NAME xart - easy to use still-image pixel-based paint program for X.
PAGEDATE 19980404
SYNOPSIS
xart
[ -size " WIDTH" x HEIGHT ] [ -12 ] [ -24 ] [ -rcFile "
file"] [ -popped ] [ -nowarn ] [ -help ] [
filenames "... ]
DESCRIPTION xart is a color image editing tool which features most basic
paint program options, as well as image processing algorithms, rgb
reductions, and the quill tool does mouse motion smoothing, which should
be a big advantage for freehand sketching. xart allows for the editing of
multiple images simultaneously and supports various formats, including PPM,
XBM, TIFF, JPEG, GIF etc. It is hoped that xart will be found to be highly
self-documenting. xart is derived from XPaint.
The functionality of xart is divided into a toolbox area for selecting the
current paint operation and canvas windows for modifying/creating images.
There are also zoom windows, a brush shape window, and various transient
windows. Each canvas window has access to its own color palette and set of
patterns, although the paint operation in use is globally selected for all
windows.
xart runs on a variety of X displays. It should be noted that saving
images will adapt them to the current display type (i.e. a color image
loaded on a greyscale screen will be saved as a grey image).
There is also an extensive on-line help system available, the text of which
is appended to this manpage.
xart has no hooks for animations, does not do channels or layers, does not
have "marching ants", and there is no way to blend pixels from two images.
xart will not preserve image information greater than the current X
display, since xart derives much of it's functionality from X itself. I
consider a "translucent paste" of some kind to be xart's most needed
addition. xart's other shortcomings don't bother me as much (r.h.).
OPTIONS In addition to being able to specify image files to open, the
following options are available on the command line:
-size "w" x h Default width and height for new images.
-12 Use a 12 bit PseudoColor visual.
-24 Use a 24 bit TrueColor visual.
-rcFile " file" Load file instead of the default RC file
specified at compile time. See also the section RC FILE
FORMAT below.
-popped Popup an empty canvas on startup.
-nowarn Do not emit warnings about possible data loss due to
different depth of display and image. This is a good one to
add to an alias.
-help Give a summary of the available options.
TOOLBOX The toolbox window is displayed when xart is started. The toolbox
is used to select an operation which can then be applied to any image area
presented (painting window, fat bits, pattern editor, etc.). The window
has a selection of painting operations (as icons) and several pull down
menus.
PAINTING WINDOW The painting window holds a canvas area for painting the
displayed image, menus for performing operations on this image, and primary
and secondary color/pattern palettes along with buttons for adding to
these.
RC FILE FORMAT The RC file can be used to customize the color/pattern
palettes. If a system-wide RC file is specified with the -rcFile option,
that file is read first; otherwise, the defaults specified at compile time
are loaded. Then, the file .XPaintrc is searched for first in the user's
home directory and then in the current directory. Any settings specified
here are appended to the one in the system-wide RC file. Any time a new
canvas is created, the .XPaintrc file is read again if it has changed.
The RC file can contain any of the following entries, in any order:
# or ! at the start of a line initiates a comment. The rest
of the line is ignored.
solid " color" where color is a color in standard X11 format
(eg. GoldenRod1 , #a2b5cd - see also X(1)) adds a solid
color to the palette.
"pattern BeginData" " bitmap " EndData where bitmap is a bitmap
specification in XBM or XPM format, adds a fill pattern to the
palette.
Note that there must be a newline after BeginData , and that EndData
must appear on a line by itself.
pattern " filename" where filename is a file containing a bitmap in XBM or
XPM format, also adds a pattern to the palette.
The squares in the palette have a default size of 12 by 12 pixels. This can
be changed by setting the XPaint.patternsize resource to a number between 4
and 64. ( Maybe. There's also a note on this in the DefaultRC file. r.h.)
AUTHORS David Koblas, koblas@netcom.com. I am interested in how this
program is used, if you find any bugs, I'll fix them. If you notice any
rough spots, or think of some way in which it could be better, feel free to
drop me a message. ( Koblas seems to have lost interest. Hohensee, 1998)
Torsten Martinsen, torsten@danbbs.dk, is to blame for any (mis)features
added in XPaint release 2.2 and following releases.
Many people, too numerous to mention, have contributed to the development
of XPaint. See the file Doc/CHANGES in the source distribution for details.
#BEGIN introduction "Introduction" "$Id: Help.txt,v 1.10 1997/05/02
05:54:04 torsten Exp $" This is the help text for xart 19980404
Rick Hohensee, humbubba@cqi.com re-worked XPaint 2.5.1 into xart.
############################################
From here down is the text file for the xart on-line help features, as of
the above PAGEDATE.
xart is a color image-editing tool that features many standard paint
program options and some unique features. xart is compact, versatile, uses
only standard X libraries, works well with X, and reuse constraints are
limited to simple authorship aknowledgement. It allows for the editing of
multiple images simultaneously, pasting imported images, and supports
various formats including PPM, XBM, TIFF, jpeg, GIF etc.
xart is derived from Xpaint 2.5.1.
xart is mouse driven. The main window of xart is the toolbox. It will have
whatever widgets your window manager wraps it in. It consists of a menu bar
and a field of icons. The icons in the scrollable area are the operators.
