PC Today 14

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************************************************************************** * * * TurboPaint - ShareWare Version 1.5 * * * * Program by Richard C. Leinecker * * * ************************************************************************** Introduction This program was designed as an alternative to using PC Paintbrush and Deluxe Paint. One of the big drawbacks to using PC Paintbrush is that you have to reinstall the program every time you want to change video modes. Both PC Paintbrush and Deluxe Paint consume a great deal more memory than TurboPaint, too. That means that people with less memory can use TurboPaint and those who like to keep their TSRs resident don't need to reboot with a different configuration before using it. You also can run TurboPaint effectively without a mouse--try that with PC Paintbrush and Deluxe Paint. And PC Paintbrush doesn't offer support for Tandy 16-color mode which is about 25% of the market. Registering the Program TurboPaint is shareware. That means that if you use it, you should register. The registration price is $20.00 which is very inexpensive considering what you'll get. The registered version of the program has many extra features like full expanded and extended memory support, stretch and rotate block functions, MacPaint and TIFF loading and saving, 640x480 in 256 color mode, and more. You'll also get a disk full of art, a disk full of clip art, and a disk full of fonts. With the disks comes a printed manual and free updates for 12 months. - i - Table of Contents Files on Program Disk ................................................ 1 Using a Joystick ..................................................... 1 The KJDRIVER Driver .................................................. 1 Non-compatible Mice .................................................. 1 System Requirements .................................................. 2 Running TurboPaint ................................................... 2 Video Modes .......................................................... 2 File Formats ......................................................... 3 The Keyboard Driver .................................................. 3 Selecting Colors and Tools ........................................... 4 Lines ................................................................ 4 Undo ................................................................. 5 Rectangles ........................................................... 5 Circles and Ellipses ................................................. 5 Rays and Polygons .................................................... 6 Filling .............................................................. 6 Pixels ............................................................... 6 The Airbrush ......................................................... 6 Cut and Paste ........................................................ 7 Loading Fonts ........................................................ 7 Entering Text ........................................................ 8 Zooming .............................................................. 8 Shadows .............................................................. 9 Inverting and Reversing Blocks ....................................... 9 Setting the Palette .................................................. 9 Mirror ............................................................... 9 Cycle ................................................................ 9 Print Options ........................................................10 Customer Support .....................................................11 - Page ii - FILES ON PROGRAM DISKS RUNTIME FILES: TPAINT.BAT TP.EXE SETMODE.COM KJDRIVER.COM If you're using a microsoft compatible mouse driver, you can (but don't need to) leave the file KJDRIVER.COM out. But that means you'll have to edit the TPAINT.BAT file and remove any reference to that file. Do this by deleting any line that says KJDRIVER. To edit the TPAINT.BAT file, use any text editor or word processor in ASCII (non-document) mode. USING A JOYSTICK You can use a joystick (in game port one) instead of a mouse or the keyboard. You'll have to edit the TPAINT.BAT file so that the program knows you want to use a joystick. After each line that says KJDRIVER add a J so that it says KJDRIVER J. You may need to adjust your joystick so that it centers on the screen when you let it go. Some older Tandy joysticks may have difficulty getting enough adjustment so that they'll go to the extreme right of the screen. THE KJDRIVER DRIVER The file KJDRIVER.COM is a replacement for interrupt 33, the normal mouse interrupt vector. If the program finds a mouse driver already installed, it won't install itself. That means that if you have a mouse driver installed but prefer to use the keyboard or a joystick, you'll first have to reboot without loading your mouse driver. NON-COMPATIBLE MICE If your mouse is not completely Microsoft