THIS INFORMATION IS FOR T E C H N I C A L U S E R S ---------------------------- SmartLink The common means of passing data (for example, a picture) between programs is to save the data in a file from the first program, then load the data from the file into the second program. This transfer of data through files is effective, but when the data sets are large, it can prove to be slow. For this reason, a new means of transferring data between programs was first developed for Express Paint (which is an advanced graphics program) and is supported by Fusion Paint. This new system uses features of the Amiga Operating System to communicate between programs. However, it does require that programs have special communications' ports built into them for the process to work. This communications method is called SmartLink. Currently SmartLink is supported in Fusion Paint, Express Paint, Icon Magic, PortManager, Flip, Match, and Pixelize. PortManager, Flip, Match, and Pixelize can be found in the Utilities drawer. Express Paint is another paint program which can be used as a partner paint program with Fusion Paint. Icon Magic is an advanced icon and mouse pointer editor. See below for more information on Express Paint, Icon Magic, Flip, Match, and Pixelize. The function of the PortManager is also described below. There are currently three methods of communications which SmartLink allows. They are the transfer of data, the Service Provider-Client link of two programs, and the Processor-Client link between two programs. Transfer of Data Through the Special menu, Fusion Paint can transfer pictures, brushes (cuts), and palettes to Express Paint, Icon Magic, or another copy of Fusion Paint. There are many applications of this concept. For example, two copies of Fusion Paint, with differenct screen resolutions, could be running at the same time, in order to transfer pages back and forth. See "The Special and Use Menus" section below for information on how to transfer data. Service Provider - Client A Service Provider is a program which uses the interface (screen and windows) of another program (Client). When a Service Provider is accessed through the Use menu, it attaches itself to the Client program. The Service Provider becomes an extension of the Client. Flip, Match, and Pixelize are Service Providers which work with both Fusion Paint and Express Paint. Information on how to use these utilities can be found below. Processor - Client The Service Provider mechanism does not quite cover all the desired possibilities for inter-program communications since it may be constrained by the user interface of the Client program. For this reason, it is also necessary that some mechanism be allowed that would replace the process of "copy the page to another program (the Processor), go to the screen of the other program, use the other program to modify the page, copy the page back to the Client, and go back to the screen of the Client". The Process Picture item in the Special menu is the mechanism which simplifies this process and allows the Processor-Client partnership to exist. With one menu action in the Client program, a user gets the Processor to make a copy of the current picture and set up and switch the user to the Processor's screen and window. The user can then modify the picture with the Processor's tools. Then with one menu command from the Processor's menus, the changed picture can be returned to the original Client program The screens will be switched back for the user to continue working in the Client program. Fusion Paint and Express Paint can work together in this Processor-Client relationship. At this time, the Processor must be Fusion Paint and the Client must be Express Paint. This is due to the fact that the Processor program must be able to change resolutions. Another application of this concept would be a word processor or desktop publishing program (which handled graphics) that could actually call on a Processor program, such as Fusion Paint, to edit a picture for it and return the result to it when the user is done. Note: SmartLink has great potential for Software Developers to create other Service Providers and Processors for Fusion Paint and Express Paint. Likewise, if you have an existing product which could be enhanced by linking it to a graphics environment, SmartLink provides the capability of attaching it to Fusion Paint or Express Paint. If you are a Developer, and interested in supporting SmartLink, contact Professional Automation Resources (PAR Software). PortManager The PortManager is unique in that it plays an intermediary role between the various programs using SmartLink. The PortManager allows programs which support the SmartLink concept to communicate. In order to activate SmartLink, double-click on the PortManager's icon. This need only be done once after the Amiga is booted. In fact, clicking on the PortManager a second time will cause the PortManager to shut down. The PortManager may also be activated from the CLI with a command such as: run Fusion:Utilities/PortManager Note: The PortManager must be started before running other programs which use SmartLink. Once the PortManager is running, startup Fusion Paint and take a look at its menus. Notice that there are three menus. Now startup a second copy of Fusion Paint, and once it is running, take a look at the menus of both copies of Fusion Paint. Two new menus, "Special" and "Use", will have appeared. These are the means by which SmartLink is accessed from within Fusion Paint. The Special