CHAPTER 9 TRANSFER 24 INTRODUCTION The Transfer 24 software contains much of the image-processing capabilities of New Tek's award-winning Digi-View Gold software. Adding the Transfer 24 software to Digi-Paint 3 gives you a complete set of painting and image- processing tools. Those of you who already have Digi-View 3.0 software will notice that the changes are minor,and if you know how to use Digi-View,you already know how to use Transfer 24. GETTING STARTED Before you begin,make a working copy of the Transfer 24 disk using the standard AmigaDOS copy procedures. Load the Transfer 24 program by double-clicking the program icon. The startup screen appears,where you can choose the resolution mode(see Figure 9.01). Click on the Off or On buttons for each entry. The selected buttons are highlighted. As you choose different options,the numbers inside the Width and Height buttons change to reflect those options. You can also click the width and height buttons repeatedly to cycle through all the available sizes in that dimension. Click OK to accept the settings and enter Transfer 24;click Exit to return to the Workbench. These settings control the pixel resolution of the screens;the color resolution(for instance,32 color or HAM)is controlled from within Transfer 24. 97 PROJECT MENU NEW Pulling down this menu item clears the Amiga's memory of any images currently in Transfer 24,CAUTION:If you haven't saved the image on the screen before you use New,the image is lost. LOAD Pull down this menu item to bring in IFF(Interchange File Format)or Digi-View and Digi-View Gold RGB and IP files that you've stored on a disk.(IFF files are a standard format on Amiga graphics programs;any IFF image can be brought into Transfer 24.)When you activate this item,the Load requester will appear. The requester says Load IFF at the top,and below that all of the files on the disk are displayed. If there are more files on the disk than can be displayed in the window,drag the gray bar to the right of the window and more file names will be revealed. File names will be in a dark color,while drawers will be in a light color(files are often stored in drawers;see your Amiga manual for more information). If the file you want is in a drawer,simply click on the drawer name the contents of that drawer will be displayed. If you want to return to the "outside" of the drawer(the root directory),click on the button at the bottom of the Load requester with the disk drive name on it(the first internal disk drive is named df0:;the second drive is named df1:;and the hard disk drive is named dh0:). When you click on the file name that you want to load,the name appears in the File window. The disk name will appear in the Drawer window only if you've switched drives by clicking on the drive buttons,and the drawer name (if any)will appear instead of the drive name. When you have the file name in the window,click on Load and the file will be loaded into Transfer 24. If you don't want to load a file at all,click Cancel and you'll be returned to the Transfer 24 screen. 98 Loading an IFF file will automatically convert it to the current resolution mode and number of colors that you have set in the Controls requester. This format conversion is a very useful feature. Once you've converted a file,you can then save it out(usually under a different name to preserve the original). In order to convert your picture to the current resolution mode without the bottom and left sides being cut off or left black,make sure that you have saved the picture from Digi-Paint 3 as an even multiple(for shrinking)or sub-multiple (for enlarging)of the new resolution mode in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Examples: If your current resolution is Make sure your picture size is 320x400 640x200,320x200,etc. 384x200 768x400,384x400,etc. 704x480 352x240,704x240,etc. Note that Transfer 24 cannot load in all super bitmap pictures created by Digi- Paint 3. The maximum size picture allowable in Transfer 24 is 768x480 pixels. SAVE This menu item allows you to save digitized images as an IFF file that can be ready by other IFF-compatible programs. The requester is the same as the Load requester,except for two things;the top of the requester is labeled Save,and the button on the bottom left-hand corner of the requester is labeled Save. The title of the requester will change,showing the number of colors you are saving in the image. To save the file,first make sure that you are saving to the correct disk. Click the drive buttons below the file window to see the contents of each disk. When you have the drive correctly assigned,click in the File window and a cursor will appear. Type in the name you want to use for the file, then click on Save. Remember to use a different name than any existing file, unless you want to erase a current file. The name cannot be longer than the window. It helps to use names that are easily remembered. 