They do the painting actions. You need something to paint ON. This is what
the canvas item in the menu bar is for. When you load or initiate an
image, you get a canvas window in addition to the toolbox window. I usually
keep the toolbox just peeking over the canvas window. The canvas window is
where many powerful features live, such as various filters, pattern grab
and so on.
Now that we have a canvas, we need to know how to use the various tools.
The line menu bar item determines the line width for the tools that use
the XDrawLine call, notably the pencil, box, oval and arc tools. The font
toolbox menu bar is for the text tool. It gives you a choice of fonts that
you're very likely to have, and an option to browse all the fonts your X
server knows about. So much for the menu bar intro.
The colored icons are representative of various hand-painting operators.
Most icons were painted in part using the very tool they represent. These
operators/tools are the methods for correlating mouse motion to changes in
an image. That is, these are the freehand tools. Left-click ( button 1) on
a tool icon. The icon border turns black. This is now the active tool for
all open canvases. Right-click ( button 3) on a tool icon. You usually get
a menu, which may just be the tool name and a tool-specific help prompt, or
may have several options, which may each have options also. Make sure you
try all 3 mouse buttons with the various tools, since some useful stuff is
on the 2nd and third buttons, e.g. "remove pattern". There are more action
widgets in the canvas window, and in windows that may pop up from them.
The set of "things" these various actions can operate on includes canvases,
selected "regions" within a canvas, the "clipboard" for cutting and pasting
regions, the palette of each canvas, the current foreground and background
of each palette, and the canvas background color. "pattern grab" can grab
from anywhere on the screen. xart's concept of an image is limited by the
current X display. xart doesn't do channels, layers or separations. xart
does do rgb reductions. xart uses the TIFF image format internally, and
patterns and brushes are XPMs.
xart runs on a variety of X display types, or visuals. Saving images will
adapt them to the current visual (e.g., a color image loaded on a greyscale
screen will be saved as a grey image). This can result in the loss of
data; see the Possible Data Loss section for details.
#BEGIN data_loss "Possible Data Loss" xart uses the current X
display format for storing image info while editing; the original image
information is thrown away. This means that, in general, there will be
image degradation if the X visual mode in use has lower color resolution
than the original image.
Also note that any ancillary information associated with the original image
(embedded comments, time stamp, copyright, etc.) will always be lost.
#BEGIN command "Command Line Options" xart [-popped] [-nowarn] [-size
WIDTHxHEIGHT] [-rcFile FILE] [-12] [-24] [<files>...]", #NL -
size default width and height for new images #NL -
12 use a 12-bit PseudoColor visual #NL -
24 use a 24-bit TrueColor visual #NL -
popped pop up an empty canvas on startup #NL -
nowarn skip data-loss warnings #NL -rcFile use FILE
instead of default .XPaintrc #NL <files> image filenames to
open #NL
#BEGIN config "Configuring xart" See the TOUR file in the source directory.
Quill get's it's initial palette from ~/.XPaintrc and from the compiled-in
palette, which is file DefaultRC in the source. X resources, such as menu
label text, is from the app-defaults/XPaint file, ~/.Xdefaults, and/or the
XPaint.ad.in file in the source.
#BEGIN toolbox "Toolbox" The toolbox is used to set those options that are
applicable to all canvases opened by this instance of xart. The current
tool, brush, line width and font are global (common to all open canvases).
#PUSH #BEGIN tool_file "Canvas Menu" The canvas menu is used to create a
new canvas or load an image from a file.
New Canvas #NL Create a new blank canvas (default size: #NL
640x480). See "Command Line Options" for #NL changing the
default size.
New with Size... #NL Create a new canvas with the specified #NL
dimensions.
Open... #NL Open an image file for painting. Images can #NL
be opened in a variety of formats. If none #NL of the
specific formats is selected, xart #NL will attempt to perform a
"Best Guess" as to #NL the image format. Unknown formats will
result #NL in an error message.
Load Clipboard... #NL Open an image file into the xart clipboard
#NL for pasting. Images that have been saved in #NL a
format supporting odd-shaped regions will be #NL loaded as they
were selected, otherwise all #NL images are rectangular. See
"Paste" and #NL "Save Region..." under the Edit and File menus #NL
of a canvas window for more information.
*POOF* #NL Exit xart, closing all windows. There will be an "are
you sure?" if necessary. #BEGIN tool_line "Line Menu" The line
menu sets the value of the line width. This value is used by all pencil
family operations, including the borders of boxes, ovals and polygons.
#BEGIN tool_font "Font Menu" This menu selects the current font to use for
the text operation. There are a few specific fonts choices listed, but
most of the fonts your X knows about are available through the font
browser. The browser may not see all of the fonts you have installed, if
they do not have canonical 13-part names. The X cursor font is an example,
but is included in the top window font menu.
Note: Changing a font while inserting will not allow backspacing over text
in a previous font.
See "Font Browser" for more information on its use. #PUSH #BEGIN
font_browser "Font Browser" The font browser is designed to allow any
available font to be used for painting with the text operation. A font is
selected by choosing an item from each of the given lists until the font is
displayed in the "selection" area. As items are selected, all lists will
adjust to reflect existing fonts with the selected characteristics.
Clicking in the blank area of a item list will reset that list to all
available options (i.e., unselect the current one).
The xart font browser supersedes xfontsel, since xfontsel has a
dysfunctional file browser. xart even has a selection field for pasting a
canonical fontname to some other text destination.
