The current colour is displayed in a block beneath the Tool Pane. Depending on the tool selected there may be two colours, Primary and Secondary. The Primary colour is the main colour and is used when only one colour is required eg Paint brush, single colour fill etc. The secondary colour is used for graduated fills, shadows, fill colour in Draw objects etc. Use the Left mouse button to select the Primary colour and the Right button to select the Secondary colour.
The current colour block is displayed as one solid block when only one colour is used, or as a block of three when two colours are used. This enables a representation of the graduated set of colours. The colours can be edited by clicking on them to bring up the Colour Picker.
In some cases a tool will usually be a single colour but it can also have a secondary colour, eg Airbrush. By default this is set to a single colour, to mimic a real airbrush, but pleasant effects can be generated by using a secondary colour. To achieve this you must click on the Secondary section, the right hand block, to bring up the Colour Picker. You can then change the colour. Once changed you can then select the Secondary colour from the Palette using a Right mouse click as normal.
To return to a flat colour (where primary and secondary are the same) click
in the middle of the colour block - to set both colours to the same setting.
If the current tool does not use a colour then a 'hatched' pattern is displayed in the colour block.
In the Drawing applet the colour block is shown with a diagonal line of the Primary colour with the block filled with the Secondary colour. The Primary colour is used for the lines and outline and the secondary colour is the fill colour. The diagonal line also indicates the line thickness.
This applet provides a general set of painting functions. All tools are applied using the current brush settings, which can also be edited. In all cases Left Mouse button paints and Right Mouse button undoes any change made.
NOTE: The paintable undo (on the Right mouse button) obeys the brush settings, including opacity. Set Opacity to 100% to undo completely, lower values reduce the effect of the change instead of undoing completely.
IMPORTANT: All items in this applet are affected by the Brush Designer
(the Grey icon at the bottom left of the Tool pane). The size, shape,
density, opacity etc of all tools can be altered using the designer. IT
IS A VERY POWERFUL TOOL.
Normal paint style as defined by Brush Designer. Left Mouse button paints, Right Mouse button to undo.
Additive ie if red is current colour then a red tint is added to the image. NOTE: Colour must be a pure colour ie not a mixture of two colours. Use the Colour picker to select the colour.
Subtractive ie the current colour is subtracted from the image. NOTE: Colour must be a pure colour ie not a mixture of two colours. Use the Colour picker to select the colour.
The inner and outer colours can be chosen but initially they are set to the same colour. To select different inner and outer colours you must first click on the left section of the 'Current colour' block and select a colour for the Outer area. Do the same for the Inner area by clicking on the right block of the 'Current colour' block. Once this has been done you can change the colurs by clicking on the Palette with the Left and Right mouse buttons. If the 'Mix colour' button is selected then the inner and outer colours are mixed together randomly.
If 'Mixed colour' is off then the colour used is determined by the intensity
of the brush at the relevant point, the first colour is used at the outside
of the brush (where brush pixels are dark), the second colour on the inside
(where brush pixels are white) with a blend between the two extremes.
Obviously, this will only take effect if the brush is 'soft' and has grey pixels in it.
The airbrush effect is much nicer with a soft brush, so open up the Brush Designer and select one of the other brushes using the bump arrows. You can also design your own brush by clicking on the Edit button (this is only available on the initial brush). The 'Mix density' button randomizes the brush density. The 'Coverage' slider controls the number of pixels used in the brush.
This tool enables part of an image to be cloned. Click with the Left Mouse button to position the sample point on the thumbnail image in the dialogue box. Alternatively, while the Sample tool is selected, Ctrl clicking on the main image will set the start point.
Click on the 'Centre' button to put the sample point at the centre of the image.
Example: Gamma is selected with a Combined value of 1.5. Turn Combined off, switch to Red and set the gamma to 2.0. Switch to Blue and set gamma to 0.8. When the Process button is clicked the Red channel is set to a gamma value of 1.5 * 2.0 = 3.00 of the original, Green is 1.5 (because we did not set
an individual value), Blue is 1.5 * 0.8 = 1.2 of the original image. Curve
works in a similar way.
Colour Curve is chosen by selecting the Curve button. There are 4 points on the line and these can all be dragged independently. The graduated bar indicates the effect that the tool will have.
These tools are useful for enhancing photographs, especially if they are a little dark or light.
The Opacity slider lets you set the brush opacity so that you can have semi transparent brushes. More rarely required settings are available by toggling the box to full size as shown in the picture above.
Interpolation can be turned on or off using the 'Join' button. When on, this joins up painting points, producing continuous lines. This is most evident on small brushes.
'Smooth' averages mouse coordinates so that you can draw smooth curves
Smooth 0 turns it off, the other settings smooth the output position more and tend to eliminate fine detail (like the wobbles you get when painting with the mouse). You can use any combination of Smooth and Join settings.