menu contains the basic data transferring commands for copying pages (pictures), brushes, and palettes to and from another program. (For example, Express Paint or another copy of Fusion Paint.) The Special menu also allows you to use Fusion Paint as a Processor for Express Paint through the Process Picture menu item. The "Use" menu contains the same program names as the submenus in the "Special" menu. If you want to use a program as a Service Provider, select its name in the Use menu. The Special and Use Menus The Special and Use menus are the means by which "SmartLink" is accessed from within Fusion Paint. (See the SmartLink section above.) The Special menu contains the basic data transferring commands for copying pages (pictures), brushes (cuts), and palettes to and from the current program. It also allows the Processor-Client relationship (discussed above) to exist through the Process Picture menu item. The Use menu allows a Service Provider to take control of the program. Transfer of Data Menu Items The Copy Page From and To, Copy Brush From and To, and Copy Palette From and To menu items in the Special menu allow the user to transfer pictures, brushes, and palettes between Fusion Paint and Express Paint or another copy of Fusion Paint. To demonstrate these capabilities, start two copies of Fusion Paint after running the PortManager. (For more information, see the "PortManager" section above.) Draw a quick doodle in Fusion1 and select the Copy Page To-Fusion2 function from the Special menu. Now change screens to Fusion2 and observe that the doodle has been copied to the screen of Fusion2. Continue the doodle in Fusion2. Then switch screens back to Fusion1 and select the Copy Page From-Fusion2 function. The doodling that was performed in Fusion2 will appear in Fusion1. Finally, try out the Undo icon (or the Help or Esc keys). The Copy Brush and Copy Palette functions work in the same way that the Copy Page functions do. Since Fusion Paint can have many brushes in its Cut Clipboard, the brush that will be transferred is always the currently selected brush. These Copy From/To functions are currently available in Fusion Paint, Express Paint, and Icon Magic. Process Picture This item of the Special menu allows a Processor program to receive the current picture from Fusion Paint (acting as the Client). Fusion Paint is an example of a Processor program. That is, it supports the ability to process an Express Paint picture while Express Paint is running. This is the sort of interface that will be used by other Processor programs. This capability can be demonstrated by running a copy of Express Paint and a copy of Fusion Paint at the same time (provided the PortManager has been executed). Once this was accomplished, one would select the Process Picture-Fusion1 menu item from within Express Paint. For example, draw a unique doodle from within Express Paint. Next select the Process Picture-Fusion1 menu item. The screen will be immediately switched to bring Fusion1 into view, and a requester asking if it is safe to delete the current contents of Fusion1 will appear. If it is safe to proceed, click on the "Yes" and Fusion Paint should reconfigure itself and load in the picture that was created in Express Paint. This reconfiguration step means that Fusion Paint does not have to be set up to the correct page, screen size, or number of colors before it is asked to process a picture. At this point, you will find that Express Paint has been put to sleep and that all the tools of Fusion Paint are available for editing as normal (including the Change Screen menu item). One difference will be apparent. That is, the Use menu has disappeared entirely, and the Special menu now only contains two items: Done and Done Boxed. Selecting Done will cause Fusion Paint to awaken Express Paint and pass the new version of the picture back to Express Paint. Selecting Done Boxed will also awaken Express Paint and pass the picture back, but a region of interest in the picture must be boxed in Fusion Paint before this happens. The meaning of this boxed area will depend on the original calling program, but it is ignored by Express Paint and Fusion Paint. Note: When Process Picture is used, a new undo buffer will start in the Processor. However, the Client program will keep its undo buffer. This can allow one to retain operations from the Processor in the Client after undoing operations executed in the Client. Use Menu - Service Providers The Flip, Match, and Pixelize programs found on the Fusion Paint disk are Service Providers and are accessed by selecting their names in the Use menu. For information on how to use these three utilities, see below. You will find them useful. To demonstrate this menu, start the Flip program by double- clicking its icon and start a copy of Fusion Paint. If the PortManager has been previously executed, the Use menu will appear in Fusion Paint. Load an image. Once this has been done, select the Flip 1 item from the Use menu and note that the Title Bar changes to indicate that Flip is now active. The Flip menu is now attached to the Fusion Paint window instead of Fusion Paint's own menus. Select the Vertical item from the pull-down menu, and watch what happens. Selecting the Horizontal item will flip the picture left to right. (This takes a bit longer than vertical flipping.) When you are done flipping the image, select the Done menu item and verify that control of the screen has returned to Fusion Paint by examining the menus. Power Borders The Power