may or may not
produce displayable image data.
10.6 EXIT
Selecting the exit button will cause ADPro to exit.
10.7 SEPARATE
Selecting the separate button brings up ADPro's color separation control panel
shown in Figure 10.1. Color separation is the process of turning red,green,and
blue data appropriate for computer display into cyan,yellow,magenta and usually
black data appropriate for print publication.
In order to color separate,raw color data must be available in memory.
ADPro supports 3 different types of color separations. These are:
RGB separations allow you to split the current color image into its component
red,green and blue planes. Each selected plan will be written to a separate
file.
Three color separations convert the current color image into cyan,yellow,and
megenta planes without provisions for a black plane. Three color separations
are sometimes less expensive to bring to press but will not produce true gray
tones which might be part of the image.
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FIGURE 10.1:THE SEPARATION CONTROL PANEL
Four color separations convert the current color image into cyan,yellow,
magenta,and black planes. Four color separations are what are generally used in
the printing industry today.
Each of these different types of separations can be performed with an accuracy
of 24 bit-planes or 12 bit-planes. A 24 bit-plane color separation can
represent more than 16 million colors while a 12 bit-plane separation can
represent only 4096 different colors.
The disadvantage of 24 bit-plane separations is that they can be quite large
(however,12 bit-plane separations can be quite large as well). The disadvantage
of 12 bit-plane separations is that they can represent so few colors.
The choice of which to use(12 or 24 bit-planes)can depend upon many things.
Such as:
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1. If your original image was an Amiga displayable format,the 24 bit-plane
color data contains only 4096 colors(however,using ADPro's scaling feature to
reduce the size of the image will introduce additional colors to better blend
the image). Therefore,you may not get any additional benefit from a 24 bit-
plane separation.
2. If your image contains many similar hues,such as the slowly changing colors
in the human face in sunlight,then you may benefit from the dramatically
greater dynamic range of a 24 bit separation. For example,a GIF image with 256
colors may contain a large number of shades of flesh tone. A 12 bit-plane
separation can only represent at most 16 similar shades while a 24 bit
separation can represent at most 16 similar shades while a 24 bit separation
can represent at most 256 similar shades.
3. If you plan on using a standard Amiga printer driver and program to output
the separations,chances are that the program you will use will not be able to
deal with the files a 24 bit-plane separation would produce. However,if you
plan on outputing your separation to a PostScript device,you may use either the
12 or 24 bit-plane separations.
Each plane of a 24 bit-plane separation contains 8 bitplanes. Each plane of a
12 bit-plane separation contains 4 bit-planes. You select between the two
settings by clicking on the depth button.
Using the type button you can select from among the three types of separation
that ADPro supports.
Within each type,you can select all possible planes or any one single plane by
toggling the plane button.
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When doing a four color(CYMK)separation,you can control the amount of UCR and
GCR ADPro will perform. UCR or "Under Color Removal" defines what percentage of
color will be removed in order to compensate for the addition of the black
plane. GCR or "Gray Component Replacement" defines what percentage of the color
removed will be added back in as black.
A four color separation with 0 percent UCR reverts back into a three color
separation(i.e.:there's no accomodation made for black). A four color
separation made with 100 percent UCR will produce a color shifted image very
similar in quality to early color photography.
In addition to UCR and GCR controls,ADPro also offers the user complete control
over its ink compensation function. Printer's inks are not completely pure
materials. For example,there is some amount of yellow mixed into the magenta
ink. And,there is some amount of magenta which unavoidably is found in the cyan
ink. The ink compensation values will correct for these impurities.
In general,leave the ink compensation values alone for best results. The ink
compensation function can be completely disabled by turing it "off". You will
notice that without ADPro's ink compensation function,a blue sky will print as
purple. With the ink compensation function set at its default settings,blue
skies are blue again.
When entereing UCR/GCR or ink compensation values from the keyboard,the RETURN
key toggles between UCR and GCR (when either of these two gadgets is active)or
between the Yellow and Magenta compensations(when either of these two gadgets
is active). ALT-RETURN can be used to toggle between the pairs.
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10.7.1 USING ADPRO SEPARATIONS WITH PROFESSIONAL PAGE
Gold Disk's Professional Page(versions prior to 2.0)cannot manipulate images
with a higher color resolution than the Amiga currently supports(12 bit-planes
or 4096 colors). ASDG developed a program called ReSEP that allows 24 bit-plane
separations created by Professional ScanLab or The Art Department to be merged
with documents created in Professional Page.
Although the method is slightly circuitous,it works beautifully. Given below is
the basic flow of operations:
1. In ADPro,perform any adjustments to the image you wish to make(for example
any color balancing or changes in contrast).
2. Render the image in an any Amiga displayable format and save this rendering
to disk. In the steps that follow,we'll refer to this file as the "Amiga
displayable" version.
3. Execute a color separation of the same image data and save this to disk.
4. In Professional Page,construct the page as you wish placing text and image
boxes where you wish them to go. Load the Amiga displayable version of the
image(from the steps above)and place this image anywhere on the page as you
would with any other Professional Page image box.
You can scale,crop,or cover up this image in any way that you could with any
other image box.
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5. Execute a color separation from Professional Page,but save the results to
disk.
6. In ReSEP,load the PostScript file generated in the previous step by
Professional Page. ReSEP will identify all of the image boxes on the page.
ReSEP will identify all of the image boxes on the page. Using ReSEP select the
ADPro separated files to replace the Amiga displayable version of the same
image.
When done,press the Process button. The output of ReSEP is a second PostScript
file identical to the first except that the selected images have had their 12
bit separations replaced with 24 bit separations.
10.8 EXECUTE
Select the execute button in order to cause any changes you might have made in
the screen,color,or image controls areas to be put into effect.
If the only change you've made is a change of screen width or height,selecting
execute will usually cause an image to render instantaneously.
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CHAPTER 11 - THE FILE REQUESTER
Anytime you save or load a file,ADPro invokes its file requester. This chapter
describes how to use the file requester to specify the names of files to be
saved or loaded. An example of the file requester is given in Figure 11.1.
11.1 WHY AM I HERE?
Since the file requester can be invoked for many different reasons,the title
bar of the file requester will give you an indication of why you are being
asked to select a file name. For example,when loading a Sculpt 4D 24 bit-plane
file,the title line of the file requester will tell you to select a red file,
then a green file,and then finally,a blue file.
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FIGURE 11.1:THE FILE REQUESTER USED IN ADPRO.
11.1 QUITTING THE FILE REQUESTER WITHOUT SELECTING A FILE
Before we discuss how you can select a file name,let's discuss how you can exit
the file requester without selecting a file name. This can be done four ways.
These include:
1. You can click the left mouse button over the file requester's close gadget.
2. You can erase the destination file name and hit return(in essence,selecting
no file).
3. You can use the file requester Leave command. The Leave command has a
keyboard binding of RIGHT-AMIGA-1
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4. Finally,you can click the left mouse button over the gadget marked Forget
it.
11.3 THE FILE LIST
The most prominent feature of the file requester is its file list. The file
list is the large rectangular area on the left of the file requester.
Files names are listed in white with their sizes to the right. Directories are
listed in black and have the text "(dir)" to their right.
Each directory listed is a subdirectory of the file requester's current
directory(which can be seen in the box to the right of the word Drawer).
11.3.1 WHEN THE FILE LIST IS BEING CREATED
After you select a new current directory for the file requester(explained
later),files from the new directory are added to the file list as they are
found. While the file list is being prepared the file requester is still
available for your use.
This means that you may select a file as soon as it is displayed without having
to wait for the completion of the file list.
You will note that as the file list is being prepared,files are listed in the
order in which they are encountered in the current directory. This order will
almost certainly not be sorted. You will also note that once the displayable
area of the file list becomes filled,no additional files will be displayed even
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though many more files may be present in the directory. This is a purposeful
design choice to prevent files from moving around in the displayed file list.
Should you wish the file list to be sorted alphabetically at any time,simply
click the left mouse button on the slider to the right of the file list or upon
the scroll arrows above or below the slider. This will instantly sort the
contents of the file list. You can also accomplish this from the keyboard by
depressing ALT-RETURN twice.
11.3.2 HIDDEN VERSUS VISIBLE FILES
As the file list is prepared you will notice a line of text near the top of the
file requester continuously updating. While the file list is still being read
in,the text will have the form of N shown, M hidden....
When the file list is complete,the form of this line of text will change to N
shown,M hidden. Done.. This is your indication that the file list is complete.
