H A N D Y - P A I N T E R Version: 2.2 Date: 04/02/90 Distributed by: CAMERON Elektronische Produkte GmbH Pfaffenweg 1 D-7024 Filderstadt 4 West Germany Copyright (c) 1988-90 by: Imperial SOFTware Systems Gerdes KG Lessenicher Straße 9 D-5300 Bonn 1 West Germany Program, documentation and adaptation are protected by law. Duplications for other than private purposes are prohibited and will be prosecuted. In order to make full use of the HANDY-PAINTER, you need the HANDY-SCANNER of CAMERON GmbH. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This file informs you about the recent improvements and changes concerning the HANDY-PAINTER. We'd also like to make suggestions for solving problems of general interest. If you have any comments on the HANDY-PAINTER write a short letter to CAMERON GmbH. Please note that we do not claim the HANDY-PAINTER to be the best paint-pro- gramn for the Commodore AMIGA. Yet we are of the opinion that you can not only use HANDY-PAINTER to prepare pictures and finish them with other pro- grams but also to complete them. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 2.2 dated on 04/02/90 is the eighth release-version of HANDY-PAINTER for the Commodore AMIGA. It replaces the Version from 02/08/90. The very first version was dated 04/05/88. The first changes have been made on 05/18/88 and are marked by (I). The changes of the third version (07/27/88) are marked with (II) and those of the fourth version (12/22/88) with (III). The changes of the fifth release (dated 02/25/89) can be identified by a "IV". The changes of the sixth release (dated on 05/08/89) are marked with a "V". You can identify the version 2.1 (seventh release - dated on 02/08/90) by a "2.1". The most recent version (eighth version) is marked by a "2.2". The following bugs have been corrected: - There were problems with some Personal A4 Scanners (the picture had an offset of about 2.8 cm) that have been corrected. (V) - If you had a Commodore AMIGA with more than 2.5MByte and used a Handy- Scanner in 200dpi mode Handy-Painter could not believe in the amount of free memory and crashed. The overflow that caused this problem will not occur any more. (2.1) - In case you have several programs running at the same time Handy-Painter will now correctly ignore mouse movements on other screens. (2.1) - After either quitting Handy-Painter or changing the size of the display the screen memory was not freed correctly. This has been changed and should let you make better use of your memory. (II) - If you clicked the left mouse button again after selecting a menu item instead of waiting for a requester to appear an screen, Handy-Painter might have gone into an endless loop. This will not occur any more. (II) - The menu of the version from 05/18/88 had been expanded. Thus it was possible that part of the menu was bigger than the screen display could show. This was not treated properly by intuition and therefore some crashes may have happened. This has also been fixed. (II) - The old EPSON-printer-driver produced an output with an incorrect aspect ratio in horizontal mode. This bug has been corrected by now. (III) - The installation sequences English/Francais/Deutsch work much safer now. You can even use the workbench of an AMIGA 2000. (II) - All programs have been changed to make them always load into CHIP memory. Thus scanning with extended memory should not be a problem. (IV) - Reading the files ReadMe and LiesMich in version 2.1 of the Handy-Painter using the Notepad did not work properly. This bug has been fixed. (2.2) The following additions have been made: - There is no more direct access to the CCR. Thus Handy-Painter should also run on AMIGAs with a 68020. Scanning on a 68020-AMIGA might not function due to timing-problems. (II) - The printout (excluding the Amiga-Driver) is about 1.5 times faster. (I) - You can now use the EPSON LQ or a comptible printer for a printout with HANDY-PAINTER. In order to select the EPSON LQ you have to enter a "L" as the first character for the printertype. If you have a P6, you can also use this to produce an almost two times faster printout though the resolution will be lower. You must simply treat the P6 as if it were an EPSON LQ. (III) - A new printerdriver is "Quick", too. You chose it by entering a "Q" at the beginning of the line for the printertype. This driver produces on a HP plus (and only a HP plus) a very quick printout. Orientation is ignored, only the least significant bit of the colors is tested (if you have b/w pictures you will not notice this) and the size of the printout is not alway correct - mostly it will be about 20% smaller. If you like a quick printout you will have to work with it. (III) - Filling uses the complete free memory. Therefore it should not happen to you any more that you have to leave Handy-Painter with an error-message "Out of Memory". On the other hand much more complicated figures can be filled, too. You should only avoid to move screens or to work with other programs because this could cause requests for memory that can of course not be satisfied. (II) - Requesters in Handy-Painter have become much more comfortable. They can be moved on screen like windows. The first line of input gets activated, so you will not have to click it first. Pressing advances you one line and pressing in the last line of the Requester ends the Re- quester like a click on "OK". You will probably not need the mouse any more. (II) - File selection has been improved, too. Handy-Painter now remembers the filename you have selected for the special operation thus enabling you to use it the next time again. (IV) - If you create new pictures Handy-Painter will warn you now in case there is not enough memory. Thus you will not have to leave Handy-Painter this way any more. Nonetheless you should be careful when changing the size of a picture. If it