compatibile you might notice that the aspect ratio of your mouse if off. That means that the program draws in a different place than the mouse cursor appears. Most of the time this can be solved by editing TPAINT.BAT. After every line that says TP, add /M so that the line reads TP /M. Almost every mouse driver works just fine with TurboPaint. I've found, though, that Genius mice, some optical mice, and some very old mice will not work properly. In these cases you should use the keyboard driver or a joystick. - Page 1 - SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS At least one floppy disk: any graphics monitor that supports Hercules, CGA, EGA, Tandy-16 color, or MCGA (VGA): a Microsoft-compatible mouse, joystick, or keyboard: about 400K for CGA; 420K for EGALOW, Hercules, and Tandy-16; 480K for EGAMED and MCGA; and 540K for EGAHIGH. Even if your system has the necessary memory, you might still get a message that says Not Enough Memory. That's because DOS takes up memory for itself out of what's available. You might also have one or more memory resident programs that are occupying some of the memory that TurboPaint needs. If you're having memory problems, you can disable the Spare Page feature by holding down the Left-Shift key while the program is loading. RUNNING TURBOPAINT To run TurboPaint, first make sure that all of the files from the program disk are in the current directory (unless you've decided that you won't need some of the graphics drivers or KMOUSE.COM). It would be a good idea to create a separate directory for the TurboPaint files. For more information on creating subdirectories see your DOS manual. Start the program by typing TPAINT. You'll get a menu where you can pick the video mode you want. You can pass the video mode as a command line argument instead of using the menu. To do this, just type TPAINT VIDEOMODE where VIDEOMODE can be HERCULES, CGALOW, CGAHIGH, EGALOW, EGAMED, EGAHIGH, TANDY, MCGA, or VGA. Make sure that you don't delete the SETMODE line from the batch file or the SETMODE.COM file from the TurboPaint directory, even if you type the video mode on the command line when you run TurboPaint. VIDEO MODES The video modes that TurboPaint supports are Hercules 720x348, CGA 4-color 320x200, CGA 2-color 640x200, EGA 16-color 320x200, EGA 16-color 640x200, EGA 16-color 640x350, Tandy 16-color 320x200, MCGA 256-color 320x200, and VGA 640x480. It's possible that some older EGA cards will work in the lower two EGA resolutions and not the 640x350 EGA resolution. If you have a Hercules card and another graphics card installed simultaneously, you can't change video modes from one to the other while the program is running. You'll need to exit the program and restart it in the mode that you want to use. Systems that combine video equipment in nonstandard ways run an incompatiblity risk, too. - Page 2 - FILE FORMATS TurboPaint supports PCX, LBM (IFF), and GIF file formats. When loading PCX and IFF files, you get better results if you're in the same video mode as the picture file. You can set the picture type by selecting 'Pic Type' in the 'File' menu. A word about compatibility is in order. Deluxe Paint II Enhanced supports PCX but it isn't completely compatible with the three varieties of PCX files. It may have trouble loading TurboPaint PCX files. Deluxe Paint II Enhanced creates Packed Bitmap LBM files that TurboPaint (or Deluxe Paint II) won't load. The converse is also true, Deluxe Paint II Enhanced will not load TurboPaint LBM files (or Deluxe Paint II files). Deluxe Paint II will usually load TurboPaint LBM files, but not always in the 256-color MCGA mode. You may want to load a picture with larger or smaller dimensions than the mode you're in. There's an option that'll let you set the positioning of the picture. To do this select 'Place Pic' in the 'File' menu. You can also load the Palette and Image of a picture file separately. These two options can be found in the 'File' menu. THE KEYBOARD DRIVER The keyboard mouse driver is a direct replacement for Microsoft-compatible mouse drivers. It doesn't provide the complete gamut of mouse functions, but fills the bill for TurboPaint's needs. To move the mouse, press the cursor (arrow) keys. The driver is ballistic; the longer a key is pressed, the faster the mouse moves. If your keyboard has two right-arrow keys (one on the numeric keypad and one elsewhere) use the key on the numeric keypad. It performs better. The equivalent of the left mouse button is the 5 key on the numeric keypad. To press the left mouse button, press the 5 key. To unpress the left button, press the 5 key again. It's not as easy to use as a real mouse because you have to remember to unpress the button. If the keyboard mouse driver doesn't seem to work correctly, try pressing the 5 key. The Delete key is equivalent to the right mouse button. It also needs to be unpressed just as the 5 key or keyboard left mouse button. If you're in the drawing window and press the Tab key, the mouse pointer will jump over