The file requester has the ability to use wild carding and pattern matching to
show some files in the displayed portion of the file list and to exclude
others.
THE SHOWN/HIDDEN COUNT
The N shown is a count of the number of files which have passed the user
defined criteria for being displayed in the file list.
The M hidden is a count of the number of files which do not meet the user
defined criteria for being visible.
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A non-zero value next to the word hidden means that there are more files in the
current directory than are currently displayed in the file list.
HIDDEN FILES ARE STILL ACCESSIBLE IN THE FILE LIST
The criterion used to decide if a file is hidden or not is user defined.
Therefore,what is hidden at one moment can be made visible in the next simply
by changing the show or hide criteria.
HIDING .INFO FILES
The file requester has one built-in hide/show criteria. Namely,whether or not
to show .info files. As you know,.info files are created for every file,volume
or directory accessible from the WorkBench. Since these files are not useful to
ADPro,.info files are automatically hidden from view.
11.3.3 SCROLLING THE FILE LIST
The scroll bar to the right of the file list and the arrows above and below the
scroll bar are used to scroll the file list when there are more files in the
current directory than will fit in the display area on-screen.
The file list can be scrolled at any time,even while the file list is being
prepared.
Selecting the scroll bar or the arrows above or below it will instantly cause
the contents of the file list to be sorted alphabetically should they be out of
order.
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11.3.4 REFRESHING THE FILE LIST
The file requester has been designed to buffer the contents of the current
directory in the file list so that the file list will not have to be recreated
each time the requester is activated. As a result of this,it is possible for
the file list to become out of date with respect to new additions to(or
deletions from)the current directory.
For this reason the file requester has the Get Dir gadget located in the bottom
middle of the file requester. Selecting this gadget with the left mouse button
will cause the current file list to be thrown away and a new one constructed.
11.4 THE DEVICE LIST
To the right of the file list is a second scrollable area called the device
list. The device list will contain an entry for each of the following types of
entities:
Mounted disk volumes such as DF0:,RAM: or VD0:.
Logical disk names(the name by which each physical disk device is "labelled").
Assigned names such as L:,FONTS: and LIBS:.
Notice that the device list is always kept alphabetically sorted,and that the
device list is automatically updated for any disk insertions or removals.
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11.5 THE CURRENT DIRECTORY OR DRAWER
When the file requester appears,it will attempt to display the contents of some
directory on your system. You can see which directory the file requester is
currently displaying in the box to the right of the word drawer. The current
drawer can be any of the following:
Blank-this indicates that the current directory is the directory containing the
ADPro program.
Any directory from any of your disk devices. For example,DF0:s refers to the s
directory on the disk currently in DF0:.
Any logical name of any of your disk volumes followed by a colon. For example,
if you had a disk named WorkBench1.3,the drawer string WorkBench1.3: would
refer to the root directory of that disk.
Any logical name created by any assigns you might have made,followed by a
colon. For example,a drawer string with a value of Devs: would set the file
requester's current directory to wherever your Devs: directory had been
assigned.
Finally,any subdirectory of any of the above. For example,the following string
might set the file requester's current directory to a directory containing
pictures of Emily: Work:Pictures/Emily. In this example,Work: is either an
assigned name or the name of one of your disk drives. Pictures is a sub-
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directory contained in the Pictures directory.
11.5.1 SETTING THE CURRENT DIRECTORY VIA KEYBOARD
One way to set the current directory is to enter the directory you wish to
examine directly into the Drawer gadget.
Normally,the string gadget to the right of the word File is active. You can
activate the Drawer gadget by clicking the left mouse button within its box.
Alternatively,when the File gadget is active,you may hit SHIFT-RETURN. The text
cursor indicating string gadget activity will shift to the drawer string.
Since the Drawer gadget is a standard Amiga string gadget,you may use the
standard AmigaDOS string gadget editing functions upon it. These functions
include RIGHT-AMIXA-x to clear the string,RIGHT-AMIGA-q to restore the string
to its original contents,and the shifted left or right arrow keys to move to
the extreme left or right end of the string.
When you have entered the path to the directory you wish to examine,hitting
RETURN will cause the file requester to begin loading that directory. At any
time you may cause the file list to scroll or be sorted by depressing the left
mouse button on the file list scroll bar or scroll arrows. Should you see the
file you wish to operate upon,you may select it while the file list is still
being prepared.
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11.5.2 SETTING THE CURRENT DIRECTORY WITH THE MOUSE
You can use the mouse to set the file requester's current directory by clicking
on an entry in the requester's device list or a subdirectory of the current
directory from its file list or from a combination of both.
11.5.3 CHANGING THE CURRENT DIRECTORY TO ITS PARENT
So far we have discussed only how to traverse downward deeper into the Amiga's
hierarchical file system structure. To go back upwards in the file system
structure you can use the Parent gadget.
If your current directory was disk:a/b/c then selecting the Parent gadget will
change your current directory to disk:a/b. Selecting the Parent gadget again
will change your current directory to disk:a.
The Parent gadget has a keyboard binding of RIGH-AMIGA-p.
Note that when your current directory is a disk,volume,or assigned name,
selecting the Parent gadget will have no effect.
11.6 SELECTING A FILE
At any time,even while the file list is being prepared,you may select a file.
You can do this by either typing your selection into the File gadget or by
selecting the desired file from the file list using the left mouse button (you
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may have had to scroll the file list to cause the desired file to be visible).
If you've selected a file by typing its name into the File gadget,the file
requester will terminate as soon as you hit the carriage return key.
The file requester may also be terminated using the mouse. This can be done by
either selecting the OK gadget or by double clicking the left mouse button over
a specific file in the file list.
11.7 THE HIDE AND SHOW GADGETS
The file requester has a pattern matching facility which is intended to focus
your attention on a desirable class of files while hiding all others. For
example,if you were interested in only 18-bit color files,the file requester
might be instructed to ignore all files except those ending in ".18"(assuming
you had ended the name of each 18-bit color file saved with ".18").
The Hide gadget holds a pattern which is applied to each file in the file list.
If the pattern matches,then the file will not be displayed but will be kept in
the file list. Files which are hidden can be made visible by changing the
show/hide criteria.
The Show gadget holds a pattern which is also applied to each file in the file
list. If the Show pattern matches,the file will be included in the displayed
part of the file list.
Note that the Hide pattern is applied to the file list before the Show pattern.
Thus,if you specified to hid a given class of files and also specified to show
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the same class of files,that class would not be visible.
You can decide how to make use of the two filters by thinking in the following
terms: Is the class of desired files easier to define by exclusion or
inclusion? If the answer is exclusion,the Hide gadget will make displaying the
desired class of files easier. If the answer is inclusion,then the Show gadget
will be more easily used.
11.7.1 TOGGLING BETWEEN HIDE AND SHOW
Recall that when the File or Drawer gadgets are active,you can use SHIFT-RETURN
to toggle between them. In the same way you can use SHIFT-RETURN to toggle
between the Hide and Show gadgets.
11.7.2 TOGGLING BETWEEN HIDE/SHOW AND DRAWER/FILE
You can toggle between the Hide and Show gadgets using SHIFT-RETURN. Likewise,
the File and Drawer gadgets can be toggled between themselves using the same
key sequence. You cn toggle between the two groups by using ALT-RETURN.
For example,if the File gadget is active,pressing ALT-RETURN will cause the
Show gadget to become active. Pressing again will cause the File gadget to
become active. Similarly,if the Drawer gadget were active,pressing ALT-RETURN
would cause the Hide gadget to become active.
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11.7.3 PATTERN MATCHING IN THE HIDE AND SHOW GADGETS
The Hide and Show gadgets can accommodate strings conforming to a simple
grammar. The grammar is sufficient to define nearly any combination of Hide and
Show classes you might want.
The best way to explain the file requester's use of wild cards and pattern
matching for the Hide and Show gadgets is to plow right through the explanation
and give examples. Here's the explanation:
The grammar includes wild cards defined in either AmigaDOS or Unix format. This
means that single character substitutions can be defines as "?" while multiple
character substitutions can be defined as either "#?" or "*".
Patterns may include the or-operator, "|". There is no need for an
and-operator.
And here are some examples:
For the Show gadget to match all files ending in ".18" you would set it to:
*.18 meaning "match anything followed by a '.18'".