99 LOAD PALETTE: This menu item loads the palette associated with an image into the Palette controls. As you'll see later in the Controls menu,you can display an image in 32 colors or less. Once you've constructed that particular color palette,you can use the identical palette by activating Load Palette and selecting the file that you want from the Load requester that appears. Select the file name and click Load,just as you would load a file. Nothing appears to have changed on the screen,but when you go to the Palette controls,you'll see that the palette from the image you selected is now loaded in. If you select Freeze Palette and then load in a new picture,the image you load will be forced into that palette. This is useful if you are working with a series of images for an animation or presentation program,and you want all of the images to use the same palette. 100 PRINT If you want to print your Transfer 24 screen image,use this menu item. Call up the image you want to print. Then activate the print function. Make sure you've set your Preferences on the Workbench disk to the correct printer. If you want to cancel your printout,turn off the printer. After a brief wait,a requester appears asking you to check the printer or the cabling. Click Cancel, and you are returned to Transfer 24. HISTOGRAM This feature gives you information about the red,green,or blue information of the image in Transfer 24. Move the cursor to the right of Histogram in the menu when the submenu appears,and select either Red,Green,or Blue. In a moment two graphs will appear,showing the raw data and the data as Transfer 24 has adjusted it. The vertical axis is the number of pixels,the horizontal axis is the brightness(left to right is darkest to lightest). The adjusted histogram shows how the image is affected by your manipulation of the Color controls. Click OK to return to the main screen. ABOUT This tells you the copyright information and the latest version number of your Transfer 24 software. Click OK to return to the main screen. QUIT Pull down this menu item to exit Transfer 24 and return to the Workbench. If you haven't saved the image on the screen,this image will be lost when you Quit Transfer 24. 101 CONTROLS COLOR Activating this menu item brings up the Color Control panel(see Figure 9.06). This may also be done from the keyboard by pressing the right Amiga key and the c key simultaneously. The Mode portion of the control panel determines how the digitized image will appear. When you first bring up the control panel in lo- res,4096+ is highlighted. The image will appear using all 4096 colors of the Amiga's palette. This display mode is known as Hold-And-Modify(HAM). The image can also be displayed in line art mode(2 color)black & white(labeled B/W),32 colors or less(16 colors or less is the only option available in med- res or hi-res;see the Palette menu),64 colors(labeled HalfBrite)or 4096,a good way to display the image while you are getting the color settings just right; this mode is faster than 4096+. Just below the Mode panel is the Dither control,which only affects images displayed in 64 colors or less. Dithering is the use of two colors mixed to produce an apparent intermediate shade and helps to fill in intermediate colors. A typical picture will contain thousands of subjective shades. Setting the Dither to 1 or 2 instructs Transfer 24 to mix pixels of different colors to produce other colors when viewed at a distance. Try viewing an image with Dither on,and then turn Dither off and hit Display again. The difference should be readily apparent. There are really three ways to dither with Transfer 24-Dither 1,Dither 2,and the Sharpness slider. Dithering can be used along with sharpness;the best results come from a combination of the two. The Dither control gives a pebbly texture to the image,while the Sharpness is grainier. The Dither 1 setting is more subtle,while Dither 2 is very useful for reducing the number of colors in image. 102 The panel directly left of the Dither control has two buttons,Pos and Neg. The Pos button creates a normal image from a negative. Activating the Neg button and then choosing display will create a negative version of the image,inverting all of the colors. This can be used to create a positive color image of a color negative. There are seven sliders on the panel that control Brightness,Contrast, Saturation,Red,Green,Blue,and Sharpness. These sliders adjust your image for a better picture of just for special effects. To move the sliders,move the pointer onto one of the sliders and hold down the left mouse button. Drag the slider to the position you want and release the button. You'll notice that the number at the bottom of the slider changes from -47 to 48. You can record these settings for future reference. BRIGHTNESS Like its namesake on a TV,this control increases or decreases the overall illumination of the image. Moving the brightness control even a little has marked effects on the image. At the maximum setting,the image is almost completely white;at minimum,the image is almost completely black. CONTRAST: Again,this control is similar to the control on your TV set. Raising the control makes white white,blacks blacker,and colors more intense. Lowering it makes blacks and white more gray and colors washed