to the toolbox. Another press of the Tab key and the mouse pointer will be back where it was. - Page 3 - SELECTING COLORS AND TOOLS When the program first runs, you'll see a rectangle to the right side of the screen that contains icons and rectangles with the drawing colors. These are called the tool selector and the color palette and are used to select the drawing tool and color. To select a drawing tool, point to the desired tool and click the left mouse button. It will be highlighted so that you can see the currently selected tool. To select a drawing color, point to the desired color and click the left mouse button. You'll see a wide border around the currently selected drawing color. If you're in MCGA mode, only 16 colors are displayed but you can scroll through all 256 colors. Do this by clicking the right mouse button on either the right or the left side of the color palette. Clicking on the right side moves to the right through the palette; clicking on the left moves to the left through the palette. You can move the toolbox to the left side or remove it completely if you find this more convenient. To move or remove the tools, choose the 'Desk' pulldown menu and select the appropriate entry for the desired action. The F10 key will turn the menus and toolbox on and off, too. LINES To draw lines, first select the tool at the top left corner of the tool selector. Once it's selected and you can see that it's highlighted, you're ready to draw lines. Begin by pointing the mouse at the starting point of your intended line and pressing the left mouse button. Make sure that you keep the left button pressed while you are drawing the line. Now, with the left button still pressed, move the mouse pointer to where you want the line to end. Release the left mouse button and your line becomes part of the picture. Choose the 'Set' pulldown to find the two line options. To set the line width, select the menu entry labeled 'Line Width.' A dialog box will appear that displays the current line width. To increase the width of the line, click the left button on the line. To decrease it, click the right button on the line. The maximum width is eight and if you exceed this amount, the program will return to a width of one. If you decrease the line width past one, the program will set the line width to eight. To set the line pattern, choose the entry in the 'Set' pulldown labeled 'Line Style.' A Dialog box will appear with eight line patterns. To choose one of these, click the left mouse button on it. The line style affects all line and rectangle operations except the free-hand drawing tool. You can redefine any of the line patterns. Just click the right mouse button on the pattern you want to change. A new dialog box will superimpose itself of the previous box. Line definitions are composed of sixteen bits. To toggle any of the sixteen bits, just click on it with the left mouse button. Now press Return or click on Ok to return to the Line Style dialog. You can reset the program defaults by deleting the file PREFS. - Page 4 - UNDO If you make a mistake while drawing, you can usually undo it, if you haven't done anything else. Undo your mistake by pressing Escape, selecting the 'Undo' entry in the 'Extra' pulldown menu, or clicking on the UNDO tool. RECTANGLES Drawing filled and unfilled rectangles follows a procedure similar to drawing lines. With the appropriate tool selected, move the mouse pointer to either the upper left or the lower right corner of the rectangle. While holding the left mouse button down, move the mouse pointer to where the opposite corner of the rectangle should be. Release the left mouse button to complete the rectangle. If you're drawing with a filled rectangle, you may want to change the fill pattern. To do this, choose the 'Set' pulldown and select the 'Fill Style' entry. A dialog box will appear with eight choices. Choose one by clicking on it with the left mouse button. The fill pattern will apply to all filled tools. You can redefine any of the fill styles. Just click the right button on the one you want to change and another dialog box will appear on top of the Fill Style box. Toggle the bits of the pattern by clicking the left mouse button on them. When you are done, press Return or click on Ok. For any of the filled shapes (filled rectangles, filled circles, or filled ellipses) you can set several border options. The first choice is whether or not to have borders. The second choice is whether the border will be the currently selected line style or a plain solid pattern. You can set these options with the 'Borders' entry in the 'Set' menu. CIRCLES and ELLIPSES To draw a circle or an ellipse, first point to the center of the figure you want to draw, then press the left mouse button and stretch the shape to the desired dimension. Moving the mouse in the X and Y directions will stretch the ellipse in that dimension. Circles will remain perfectly round regardless of the position of the mouse pointer. - Page 5 - RAYS AND POLYGONS To draw a set of