If the X server supports variable sized fonts, the point size list will
contain a "0" entry, which will use the value specified in the "Point Size"
field. Getting an arbitrary point size working is tricky, but does work.
Remember to keep the cursor over the canvas when trying to type.
#POP #BEGIN tools "Painting Tools" The painting tool icons set the current
painting operation for all canvases.
Operations are selected with mouse button one. Pressing mouse button three
while over any of the icons will bring up a menu of options available for
that tool. Some icons also allow double-clicking as a faster method of
bringing up style options.
BRUSHES...... The brush family of operations is brush, erase and smear.
They use the current brush for the shape of thier action area. The brush
tool is the only tool with transparency, and that is only with solid
colors.
FILLS...... The fill operations all have the same area control options, as
affected by thier menus and the 'select range' facility on each canvas
window. Plain fill can fill using a pattern.
SELECTIONS...... There are 3 types of selection, square/oval, polygon and
freehand. They are the tool icons with Guy's face. Both may be sub-
selected to or from color ranges in a manner similar to fills. Other tools
may not be active when a selection is, so actions on selections are limited
to filters and movements/resizes of the selection. The 'all of all' item in
the clips menu on the canvas window selects every pixel of the canvas.
PENCILS...... The shape drawing tools, arc, rays, dot pencil, straight,
and pencil all use the line width specification from the line menu on the
tool window. Lines are drawn using the Button 1 palette color or pattern,
and filled items such as filled ovals are filled with the active secondary
palette selection.
OTHER...... The text, quill, dyn-pencil and spray tools is each a tool
family unto itself, with it's own unique options.
See the specific paint operation for more information. #PUSH #BEGIN arc
"Arc" The arc operation paints an arc between two selected points in the
primary color/pattern, using the current line width. Arcs are generally a
quarter of an ellipse, but may be restricted to a quatrer-circle by
pressing the shift key while painting. The different quadrants of the
ellipse may be obtained by dragging out the arc in various directions.
See "Line Menu" under the toolbox for more information about line width.
#BEGIN box "Boxes" The box operations paint either rectangles or squares
using the current line width. Pressing shift while moving the mouse after
selecting the first point will constrain the box to a square.
Selecting the 'pull from center' option from the menu found by pressing
button three on the icon will define the first point as the center of the
square with the second point being on the perimeter.
Filled boxes are painted in the primary color/pattern and filled with the
secondary color/pattern for the canvas.
See "Line Menu" under the toolbox for more information about line width.
#BEGIN brush "Brush" The brush operation uses the current brush to paint on
the canvas(es). Painting is accomplished by holding down the mouse button
and moving the mouse in the canvas area. Button one paints in the selected
primary color/pattern, while button two uses the secondary one.
If the 'transparent' option is selected from the menu found by pressing
button three on the icon, the selected color is blended with the color
already on the canvas. You can change the opacity of the brush using the
'Parameters..' option. Zero percent means that the canvas is not changed at
all, while 100 percent gives the same result as using a non-transparent
brush. Transparency only works with solid colors.
The current brush style may be changed through the brush chooser available
on the button three menu for either the brush or erase operation icons.
#BEGIN cline "Connected Line" The connected line operation paints a series
of straight lines connected at selected vertices. Each new vertex is
selected using the first mouse button. The second mouse button ends this
operation, without forming a new vertex.
All painting is done in the primary color/pattern using the currently
defined line width.
See "Line Menu" under the toolbox for more information about line width.
#BEGIN dotPencil "Dot Pencil"
The dot pencil operation paints a series of dots on the canvas, following
the cursor while the mouse button is pressed.
Button one paints in the primary color/pattern, button two the secondary
color/pattern.
See "Pencil" for painting connected lines. #BEGIN erase "Erase" The erase
operation is designed to either erase a section of the painting to the set
background color for the canvas or to revert the erased area to the
originally loaded image. (Note: This is not the last saved image!)
The eraser is the shape of the current brush, and the brush selection
window is accessible through the menu found by clicking mouse button three
on either the erase or brush icons.
See help on the "Brush" or on "Change Background..." under the Image menu
of the Painting Window for more information. #BEGIN fill "Fill" The fill
operation will paint an area around a selected pixel the current primary or
secondary color/pattern (based on which mouse button used). The area is
determined by matching adjacent pixel values until a variation is found.
Diagonal pixels are not considered adjacent.
Selecting the 'all of clicked color' option from the menu found by pressing
button three on the icon will enter Change Mode. In this mode, all pixels
in the image that have the same color as the selected one will be changed
to the primary or secondary color.
Selecting the 'all within variance' option causes xart to consider not only
pixels of the exact same color as the selected one, but also pixels within
the variance (delta) set from the color selector found under the 'Select
Range...' popup menu item.
#BEGIN tfill "Gradient Fill" The gradient fill operation will paint an area
around a selected pixel with a range of colors obtained by mixing the
primary and secondary colors. The area is determined by matching adjacent
pixel values until a variation is found. Diagonal pixels are not
considered adjacent.
The 'Contiguous', 'All of clicked color' and 'all within variance' options
in the popup menu work the same as for the ordinary fill operation.
Linear, Radial, Conical or Square gradient fill can be selected by clicking
mouse button three on the Gradient Fill icon. Also, several parameters can
be adjusted using the 'Parameters' item here:
Angle #NL Defines the tilting of the pattern. Valid range is #NL
-360 to 360 degrees.