For the Show gadget to match all files ending in "18","ham","ares",and "pic"
you would set the Show gadget to:
*18|*ham|*ares|*pic
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CHAPTER 12 - TIPS AND TRICKS
This chapter is reserved for descriptions of Art Department tips and tricks. We
cannot hope to discover all of the tips and tricks which you the user will
discover. So,please send descriptions of new techniques or tricks which you
might discover to us for inclusion in future revisions of the manual.
12.1 TURN ONE BIT MONOCHROME IMAGES INTO GRAY SCALE
Many scanner systems provide only one bit-plane or monochrome data output.
Also,limited computers such as the original Apple Macintosh operate on only one
bit-plane monochrome image into gray scale using the following technique.
Load the one bit-plane image using the appropriate Loader. The Loader will
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recognize the image to be a one bit-plane image and convert it into an 8 bit-
plane gray scale image internally. Next,reduce the width and height of the
image by 50 or more percent. ADPro's scaling code will produce gray scales
where there were none before. Now render the image with dithering and in 16
shades of gray.
12.2 TURN LOW COLOR IMAGES INTO HIGHER RES GRAY SCALE
Using a technique similar to the one previously outlined,you can take a 16
color Amiga format image(for example)and turn it into a gray scale image with
many more than 16 shades of gray.
Load the low color image into ADPro. The ADPro Loader will detect that the
image is colored and will pad it into 24 bit-planes. Reduce the width and
height of the image by more than 50 percent. Then convert the image to gray
scale. The resulting 8 bit-plane image will possess more than 16 gray scades.
12.3 GRAY SCALE BALANCING
We have found that some very striking results can be had in gray scale by
heavily increasing contrast and then adjusting brightness or gamma or both.
While color images are best brightened using the gamma correction,we have found
that adjusting the brightness of a gray scale image(using the brightness
control)will give a more natural looking result.
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12.4 APPROXIMATING CHARCOAL DRAWINGS
You can create a charcoal-like result by combining some of the features of
ADPro. If you are starting from a color image,turn it into gray scale. Boost
the contrast heavily and select the line art command. Next,select a 2 color
screen and Floyd-Steinberg dithering and render the image. Finally,execute the
Remove Isolated Pixels command. The resulting image should have a rubbed
charcoal-like quality.
12.5 MIXING PICKED AND COMPUTED COLORS
In some instances it might be desired to pick some of the screen's colors by
hand and let the computer pick the rest. For example,you might want to ensure
that several specific colors are present in the rendered image.
Let's take a complicated example of a 32 color screen in which the following
requirements are to be met:
Color registers 0 through 7 are to be ignored completely.
Color registers 8 through 15 will contain hand picked colors.
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Color registers 16 through 31 are to be picked by the computer.
This can be accomplished as follows:
First,enter the Palette control panel and set the total number of colors to 32.
Then set the number of colors to use to 16 and the offset of color zero to 16.
Exit the Palette control panel.
Second,select the CUST screen mode and hit the Execute button. The resulting
image will have 16 computer picked colors in registers 16 through 31.
Next,enter the Palette control panel again. Set the number of colors to use to
24 and set the offset zero value to 8. Edit the palette to place the hand
picked colors into registers 8 through 15(this can be accomplished via palette
loading as well).
Set the palette to Locked and exit the Palette control panel.
Finally,rerender the image with the screen mode still set to CUST. The
resulting image will use all registers between 8 and 31 including the 8 which
were hand picked and the 16 which were computer picked. It will avoid color
registers 0 through 7 completely.
Using this technique you can have enormous flexibility in color composition for
vide titling,animation,or other video applications.
12.6 ELIMINATING STRAY DOTS
As mentioned elsewhere in this manual,there are two principal methods for
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eliminating stray dots which can crop up especially in dithered renderings.
These are:
1. Increasing the contrast of the image very slightly will often eliminate hugh
amounts of stray dots especially in dithered renderings. Increasing the
contrast has the effect of decreasing the subtle variations in shading which
the dithering routines are trying to represent when they produce seemingly
stray dots.
2. The RIP function can also remove stray dots very effectively. This is in
fact,the purpose for which it was designed. RIP is especially useful when
working with line or drawn art.
However,when working with scanned art be aware that applying RIP will remove
isolated pixels in the entire image. This means that RIP will slightly degrade
the quality of whatever dithering was used by removing some stray dots that
were visually important.
Therefore,when working with full color images we suggest that you first attempt
to deal with stray dots by slightly increasing the contrast of the image before
using RIP.
12.7 CREATING BETTER GRADATED FILLS
For display upon the Amiga,here are some tips for creating smoother gradated
fills. I you are using actual 24 or 8 bit-plane data(for example,driving a 24
bit-plane film recorder or display board)then these tips are not as useful.
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Where possible,vary only one primary color.
If you vary only one primary color in a gradated fill,the resulting fill will
appear much smoother than if more then one primary color varies. This is
because of the limited color resolution of the Amiga. If you vary more then one
primary color,the primaries will vary at different rates causing a strobing
effect in the Amiga displayable image.
Where possible,draw in an oversized bitmap.
For example,if you wish to produce a 320 by 200 end product,you will get better
results by creating a 640 by 400 bit-map and then scaling downward by 50
percent. The larger the size of the bitmap,the more finely ADPro will create a
gradated fill.
12.8 CREATING A SOLARIZATION
Solarizations can be created quickly and easily using the dynamic range
Operator twice. First,reduce the dynamic range of the image drastically(perhaps
to a range of 0 to 2). Then re-expand the dynamic range back to 0 to 255. The
resulting image is a solarization of the original.
12.9 MERGING A COLOR IMAGE INTO A GRAY SCALE IMAGE
When merging a gray scale image into a color background,you are adding an 8
bit-plane image to a 24 bi-plane background. However,to add a color image to a
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gray scale background,you would need to add a 24 bit-plane image to an 8 bit-
plane background. Since 24 bit-planes won't fit in 8,but the ability to add a
color image to a gray scale background would be nice,the gray to color operator
was defined.
It takes 8 bit-plane raw image data and creates the equivalent gray scale data
spread over 24 bit-lanes. It does this by making each primary color equal and,
thereby,gray.
To add a color image to a gray scale background you would first load the gray
scale image which will become your background. Execute the gray to color
operator. This causes ADPro to create 24 bit-plane data(which happens to be
gray)from the original 8 bit-plane data.
Now,you can directly merge a color image since 24 bit-planes are now available
for ADPro's internal use.
12.10 CREATING DROP SHADOWS
Drop shadows can be created using the rectangle operator and by using a
combination of mixing and transparancy during image compositing. To create a
drop shadow for a rectangular region,simply draw a filled black rectangle at a
50 percent mix. To create a drop shadow for a complex image,create a black and
white mask where the black area is the area which will cast the shadow. Then,
use image compositing to load in the mask at an offset and at a 50 percent mix
with white being transparant.
After the shadow has been created,load in the image which is supposed to cast
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the shadow. Since this image is loaded after the shadow is drawn,it will
obscure the appropriate areas to make a realistic looking shadow.
12.11 FOCUSED COLOR PICKING
Sometimes,when rendering a 24 bit-image into a small number of colors,you might
want to channel ADPro's color picking to give a small area of the total bit-map
the best possible color choices(while sacrificing color quality elsewhere in
the image).
Left alone,ADPro will choose the color which best matches the entire image.
However,using the crop operator you can channel ADPro's color picking to
optimally pick colors based upon only a small subsection of the entire image.
This can be done as follows:
Save out the 24 bit-plane image because you will need to preserve it through
the next steps.
Using the crop operator,crop the area of focus for color picking.
Have ADPro choose the desired number of colors based upon the cropped area.
Lock the palette.
Reload in the original image saved in the first step. Remember,the palette is
locked.
Render the entire image in the desired number of colors using the locked
palette. Because you are using the locked palette based only upon the sub-
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region,that region will have optimal color choices within the entire image.
12.12 TIPS FOR COMPOSITING
ADPro's image compositing capabilities include the ability to select a specific
color as being transparent. As an image is loaded during a compositing
operation,each pixel is compared against the transparent color. If the pixel
matches the transparent color,the new pixel is ignored and a pixel from the old
image is left untouched.
This capability can be used in a two step masking process to paste an arbitrary
shape from one image into another.
Suppose you had a 24 bit-plane scan of a full moon that you wish to place into
a ray-tracing.
First,load the scan of the moon into ADPro. Render the image(with dithering)in
any Amiga display mode which is compatible with your favorite paint program. We
recommend 32 colors,low resolution,non-interlaced. We suggest that this
rendering be made with dithering on so that you can get the best impression of
what the 24 bit-plane data looks like.