rays, position the mouse at the origin. Hold down the left mouse button and move the pointer to the end of the first ray. Keeping the left button pressed, press the right button to place this ray in the picture. Now move to the endpoint of the next ray and click the right mouse button. Do this until all of the rays have been drawn then release the left mouse button. Drawing polygons is similar to drawing rays. Position the cursor, press the left mouse button, and move to the first vertex. Click the right mouse button while pressing the left button. Move to each vertex and press the right button. FILLING To use the fill tool, position the mouse pointer at the position where you want to fill. It will continue filling the screen until it meets the selected fill color. If you try to fill a shape that is not completely closed, the fill will bleed outside of the destination shape. PIXELS There are two tools for drawing pixels. The second tool in the first column of the toolbox draws a single pixel. The third tool in the first column draws a set of pixels. To draw a single pixel, select the single pixel tool, position the mouse pointer, and click the left button. To draw a set of pixels, select the free-hand drawing tool, and position the mouse pointer. Hold the left button down as you move the mouse pointer wherever you want to draw. When you are done, release the left mouse button. THE AIRBRUSH The airbrush tool allows you to blend colors and soften edges. To use this tool, select the airbrush icon in the tool selector. Position the mouse cursor and hold down the left mouse button. The slower you move the brush, the thicker the texture appears. You can change the airbrush attributes. To do this, choose the 'Set' pulldown and select the 'Airbrush' entry. A dialog box will appear that will let you set the airbrush size and flow. - Page 6 - CUT AND PASTE To cut a block, select the scissor tool icon. Position the mouse pointer at the upper left corner of the rectangle that you want to cut. Hold the left mouse button down and drag the box until the image you want to capture is framed by the rectangle. Release the left mouse button and it will be copied into the clipboard buffer. There are two options when you cut from the screen. You can copy from the screen (leaving the screen intact) or you can cut from the screen (removing the rectangle and the background from the screen). To change options, choose the 'Set' pulldown and select the 'Block' entry. If you have 'Copy only'set to yes, the screen won't change when you cut. If it's set to no,the portion of the screen that you cut will be removed. To save a block to disk, choose the 'Extra' pulldown and select the 'Save Block' entry. Enter the filename and the program will save the block to disk. The blocks aren't compatible with any other formats. You can't use blocks from different video modes either. Once a section has been cut or loaded from disk, it can be pasted on the screen. Select the paste tool icon and position the cursor. Pressing the left mouse button will cause the tools to disappear. As long as you hold the left mouse button down, you can move the block. To place it in the picture, release the left mouse button. There is a memory restriction in EGAHIGH. At runtime the program allocates the remaining memory for the clipboard buffer. The block you can cut is directly related to the amount of memory the program finds. LOADING FONTS You can load any GEM font. To do this, choose the 'Extra' pulldown and select the 'Load Font' entry. Highlight the font you want to load in the file selector. The system font is resident when TurboPaint runs. Remember that loading fonts uses memory. You can't load an unlimited number of fonts. If your system is close to the memory limit, other operations might be affected if you load too many fonts. To set the font that you will use, choose the 'Set' pulldown and select the 'Text' entry. To cycle through the loaded fonts, click the left mouse button inside of the text box. You can select different styles of each font by clicking the right mouse button in the text box. - Page 7 - ENTERING TEXT To put text in your picture, select the text tool icon. Position the mouse pointer and click the left button. The tools will then disappear. There are two ways that you can enter text, free form or formatted. To enter text in a free form manner, simply type the text. You can move the mouse anywhere on the screen and the text will follow. This method is good if you're trying to fit text into a picture. If you want to enter multiple lines of text, it's better to press the left mouse button once more where you want the text to start. The mouse will disappear and a text-type cursor will appear. Type your text and press Enter at the end of each line. The cursor will then go to the beginning of the next text line, ready for you to type it in. When you're finished typing, you can move the text anywhere on the screen. Click the left mouse button to place the text. Click the right mouse button to exit