6: The File Menu
The File menu contains commands for creating new documents as well as opening,
closing, and saving documents. The menu also controls the scanning of images.
New
The New... command [Command-N] lets you open a new, empty document
where you can create or import images or graphics. When you select New from
the File menu, the New Image dialog box opens where the image type,
a fill color and dimensions of the new document are specified. The approximate size
of the new image is listed in the lower left corner.
The Image Type pop-up menu lets you choose the type of document wwwART
creates: Millions of Colors, 256 Colors or 16 Colors for color documents; 256 Grays
or 16 Grays for grayscale documents; and Black and White.
The Fill With pop-up controls initial appearance of the new document. You
can select white or black fills (background) or duplicating the contents of the current
document, active selection or clipboard.
Current Document is available only when an existing document is open. The
new document duplicates the contents of the document active at the time you chose
New. The height and width boxes automatically change to show the dimensions
of the current document.
Active Selection is available only when a selection is active. The new
document duplicates the contents of the active selection, and is automatically converted
to 72dpi. The height and width boxes automatically change to show the dimensions
of the current selection.
Clipboard is available only when an image is stored on the Clipboard. The
new document duplicates the contents of the clipboard, and is automatically converted
to 72dpi. The height and width boxes automatically show the dimensions of the clipboard
image.
Width, Height: These text boxes control the size of the new document. The
document icon pop-up menu lets you quickly select from several common Macintosh screen
sizes in pixels: 640 x 480 (13" screen); 512 x 342 (9" screen); and 512
x 384 (12" screen). The 646 x 486 and 532 x 388 are sizes that work well for
video or images on a 14" screen, and the 400 x 400 size opens an image area
that works well on a 13" screen.
The units pop-up menu lets you specify the units to be used for width and height:
pixels, inches, centimeters, picas, or points.
Image Size: wwwART estimates the amount of disk space needed for the document
about to be created based on the Image Type, width and height entered.
Open
The Open... command [Command-O] lets you open documents stored on
disk.
Since wwwART uses a virtual memory scheme that uses hard disk space to hold documents
too large to fit in RAM, it can have many documents opened at one time (limited only
by your disk space).
NOTE: All documents display at 72 dpi. Images having a higher resolution
are automatically converted to 72dpi for Web display and open in a window named "Untitled." The original file on the disk is unchanged.
The Open dialog box has all the features of a standard Macintosh Open
dialog box, plus a few features found just in wwwART.
Checking Show Preview at the bottom expands the dialog to show a preview
for a document if one has been created. If the document has no preview and the format
is supported by wwwART, clicking the Create button creates a preview. Documents
with previews also list the program which created the document and last modification
date and time.
The Show pop-up lets you select the file formats to be listed in the scroll
box, and speeds the process of searching for documents in a specific file format
by limiting the types of files shown.
Supported Formats shows all documents in formats that wwwART can open.
All Files shows all files regardless of format. If the document selected is
not a supported format, wwwART will try to determine its format and open the document.
If you choose one of the other formats (such as TIFF) only files in that format will
be shown.
Close
The Close command [Command-W] closes the active window. If more
than one document is open, the next open window comes to the front.
If you made changes to the document since it was last saved, a dialog appears
asking if you want to save the changes.
If the document is new and has never been saved, the Save As dialog (described
below) opens.
Save
The Save command [Command-S] saves the most recent version of the document.
When working on an existing document, wwwART saves all changes under the current
file name and format. If the document is new and has never been saved, the Save
As dialog opens. (Options for the Save As dialog are described below.)
Save As
The Save As... command lets you name and save a new document or save an
existing document under a new name, a new file format or in a different location.
The Save As command opens a dialog box with the current file name (or "untitled" for a new document). If you click the Save button for a document with a name
that already exists in that folder, wwwART asks if you want to replace the existing
document.
The Save Selected Area Only checkbox at the bottom is available only if
a selection is active in the document, and if checked saves that selected region
as the new document.
NOTE: Be sure the Save Selected Area Only checkbox is not checked
if you mean to save the entire document. If it is checked, only the selected area
will be saved.
