NEW FEATURES : Dithered printer output and painting tools (gradients and smudging), more two-color patterns, and font menu choices displayed in appropriate font.
QuickPaint V.0.2 is a Freeware release, identical with QuickPaint V.1.2, except for some disabled menu choices. For the enabled version, QuickPaint V.1.2, which includes file saving and cut-and-paste capabilities, send $10.00, a 3.5" disk, and a stamped disk mailer to the address above. Include also your GEnie mail address, if possible. If you own an earlier version of QuickPaint, the cost of updating is $5.00. This is pretty cheap, considering that there are not many revisions planned, and the lowest price for any other commercial painting application is around $30.
QuickPaint V.1.2 is NOT Freeware or Shareware. It is very affordable, though, and too much effort has gone into it to distribute it otherwise. If you have not paid for your copy of V.1.2, it is unauthorized. Low budget software cannot have high budget support, so... bug reports are welcome, but no guarantee of a debugged copy can be made. Check your favorite Bulletin Board for QuickPaint V.0.2, the Freeware release, and news of future versions. Send any other inquiries to the address above. Thank you for your support.
Some quick instructions...
QuickPaint is able to open and view PICT, older black-and-white MacPaint®, and GIF files. GIF files are good at saving space, and there thousands of them on most bulletin boards, usually in the PC libraries. QuickPaint 1.2 is capable of saving using the PICT and GIF formats, and printer output is now available. No more black-and-white from color ribbon printers- this includes the ImageWriter! QuickPaint will perform your choice of printer dithering using black-and-white or the standard ImageWriter colors. Color printers such as the Hewlett-Packard DeskJet perform automatic color dithering, so it's okay to set QuickPaint preference to 'none' when using these.
The following paragraphs are fairly abreviated, but should pose no difficulty to anyone familiar with the the Macintosh interface.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
QuickPaint requires around System 6.0.7 or later, with Color QuickDraw. System 7.0 should not be a problem. The more memory, the better! QuickPaint will run with only a meg of memory, but you'll be on very shaky ground with more than 4 bits of color. QuickPaint is initially configured to request two megs - enough memory for complete editing of two 8.5"x11" 8-bit color images. Three 8-bit images can be viewed, but the limited memory will make editing difficult. To work with 32-bit or multiple 8-bit images, the user must change QuickPaint's application memory size by using Get Info... in the Finder's File menu. If memory gets short, try decreasing your monitor's color resolution or close some windows. QuickPaint's compatibility with all Macintosh models has not been thoroughly tested.
COLOR
The colors you see on the screen are exactly what you get! Remember, 32-bit color eats memory (see above). QuickPaint now automatically dithers colors between an image and a monitor with different color tables. For example, opening a 256 color picture with your screen set to 16 colors will produce an image approximated with a mix of the standard 16 colors, and (WARNING!) saving that picture will save what you see, not what was originally on disk. Use at least a screen depth of 256 colors for best results. See also 'Lock/Unlock Colors...' in the Paint menu, described in MENUS below.
PALETTE
The palette contains black & white (always), 32 editable solid patterns, and 64 two-color patterns. Currently, QuickPaint does not support editing of the two-color patterns. Any solid pattern can be edited by double-clicking. If QuickPaint is locked, changes to solid patterns will not be saved when application is quit.
The two leftmost squares, from left to right, display the outline and the fill pattern (if applicable) of the currently selected tool. Clicking in any of the other patterns changes the selected outline or fill. Outline or fill can be selected with a single click. The 'No Fill' selection will specify that no fill pattern be used by the currently selected tool.
Double clicking in outline or fill copies the opposite's pattern.
See also 'Lock/Unlock Colors...' in the Paint menu below.
MENUS
Most menu choices should not require explanation. For those that do...
The File menu now includes a preferences choice, which allows you to change printer dithering methods, new file image dimensions, and other QuickPaint features.
The Edit menu now includes a "Colorize" command, which renders the selected image using shades chosen between the outline and fill patterns. For example, if black and white are the outline and fill, the image is coverted to shades of gray.