Save this rendering under a different name from the original 24 bit-plane data.
Do not overwrite the 24 bit-plane data as this will be needed later.
Load the rendered data into your favorite paint program. For our example,we
assume Deluxe Paint III. Bring up the image's palette. Make color register 0
completely black,that is make its red green and blue components all zero. Also,
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make the highest color register completely white(red,green,and blue all 15's).
Select color register 0(completely black)as your pen color and trace around the
perimeter of the moon. When this is done,fill the outside of the moon
completely with color register 0. In Deluxe Paint III this an be done easily
with ALT-FILL. Next,fill the inside of the moon with the completely white color
register. Save this image(overwriting its former self is acceptable). This is
your mask.
Load the original 24 bit-plane moon image. Select the image compositing mode
and then load the mask. When the image compositing control panel comes up
specify that you wish white(255,255,255)to be the trasparent color. Specify an
x and y offset of 0 so that the images completely overlap. Perform the load.
What you should now have in memory is the 24 bit-plane moon left completely
untouched. However,it's background should now be set completely and uniformly
to black. Save this 24 bit-plane file for use later.
To complete the process load the ray-tracing. Then,in compositing mode,load the
24 bit-plane image saved in the previous step. This time,specify black(0,0,0)to
be the transparent color. This instructs ADPro to load just the moon into the
ray-tracing since the background of that image is uniformly "transparent".
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12.13 CREATING AN EMBOSSED LOOK
Using ADPro,it is trivial to create an embossed look. Embossing is a process of
pressing an image into the paper to create a raised impression(or depression)of
the image. The following ARexx program performs this effect on a specified
image:
/**/
address "ADPro"
options results
getfile '"Select File To Be Embossed"'
if RC ~=0 then exit
TheFile = ADPRO_RESULT
lformat "IFF"
load TheFile
if RC `= 0 then do
okay1 "Error Loading" TheFile
exit
end
operator "negative"
load TheFile 1 1 50
if RC ~= 0 then do
okay1 "Error Reloading" TheFile
exit
end
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operator "color_to_gray"
contrast 50
execute
adpro_display
The embossed look is created by averaging a slightly offset image with the
negative of itself. Notice how the ARexx program loads the image once then
performs the negative operator and then loads the image in again slightly
offset and with only a 50 percent mix. This instructs ADPro to take a straight
average between the versions.
Different embossing effects can be had by changing the offset at which the
image is loaded the second time.
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CHAPTER 13 - STANDARD LOADERS
This chapter provides a detailed description on the use and operation of the
loaders which are included with ADPro. General information about loaders,
including how the image compositing control panel is operated,can be found in
Chapter 5.
13.1 DPIIE
The DPIIE format was defined by Electronic Arts for use in their produce
"Deluxe Paint II Enhanced" for the IBM P.C. DPIIE images contain 256 colors.
Deluxe Paint II Enhanced for the P.C. saves images with less than 256 colors in
the standard Amiga IFF format.
To read an image in the DPIIE format,select the DPIIE loader with the load
format button. Then,select the load button to cause the file requester to
appear. Use the file requester to select a file in the DPIIe format. After
selecting a file,the image compositing control panel will appear if compositing
is enabled.
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The DPII3 loader fully supports image compositing. For more information about
compositing,please refer to section 5.5.
13.2 DV21
The DV21 loader can process the 21 bit-plane files saved by Newtek's Digi-View
3.0 only. A 21 bit-plane file saved by Digi-View must be read by the Super-IFF
loader.
Files loaded by this module are always considered to be color images. As the
image is loaded it will be padded to a full 24 bit-planes.
To load a 21 bit-plane file saved by Digi-View 3.0,select the DV21 loader with
the load format button. After selecting a file,the image compositing control
panel will appear if you are in image compositing mode.
The DV21 loader fully supports image compositing. For more information about
compositing,please refer to section 5.5.
13.3 BACKDROP
Don't let the name,BACKDROP,fool you. The BACKDROP loader is one of the most
important loaders provided with ADPro. Using it,you can create a "canvas" upon
which you can add other images using ADPro's image compositing features.
At the same time the BACKDROP loader creates an empty bit-map of some given
size,you can aski it to fill the bit-map with a specific color or even a
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FIGURE 13.1:THE BACKDROP LOADER CONTROL PANEL.
gradation of colors. Gradated background fills are very common in presentation
or business graphics.
Figure 13.1 shows the user interface for the BACKDROP loader.
The BACKDROP loader can prepare one of two different types of bit-maps. A 24
bit-plane raw color bit-map can be prepared by selecting a setting of Colr
which is shown in figure 13.1. Selecting this button causes it to toggle to its
alternate state,Gray,which instructs the BACKDROP loader to prepare a 8 bit-
plane gray scale bit-map.
The size of the bit-map to be prepared is specified by the gadgets to the right
of the markings W(for bit-map width)and H(for bit-map height).
The button above the width and height gadgets determines how the resulting bit-
map will be filled. If in the Grad setting as in figure 13.1,the bit-map will
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be filled with a smooth shaded gradated fill. If set to Fill the bit-map will
be set to one constant color.
You may specify the nature of a gradated fill by selecting each of the four
blank rectangular buttons in the upper half of the control panel. Each of these
buttons represents the corresponding corner of the image. That is,the upper
left hand button corresponds to the upper left hand corner of the image.
These buttons are enabled whenever you have a gradated fill selected. If you
were to toggle the fill type button to Fill,these buttons become disabled.
A non-gradated color fill can be specified simply by setting the desired color
into the red,green,and blue sliders or gadgets. When a gray scale bit-map is
selected,the red and blue sliders/gadgets disappear leaving only a slider/
gadget pair marked G for gray.
As you can change the red,green,or blue(or just the gray)component of the color
being entered,the numerical value of the color will be updated. The
corresponding color will be displayed in a small rectangular area above the
button marked copy. Remember,that you are entering color components with 24 bit
accuracy. The color displayed above the copy button is only accurate to the 12
bit limit of the Amiga's palette. Therefore,slight adjustments in the numerical
value of the color may not be visible on-screen.
When ADPro constructs a gradated fill,the color of each pixel is computed as a
linear interpolation both horizontally and vertically.
To copy the color of one corner to another,select the corner you wish to copy
from,then select the Copy button and finally select the corner you wish to copy
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to.
The BACKDROP loader does not support image compositing. If you wish to composite
a solid rectangle,then use the rectangle operator. If you wish to composite a
gradated rectangle,then gradated area and save it as a 24 bit IFF file. Then
composite with it as you would any IFF file.
13.4 GIF
The GIF format was defined by CompuService Information Service,Inc. for storing
images in a compressed form on their information network. The GIF format is
very widely used on IBM and Apple computers. GIF images may contain from 1 to
256 colors.
The ADPro GIF loader supports both the 87a and 89a GIF standards including
interlaced GIF images. It supports multi-image GIF files as well.
To read an image in the GIF format,select the GIF loader with the load format
button. Then,select the load button to cause the file requester to appear.
After selecting a file in GIF format,the image compositing control panel will
appear if compositing is enabled.
The GIF loader fully supports image compositing. For more information about
compositing,please refer to section 5.5.
13.5 IFF
The Super-IFF loader can read files in many IFF formats including the
following:
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Commodore standard IFF files in 1 through 5 bit-planes corresponding to 2
through 32 colors.
Commodore standard IFF files in the Amiga Extra-HalfBright format(64 colors).
Commodore standard IFF files in the Amiga Hold-And-Modify format(4096 colors).
IFF files in Sliced-HAM(SHAM)format(can be read but not written).
IFF files in A-HAM or Dynamic HAM formats(4096 colors).
IFF files in A-RES or Dynamic HI-RES formats(4096 colors in hi-res).
Commodore standard IFF files in 12,15,18,21,and 24 bit-planes(4096,32768,
262144,2097152,and 16777216 colors respectively). This includes 21 bit-plane
files created by Digi-View 4.0.
The Super-IFF loader will look for a palette in the image file. If there is
one,it will be tested to see if it contains only gray scales. If it does,the
image will be loaded into 8 bit-planes and will be treated as gray scale image
data. Otherwise,the image will be loaded into 24 bit-planes and treated as a
color image.
