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- Summary of Updates to OpalPaint
-
- New features for OpalPaint v2.3
-
- 1) Key File:
-
- All keyboard commands are now definable, the text file containing
- these definitions is called "OpalPaint:Prefs/OpalPaint.keys". This file
- should be fairly self explanitory, each key definition contains a string
- defining the key combination followed by a token keyword defining the
- operation to be performed. For example:
-
- Amiga P Preferences
-
- defines that the Amiga-shift-p combination should bring up the preferences
- menu.
-
- Comments begin with a // combination, whenever a comment is encountered,
- the rest of the line is ignored. Any available keywords which are
- undefined are specified at the top of the file in a comment.
-
- The ARexx command 'Key' has been changed to take keyfiles into account.
- For instance if your ARexx script has the command:
-
- Key Amiga Q
-
- This will only work properly if the user's keyfile has Amiga Q defined as
- quit (which it was in all previous versions of OpalPaint).
-
- The ARexx Key command now accepts the same keyword tokens as those used
- in the keyfile. The above command can now be changed to:
-
- Key Quit
-
- which will work regardless of any keyfile definitions.
-
-
- 2) Raising the menu bar.
-
- Some monitors cannot be adjusted to view the entire overscan area, this
- causes the menu bar to not be entirely visible when operating in overscan
- mode. To help overcome this problem, there is now a preference options
- which will raise the toolbar up in when working on overscan images.
-
- This preference option is on by default, so you must turn it off if you
- want OpalPaint to operate as in previous versions.
-
- 3) Pen flicks.
-
- When OpalPaint is used in combination with a pressure sensitive tablet,
- pen flicks can now be used to hide the menu bar and enter the palette menu.
- To hide/redisplay the menu bar, flick the pen quickly vertically. To enter
- or quit the palette menu, flick the pen to the horizontally.
-
- Pen flicks are enabled by default, but can be disabled in preferences.
-
-
- 4) Clone texture mode.
-
- The clone and pantagraph modes are similar to the relative rubthrough
- mode previously available in OpalPaint, however these two new modes are far
- more powerful and simpler to use.
-
- Once the clone mode is enabled via the texture menu, or by using alt-c,
- an extra cross-hair will appear on the screen. This cross-hair represents
- the area from which the texture information will come from. The cross-
- hair can be move at any time by simply moving the mouse pointer over it,
- selecting it with the left mouse button and dragging it to a new location.
- Alternatively, the cross-hair can be positioned by moving the mouse cursor
- to the desired location and pressing alt-shift-c.
-
- When in clone mode, drawing to any other part of the image will copy the
- image data from the clone cross-hairs to that screen location. Hence a
- part of the image can be cloned to any other parts of the image.
-
- 5) Pantograph texture mode.
-
- The pantograph mode is similar to the clone mode, but is much more useful
- for image retouching.
-
- The pantograph mode is enabled in the texture menu, or using the alt-p
- combination. Again an extra cross-hair will appear on the screen, and all
- drawing operations will use this cross-hair as the source for colour
- information.
-
- When the pantograph is first enabled, the cross-hair is stationary and
- can be dragged to a new location in the same maner as the clone mode.
- However, once a drawing operation is initiated, the two cross-hairs will
- always remain the same distance appart. This allows simplifies retouching
- by making sure that the image data being copied across will always match
- up, even over multiple brush strokes.
-
- If you wish to reposition the pantograph, holding down the shift key
- (while your not drawing) will imobilise the pantograph cross-hair. To
- reposition the pantograph, simply move the mouse until the smaller
- cross-hair is over the area you wish to copy from, hold down the shift key
- and move to the are you want to copy to, and relase the shift key.
-
- The pantograph cross-hair can also be moved to the current cursor
- position by pressing alt-shift-p.
-
- 6) New loaders/savers.
-
- A GIF loader, as well as a VPB loader and saver have been added. The
- VPB loader and saver allows images to be transfered between OpalPaint and a
- Quantel PaintBox via the Picture Port interface.
-
- 7) Zapping brushes.
-
- Brushes can be zapped in the same manner as images using the
- Amiga-Shift-z key combination. This will apply the current drawing mode,
- gradients etc to the current brush.
-
- 8) Speed.
-
- Amiga 4000 owners should see a reasonable speed increase in some drawing
- operations, such as airbrushing.
-
- 9) ARexx Requesters.
-
- See ARexxReq.doc
-
-