does not fit into memory the old contents is lost as it were lost in case of success. (III) - The way you are able to control the scanning-process has completely re- designed. Thus you will be told before scanning which one of the many possible scanners you are using and how large the current resolution is. We recommend that you do not change the resolution at this point any more. The scan-length now has to be entered in mm. Handy-Painter will calculate the amount of lines needed. In version III an estimated scan-length had been implemented which now has been removed again since it proved to be quite problematic. Furthermore, it has become superfluous since in case you enter a length that does not fit in memory at all Handy-Painter will warn you on unseccessful memory allocation. At this moment you are even given the opportunity to use the maximum possible length. If your first length has been completely unrealistic it might well take some time before scanning starts but somwehow it will always be possible to scan. Note: Using the maximum scan-length always means using the maximum available amount of memory. Therefore it is not unusual if memory be- comes rare afterwards. So you should scan the picture again using a slightly shorter length - if possible. If you have not much free memory you do not always have to use the full scan-width. Now there is a new input-line (the last one of the requester) which enables you to limit the width of the scan-in. You just have to enter the maximum scan-width (in mm) in the appropriate line. This width will be used at maximum (starting from the left border of the original) when scanning. If you do not want to have a limitation of the scan-width, you simply have to enter a "?". The program Scan&Save has its own input-line in order to limit the scan- width. Similar rules apply to this line, the only difference being that here the width has to be entered in pixel. (2.1) - The pause after horizontal scanning has become much shorter. (I) - You can now leave the demo-program by pressing the left mouse-button. (II) - Demo also changes the colors to black and white before starting. In earlier versions the colors stayed as they were. (III) - The Software-package now also supports Handy-Scanner with resolutions of 200/300/400 dpi. The selected resolution will be tested each time before scanning and then appropiate steps will be taken. If you only have a scanner with a resolution of 200dpi, the programs will not be able to work with the higher resolutions. If you use the resolution of 300 or even 400dpi the image will be too large to be completely shown on screen. Therefore the right border will be missing. Nonetheless Handy-Painter as well as Scan&Save will work with the complete picture. (I) - Also supported is the Personal A4 Scanner (A4, 200dpi). The picture is not completely displayed while scanning. A complete page is about 2400 lines long. In order to be able to scan a complete page you need at leat 1MByte RAM. (III) - Handy-Painter now also supports the Handy-Scanner type 10 (105mm wide, 200/ 300/400dpi resolution) as well as the Mitsumi A4 Scanner (200/300dpi in up to 64 dithering-gray-scales). If you want to use one of these scanners you need the apropriate interface. You can only make full use of these scanners if you have about 1 to 2 MByte RAM. (2.1) - We now also support a color-Handy-Scanner (64mm wide, 90dpi, 4096 colors). If you want to use this scanner you need the above mentioned Interface as well as 1-2MByte RAM. Scan&Save and Demo treat this scanner like a b/w scanner. Handy-Painter additionally has several color-modes implemented that are especially made for the color-scanner (see below). The b/w-mode is still useful if you have simple b/w-drawings. (2.1) - Each of the three programs now tests if a scanner is connected before scanning. You will be warnend if your scanner is not connected. (II) - Handy-Painter now has several new scan-modes besides "Normal" and "Inverse". They are mainly intended for use with the new color-scanner. The modes are referenced by numbers: 1 - 7. You select one of these scan- modes by entering its number in the second line of the scanner-requester. The numbers have the following meaning: 1: Scan using a grey-scale of 16 colors. 2: Scan using 16 predefined colors. 3: Scan using 16 colors that have been adjusted to optimal fit the picture. 4: Scan using 8 colors and dithering (results in 4096 effective colors !) 5: Scan using 32 predefined colors. 6: Scan using 32 colors that have been adjusted to optimal fit the picture. (The modes 5 and 6 can not correctly be displayed by Handy-Painter. We suggest that you instantly save pictures scanned in these modes and continue work on them with a different program). (Modes 1 to 6 need a color-scanner !) 7: Scan using a real grey-scale of 16 colors. This mode only works with a b/w-scanner which is capable of dithering. You must switch the scanner in a grey-scale mode of course. The resolution of the scanner will be divided by 4 (400dpi e.g. will be reduced to 100dpi). After scanning the palette gets appropriately adjusted. Please take care that you have put Handy-Painter in a mode where it can display 4 (or 3) Bit-Layers. We remind you of the large amount of memory and time that working with color needs. (2.1) - During some very time-intensive operations Handy-Painter now displays a message that it is working. (2.2) - In case of a system-error Handy-Painter now tries to manage the cleanup via alerts. Thus it is now possible to save the pictures after a hangup even if Handy-Painter was started from Workbench. (2.2) - Handy-Painter now also supports the PAL-mode because the height of the screen display in interlace-mode is now defined in the file Text.txt. When using English language the predefined contents are ":§|400|". The number 400 can be changed if necessary. The only