When attempting to load an image already in a displayable Amiga format(such as
the 1 to 6 bit-plane formats)and there isn't enough memory to convert the full
image into 24 bit-planes or 8 bit-planes if gray scale),the Super-IFF loader
will simply load the image and not convert it into a deep bit-plane format.
This means you will be able to view the image and edit its palette but you will
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not be able to perform any other of ADPro's image processing functions.
To load an IFF file,select IFF using the load format button and then click on
the load button. The Super-IFF loader will bring up the file requester for you
to select a file for loading. After selecting a file in the IFF format,the
image compositing control panel will appear if compositing is enabled.
The IFF loader fully supports image compositing. For more information about
compositing,please refer to section 5.5.
13.6 IMPULSE
The IMPULSE formats are defined by Impulse,Inc. for use with their color
products such as Turbo-Silver and Imagine. ADPro's IMPULSE loader supports
reading the RGBN and RGB8 IMPULSE formats. The RGBN format stores 4 bits per
primary color giving a total of 12 bit-planes. The RGB8 format stores 8 bits
per primary giving a total of 24 bit-planes of color information.
To read an image in either format,select the IMPULSE loader with the load
format button. Then,select the load button to cause the file requester to
appear. After selecting a file in either IMPULSE format,the image compositing
control panel will appear if compositing is enabled.
Files in the IMPULSE format are always interpreted as color images.
The IMPULSE loader fully supports image compositing. For more information about
compositing,please refer to section 5.5.
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13.7 PCX
The PCX format was defined by the ZSoft Corporation for use in their product
"PC Paint Brush." PCX images may contain from 1 to 256 colors including special
palettes for IBM PC EGA and CGA display boards.
The ADPro PCX loader will correctly interpret all PCX images including those
with CGA and EGA palettes.
To read an image in the PCX format,select the PCX loader with the load format
button. Then,select the load button to cause the file requester to appear.
After selecting a file in the PCX format,the image compositing control panel
will appear if compositing is enabled.
The PCX loader fully supports image compositing. For more information about
compositing,please refer to section 5.5.
13.8 SCREEN
The SCREEN loader is an example of the versatility of the ADPro loader/saver
interface. It doesn't load an image from disk as the other standard loaders do.
Rather,it captures the rendered image data from another Amiga screen and
converts this data for use by ADPro.
Selecting the load button causes the SCREEN loader to make a list of the
currently defined Amiga screens. Each screen will be listed by its Intuition
screen name. If a screen does not have an Intuition screen name,then its name
will be presented as No Name. If more than one screen has no Intuition name,
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each No Name will be differentiated by a sequence number.
Select a screen to capture by clicking on the button containing the screen's
name. You may confirm that this is the screen you intend to capture by clicking
on the button marked Show. The select screen will be brought to front. A click
of the left mouse button will bring ADPro back to front.
There are two ways to actually load the selected screen. First,you may depress
the Grab button after selecting one of the screen choices in the SCREEN loader
control panel. The selected screen will be loaded into ADPro and can then be
processed as if it were any other type of loaded image.
The first method of screen grabbing cannot allow you to grab a screen while
that screen is showing menus. This is because you(the user)can't be in two
places at one time(i.e.:pushing the grab button and holding down the menu
button in the screen you wish to grab).
The second method allows you to grab a screen including its menu.
When the SCREEN loader begin executing,it temporarily installs a hot key
sequence of RIGHT-ALT-RIGHT-SHIFT-BACKSPACE. When the SCREEN loader exits it
removes the hot key sequence from the system's input chain.
You can grab any screen including its menus by selecting the SCREEN loader and
then bringing the desires screen to front,causing the desired menu to appear,
and then depressing the hot key sequence. When you release the keys(while still
holding down the right mouse button),the active screen will be loaded including
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the active menus.
After selecting a screen to be grabbed,the image compositing control panel will
appear if compositing is enabled.
The SCREEN loader fully supports image compositing. For more information about
compositing,please refer to section 5.5.
13.9 SCULPT
The SCULPT format was actually defined by Mimetics Corporation for use with
their 24 bit-plane frame buffer. The format is better known as the format
produced by Byte-By-Byte's SCULPT series of 3D modelling products.
The SCULPT format has no header information at all contained in the image
itself. Therefore,you must remember the exact dimensions of the image in order
to correcly load an image in the SCULPT format.
After selecting the SCULPT loader and hitting the load button,you will be asked
to enter a width and height of the image to be loaded. Remember,that the SCULPT
format does not store the width and height as header information in the data
files. Therefore,you must keep track of these values yourself.
The SCULPT loader can load a combination of three files to form a color image,
or load a single file to create a gray scale image. After specifying a width
and height,select which type of image(color or gray scale)you wish to load.
If loading a color image,you will be asked to specify three image files
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containing the red,green,and blue information for the image respectively.
ADPro will check the size of each of three files you must specify against the
width and height you provided. If the size of one of the specified files does
not match the size indicated by the entered width and height,the load is
aborted.
There is a naming convention for images stored in the SCULPT format. This
convention dictates that each of the three raw image files comprising one
SCULPT image share the same root file name and have the extensions red,grn,and
blue for the red,green,and blue components respectively.
When you specify the name of the red component,if you do not specify a file
name extension,or if the extension you specify is red,then the SCULPT loader
will automatically generate the conventional extensions for the green and blue
components.
The Mimetics frame buffer software also uses ored,ogrn,and oblu extenstions to
signify that the image in question is overscanned. The SCULPT loader will
automatically generate these extensions where appropriate as well.
When loading a gray scale file,you will be asked to select only one file in the
SCULPT format.
After selecting all appropriate files,the image composition control panel will
appear if composition is enabled. The SCULPT loader fully supports image
compositing. For more information about compositing,please refer to section
5.5.
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CHAPTER 14 - STANDARD SAVERS
This chapter describes the use and operation of the savers which are included
in the basic ADPro package.
To select a particular saver,reptitively select the save format button until
the desired saver appears. Remember that the save format button is logically
divided into two halves. Clicking on the left or right half will cycle the
choices in a backwards or forward order.
Note that some savers support only specific types of data. Usually,this is
because of restrictions in the format that the saver implements. The different
types of data which can be saved can be characterized as follows:
Raw - Raw image data is either 24 bit-plane color or 8 bit-plane gray scale
data.
Rendered - Rendered image data can be color or gray scale and will comprise
from 1 to 8 bit-planes(2 to 256 shades).
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Screen - Screen image data is that portion of the rendered image which can be
seen if you were to select the redisplay button. Screen image data is available
only when the image has been rendered in one of the Amiga displayable modes.
When a saver supports more than one of these types of data,it will ask you to
select which type you wish to save.
When using a saver which can write to disk,the file requester will appear for
you to select the destination file name. The file requester is described in
chapter 11.
14.1 DPIIE
You must have rendered data available in order to save in the DPIIe format. To
use the DPIIe format,the image must have been rendered with 256 colors. If you
wish to save an image for use with DPIIe with fewer colors than 256,you can use
the standard IFF saver.
The file requester will then appear. Use it to select a file name in which to
save the rendered image. For more information about the file requester,please
refer to chapter 11.
Note that you can benefit from use of the enhanced palette mode when saving
images for use with Deluxe Paint II Enhanced.
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14.2 FRAMEBUFFER
The FRAMEBUFFER saver requires the presence of raw image data. It writes this
type of data to a Mimetics FrameBuffer,if you have one installed in your Amiga.
The FRAMEBUFFER saver uses a device control library supplied by Mimetics
Corporation to encode RGB data into the kind of data into the kind of data used
by the FrameBuffer board. The encoding process(performed by the library
supplied by Mimetics)requires approximately 700K bytes of free memory in order
to function. Therefore,it may be necessary to use the MAXMEM tool type to
ensure the availability of enough free memory to use this saver. For more
information about the MAXMEM tool type,refer to section 4.3.
The saver will center the image on the FrameBuffer's screen if the image is
smaller than the maximum size of the FrameBuffer's imaging area(768 by 484
pixels). If the image is larger than the FrameBuffer's imaging area,only the
upper right portion of the image will be shown.
Any work-in-progress within ADPro can be previewed on the Mimetics FrameBuffer
by selecting the FRAMEBUFFER saver and selecting the save button.
This saver is an example of how ADPro can be used as the central controller of
diverse graphics peripherals. If there are other imaging peripherals you would
like to see directly supported by ADPro,please contact ASDG.
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14.3 GIF
The GIF saver requires the presence of rendered image data which cannot be in
the Amiga specific formats of HAM,EGB,AHAM,ARZ0,or ARZ1.