Pad If this value is positive, the area where one color #NL
blends into the other will be compressed, yielding #NL a
sharper transition. If negative, the transition #NL will be
smoother. Valid range is -49 % to 49 %.
Horizontal/Vertical offset #NL Defines the center of the pattern.
Valid range is #NL -100 % to 100 %. #NL This parameter has
no effect for the Linear pattern.
Steps #NL The maximum number of colors that will be used #NL
for the transition from one color to the other. #NL For
non-TrueColor displays, it can be useful to #NL limit the number of
colors used to avoid running #NL out of palette entries. Very
small numbers can #NL also be used to get a 'blocky' effect. Valid
range #NL is 1 trough 300. #BEGIN ffill "Fractal Fill" The fractal
fill operation will paint an area around a selected pixel with a range of
colors obtained by mixing the primary and secondary colors. The area is
determined by matching adjacent pixel values until a variation is found.
Diagonal pixels are not considered adjacent.
The 'Contiguous', 'all of clicked color' and 'all within variance' options
in the popup menu work the same as for the ordinary fill operation.
Several different fractal patterns can be selected by clicking mouse button
three on the Fractal Fill icon.
#BEGIN quill "the quill tool" Quill does mouse velocity emulation in near-
realtime. It draws curves between mouse location sample points very similar
to what the actual path of the mouse must have been. It has several nibs,
each of which can be truncated to several sizes. It doesn't do patterns or
transparent. Quill strokes are usually easy to fill though. Some filtering
with edge-smooth or de-speckle may be helpful.
#BEGIN smear "Smear" The smear operation paints each pixel under the brush
the average color of all the pixels. Smearing is done by holding down the
mouse button and moving the mouse in the canvas area.
The current brush style may be changed through the brush chooser available
on the button three menu. #BEGIN line "Line" The 'straight' operation
paints a straight line in the primary color/pattern between two selected
points on the canvas, using the global line width. This works nicely with
the snap feature for rectilinear work, like diagrams.
See "Line Menu" under the toolbox for more information about line width.
Lines may also be restricted to increments of 45 degrees (i.e., horizontal,
vertical, or diagonal) by holding down the shift key while painting.
#BEGIN oval "Ovals" The oval operations paint either circles or ovals using
the current line width. Ovals/circles are painted by selecting two points
that inherently define a box around the area for the oval. Pressing shift
while moving the mouse will constrain the oval to a circle.
Selecting the 'pull from center' option from the menu found by pressing
button three on the icon will define the first point as the center of the
circle with the second point being the radius.
Filled ovals and circles are painted in the primary color/pattern and
filled with the secondary color/pattern for the canvas.
The oval tool leaves a rectangular area around the drawn oval with the
charachteristics of a selection. This may confuse you when working with
selections.
See "Line Menu" under the toolbox for more information about line width.
#BEGIN pencil "Pencil" The pencil operation paints a connected line on the
canvas, following the cursor while the mouse button is pressed. The global
line width is used to determine the width of this line. The drawn line may
show visible straight line segments. The quill tool is an alternative to
this tool.
Button one paints in the primary color/pattern, button two the secondary
color/pattern.
See "Line Menu" under the toolbox for more information about line width.
#BEGIN poly "Polygons" Polygon operations paint polygons as defined by a
series of straight lines between selected vertices. Each new vertex is
selected using the first mouse button. Ending this operation (done through
pressing the second mouse button) does not create a new vertex and results
in the last created vertex being joined to the first.
All painting is done in the primary color/pattern using the currently
defined line width. Filled polygons are filled in the secondary
color/pattern.
See "Line Menu" under the toolbox for more information about line width.
#BEGIN ray "Ray" The ray operation paints rays from the first selected
point to all subsequent points in the primary color/pattern. Button two
ends this operation without selecting a new ray point. Rays may also be
restricted to slopes based on a 45 degree increment (i.e., horizontal,
vertical, or diagonals) by pressing the shift key while painting.
The width of the rays is determined by the global value for the line width,
set via the "Line" menu.
See "Line Menu" under the toolbox for more information about line width.
#BEGIN select "Select Regions" There are three operations for selecting
regions: Select Box, Lasso and Select Polygon. "Select Box" will select a
rectangular or ellipse-shaped region (holding down shift while pressing the
mouse button with constrain the region to a square or a circle,
respectively). "Lasso" selects an arbitrary region. "Select Polygon"
selects a region bounded by straight lines.
The three possible modes used by these operations are set by the options on
the button three menu for either icon:
All Colors Select the entire region. #NL Omit Color
Range Select the region, excluding the #NL
specified range of colors. #NL Only Color
Range Select only the specified color range #NL
in the region. #NL See "Range Selection"
for more information on choosing a range of colors for these operations.
Operations that may be performed on selected regions include the ability to
move and resize them. Resizing may be performed by dragging the black
squares showing the overall borders of the selection, like in xv. Holding
shift down during resizing will constrain the region to its original aspect
ratio. Holding shift down during moving will constrain movement to
horizontal or vertical.
Note that moving a region will result in the original location being
painted in the current background color. See "Background Color..." under
the Resize/zoom/dbgc menu of the Paint Window for more information.
You can also use the cursor keys to move the region one pixel at a time
(hold down the Control key to move in larger steps). This is handy to see a
complex selection, since oblique selections do not have highlighted
borders, just the black squares at the overall rectangular limits of the
selection area.