restrictions are, that: a) Never should less than 400 be entered. b) The number should be a multiple of 8. c) You should never specify more lines than the hardware can manage. (2.2) - In order to faciliate the use of Handy-Painter the two first colors are now temporarily set to default colors during menu operations and most of the requesters. (2.2) - The background of the screen display of Handy-Painter is now drawn with its own color if possible. This is more conenient for the eye, especially when using interlace mode. (2.2) - The menu has been extended by "Show Page". This clears the screen and then displays a complete view of your picture. You can quit this display by either pressing any key or pressing the left mouse-button. (I) - New menu-items are "Color => front" and "Color => back". You can use them to redifine the current foreground- or background-colour. With them you can change the background-colour of a scannend picture or similar things. You only select the background-colour and the chose "Color => front". Now you can change the colour of the background, too. With "Color => back" you can define on colour that remains unchanged while changing colours. These two menu-items are also important if you want to define your own brush because brushes should be defined in the foreground-color. Otherwise mask-effects will occur that may be very interesting but are normally unwanted. Both menu-items need some time, so don't panic. (II) - Another new menu-item is "Load palette". You can use it to reload palettes that are stored on disc without changing anything else in the current picture. (2.1) - A new menu-item is also "Save palette". This menu-item enables you to store the current palette on disc independent of the contents of the picture. You can use this menu-item for making a backup-copy of your palette before changing it. (2.1) - "Gamma correction" is another nwe menu-item. It has been especially designed for pictures which have been digitalized using color scanners. Upon selecting this item the complete palette will be made brighter in order to compensate the usual nonlinearities of color-scanners. (2.1) - The menu-item "Grey correction" enables you to redefine your palette such that it's average is a neutral grey. This menu-item might aid you with pictures that have not the correct colors. (2.1) - A menu-item that works like the color control of you color-TV has been added: "Change color". This menu-item allows you not only to choose between a b/w-picture (0%) or a color-picture (100%) but also to enlarge the contrast between the colors being used (>100%). (2.1) - Another newcomer is the menu-item "- Show copy". It defines if the edit- functions "Copy", "Zoom by scale", "Scale-Zoom/Pattern" and "Pattern => Grey" (see also next point) show their destination-area with a frame (default) or if the result of the function is pre-displayed. This will be important if you want to make one picture out of different parts of scan- in. (II) - A new menu item is "- Smooth". You can use it in order to tell Handy- Painter if it shall use the coloring or a smoothing function when you select the coloring icon. If smoothing is selected each of the pixels next to the cursor will be replaced by that color that is colsest to the average. This function of coures only makes sense if you are in a mode with color (more than one Bit-Layer). (2.1) - The menu-items "Zoom by scale" and "Scale-Zoom/Pattern" are two new edit- functions. They principally make a copy and at the same time zoom the area to a fraction of its size. The fraction if input after defining the source-window. You can use this function in order to make parts of your picture 2, 3, 4, ... times smaller. Which one of the two you are going to use depends on if you want to leave patterns unchanged or not. (II) - The last new edit-function is "Pattern => Grey". It converts a pictures with patterns in real grey-scales. You get 16 different colours but your picture is 4 times smaller as well. The function works on the assumption that you have left the default colours of Handy-Painter unchanged and that you use 4 bit-layers. If you have scanned a picture with 400dpi (switch in position 3 e.g.) this function translates it into 16 colours and 100dpi. This is a very nice function. Unfortunately you need at least 1MB RAM and a little patience. (II) - Under the heading "Extras" the menu item "- Grab copy on top" has been added. This menu item specifies whether you use the top left or the bottom left corner of the destination rectangle during copy operations. This is important if you want to merge details that are larger than the screen display properly into existing pictures. (2.2) - The menu items working with the palette have been collected under the title"Palette". This menu has also been extended by the menu item "Invert palette". This menu item inverts this complete palette and thus offers a quick oppurtuninty to convert a negative picture into a positive picture (and vice versa). (2.2) - Handy-Painter now asks you if you really want to stop working with it before quitting. (V) - If you clear a page you will be asked whether to clear it indeed or not, thus avoiding loss of your work. (V) - Selecting a nin-existing page will result in an option to create it - similary to changing the page-size. (V) The following problems are known to us at the moment: - The definition of compression for pictures that are larger than 127Bytes (=1018 pixels) as described in the IFF-comvention are not precise. Thus there might be problems when transferring broad pictures to different programs. In case of problems you should save the pictures without compression. (2.2) Up to now no other bugs of HANDY-PAINTER or problems on the work with it have been reported to us. If your experiences are different please address yourself to CAMERON GmbH. CAMERON GmbH, Filderstadt