Borders (found in BORDER1 & 2 Drawers) feature of the Box tool should be discussed at this point. This is a method that uses border patterns defined in cuts to produce graphic frames or borders around regions of the display. It is used in two primary modes. One mode produces hollow borders (to surround existing graphics or text), and the other produces solid filled rectangles with surrounding borders. Power Borders are accessed through an Alt key which is held down at the second mouse click of the Hollow Box and Pattern modes of the Box tool. If the Hollow Box mode is currently selected, a hollow border will be drawn based on the currently displayed cut. If the Pattern mode is instead currently selected, a solid filled border (again based on the current cut) will be drawn. Since Power Border patterns are kept in standard cuts, changing the border pattern is as simple as selecting a different cut. This approach allows custom borders to be easily designed and used. The Fusion Paint disk contains drawers of Borders that contain sample cuts designed to be used as Power Borders. After loading these cuts via the Cut tool (see "The Cut Tool" section in the manual for details on loading cuts), try creating borders with them. While drawing Power Borders based on these predefined cuts can be useful, you will want to be able to create your own custom borders. For this reason. the details of how Fusion Paint creates the border are given below. Note: The Power Border feature will always try to make a perfect break-free border, and as a result the border drawn may be a little larger than the rubberbanded area. Before placing the border, Fusion Paint attempts internally to break the current cut into a 3x3 or a 4x3 grid. Most common cuts will be seen as a 3x3 grid. For a 3x3 grid, the four corner tiles become the corners of the Power Border and the four side tiles of the cut become the sides of the Power Border. If the sides of the resultant border are longer than the four side tiles of the cut, Fusion Paint will repeat them as necessary. The end result of this process will often be very good, although there is a possibility that noticeable joints will occur between the repeat pieces used to make the sides. They can be touched up on the finished border itself or by editing the sample cut and redrawing the border. Cuts which can be broken into a 4x3 grid by Fusion Paint will produce flaw-free borders. When Fusion Paint is about to use a cut to draw a border, it looks at the cuts dimensions (width and height) and from these determines if this border should be treated as the 3x3 case previously described or as a specially constructed 4x3 case. In order to construct border cuts that satisfy the 4x3 case, three simple rules must be followed. First, make the four corner tiles the same size and make them square. An easy way of doing this is to draw one corner with a square boundary, cut it out in the initial position, and flip it to make identical (mirrored) corners for the other three tiles. Note: Use the Flip tool which is on the Fusion Paint disk or Express Paint to flip the image. Cuts (brushes) can be copied between Fusion Paint and Express Paint. For more information see "The Special and Use Menus" section above. The second rule is to make the width of the top and bottom side tiles the same as the height of the left and right side tiles. The height of the top and bottom (and the width of the left and right) tiles must be the same as the side length of the corner squares. Again, this rule is easiest met by making one side and producing the other sides by flipping the image. Once these four cuts and the four corner cuts have been produced, it is a simple matter to use the Brush tool to assemble the completed border cut. To construct the grid, follow the third rule. Place one of each corner and one of the left and right side tiles but two of the top and bottom side tiles in the appropriate places. The resulting image is 4 tiles wide and 3 tiles high. This allows Fusion Paint to see the difference in the size of the side pieces and the size of the corner pieces. Icon Magic Express Paint, Icon Magic, and Fusion Paint are commercial applications which support the SmartLink process. For more information on Express Paint, see the section above. Due to SmartLink, Fusion Paint and Icon Magic make an excellent pair of programs for the graphic's involved user. You are already aware of the editing and graphic's power Fusion Paint yields. Icon Magic is an Icon and Mouse Pointer editing and creation tool. Icon Magic makes it a simple process to save an existing IFF image as any type of icon. Since it can deal with IFF images as well as icons, through SmartLink Fusion Paint can receive an image and be used to accomplish major editing functions on that image. The edited image can then be passed back to Icon Magic with one pull-down menu operation. Icon Magic and Fusion Paint can transfer pictures, brushes, and palettes back and forth via the Special menu. For more information on using these two programs together, see the "SmartLink" and "The Special and Use Menus" sections above. For more information about Icon Magic; contact Glacier Technologies, P.O. Box 1309, Vancouver WA, USA 98666. Phone: (206) 694-1539. Flip This utility, which is located in the Utilities drawer, acts as a Service Provider to Fusion Paint and Express Paint through SmartLink. It allows you to flip the entire picture horizontally and vertically. Once both the PortManager and Fusion Paint have been executed, starting