Selections can also be loaded and saved, making the possibilities rather
limitless. See the clips/undo menu on the canvas windows.
If you're having trouble doing a color-specific selection, try a narrow
color _range_ selection.
#PUSH #BEGIN range_select "Range Selection" This window, which pops up when
you click the "Select Color Range" button next to the palettes, is designed
for selecting a range of colors for use with the select region operations.
The color range is determined by setting a base color and the amount of
variance in each of the RGB values around this color. Colors are
considered in this range if they match a value based on the base color +/-
the given variance. Default base color is white.
The "Pixel Delta" button allows the user to choose another color that will
be used to calculate the variance from the base color.
More information on colors and the use of the color wheel may be found
under the "Pattern Editor" on the "Painting Window". #POP #BEGIN blob
"Shape" Shape operations allow the user to draw closed objects with a
pencil-like operation. When the mouse button is released, the last drawn
point is connected to the starting point.
Painting can either be done in the primary color/pattern with button one or
in the secondary color/pattern with button two. Filled shapes are filled
in the other palette color/pattern. Border width is determined by the
current setting for line width.
See "Line Menu" under the toolbox for more information about line width.
#BEGIN spray "Spray" The spray operation is designed to emulate a spray
can. It will paint a random set of dots within a given radius.
It is possible to change the attributes of the spray operation to achieve
the desired effect. There are three parameters that will modify the
configuration of the spray tool: #NL radius how large of a circle
to fill #NL density number of dots in the given area #NL
rate speed to fill the area in tenths of a second
Additionally, it is possible to change the distribution of the dots to be
either even or gaussian (usually only noticeable at large radii). These
options are found in the menu brought up by clicking button three on the
spray icon.
As with many other operations, the spray operation can make use of either
the primary or secondary color/pattern based on which button (one or two,
respectively) is held down while painting on the canvas. #BEGIN text
"Text" The text operation allows for typing in the currently selected font.
Pressing mouse button two in the canvas area while inserting text will
paste text from the X clipboard at the current insertion point.
See the "Font Menu" for information on changing the selected font.
Changing a font while inserting will not allow backspacing over text in a
previous font. The mouse cursor must be in the canvas for typing of a font
to occur. Hitting the return key with do a "carriage return" on the image,
and backspace only works on the current line.
#POP #POP #BEGIN canvas "Canvas Window" Several canvases may be opened by
an instance of xart. An instance of xart has one tool window, but has a
canvas window for each active canvas. xart may have one open brush shape
window also.
Each canvas window has 3 main sections, a menu bar at the top, a painting
area for the canvas and optional zoom scope, and a palette area. The size
of the canvas window and the size of the painting area and palette area are
quite flexible, depending on your X window manager. The canvas window as a
whole is a pane widget, and the border between the canvas area and the
palette area has a small grip widget for moving the boundary.
The canvas window menu bar has the controls for....... canvas, palette and
clipboard loading/saving cut/paste of clippings movements of selected
regions image filters such as "blur" The red/green/blue reductions zoom
window and image resizing snap-to-grid paint input x-y constraint the
default background color undo
#PUSH #BEGIN fileMenu "storage Menu" The storge menu on the painting window
is for saving information associated with the image displayed on the
current paint canvas.
xart runs on a variety of displays. Saving images will adapt them to the
current display type (i.e., a color image loaded on a greyscale screen will
be saved as a grey image).
See "Image Formats" for a description of the image formats usable by xart.
Save #NL Save the current image with the original #NL
filename and format. If this is a new #NL image, perform
the "Save As" operation.
Save As #NL Save the current image with the specified #NL
filename and format (default is TIFF).
Save Region... #NL Save the selected region, in the original #NL
form that it was selected (width, height and #NL rotation).
Odd-shaped regions will be saved #NL as rectangles filled with the
background #NL color. If the output format supports image #NL
masks (e.g., TIFF, PNG, XPM), then this #NL information
will also be saved. See "Load #NL Clipboard..." under the toolbox
file menu #NL for more information about odd-shaped #NL
images.
Save Palette... #NL Save the current palette. See "Palette #NL
Area" for more information on how #NL patterns are loaded.
Revert to as-loaded... #NL Reloads the last saved image. This is
#NL equivalent to closing without saving #NL and then
opening the original file. #NL You are asked for confirmation. If
#NL the image has not been changed since #NL the last save,
this operation does #NL nothing.
quit canvas #NL Close the current painting window, saving #NL
the image if desired.
#BEGIN editMenu "clip Menu" The clip menu provides for a set of operations
that interact with the current selection and the paint clipboard. The six
first items in this menu are also accessible through button three on the
painting canvas. The clipboard is an off-screen image that is loaded either
from a selected region via these operations or from a file.
See "Load Clipboard..." on the toolbox "Canvas" menu for more information
about loading images from a file and the "bg" menu for more information on
the background color.
Undo #NL Reverse the last performed operation. #NL
Multiple undos are possible; see 'Undo Levels..' #NL in the
'Image' menu. Default is 4. They use memory. #NL If a region is
selected, and you have not moved #NL or resized it, the last region
operation is undone. #NL
Redo #NL Cancel the effect of the last undo. #NL This must
be done immediately after an undo or #NL redo (before drawing
anything new on the canvas). #NL
Cut #NL Load the originally selected region into both #NL
the xart and X server clipboards and #NL change the area on
the screen to the background #NL color.
