SPAINT by Tom Showers Introduction: Spaint is a program that allows you to create and/or edit graphics screens on the Atari Portfolio palmtop computer. This program is being released as shareware so please register if you find the program useful. (Atari and Portfolio are trademarks of Atari corporation) Disclaimer: This software is supplied with no warranties, expressed or implied. The author will assume no liability for any losses from the use of this software. I have had no problems while testing this software but please, always make sure that your data is backed-up before trying out any new software. If you do encounter any problems please let me know, even if you do not want to register the software. Using Spaint: [Getting Started] Be sure to read the 'Quirks and Tips' section later in this documentation. Execute the SPAINT.COM file. You will be asked to select a font file. This is done by moving the cursor with the UP and DOWN arrow keys and pressing the ENTER key. If no font files are available you will get the message 'Sorry, no files of that type found.' In that case just hit a key. The arrow that appears is your drawing cursor. To move the cursor around the screen you will use the arrow keys and also the keys... \ | / 7 8 9 - u o - j k l / | \ The arrow keys move you 8 pixels at a time the other keys move you 1 pixel at a time. The 'h' key will give you some very brief help screens. The 'm' key will give you a menu screen. Most menu items can be executed by a single key stroke while working on the picture. [The Menu] To use the menu use the right and left arrow keys to move from one menu to the next. Use the up and down arrow keys to move within a menu. Use the ENTER key to select an item. Use the 'Esc' key to exit without selecting anything. [Loading and Saving] All load operations are performed using the 'point and shoot' operation described in loading a font. All save operations prompt you for a file name. This should not contain an extension. Be warned that if a file by that name exists it will be overwritten! To load a picture select 'Load a picture' from the 'FILE' menu or press the 'f' key while viewing the picture. To save a picture select 'Save a picture' from the 'FILE' menu or press the 's' key while viewing the picture. [Modes and Tools] When you select a mode or a tool a small letter appears next to the arrow key to indicate what has been selected. To select draw mode either select 'Draw mode' from the 'MISC' menu or press the 'd' key while viewing the picture. To select erase mode either select 'Erase mode' from the 'MISC' menu or press the 'e' key while viewing the picture. Draw mode plots pixels on the screen. Erase mode clears pixels from the screen. To quit either mode hit the 'Esc' key. There are three shape drawing tools - line, circle and box. To draw a line select 'Draw a line' from the tools menu or press the 'a' key while viewing the picture. Move the cursor to the starting point of the line and press the ENTER key. Move to the end point and press the ENTER key again. The line will be drawn. You can abort the operation by pressing the 'Esc' key before pressing the ENTER key the second time. To draw a circle select 'Draw a circle' from the tools menu or press the 'c' key while viewing the picture. Move the cursor to the center and press the ENTER key. Now move the cursor left, right, up or down to create the circle you want. Press the ENTER key again and the circle will be put into your picture. Pressing the 'Esc' key before hitting the ENTER key a second time will abort the operation. To draw a box select 'Draw a box' from the tools menu or press the 'b' key while viewing the picture. Move the cursor to one corner and press the ENTER key. Now move the cursor to the opposite corner and press the ENTER key a second time. The box will be added to your picture. The 'Esc' key can abort this operation as well. [Adding Text] You can add text using the currently loaded font. To enter text mode either select 'Write text' from the tools menu or press the 't' key while viewing the picture. While in text mode any key pressed will immediately be added to your picture. You cannot move the cursor while in text mode. You cannot use the ENTER key to move down a line. You cannot use the backspace key to delete a character. To move to a different part of the picture, exit text mode by pressing the 'Esc' key, move the cursor to the new location, then enter text mode again. To delete a character, exit text mode with the 'Esc' key, move the cursor back with the left arrow key, then enter text mode and type over the character with a different character or the space bar. Because the fonts vary in height you may have to experiment with how many pixels to move down when you do multiple lines of text. To load a new font select 'Load a font' from the 'FILE' menu or press the 'w' key while viewing the picture. If font files are available you will be given a list. Select the font desired by moving the cursor to the file desired and pressing the ENTER key. [Block Operations] Spaint supports minimal block operations. To copy a block either select 'Copy a block' from the 'BLOCK' menu or press the 'x' key while viewing the picture. Your cursor will now become a small square. To change the size of the block press the '1', '2', '3' or '4' key. The square can be moved left and right with the arrow keys. You move up and down with the arrow keys or the '8' and 'k' keys. When you are over the block you want to copy press the ENTER key. The block is then saved to the block buffer overwriting the current contents of the buffer. To save the block to disk, select 'Save a block' from the 'BLOCK' menu. You will be prompted for a file name, do not use an extension. The block will then be saved to disk with the '.SPB' extension added. WARNING any file with the same name will be overwritten. To load the block buffer from a disk file select 'Load a block' from the 'BLOCK' menu. If there are any block files in the current directory you will be presented with a list to choose from. Move the cursor to the desired file and press the ENTER key. To paste a block select 'Paste a block' from the 'BLOCK' menu or press the 'r' key. Your cursor will be replaced by the