Upon selecting the save button you will be given the choice of which data to
save. If the rendered data is in one of the allowable Amiga display modes,you
can select cropped screen image to save only the portion of the image which
would be visible if you selected the redisplay button. Or,you can select the
button describing the full size and number of colors of the rendered data to
save the entire rendered image.
The file requester will then appear. Use it to select a file name in which to
store the GIF image. For more information about the file requester,please refer
to chapter 11.
Note that you can benefit from use of the enhanced palette mode when saving
images for use with applications which can read GIF.
14.4 IFF
The IFF saver supports saving,raw,rendered,and screen image data. You will be
asked to select one of the following:
Cropped Screen Image - Selecting this mode will save the screen image data
which would be displayed if you select the redisplay button. This choice is
available only if you have rendered in an Amiga displayable mode.
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N Color Image - Selecting this mode will save the entire rendered image. The
number of colors in the rendered image will be presented in place of the N.
This choice is available whenever rendered image data is available even if the
rendering mode is not directly Amiga displayable.
N Bit-Plane Raw Image - Selecting this mode will save the entire raw image as
either a 24 bit-plane color image or 8 bit-plane gray scale image.
Whenever a raw image is saved,ADPro includes Commodore standard CLUT chunks
which represent your current color balancing settings. However,many programs
which now support Commodore standard 24 bit-plane IFF files do not yet support
CLUT chunks. To enable you to get exactly the image you intend,you can use the
apply map operator to permanently modify the raw data to include the effect of
the CLUT chunks.
Raw images saved in the IFF format by ADPro also include an ASDG chunk which
preserves the internal representation of your current color balancing settings.
Reading and rewriting such a file in a non-ASDG program will more than likely
cause the ASDG chunk to be removed. However,this means only that the color
balance settings are lost and not that the data has been modified. You can
reset the color balance settings by hand if you need them again.
After selecting which type of data to be saved by the IFF saver,the file
requester will appear allowing you to specify the output file destination. For
more information about the file requester,please refer to chapter 11.
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14.5 IMPULSE
The IMPULSE saver requies the presence of 24 bit-plane raw color image data.
You will be asked to select between RGBN and RGB8 formats. The RGBN format is a
12 bit-plane format in which ADPro will truncate the least significant four
bits from each of the red,green and blue components of the image. The RGB8
format is a 24 bit-plane format in which ADPro will preserve the entire raw
image it has.
After selecting which type of data to be saved by the IMPUSLE saver,the file
requester will appear allowing you to specify the output file destination. For
more information about the file requester,please refer to chapter 11.
While this format supports only raw image data,it does not contain its own
color look-up tables. Therefore,in order to preserve the effect of any color
balance settings you might with to maintain,use the apply map operator to
transfer the effect of the color settings into the raw image data.
14.6 PCX
The PCX saver can save two types of image data. First,if you are processing a
gray scale image,it can save the raw or rendered image. If you are processing a
color image,it can save only the rendered image data.
The PCX saver cannot save an image rendered in one of the Amiga specific modes
such as HAM,EGB,AHAM,ARZ0,and ARZ1.
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Upon selecting the save button,you will be given a choice of which data to
save. If the rendered data is in one of the allowable Amiga display modes,you
can select cropped screen image to save only the portion of the image which
would be visible if you selected the redisplay button. Or,you can select the
button describing the full size and number of colors of the rendered data to
save the entire rendered image. Also,you may elect to save the raw image data
if you are processing a gray scale image.
The file requester will appear. Use it to select a file name in which to store
the PCX image. For more information about the file requester,please refer to
chapter 11.
Note that you can benefit from use of the enhanced palette mode when saving
images for use with applications which can read PCX.
14.7 POSTSCRIPT
PostScript is a typesetting and page description language defined(and
trademarked)by Adobe Systems Incorporated. ADPro can save a wide range of data
in the form of a PostScript file. Such a file can be sent directly to a
PostScript compatible printer or,in the case of Encapsulated PostScript,can be
imported into other programs.
The PostScript saver always requires the availability of raw image data. Upon
selecting the save button,ADPro will analyze the available raw image data to
determine if it is an arbitrary color image,a gray scale image,or contains only
shades of one specific primary color(such as cyan,yellow and magenta). This
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FIGURE 14.1:THE PRIMARY POSTSCRIPT SAVER CONTROL PANEL.
analysis will affect how the PostScript saver will compose the final PostScript
output.
The PostScript saver itself is comprised of three control screens. The first of
these screens is presented in figure 14.1.
The format of the PostScript output can be either Encapsulated(EPS)or Non-
Encapsulated PostScript. For inclusion of the saved PostScript data into other
programs,select Encapsulated.
The type of PostScript data to be saved can be grayscale,color,or separation
data. If you select color PostScript,the resulting file will make use of the
PostScript color extensions and can be sent directly to a color PostScript
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compatible printer. Unless you have a printer capable of supporting color
PostScript,the grayscale choice is the appropriate selection. This will allow
you to get a gray scale representation of your image right off of your
PostScript printer. If you are processing color separation data(ADPro will
determine this in the data analysis phase mentioned above)you can select a
special setting which will include color separation specific instructions in
the resulting PostScript file.
The mode field allows you to specify that the image data will be saved in
either binary or ASCII form. Binary form is much smaller than ASCII but can
only be used with PostScript printers which are communicating via AppleTalk
(registered trademark of Apple Computer)or some other similar printing capable
network. For most ADPro users,the correct setting is ASCII.
For non-Encapsulated PostScript output,the following options are available on
this first control panel.
Page width and height defines the logical size of the PostScript page. Remember
that optional features such as registration and crop marks exist and are
printed outside the logical page. Therefore,you must leave room for thm on the
physical page should you want them.
Image width and height defines the size of the box in which the image will be
printed. The actual size of the image is effected by these values as well as
whether or not the original aspect of the image will be preserved.
The x and y offset of the image within the logical page specifies where the
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FIGURE 14.2:VARIOUS POSTSCRIPT METRICS.
upper left hand corner of the image box will be relative to the upper left hand
corner of the logical page.
The goal in designing ADPro's PostScript saver was to provide the maximum
amount of flexibility to the user. This comes at the cost of some confusion,
however,since we provide so many ways of adjusting the output image. The
possible confusion may be alleviated somewhat by figure 14.2.
In figure 14.2 notice that the registration and crop marks appear outside the
logical page. Also note that the amount of overlap of the logical page and the
crop marks is determined by the bleed setting. Be sure to set aside space on
the physical page(by reducing the size of the logical page)if you wish to be
able to see all requested crop and registration marks.
Pressing the button marked additional options takes you to the second
PostScript control panel shown in figure 14.3.
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FIGURE 14.3:THE SECOND POSTSCRIPT SAVER CONTROL PANEL.
Here,you may specify the angles and densities to be used in the PostScript
output file.
The gadget marked C/R Dns allows you to specify the Cyan density(all densities
are in lines-per-inch)for color separation PostScript files or the Red density
in color PostScript files. The gadget marked M/G Dns allows you to specify the
Magenta density for color separation PostScript files or the Green density in
color PostScript files.
Similarly,the gadget marked Y/B Dns allows you to specify the Yellow density
for color separation PostScript files or the Blue density in color PostScript
files.
Finally,gadget marked K/K Dns allows you to specify the Black density for gray
scale,color separation and color PostScript files.
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Note that when printing gray scale image data(different from printing a color
image in gray scale PostScript)only the black density is used.
The gadget marked C/R Ang allows you to specify the Cyan angle(all angles are
in degrees)for and color separation PostScript files or the Red angle in color
PostScript files. The gadget marked M/G Ang allows you to specify the Magenta
angle for color separation PostScript files or the Green angle in color
PostScript files.
Similarly,the gadget marked Y/B Ang allows you to specify the Yellow angle for
color separation PostScript files or the Blue angle in color PostScript files.
Finally,gadget marked K/K Ang allows you to specify the Black angle for gray
scale,color separation and color PostScript files.
In figure 14.3,the button marked Use Dns/Ang can be toggled between that value
and Ignore Dns/Ang. When set to Use Dns/Ang the PostScript file will contain
instructions telling the printer use the angles and densities that you have
specified. When set to Ignore Dns/Ang,the values you specify are ignored.
Instead the PostScript file contains instructions telling the printer to use
its own internally stored default angles and densities.