Copy #NL Load the originally selected region into the #NL
xart and X server clipboards.
Paste #NL Place the image in the clipboard onto the #NL
canvas at the last position where button one #NL or two was
pressed. Images are first searched #NL for in the X server
clipboard and then the #NL internal xart clipboard.
Clear #NL Remove the current selection from the paint #NL
canvas.
copy/paste #NL Perform both the copy and paste operations in one.
#BEGIN regionMenu "Move Menu" The move menu provides operations that can
be applied to the currently selected region. See the "Select Regions" item
under the toolbox Painting tools for information on how to select regions.
Note: the select all item is now here. It does not honor the color range
parameter for selection, and is therefor re-named all-all. Note: The
'undo' operation found under the Edit menu does not work on these
operations!
Flip Horizontal #NL Flip the current region horizontally.
Flip vertical #NL Flip the current region vertically.
Rotate By #NL Rotate... #NL Both of these operations allow for
rotating #NL the current image by a specified number of #NL
degrees. Rotation may also be done #NL by pressing button
two on the selection. #NL Pressing the Shift button while doing
this #NL constrains the rotation to multiples of #NL 15
degrees.
Crop to region... #NL Discard all portions of the image outside
the region. #NL This operation cannot be undone; therefore, you
are #NL required to confirm it.
Tilt ........... tilt is an add-in, along with fractal fill. I haven't
figured out how to use it yet ;o) (r.h.)
Reset #NL Return the current image to its original #NL size
and orientation. Note: None of the #NL image processing
operations will be undone.
#BEGIN filterMenu "Filters Menu" The filters menu provides a set
of image processing operations that can be applied to the currently
selected region. See the "Select Regions" item under the toolbox Painting
tools for information on how to select regions.
Repeat prev. #NL This applies the last filter you used again,
without #NL querying for any parameters.
Invert #NL Inverts the colors of the selected region #NL
(e.g., black to white).
Sharpen #NL Applies an image processing algorithm in an #NL
attempt to increase the detail on the #NL selected region.
blur #NL Attempts to blend the colors of the region #NL by
averaging the pixel's color values with #NL those of its neighbors.
Edge Smooth #NL Similar to blur, but avoids smearing edges #NL
by applying a more sophisticated algorithm. #NL The effect
is less pronounced than for blur.
Despeckle... Tries to remove scanning artifacts etc. by replacing
each pixel by the median of the pixels inside the n x n
mask centered around that pixel. You are queried for the mask size;
this must be odd and larger than 1.
Edge Detect Performs an image processing edge detection. A
gaudy effect.
Emboss #NL Converts the selected region to a grey image #NL
that is highlighted such that the details #NL appear to
stand out from the screen.
Oil paint... #NL Does an effect similar to a paint-by-numbers
painting. #NL You are queried for the mask size, which must #NL
be an odd integer. Recommended values range #NL from 3 to
15. Higher values result in a more #NL pronounced effect.
Add Noise... #NL Modify the color of each pixel randomly. #NL
You are queried for the maximum #NL noise value.
Recommended values range from #NL 5 to 50. Higher values result in
a more #NL pronounced effect. 255 is total randomness.
Spread... #NL This operation swaps each pixel in the region with
#NL a random pixel near it, giving an effect similar to #NL
frosted glass. You are queried for the maximum #NL
distance. Good values range from 1 to 10. #NL You can also
specify how many iterations you want #NL performed. This is
equivalent to manually selecting #NL the operation that many times.
Pixelize... #NL Makes the image look low resolution. This works by
#NL replacing each 'megapixel' with the average color #NL
within that region. You are queried for the megapixel #NL
size; this can be specified as square (e.g., '5') or #NL
rectangular (e.g., '2x4').
Blend #NL This operation colors each pixel in the region #NL
with a weighted average of the center color and #NL the
color on the edge that intersects a line drawn #NL from the center
to the pixel in question. #NL The result is to 'blend the region
out of existence'. This seems geared to small regions, or very wild
effects. It seems to find the edges or rectangles OK, but not e.g.
ovals.
Solarize... #NL Inverts pixels with a value larger than the #NL
specified threshold. This simulates what happens #NL to a
photographic film that is exposed to light #NL during development.
Works best for greyscale #NL images. You are queried for the
threshold (1-99 %).
Contrast #NL Normalizes the contrast by forcing the lightest pixels
#NL to white, the darkest pixels to black, and linearly #NL
rescaling the ones in between. #NL You are queried for
Black and White levels in %. #NL Pixels darker than the Black
level will become black, #NL and pixels brighter than the White
level will become #NL white. The pixels in between will be rescaled
linearly. #NL '100 %' refers to the brightest pixel in the image.
Quantize Colors... #NL Reduces the number of colors in the image.
The #NL algorithm selects the set of colors that gives #NL
the best result and then replaces the original #NL colors
with the best match in the new color set. #NL You can choose the
number of colors to use, #NL from 2 to 256.
Turn into Greyscale #NL Converts all colors in the image to
greyscale.
Abuser is a clone of "sharpen", with some junk in the convolve matrix. It
is provided if you want to play with the sourcecode without messing up the
legit filters or having to write the menu hooks. In the source directory,
just goof up the matrix in iprocess.c, make, and see what you get. Other
filters have convolve matrices and so are examples.