from text entry. ZOOM You can magnify by choosing the 'Extra' pulldown and then selecting the desired magnification factor, or you can press F1-F4. F1 gives you the greatest magnification and F4 the least. After you've selected one of the magnification factors, the tools will disappear and you'll see a rectangle appear on the screen. Position the rectangle so that it frames the region you want to magnify. Then click the left mouse button. At the far left side of the screen you'll see the chosen section of the picture in the actual size and to the right of that you'll see the magnified version. To draw, just click inside of the rectangle that contains the magnified version. You can pick different colors at the far right side of the screen. If you're drawing in MCGA mode, you can use the right mouse button to scroll through all 256 colors. To quit and go back to the full screen, press the right mouse button. The escape key will undo any drawing while you're in magnify mode. - Page 8 - SHADOWS You can shadow many of the drawing functions. Do this by choosing the 'Set' pulldown and selecting the 'Shadow' entry. There is a color selector that lets you set the shadow color. The grid of nine squares is where you set the relative position for the shadow. The numbers (1-4) let you set the distance of the shadow from the original shape. Finally, you can turn the shadow on or off. The shadow attribute works with lines, rectangles, squares, circles, and ellipses. INVERTING AND REVERSING BLOCKS If you have a block in the clipboard, you can invert it vertically or reverse it horizontally. Choose the 'Extra' pulldown and select the 'Invert Block' or the 'Reverse Block' entries. The screen will blank, then the image will be pasted on the screen, and you'll see the image being transformed. Once the procedure is finished, the screen will be restored and the new image will be in the clipboard. Select the paste tool to place the block on the screen. SETTING THE PALETTE You can set the color palette if you're in an EGA, Tandy, or MCGA mode. Choose the 'Set' pulldown and select the 'Colors' entry. Hold down the left mouse button and move the slider bars to the desired setting, or click on the arrows to incrementally change the value. MIRROR You can cause TurboPaint to mirror all of your drawing in vertical,horizontal, or both vertical and horizontal directions. To do this, choose the 'Set' pulldown and select the 'Mirror' entry. You can set vertical, horizontal, or both. Most drawing operations will then be mirrored in the specified direction(s). CYCLE In EGA, Tandy, or MCGA modes you can rotate the palette and watch the effect. Just select 'Cycle' from the 'Extra' menu to toggle this feature on and off. - Page 9 - SPARE PAGE TurboPaint gives you two separate pages. This really helps when you're cutting from one picture and pasting to another. You can change from one page to the other by pressing J or selecting 'Swap Page' in the 'Set' menu. All load and save operations involve the currently active page. PRINT OPTIONS The first thing you'll have to do before you print a picture is load a printer driver. Do this by selecting 'Load Printer' on the 'File' menu. A dialog box will appear. Scroll the the selections by clicking the left mouse button on the arrows to the right of the printer names. you can page through them by clicking inside the rectangle between those two arrows. To select a printer click the left mouse button twice on the one you want. You can print your picture with a lanscape or portrait orientation. Do this by selecting 'Orient Print' on the 'File' menu. You can set the printer port by selecting 'Printer Port' on the 'File' menu. You can print the picture normally or in inverse. To set this select 'Invert Print' on the 'File' menu. Normal will give you a white background and inverse will give you a black background. You'll have to experiment with the picture scaling. For most printers the default scaling is too small. To set the scaling select 'Print Scale' from the 'File' menu. To change the scaling hold down the left mouse button on the rectangle inside of the dialog box. While holding down the left mouse button drag the box to the size you want and let you of the left mouse button. When you're done press Return or click on Ok. - Page 10 - CUSTOMER SUPPORT You can ask questions by leaving messages on GEnie addressed to R.LEINECKER or on CompuServe to user ID 74676,457. You can also write me with your questions. I'll reply in a week or less of receiving your question as long as you're a registered user. If you have ideas for an upgrade, send those too. I'd like the program to be as good as possible. Site licenses are available. Just write with the specifications and I'll get right back to you. If you have a question or a comment that's urgent you can reach me at home at 919-342-9299. Please call between 6-10 PM EST on weekdays or between 8AM-8PM EST on weekends. Send inquiries and to: Richard C. Leinecker, P.O. Box 2567, Reidsville, NC 27323-2567. - Page 11 -