To define a brush click on the bump arrows until an Edit button appears. Click on the Edit button to open the edit window. The window consists of an area for editing the Gradient and another for editing the size, shape and feathering properties. You can alter the brush shape by dragging the brush representation in the right half of the window. You can also control the size this way, but it is much easier to use the left hand slider to control the size of the solid core of the brush and the right slider to control the size of the feathered area. It is this that gives a smooth outline to the brush. The Gradient section has 4 points that
can be dragged and this controls the rate of change between the solid core of the brush and the feathered edge. This is best viewed in the brush representation of the Brush Edit window ie the one where you select the vignettes using the bump arrows.
The presets button pops up a menu of useful preset brush shapes and sizes.
Whilst working with a tool you can 'confirm' your changes to date by pressing the Spacebar. Undo will then return you to that point.
DRAW APPLET
When an object is completed you have the option to edit it in various ways. A bounding box appears around the object with 3 points joined by lines. The centre point is the 'Origin' and this is the point about which the object will be rotated or scaled. Double click on the point for a graphical input dialogue.
The top point is the 'Rotation' point and dragging on it rotates the object about the Origin. Holding down Ctrl rotates in steps of 15 degrees. Double click on the point for a dialogue box where you can enter the number of degrees of rotation required. Hold down Shift to step 5 degrees at a time when using the bump arrows or Ctrl to step 10 degrees at a time.
The lower point is the 'Scale' point. Drag on it to scale the object about the origin. Hold down Ctrl to retain the Aspect ratio.
The object is fixed to the canvas by Double clicking over it, or single clicking outside it. To abandon the object before fixing it to the canvas double click the Right Mouse button.
The Drawing tools are:
Objects will be automatically closed when the curve being added gets close
to the starting point. You can then cut holes inside a closed, filled object by creating another closed object inside it.
To enter text, select the required settings and click on the canvas. A box appears and as you type the box expands to encompass the text. You can insert carriage returns, if required, to produce multi line text and the text remains editable until you click outside the text box or double click on the text. Whilst the text is editable any of the settings can be changed and viewed.
The text bounding box can be dragged to re-position the text. There is also a diagonal line with a scaling point. This point can be dragged to alter the scale of the text. If you hold down Ctrl whilst scaling the Aspect ratio is maintained.
The Blend Text button is used to provide true anti aliasing to each pixel. If the text is on a single colour background or is going to be filled using the graduated fill tool after it is fixed to the canvas then this option should be turned off.
You can also add a Shadow by selecting the Shadow button. The percentage
figure is the size of the shadow in relation to the point size of the font. The Shadow Dial is used to set the direction of the shadow by dragging the pointer to the required angle.
When shadow is on, clicking the Left button over the colour patch selects the text colour and the Right button selects the Shadow colour.
Importing text
If the Clipboard contains text then it can be pasted onto the canvas using the Paste from Clipboard icon. The text is scaled to fit a sensible amount on the screen but you can still edit any of the settings and the text itself before fixing it to the canvas. The text is clipped after 99 lines and is indicated in the text by 'Clipped here'.
It is also used, by default, when pasting a sprite or JPEG picture from the
clipboard.
When a stamp has been created using one of the tools, a dialogue becomes
avaiable where you can change various settings.
NOTE: These settings only take effect with 32K and 16M colour images (and
when the image and the stamp have the same number of colours).
Opacity: Use the slider to alter the Stamp's opacity.
Fade: You can also click on the Fade button to cycle through the available
fades ( Solid, top to bottom, bottom to top, right to left, left to right and circular). The stamp is then plotted according to the fade type selected.
Shadow: You can add Shadow by ticking the box and alter the amount of shadow using the bump arrows. Holding down Ctrl or Shift will advance in larger steps.
Shadow Opacity: The Shadow's Opacity can be altered by dragging the slider. The shadow colour is black at 100% opacity and graduates through shades of grey as opacity is reduced.
Shadow Angle: The angle of the shadow is altered by dragging the pointer on
the dial.
Horizontal flip: This flips the stamp in the horizontal plain ie right to left.
Vertical flip: This flips the stamp in the vertical plain ie top to bottom.
Both flips can be used together.
Invert: This actually reverses the relationship of the stamp and the mask. A
stamp is created from a rectangular object that has a transparent mask applied to it in order to provide the irregular shape. Using Invert makes the initial stamp transparent and the mask visible, so you end up with a rectangle with an irregular shape cut out of it.
Clear: This clears the area of the selected region covered by the mask to a flat colour. The colour can be changed by clicking on it and using the standard Colour Picker. You will not see the effect of this until you Invert the mask.
If you have cleared a mask and then done an Invert you can than clear the
'new' mask so that you end up with two blocks of solid colour, one the stamp
and the other the mask.