#BEGIN rgb "red/green/blue reductions" The red, green, or blue components
of a selected area can be reduced by 3, 50 or 100 percent via this menu.
Yes, white with no red is turquoise (cyan, actually). By the same token,
these have no effect on black pixels. A "boost" option for these is a "TO
DO". Go for it.
#BEGIN imageMenu "size Menu" Items in the size menu change the dimensions
of the canvas, and change how the canvas is displayed.
Scope #NL Brings up the Fat Bits editor, which allows #NL
for editing an enlarged area of the current #NL image
without having to enlarge the entire #NL image. A small scope
border can be dragged around the
canvas, and an enlarged window of the scope area is
displayed.
Black Grid #NL Turns on and off a visible black grid #NL
between the original pixels on images with a #NL scale
greater than 1 (i.e., zoomed). This #NL grid is only for painting
purposes. It does #NL not affect the actual image.
Snap #NL Turns on/off restriction of the current x #NL and
y position for most operations to an #NL invisible grid. This is
great for schematics, diagrams and such. It causes some other
funny effects, like sinusoids with the quill tool, brushes being
centered on the grid points, etc.. Snap Spacing... #NL
Sets the distance between points on the #NL invisible snap
grid.
Change Background color... #NL This operation changes the
background color #NL for the current image (default color is #NL
white). This is only used when a region is #NL erased or
cut from the current image and #NL when odd-shaped regions are
saved. See #NL "Color Wheel" under the "Pattern Editor" for #NL
more information on selecting a color.
Change Size... #NL Changes the size of the current canvas by #NL
cutting away or adding area on the right and #NL lower
sides. This operation affects #NL the actual image size.
Undo Levels ( now in the UN menu)... #NL Changes the number of
consecutive changes #NL that can be undone or redone. Note that
each #NL undo level uses as much memory as the image #NL
itself, so large numbers can use up a lot of #NL memory.
Autocrop... #NL Changes the size of the current canvas by #NL
cutting away any borders. The border color #NL is defined
as the color common to at least #NL two corners. If no two corners
have the same #NL color, nothing is done. #NL This
operation is not reversible and #NL affects the actual image size.
#NL
Change Zoom... #NL Enlarges the working image by the specified #NL
scale. This does not affect the size of the #NL image for
saving, etc. There is only zoom "in". Scope might be better.
#BEGIN patBox "Palette Area" There are 4 command buttons and a
palette below the painting area. Commands allow picking a color or pattern
from anywhere on the screen, and for modifying the color range of fills and
selections. The palette has pots of colors and patterns. Solid color pots
have colored borders. All pots are a button and a side button, which select
the pot for button 1 and/or button 3, and for the interiors of filled
shapes, such as the filled oval tool.
Colors and patterns are loaded from information merged from the following
files each time a canvas is created: #NL .XPaintrc in the user's
home directory #NL .XPaintrc in the current directory
A quick method for adding a new color is found by using the "pick from
screen" button. This button allows the user to select any color visible on
the X screen and will either locate it in the current palette or add it.
Once the color is found in the palette, it is selected. If the color is
already in the palette no new pot is created. This will happen a lot at low
bitplane depths.
All of the patterns and colors can be saved with the "Save Palette..." item
in the file menu. #PUSH #BEGIN pattern "Pattern Editor" The pattern editor
creates new patterns or modifies existing ones for use on the painting
canvas. It is a paint window unto itself. The only way to select the
painting color in this window is with the "pick" widget, but all the
painting tools are available.
The window contains the current pattern and (depending on display type) the
current colormap and a color selection area.
Patterns are by default 24x24 pixels in size, but may be set to any size up
to 128x128 through the "Size" menu. The other menus available provide
similar functionality to those in the paint window and pattern editing uses
the normal paint operations. xart provides several default patterns of size
1xN or Nx1, which gives vertical or horizontal colorbars without using a
huge amount of data.
Patterns may be individually saved through the "Save As" option in the
"load/save" menu of the pattern edit window, or saved with the palette. The
pattern edit window is reached by right-clicking on a pattern. See "Save
Palette..." under the Paint Window. When loading an individual pattern,
only the portion of the pattern that fits in the pattern area will be
included.
The "Grab" button allows the user to select a portion of the current screen
to fill the pattern area. #PUSH #BEGIN colormap "Colormap Area" When using
a colormapped display, selecting a colormap entry will allow the user to
change the value of that entry. This will change all pixels on the canvas
that share this colormap index.
The "pick from screen" button allows the user to select any color available
on the screen and will locate the colormap entry for this color value.
Note: Manipulating colormap entries effects the canvas immediately and
does not revert when "Cancel" is chosen.
#BEGIN colorwheel "Color Wheel" The xart color selection allows access to
both the HSV or RGB color space models. The color wheel along with the
value slider represents HSV, while the red, green, and blue sliders are for
manipulating the color in an RGB space. Modifications in either of these
color spaces will effect the other.
Colors can be selected on the color wheel by using the mouse to drag the
selection circle or to click on a desired color. Changes to value will
determine the brightness of the chosen color. Colors can also be modified
through the red, green, or blue sliders or by entering values in the text
fields.
The "pick" button will set the current color by allowing the user to select
any color on the screen. The exact color will be determined using the
colormap of the selected window. #POP #POP #POP #BEGIN
fileformat "Image Formats" xart can support a variety of image file
formats, based on library availability at compile time. Some of these
formats may not be accessible in the current running version.