out. This can sharpen or decrease the distinctions between different areas on the screen. At maximum, the image is "flattened" to few shades with almost no distinctions. SATURATION This works like the color control on a TV set. At minimum,the image is converted to black and white. At maximum,the colors are abnormally intense and cartoon-like. If the colors in the image don't seem vibrant enough,raise the saturation control. RED When set high,this increases the amount of red in the image;when reduced,the amount of red is diminished. At minimum,there is no red in the picture;at maximum,the picture is entirely in shades or red. GREEN When set high,this increases the amount of green in the image;when reduced,the amount of green is diminished. At minimum,there is no green in the picture;at maximum,the picture is entirely in shades of green. BLUE When set high,this increases the amount of blue in the image;when reduced,the amount of blue is diminished. At minimum,there is no blue in the picture;at maximum,the picture is entirely in shades of blue. SHARPNESS Raising this control sharpens the image but increase the amount of "grain" or "snow". Lowering the control reduces graininess but will increase the amount of "contouring" or "banding". A typical value for sharpness might be 3-5,which will be particularly useful for making text appear sharper. At maximum,the image is "snow";at minimum,the image is blurry and impressionistic. 103 DEFAULT Clicking on this button returns all the control sliders to the neutral setting. OK This removes the control panel,but not re-display the picture at any new settings. PALETTE This button takes you directly to the Palette controls. DISPLAY When you've adjusted the control panel to your liking,this control displays the picture with the new settings. PALETTE This menu item activates the Palette control(see figure 9.07);the keyboard equivalent is pressing the Amiga key and the p key simultaneously. The Palette control has several main fuctions:to reduce the number of colors in an image,to display an image in a particular palette,and to modify the palette colors. To use the Palette controls,first click on the button that says 32 in the Color controls,then click on the Palette button at the bottom of the Color controls. This takes you to the Palette controls. The palette in the upper right-hand corner shows the best 32 colors for displaying the image out of the 4096 possible. If you want to have less than a 32 color image,move the slider in the box labeled 32 colors. The number of colors change as you move the slider. You also see a U-shaped outline move on the colored squares immediately above, showing the last color in the range you've selected. If the Color control was still set to 4096 or 4096+ colors,call up the color control and hit the 32 color button(which,has changed to reflect the new number of colors you're asking for). Hit the Display button and exit the Palette control. The image will now be displayed with the new number of colors. 104 Why would you want to have less than 32 colors? This can be quite useful if you want to bring an IFf image into a paint program and have some colors left over to alter the image. You may only want to use 28 colors in the image,thereby reserving some colors for you to assign in the paint program. Fewer colors can save space. A 320x200 16 color image can be 32K,while an 8 color image is always 24K or less. This can be important when storing images in a database or sending them over a phone line,or just to save disk space. You can also alter the individual colors in the palette to create interesting special effects. Point at the color you want to change and press the left mouse button. The colored square is now highlighted. If you move one of the Red,Grn, or Blu sliders to the right,you'll see the color change. When you've adjusted the colors to your liking,click on the Freeze Palette button,and then hit Display. The image will be redisplayed using the palette colors you've chosen. If you turn off the Dither control in the Color Controls,you can get some very interesting effects. MAKE PALETTE/FREEZE PALETTE Transfer 24 is usually set on Make New Palette which means it will try to construct the best palette that it can for any picture you load,or after you have adjusted any of the color control settings in your current picture. If you do not want Transfer 24 to alter the palette then you must select Freeze Palette. From that point on,it will always use the current palette no matter what changes you make to the image. The correct way to load the original palette associated with a picture is:Load the picture,select Freeze Palette and then Load Palette. COLOR 0 ON/OFF When turned off,this control instructs Transfer 24 to make its palettes without using Color 0. This is useful if you plan to use the picture with a genlock and don't want "Color 0 Holes" to appear in the final output. DISPLAY This item is used whenever you have made any changes to the image and wish to see the results. It has the exact same function as the Display buttons on the Palette and Color Controls menus. 105