You may wish to set this button to the Ignore Dns/Ang setting if you are
working with a sophisticated printer which may have finely turned settings
already stored in its firmware.
The button marked Portrait can be toggled between that value and Landscape.
Selecting Landscape rotates the logical page(see figure 14.2)by 90 degrees.
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Registration marks can be toggled on and off with the button labelled Reg
Marks. Similarly,crop marks can be toggled on and off with the button labelled
Crop Marks.
Note that crop and registration marks appear outside the logical page(see
figure 14.2). Remember to take this into account when specifying the page
dimensions by ensuring that the logical page plus the space set aside for crop
and registration marks can fit on the physical page.
The gadget marked Bleed controls how much the crop marks(if present)will
overlap into the logical page.
The button marked Ignore Aspect in figure 14.3 causes the image to be stretched
as needed to fill the entire image width and height. Clicking on this button
will toggle it to its other value,Keep Aspect. In this state,the image will be
stretched to fill only one dimension of the specified image area. The other
dimension will be stretched to match the scaling of the first dimension.
Depressing the button marked Additional Options leads you to the final
PostScript saver control panel shown in figure 14.4.
In this figure,the gadgets marked Offset X and Offset Y allow you to specify
the offset of the lower left hand corner of the logical page relative to the
lower left hand corner of the physical page. The gadget marked Rotation allows
you to rotate the entire page about its lower left hand corner.
The button marked Eject Page in figure 14.4 may be toggled between that state
and Don't Eject. When set to Don't Eject the PostScript file will contain
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FIGURE 14.4:THE THIRD AND FINAL POSTSCRIPT SAVER CONTROL PANEL.
instructions telling the printer not to eject the page when it is finished
rendering inside the printer. This allows you to send additional pages which
will be overlayed over the first. If set to Eject Page,the resulting PostScript
file contains instructions telling the printer to eject the page as soon as it
is completely rendered within the printer.
The button marked Positive allows you to specify that you wish a positive or
negative rendered on the printer. To create a set of negative films(used for
most printing applications)you would set this button to its other state,
Negative. A special feature of the ADPro PostScript saver is that it will
actually produce a true negative even on PostScript printers which do not
support the standard PostScript negative operator such as the Apple LaserWriter
series.
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The button marked Normal in figure 14.4 toggles between that state and Mirror.
This button,used in conjunction with the Positive/Negative button will allow
you to create mirror image negatives which is the standard used by professional
printers. A special feature of the ADPro PostScript saver is that it will
actually produce a true mirror image even on PostScript printers which do not
support the standard PostScript mirror operator such as the Apple LaserWriter
series.
Auto Feed specifies that the PostScript file should contain instructions
telling the printer to take paper from its standard paper tray. Toggling this
button to Man Feed causes the PostScript file to contain instructions telling
the printer to insist on a manually feed sheed of paper even if paper is
available in its standard paper tray.
Finally,the gadget marked Copies allows you to specify the number of copies
that the printer will be told to make of each page output.
On each control panel,hitting Cancel will cause any changes made on that
control panel to be ignored. You will be returned to the previous control
panel. If Cancel is selected from the fist control panel,then the PostScript
saver will exit and no image will be saved.
To accept changes made to a control panel,select the button marked Accept. This
will cause the specified changes to be reflected in the next document you
output. Hitting the Accept button from the first control panel will cause the
file requester to appear.
Using the file requester you can select the name of the file into which the
PostScript output will go.
To select a printer device directly,blank out the drawer string and insert the
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name of the printer device in the file string. For example,to print to
prt:,blank out the drawer string and insert prt: into the file name string.
14.8 SCULPT
The SCULPT saver requires the presence of 24 bit-plane raw image data. The file
requester will appear three times. Use it to select the names of the red,green
and blue component files. Remember that you must explicity keep track of the
width and height of the image in order to make use of it again in the future.
While this format handles raw image data,it does not contain its own color
look-up tables. Therefore,in order to preserve the effect of any color balance
settings you might wish to maintain,use the apply map operator to transfer the
effect of the color settings into the raw image data.
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CHAPTER 15 - STANDARD OPERATORS
This section gives detailed information about each Operator included in the
standard ADPro distribution.
For general information common to all Operators,please see Chapter 7.
For information about how each specific Operator may be accessed from ARexx,
please refer to Chapter 16.
PAGES 135 & 136 ARE BLANK
15.1 APPLY MAP
Changes made with the color controls such as brightness or gamma do not
actually change any of the raw image data. Rather,these changes affect only
look-up tables through which the raw image data is filtered. Therefore,the
affect of changes made with the color controls can be undone.
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The apply map Operator applies the changes made with the color control to the
actual raw image data. It then resets the color controls to a neutral setting.
Three uses of this Operator come immediately to mind.
1. It allows the range of the color controls to be extended by allowing you to
repetitively apply color control changes over and over again.
2. It allows for better results when merging images using the image compositing
feature of ADPro. For instance,you might want to merge an image with bright
color settings with an image with dark color settings. Using this Operator on
both images prior to compositing will allow you to get the desired results.
3. It allows other Amiga programs which can read 24 bit-plane IFF images but do
not parse "color look-up table chunks" to get the image data you intended.
15.2 COLOR TO GRAY
The color to gray Operator provides three very important benefits beyond simply
turning color images into gray scale images.
First,the method used within ADPro to covert from color into gray scale can
actually produce gray scale data of considerably better quality than the
original color data. For example,the Sharp JX-100 portable scanner is accurate
in gray scale to 6 bit-planes and 18 bit-planes in color. However,when ADPro
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converts an 18 bit-plane color image into gray scale,it produces a gray scale
image which is accurate to 8 bit-planes.
Second,ADPro renders extremely well in gray scale due to its dithering
capabilities and the fact that 16 gray scales cover the range of gray
proportionately better than 16 colors cover the spectrum of all possible
colors. For this reason,a high resolution interlaced gray image rendered with
ADPro can look very nearly photographic even given the Amiga's limited display
capability.
Third,this feature provides a way to covert color images into high quality gray
scale images for the purpose of black and white desktop publishing. While color
DTP is just now coming into its own,DTP is still predominantly gray scale.
Selecting color to gray will initiate a conversion of 24 bit-plane color data
into gray scale. You will be told if there is no 24 bit-plane color data
available to convert. After the conversion is complete,select a screen format,
number of bit-planes,and finally depress the execute button if you wish to view
the resulting data.
15.3 CROPPING
The cropping operator can be used to specify a rectangular region within an
image which will be preserved. All data outside the selected region will be
discarded.
When the cropping operator is selected,it will bring up a control panel into
which you can specify the offset of the top left-hand corner of the rectangle
to be preserved. You specify the width and height of the area to be preserved
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as well. Note that you cannot specify a negative offset nor can you specify a
combination of offsets and width or height which would exceed the width or
height of the original image.
Aside from the straightforward use of this operator for cropping,you can also
use this operator to "focus" ADPro's color picking technology. See section
12.11 for more informaion.
15.4 DYNAMIC RANGE
The dynamic range operator performs two passes over any raw image data
currently loaded in memory. During the first pass,the smallest and largest
values contained in the raw image are found. Then,a control panel appears,
displaying the values that were found in the first pass. If you select and
accept a new maximum and minimum value,a second pass over the raw image is
performed(mapping all of the contained image data to lie between the selected
maximum and minimum).
This Operator can be used in many different ways. It can be used to expand or
contract the dynamic range of an image(by increasing or decreasing the spread
between the maximum and minimum values). It can also be used as a hybrid
contrast/brightness manipulation.
15.5 GRAY TO COLOR
The gray to color Operator provides the logical inverse of the color to gray
Operator. This Operator reformats the internal data representation of raw gray
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scale image data into that of raw color image data. This feature is provided so
that you can perform all image processing functions on both color and gray
scale images.
When combined with image compositing,interesting artistic effects can be had.
For example,a masked color image can be "pasted" into an otherwise completely
gray scale image for a startling effect. See section 12.9 for more information.
15.6 HORIZONTAL FLIP
Many applications require the production of mirror images of the original data.
Specifically,this is required by screen and heat-transfer printers. Selecting
the horizontal flip command will horizontally flip any 8 bit-plane or 24
bit-plane data which might be currently loaded in memory.
Note that performing a horizontal flip followed by a vertical flip is the same
as rotating the image 180 degrees. This can be used in conjunction with the
orientation button to rotate images through 0.90,180,and 270 degrees.