The Paint menu is used to determine how image colors are to be used, and to set the pattern transfer mode of the currently selected tool.
Copy - replaces the destination with the source pattern.
Or - if destination is black, no change. If white, is replaced. Works the same for a black or white source. Useful for coloring black and white MacPaint® pictures.
Xor - Acts like inversion. Good for psychedelic effects.
Bic - Black source erases black destination.
Transparent - White source does not affect destination.
Blend - Source color is blended with destination, using a weight selected with the Set Blend... choice. The higher the values of the weight's RGB components, the more each source component dominates in the blend. A shade of gray acts as a variable amount of 'pressure' on the tool. This mode can be painfully slow with tools that affect large areas, and best effects are achieved with high color resolutions (8 bits or greater).
Generally speaking, applying Or, Xor, or Bic to two colors (neither of which black or white) is unpredictable.
*NOTE: There is a bug in System 6.0.X, I think, which is the cause of garbled effects when attempting to use xfer modes blend or transparent with two-color patterns. This bug doesn't show up using System 7, so don't blame QuickPaint!
Set Blend... as mentioned above, this prompts the user for an RGB weight, used by the currently selected tool for the blend pattern transfer mode.
The Paint menu's 'Lock/Unlock Colors' choice affects only the frontmost image. When an image's colors are locked, the palette's solid color patterns are approximated, or 'dithered' using a pattern of colors available from the image. If an image's colors are unlocked, the best matching image color for each palette color is changed to provide an exact match - this sometimes degrades the color quality of a picture, but enables the user to work with solid colors instead of poorly dithered approximations. Any previously created picture's colors are locked when opened, and a newly created file's colors are unlocked. An 4-bit image with 16 shades of gray displayed on a monitor set at 4-bit color, for example, should probably be kept locked, since unlocking it would change the best matching grays to palette colors, producing some pretty wild results.
TOOLS
The tool pallette contains the usual choices, for the most part. Double-clicking in most tools allows you to change their characteristics. There are some exceptions; the eraser will apply its pattern to the entire window if double-clicked, and the text tool does nothing. Holding down the option key while selecting a tool will copy the previous tool's transfer mode, blending weight, and outline & fill patterns. These items are owned by each tool. Some tools are sometimes a little slow - keep the mouse depressed at the end of a stroke to ensure that it is completed, and be patient.
There are three brushes (four, counting the pen), which may be customized in shape and colors. Brush shapes are limited to rectangles.
The selector tools (lasso and box) are used in choosing a portion of an image for moving, scaling, or otherwise editing using the appropriate menu choice. Scaling is achieved by positioning the cursor near the outside of the selection rectangle, and dragging. The lasso selector will 'lasso' a selection, masking out a choice of white or the starting color, as well as neighboring colors within a specified tolerance. The lasso's mask 'leaks' from the border drawn by the user.
The paint bucket will apply it's patterns to an area that 'leaks' from the point where the user first depresses the mouse button. The paint 'leaks' from the starting color to all neighboring colors withing a specified tolerance. If the mouse is clicked once without a dragging action, the bucket will apply only it's outline pattern. If the mouse is dragged, and 'No-Fill' is not selected from the palette, the bucket will apply a gradient, starting with the outline pattern and fading to the fill, repeating itself as area allows. The user may choose a circular or linear gradient.
The smudger (finger) is like a brush, except that the starting pattern is gradually blended with whatever is in the background, depending on the 'finger pressure' that is selected. Useful for special effects over any size area or touching up 'jaggies' and scan errors. Best effects are achieved with high color resolutions (greater than 8 bits). Its default setting, a white pattern with transparency selected from the Paint menu, will act as a 'clean' finger.
Text is editable while the user types, but if the user chooses another tool, clicks outside the current block of text, or otherwise moves on to something else, the text is no longer editable, except with the graphic cut-and-paste tools. No text cutting or pasting is supported. Using the palette, colors and patterns of selected text may be changed, as well as other styles.
The other tools should be self-explanatory with a little experimentation.
That's it... Have fun, and stay tuned for future versions!