Objects will be automatically closed when the curve being added gets close
to the starting point. You can then cut holes inside a closed, filled object by creating another closed object inside it.
Once an object is cut it can be used to paint with by using the Left Mouse
button. A single click of the Right Mouse button returns you to editing the
object and a double click of the Right Mouse button abandons the object.
Selecting irregular objects using the Bezier curve tool
(You may like to increase the view scale to 200% or 400% to allow for
accurate placement).
Trace round the edges of the object, plotting another point whenever the
straight line cuts too much of the object out. Don't worry too much where there are smooth curves, just plot from one side to the other. Where object edge complexity increases add more control points and make them closer together.
After you have traced completely around the object and closed the shape the Stamper tool will automatically switch to path edit mode (pointer changes shape). You can then drag the path control points to fine tune the shape of the path. In all cases, try to adjust the path so that it passes over the very edge of the object. Increasing the view scale even further to 800% or 16:1 will help you do this and tidy up finer points.
To cut a hole in an irregular object (for example, in the gap between a persons arm and their body) click the right mouse button to switch back to path create mode and create the 'subpath' inside the original. The area inside this path will be made transparent.
To see this more clearly, you can make Stamper display the selected area
inverted by pressing the RETURN key. However, this tends to obscure the
object you are interested in so press RETURN again to go back to outline.
Once an object is cut it can be used to paint with by using the Left Mouse
button. A single click of the Right Mouse button returns you to editing the
object and a double click of the Right Mouse button abandons the object.
Once an object is cut it can be used to paint with by using the Left Mouse
button. A single click of the Right Mouse button returns you to editing the
object; the Left Mouse button moves the position and the right button changes its size and shape. Holding down Ctrl creates a square. At any time a double click of the Right Mouse button abandons the object.
Once an object is cut it can be used to paint with by using the Left Mouse
button. A single click of the Right Mouse button returns you to editing the
object; the Left Mouse button moves the position and the right button changes its size and shape. Holding down Ctrl creates a circle. At any time a double click of the Right Mouse button abandons the object.
Once an object is cut it can be used to paint with by using the Left Mouse
button. A single click of the Right Mouse button lets you add more text. after editing a double click of the Left Mouse button is required to complete the stamp. At any time a double click of the Right Mouse button abandons the object.
If there is a sprite or JPEG on the clipboard then choosing this
reads a copy of it and paints with it.
This tool provides features that work on the whole canvas and not just
parts of it.
Dragging to a point that is nearly white (such as a bright highlight in an image) and then choosing Process sets that point to full white and adjusts the rest of the image accordingly. Try 'Process' with the reference point over different 'bright spots' in a digitised image. You will see the colour cast and brightness of the image change with different points of reference. If you choose 'Guess' the program will attempt to find a colour in the image as near to perfect white as possible for you. Often the scanning or digitising process introduces a slight colour cast to the image so if the
best white point found was 255,255,230 there could be a slightly yellow cast
to the whole image. Processing this reference point to full white would
correct it.
Alternatively, the tool can be used to introduce a slight tint or cast to the image by your deliberately choosing a point that is not quite white in a balanced image and processing based on that point.
The Black point selection works in a similar way but tends to darken the image instead of lightening it. Drag the point of reference to shadows and dark areas for best results.
To do Gamma correction select the Gamma button and drag the curve to the
required position or drag over the graduated bar to the right of the curve box. You can also edit the numeric setting manually or using the bump arrows. You can edit Combined colours or Red, Green and Blue individually. When modifying the image, the Combined settings is taken into account.
Colour Curve is chosen by selecting the Curve button. There are 4 points on the line and these can all be dragged independently. The graduated bar indicates the effect that the tool will have.
These tools are useful for enhancing photographs, especially if they are a littler dark or light.
The current number of colours is shown and you use the menu opener to select from the available options. Select the High Quality option if required and click on Convert. The Undo button in the main toolbar can be used to reverse this process, but only until you select another tool.
Please note that if you convert to a smaller number of colours or greys and
then try to convert back to a larger number of colours, you will not get back to the original image eg from 32k colours to 256 greys and then 256 greys to 32k colours will result in a 32k image but it will be grey.
Note also that some applications, Compo for example, only allow a limited range of colour depths.
To define the area for cropping you can drag a box over the required area on
the thumbnail or on the main image itself. The old and new values are shown.
NOTE: Cropping is not the same as Scaling. Cropping means things stay the
same size but part of the image is thrown away.
The 'To' option enables you to set a size in pixels. Clicking on the 'Screen' button reads the screen size and puts it in the boxes.
Click on the 'Scale' button to carry out the scale. Undo will reverse the scaling.
Hint: If you want to match a colour exactly, the dropper can be used to select a colour, which you can then drop into the 'Previous' palette. You can then select the Edge colour from the Previous palette.
Click the Rotate button to rotate the canvas.