Flip will allow access to its functions through the Use menu in Fusion Paint. To demonstrate its operation, load an image and select the Flip 1 item from the Use menu, and note that the Title Bar changes to indicate that Flip is active. The Flip menu item is now attached to the Fusion Paint window instead of Fusion Paint's own menus. Select the Vertical item from the menu, and the picture will flip vertically. The Horizontal item will flip the picture from left to right. (Horizontal flipping takes longer than vertical flipping.) When you are finished flipping the image, select the Done menu item and verify that control of the screen has returned to Fusion Paint by examining the menus. Since Flip has no control window or screen of its own, it needs some way of shutting down. To shut down a copy of Flip, select the Exit Flip menu item in the Flip menu. The Special and Use menus in Fusion Paint will then be updated to reflect the fact that Flip is no longer available for use. Pixelize This utility, which is located in the Utilities drawer, acts as a Service Provider (in the same manner as Flip) to Fusion Paint and Express Paint through SmartLink. This program is useful for making blocky pixel effects, especially from digitized pictures. It is accessed through the Use menu like Flip. Pixelize demonstrates one additional level of take over that Flip does not. It requires that the user box the areas of the picture with the mouse that are to be pixelized. The size of the blocky pixels can be set from the Pixelize menu. Select the Done menu item to return control to Fusion Paint. The Exit Pixelize menu item shuts down Pixelize. Match This utility, which is located in the Utilities drawer, acts as a Service Provider (in the same manner as Flip and Pixelize) to Fusion Paint and Express Paint through SmartLink. The Match program provides a very useful facility for matching the palette of one picture with that of another so that the two may be easily combined. That is, it remaps one palette to another, finding the best fit in the image of colors in the new palette. In the matching process, the palette of one picture is defined as being the desired or reference palette. To define the reference palette, load a picture containing that palette into Fusion Paint and select the Match item from the Use menu. Select Set Palette from the Match menu and the Title Bar should briefly state "Palette Set" before returning automatically to Fusion Paint. Now load a picture into Fusion Paint that is to be converted (remapped) to the reference palette that has just been set. Once it is loaded, select the Match tool again from the Use menu. This time select the Remap Palette menu item. The Title Bar will display the message "Remapping Now...", and you should see the picture being gradually converted from left to right. Note that the picture will appear to be changing into very strange colors. This is normal and will be corrected at the end of the remapping process. When the remapping is done, the picture will revert to the correct palette and control will automatically be returned to Fusion Paint. Match can be shut down through the Exit Match item in the Match menu. ONE MEGABYTE RECOMMENDED Although Fusion Paint will run on a 512k machine, it is recommended that you have at least one megabyte of memory. One megabyte allows much larger page sizes since the entire 512k of Chip RAM can be dedicated to the painting. FONTS We thank Zuma Group for allowing us to distribute two of the Zuma fonts on this disk (Barn and mBarn). These two fonts have other sizes than those given on this disk. Zuma also carries many other fonts. For information on how to obtain the Zuma fonts contact: Zuma Group, Inc. 6733 N. Black Canyon Phoenix, AZ, USA 85015 phone: (602) 246-4238 PRINTER DRIVERS This disk was built from Workbench 1.3. In order to make room for the fonts which have been supplied on this disk, only some of the 1.3 printer drivers have been supplied. If you have purchased Workbench 1.3 and want to use the Fusion Paint disk as the Workbench disk, and the printer driver you need is not here, copy the desired printer driver to this disk with the CLI command: copy df0:devs/printers/driver to Fusion:devs/printers The above assumes your disk with the 1.3 driver is in drive df0:, and you should use your printer driver's name where "driver" is specified. The printer driver you copy must be from Workbench 1.3. The version of the printer driver must match that of the printer.device file in the devs: directory. The printer.device file on the Fusion Paint disk is from Workbench 1.3. For this reason, printer drivers from earlier versions of Workbench 1.2 or 1.3 will not work properly unless the printer.device file (from the same version of Workbench) is copied to the devs: directory along with the printer driver. In order for there to be room on the Fusion Paint disk for your printer driver, you may need to delete some of the other files. Do not mix printer drivers from different versions of Workbench. If you copy a driver from an earlier version of Workbench, be sure that you delete the other drivers on this disk. The drivers on this disk are from Workbench 1.3, release 34.20. LIBRARIES If you are using a disk other than the Fusion Paint disk for your Workbench disk, the arp.library file in the libs: directory must be copied to the libs: directory of the Workbench disk. In order to install this file onto the current Workbench, double-click on the InstallArpLibrary icon on the Fusion Paint disk.