The Format pop-up menu is used to select the specific file format in which
to save the document. Formats are JPEG or CompuServe GIF .
The Options button opens a dialog box allowing you to set format-specific
preferences.
JPEG Options
.dmg/Updaters/WWW Art 2/wwwART™ 2.0 Manual/Chapters/images/jpeg-options.gif)
JPEG is a popular file format for Web use. It can save in Millions of Colors (24-bit),
and compresses the image by discarding some of the data. The Quality buttons
determine both the quality of the image and the amount of compression: Low quality
images are highly compressed and result in small file sizes, but show imperfections
or "artifacts" from the compression. The most frequently used setting will
generally be "High."
NOTE: Because JPEG discards data from the original image (called
lossy compression), you cannot restore this data once an image is stored in the
JPEG file format.
When saving documents that are not in Millions of RGB Colors format, a
dialog box appears that lets you convert to this format before saving.
CompuServe GIF File Options
GIF is a popular compressed format for Web use that only supports 256 indexed
colors.
.dmg/Updaters/WWW Art 2/wwwART™ 2.0 Manual/Chapters/images/wwwART-gif-options-dialog.gif)
The File Type Signature area lets you choose Macintosh GIF Format for images
to be stored on Macs, or Text and Binary for images to be stored on for other types
of computers and Web servers.
Checking the Make Background Color Transparent option makes the current
background color (usually white) transparent when displayed on a Web page. Note that
all areas of an image consisting of that color will turn transparent. Be sure
to set the desired background color in the Colors palette before saving. When
you re-open a GIF file saved in wwwART with the Make Background Color Transparent
option chosen, the color saved as transparent is selected, and the Background
color is changed to that color.
Checking the Interlaced GIF option causes the image to display on Web pages
in a progressive manner: first as coarse or fuzzy, and gradually becoming clearer
as the balance of the image information is downloaded. This lets the viewer see the
entire image immediately, and they may stop further downloading if the image is of
no interest.
Checking the Minimize Color Table option saves the image in the fewest
number of colors possible to create the smallest possible image to reduce downloading
time.
If the Image Type of the document being saved in GIF format is Millions
of Colors, a dialog box will open telling you the file must be converted to 256 colors
to save in GIF format. Clicking the Convert button opens the Convert dialog.
.dmg/Updaters/WWW Art 2/wwwART™ 2.0 Manual/Chapters/images/image-convert-dialog.gif)
You have several different options to choose from when converting. wwwART comes
with a Netscape Optimized color set for reproducing colors common in both
Macintosh and Windows versions of the browser without dithering.
If the Optimized button is chosen in Color Sets, a pop-up is available
to reduce the bit depth of the image (and thus reduce file size). The preview shows
the effect so you may choose the bit depth that balances file size and appearance.
Revert to Saved
The Revert To Saved command returns the document to the last version saved
on the disk. It is available only if the document has been changed since the last
save.
Scan / Import
The Scan / Import menu displays any scanning plug-ins that let you communicate
with scanners. wwwART works with any scanner which has a Photoshop-compatible plug-in.
The Twain Acquire and Twain Select Source options let you select any
installed scanner plug-ins that meet the Twain scanner standard specifications.
NOTE: If you have a scanner, the scanner manufacturer usually provides
a Twain or Photoshop-compatible plug-in.
Photoshop scanner plug-ins are installed by placing the plug-in file in the Plug-ins
folder located inside the wwwART Stuff folder, inside the wwwART folder.
If wwwART is running you must quit and restart the program to use the plug-in. If
the plug-in is installed properly, it appears on the Scan/Import menu below
the Twain commands.
Preview in Browser
The Preview in Browser command automatically opens the Web browser specified
in Edit->Preferences and displays the image in the browser. The image must
be saved for the command to be available.
Quit
The Quit command [Command-Q] closes any open documents and quits
wwwART. If there are any documents with unsaved changes, a dialog box opens with
options to save the document or discard any changes made.
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