15.7 LINE ART
When 8 bit-plan gray scale data is available,selecting the line art operator
invokes a proprietary edge emphasis algorithm. The result is an image which
contrains the most prominent edges in the original imge.
The production of quality line art from an arbitrary gray scale bit-map is
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quite difficult. It is important to begin with a high contrast original or to
boost the contast of the image before invoking the line art command.
Modifying the color controls(such as brightness,contrast,and gamma correction)
prior to executing the line art command will drastically affect the quality of
the resulting line art. Increasing the brightness,contrast,or gamma correction
of the image will also reduce the amount of clutter in the resulting line art.
In general,increasing the contrast setting is usually a good step.
After the line art command has been executed,the color controls such as
brightness,contrast,and gamma correction will only slightly affect the rendered
image. Decreasing brightness or contrast will thicken the lines in the image.
Increasing brightness,contrast,or gamma correction will thin out the lines in
the rendered image.
When working with the line art command,we suggest that you save the original 8
bit-plane gray scale data to disk before executing the command. In this way you
can reload the original 8 bit-plane gray scale data and retry the command with
different brightness,contrast,and gamma correction settings.
Note that executing the line art command will reduce the size of the available
image data by 2 pixels in width and height.
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15.8 NEGATIVE
The negative operator inverts any raw image data currently loaded in memory.
For gray scale data,this produces what would commonly be called a black-and-
white negative image of the original data. For color image data,each primary
color is inverted separately.
This Operator requires the presence of raw image data in memory.
15.9 RECTANGLE
The rectangle operator can be used to draw filled and unfilled rectangles into
a color or gray scale image. Selecting this operator causes the rectangle
control panel to appear. This control panel is shown in figure 15.1.
Using this control panel you can specify the location of the upper left-hand
corner of a rectangle as well as its width and height. You can also specify the
thickness of the rectangle. The default thickness is one which means that a one
pixel thick rectangle will be drawn. Since you specify the outside dimensions
of the rectangle,any additional thickness will be drawn within the inisde of
specified region. A thickness of -1 causes a filled rectangle to be drawn.
You may also specify a mix value to be used in the drawing computation. A mix
value of 100 is the default which indicates that drawn pixels shall completely
obscure any pixels from the original image which they overlap. For more
information see section 5.5.
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RECTANGLE
OPERATOR
LEFT 0 TOP 0
WIDTH 0 HEIGHT 0
THICK 1 MIX 100
RED GREEN BLUE
0 0 0
DRAW CANCEL
FIGURE 15.1:THE RECTANGLE CONTROL PANEL
Lastly,you may specify the red,green and blue content of the color to be used
in drawing the rectangle. When drawing a rectangle in a gray scale bit map,only
the red value is used to determine the shade of the rectangle. Colors are
specified in the range of 0 to 255.
The rectangle operator can be used to draw borders around or create drop
shadows for rectangular regions.
15.10 REMOVE ISOLATED PIXELS
The RIP Operator is used to "clean up" an already rendered image. It does so by
examining each pixel in the rendered image data in succession. If the
surrounding 8 pixels are the same color,and the center pixel is a different
color,the center pixel is replaced with the surrounding color.
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We have found that RIP can "clean up" a majority of unwanted artifacts when
rendering images with a small number of colors,such as a colored logo. RIP is
less useful,though it can produce some artisitic results,when used on color
scans or other true color bitmaps.
In order to use RIP,you must have first rendered an image into 2,4,8,16,32,64,
128,or 256 colors or gray scales. RIP does not operate on HAM images.
After rendering the image,selecting the RIP Operator and depressing the execute
op button causes the operation to take place.
RIP operates directly on the rendered image data. Therefore,aborting a RIP in
progress will result in a partially RIPped image.
15.11 SCALING
When 8 bit-plane gray or 24 bit-plane color data is present in memory,you may
digitally reduce or enlarge the width or height(or both)of the image. This is
useful in a number of ways. For example:
The individual pixels in an NTSC screen are not square. In fact,they are higher
than they are wide in low resolution,non-interlaced displays. However,the
pixels produced by many image sources such as scanners and 3D modelling
programs are perfectly square. This mismatch in aspect ration can result in
NTSC images which appear vertically stretched.
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By reducing the height of an image to approximately 86 percent of its original
size,you can produce images with an accurate aspect ratio for NTSC screens.1
Various artistic effects can be accomplished by reducing the width and height
individually.
You can create low resolution interlaced images easily by reducing the width
alone by 50 percent and then enabling interlaced mode.
You can create high resolution non-interlaced images(such as in the preparation
of icons for the WorkBench)by reducing the height alone by 50 percent.
You can cause an image to fit into any desired standard screen size. You can
preserve the image's aspect ratio by reducing both the width and height by the
same amount. Or,you can reduce the width and height by different amounts.
You can produce a special effect called "pixelization" or "posterization" by
significantly reducing the image and then significantly enlarging it.
Selecting the scale button when raw data is available in memory will cause the
scaling control panel(shown in Figure 15.2)to appear.
-------------------------------
1 Since the actual aspect ratio of a given screen will vary from monitor to
monitor,the figure of reducing an image's height by 14 percent is only
approximate. Also,PAL video is much closer to square than NTSC. Therefore,PAL
screens may not require adjustment at all.
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VARIABLE REDUCTION
SOURCE RESULT
WIDTH 640 640
HEIGHT 400 400
ASPECT 10:11 10:11
PERCENT REDUCTION
WIDTH 100
HEIGHT 100
SWITCH
RESET ACCEPT RETURN
FIGURE 15.2:THE SCALING CONTROL PANEL.
You can switch between enlargement and reduction by selecting the button marked
switch. At any one time,you can either reduce or enlarge but not both.
Using this control panel,you can specify a reduction or enlargement in two
ways:
1. You can specify the number of pixels to be the resulting width and/or height
using the supplied string gadget.
2. You can specify the percent of reduction(or enlargement)of the width and/or
height using the slider or string gadget.
When using the keyboard to enter values,the RETURN key will toggle between the
width and height percentage of change or the new width and height in pixels
depending upon which pair of gadgets are active. ALT-RETURN will toggle between
the pairs of gadgets.
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To reset the values to what they were when the control panel first appeared,you
can select the reset button. To ignore any scaling you might have specified,you
can select the cancel button.
To accept a set of reduction or enlargement values,simple select the accept
button or depress SHIFT-RETURN from the keyboard. Unlike other Operators,
scaling operations are initiated immediately after acceptance.
Quality digital scaling requires massive computation. The computation time of
ADPro's scaling facility is proportional to the size of the resulting image.
Also note that scaling permanently alters the raw data in memory. After an
image has been saled,you would have to reload from disk in order to get back
the unscaled data.
15.11.1 PIXEL ASPECT
Some file formats such as the IFF format support the storing of a pixel aspect
ratio with the file. When ADPro loads a file in a format supporting a pixel
aspect ratio specification,it presents this information in the scaling control
panel as shown in figure 15.2. The pixel aspect defaults to "1 to 1" when ADPro
loads a file which does not contain any pixel aspect information.
ADPro maintains the pixel aspect information as scaling operations take place.
The aspect shown in the Source column in figure 15.2 represents the current
pixel aspect. The aspect shown in the Result column represents the pixel aspect
which would result from the currently defined scaling operation if it were to
be executed.
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15.12 TRANSPORT CONTROLLER
Selecting the Transport_Controller Operator causes ADPro to look for a running
copy of MicroIllusions' Transport Controller. If found,ADPro will communicate
with the Transport Controller to record the Amiga displayable image currently
in memory.
This Operator requires the presence of rendered image data in Amiga displayable
format. It will also tell you if it cannot locate a currently running Transport
Controller.
The Transport Controller operator is not supported in the A-RES or A-HAM modes.
Control will return to ADPro when the Transport Controller is through recording
the image. The number of frames to be recorded is determined by the default
value maintained by the Transport Controller. Direct control(from within ADPro)
over the number of frames to be recorded is provided only via ARexx since the
Transport Controller provides a user interface of its own.
15.13 VERTICAL FLIP
Many applications require the production of mirror images of the original data.
Specifically,this is required by screen and heat-transfer printers. Selecting
the vertical flip command will vertically flip any 8 bit-plane or 24 bit-plane
data which might be currently loaded in memory.
Note that performing a horizontal flip followed by a vertical flip is the same
149
as rotating the image 180 degrees. This can be used in conjunction with the
orientation button to rotate images through 9,90,180,and 270 degrees.
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