The table below provides a short summary of the features of each image
format and support provided by xart. Note that not all formats are
supported for both read and write operations.
Color depth is given in terms of the number of bits used to store the
colors in the image. This means that a color depth of 1-bit can only store
black/white images, while 24-bit color formats can store images containing
up to 2**24 (or approx. 16 million) colors. Regardless of the image
format, saved images always reflect the ability of current display type
(i.e., a color image loaded on a greyscale screen will be saved as a grey
image). See the Possible Data Loss section for more details.
The image mask feature of an image format provides the ability to save/load
odd-shaped regions (i.e., regions are not required to be rectangular and
may have "holes" in them). See "Save Region" and "Load Clipboard..." for
more information.
Detailed information about each format is at the end of this section.
Color Image #NL
Read Write depth mask #NL
GIF yes yes 8-bit no
#NL JPEG yes yes 24-bit no #NL
PNG yes yes 8, 24-bit yes
#NL PPM yes yes 24-bit no #NL
PS no yes 24-bit no #NL
SGI yes yes 24-bit no #NL
TIFF yes yes 8, 24-bit yes #NL
XBM yes yes 1-bit no #NL
XPM yes yes 8-bit yes #NL
XWD yes yes 24-bit no
GIF - Graphics Interchange Format #NL A popular image format used
across a variety #NL of platforms, including PCs.
JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group Format #NL A standardized,
lossy format for storing #NL compressed color and greyscale images
#NL of natural scenes.
PNG - Portable Network Graphics Format #NL A new format designed to
replace GIF and, #NL to some extent, TIFF. It has a better #NL
compression engine than either GIF or TIFF #NL and is a
lossless format (unlike JPEG).
PPM - Portable PixMap Format #NL Image format provided by the
PBMPlus/NetPBM #NL toolkit that allows for converting to a wide
variety #NL of other formats.
PS - PostScript Format #NL PostScript images are normally used by
most #NL printers and text-processing packages.
SGI - Silicon Graphics, Inc., Format #NL An SGI-specific image
format, supported by the #NL libraries on SGI machines. This
format is not #NL available on other platforms.
TIFF - Tagged Image File Format #NL A large, complex image format
used by xart #NL as its default format.
XBM - X Window BitMap #NL A black and white image format used by
the #NL X Window System.
XPM - X Window PixMap #NL XPM images are stored in an ASCII text
#NL format that can be included in C as arrays in the
sourcecode.
XWD - X Window Dump #NL Used for screen dumps by the X Window #NL
System.
#BEGIN gotcha's "gotcha's, bugs, klank and tips" The more powerful
features sometimes have more prerequisites to work. Some tools have option
variations that will do nothing, particularly as pertains to patterns and
solids, e.g. transparent brush must be a solid. A tool that does not
support patterns will paint in the last solid selected when a pattern is
selected. Make sure you try all buttons on all widgets. jpegs use a "lossy"
compression scheme and GIFs are 8-bit. Undo and certain selection/filter
combinations don't always refresh correctly. Drag some other window across
the canvas to force it to update if you think that's the case. The oval
tool leaves a rectangular region around the oval that acts like a selection
until it is changed. Pattern editing is buggy, but works. You have to
select a pot or two before using add/edit pattern or you'll crash. In the
pattern editing window you have to pick a color before editing the
pattern image or the changes won't save.
#BEGIN about "Whence xart" xart is derived from XPaint 2.5.1.
#NL #NL NOTE: This (beta) version of XPaint is released and maintained by
Torsten Martinsen (torsten@danbbs.dk), except for the PNG code, which is
written and maintained by Greg Roelofs (newt@uchicago.edu). It is based on
XPaint 2.1.1, which was written by David Koblas. Please do NOT send bug
reports, etc., to David Koblas.
The message below is the original 'About' message from version 2.1.1.
----------------------------
Hopefully, you find this software useful. If you find any bugs or have any
comments, feel free to contact me.
This software is created as DonateWare. If you enjoy using XPaint, it would
be appreciated if you would make a donation to the author in the form of
cookies, money, employment, or whatever.
If you or your firm is looking to hire a skilled consultant, contact me for
more details.
David Koblas (koblas@netcom.com) #NL Extra Mile Consulting #NL PO Box 1352
#NL Mountain View, CA 94042-1352 USA
#BEGIN copyright "Copyright Information" Copyright (C) 1993, David
Koblas
Copyright (C) 1995, 1996, Torsten Martinsen #NL Copyright (C) 1996, Greg
Roelofs #NL xart is no longer XPaint. Martensen doesn't have time to go
over all the changes in xart, and I believe he's also involved with the
GIMP, so xart will be released as a separate thing. In my opinion, (
Hohensee) xart completely supercedes XPaint. xart lacks XPaint's revert
menu item, because revert seems to have broken some palette editing
features, and revert functionality is easily available by reloading the
canvas. xart is a bit larger than XPaint, mostly due to additional default
patterns and brushes. Otherwise, nothing has been lost and much has been
added, including bugs.
quillOp.c is Copyright 1998 Richard Allen Hohensee, and is released under (
what I believe are) Koblas' original release terms, which see below.
Permission to use, copy, modify, and to distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that
the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that
copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation. There are no representations about the suitability of this
software for any purpose. This software is provided "as is" without
express or implied warranty.