current contents of the block buffer. Use any of the cursor movement keys to position the block and press the ENTER key to place it in the picture. Pressing the 'Esc' key before pressing the ENTER key will abort the paste operation. [Miscellaneous Functions] To quit spaint select 'Quit spaint' from the 'FILE' menu or press the 'q' key while viewing the picture. You will be reminded about saving your picture and asked to verify that you really want to quit. To erase an entire picture select 'Erase picture' from the 'MISC' menu or press the 'z' key while viewing the picture. You will be asked to verify the request and the picture will then be cleared. Quirks and Tips: [internal applications and powering off] Depending on how you have your system configured you may be able to use the internal applications without exiting spaint. Start the application with the Atari-key combinations listed in your owner's manual. If you get a 'memory full' message just hit the 'Esc' key twice and you will be back in spaint. If the application works you may have limited memory to work with so some large files cannot be loaded. If this is the case you will have to exit spaint before working with these files. When you exit the application the screen will go completely blank, press the 'Esc' key again to update the spaint drawing screen. If you power down by pressing the 'Fn'-'o' combination or you don't hit a key for a period of time the screen will go blank. When you hit a key to activate the system again your picture will show for an instant and then vanish. Pressing the 'Esc' key will restore the display. [caps lock] The 'caps lock' and the 'num lock' must not be set while using spaint. If they are the 'hot-keys' and the cursor movement keys will work erratically or not at all. If things do not seem to be working press the 'Esc' key then the 'm' key, this will take you to the main menu. While in the menu screen you can use the 'Lock' key to display a status line on the bottom of the screen. Make sure that the caps lock and the number lock are not set. Consult your owner's manual if you are not sure how to do this. [the cursor] The cursor can be moved off of the screen by moving all the way to the right or all the way down. This is to allow you to draw to all parts of the screen. This can be confusing if it is out of view when you do a screen erase. If everything is blank hit the 'Esc' key, if it is still blank try moving the cursor up and left with the arrow keys. [saving] When you select a save operation you cannot exit by hitting the 'Esc' key. If you do hit the 'Esc' key a backslash will appear on the screen and the cursor will be moved to a different place, but the program will still be waiting for input. If for some reason you must not write a file, input a few space characters and press the ENTER key. You will then get an error message that can be ignored. [text] When in text mode some key combinations will give you graphics characters. (the ENTER, BACKSPACE and 'Ctrl'-letter combinations) Experiment with these, it can be an easy way to add some flare to your pictures. You can also erase sections of your picture by going into text mode and pressing the space-bar. The size of the font will determine the size of the block that is erased. [block copy and text] In both the block copy and text operations the cursor is 'byte aligned' when you begin. This means that you cannot move left and right 1 pixel at a time by using the 'u' and 'o' keys. If you absolutely must put the text in a particular position, write the text to a blank section and use the block operations to move it to the position that you want. Although block copy is 'byte aligned' block pasting is not. So once a block is in the buffer it can be placed in any position that you want. [saving blocks as clip-art] If you want to save blocks to use as clip-art it is best to combine them and save them as '.PGC' files. This is because '.PGC' files are compressed and take up less disk space. To do this make sure that your current picture is saved then... 1) Copy the block you want to save. 2) Load the clip-art file that will hold the blocks. 3) Paste the block on an empty section of the picture. 4) Save the clip-art file. When you paste be sure to move the cursor to the top left corner of the screen and then use only the arrow keys to position the block. That way it will be 'byte aligned' when you want to copy the block for use in another picture. [error messages] You should get very few if any error messages. A few that you could get are... Write protect error Memory full Error writing file. Disk Full? The 'Disk Full?' message is just a suggestion and is not expecting a response. In fact it might not even be the cause of the error, it is simply to remind you to check if you get a disk write error. File formats: Spaint will load either '.PGC' or '.PGF' graphics files. All pictures are saved as '.PGC' files. Blocks are saved as raw bit-maps. The size of the file determines the size of the block. Sizes are... 8x8 pixels - 8 bytes 16x16 pixels - 32 bytes 24x24 pixels - 72 bytes 32x32 pixels - 128 bytes Fonts used in spaint are bit-mapped EGA/VGA screen fonts. There are a large number of shareware and public domain font editors for these fonts. The resulting files must contain no headers and have the extension '.FNT'. Registration: This program is shareware. It has taken a great deal of time to get it to this point. In order for this program to continue to develop it will require three things... 1) Registered users. 2) Feedback from those users. 3) Distribution to potential users. So try the program out and pass it around. If you find the program useful register by sending a check or money order for $5.00 to ... Tom Showers P.O. Box 86238 Phoenix, Az 85080 I welcome suggestions from all. You can either send them to the address above or send me E-mail. I can be contacted on... Genie as T.SHOWERS Compuserve as 70400,3052 Prodigy as BXHH04A I also welcome suggestions for other software that you would like to see developed. Please give me feedback. This software may be distributed freely as long the program and documentation are not altered in any way and no fee is charged for the program itself. (C) 1992 Tom Showers