How to use ArtPaint
This chapter discusses the general principles of how to use ArtPaint.
Getting started
On launching the program displays three windows on screen: Drawing window,
Palette window and Tool window. The Drawing window is initially blank and
it has a button labelled "SET SIZE". You can then resize the window to
reflect the size of the picture you want to paint (window dimensions are
shown in the left top corner). When you are satisfied with the window size
you can press the "SET SIZE"-button and then start painting.
The Palette window contains two color controls of which the higher controls
the high-color and the lower controls the low-color (low-color doesn't have
much use yet).
Using tools
Tools are selected from the ToolWindow. Each mousebutton can have it's
tool assigned separately from other buttons. Tools are same for all
the drawing windows. They are used by pressing down the mousebutton
and holding it until the operation is finished.
Draw modes
Draw mode can be selected from a menu in a drawing window. The selection
affects that particular window it was made in. So each window can have
unique drawing mode.
Using filters
You can select a filter from the menu in a Drawing window. The effect
takes place as soon as the calculations are complete. Some of the filters
require that the image is in greyscale to work correctly. You can change
to greyscale from Colors-menu in a Drawing window. Note that the filters
don't deal with the edges of images at the moment so the edges will start
to look bad after filters have been applied few times.
Using controller
The parameters of program can be controlled through an external controller
that is plugged into the GeekPort on a BeBox-computer. Line-width and
RGB-values of color can be changed while drawing (this is a real experience
that is not to be missed).
Drag and drop
The program supports drag and drop from ImageViewer-application. After you
have placed the dragged image on canvas the program enters a mixer mode.
You can now fade the dragged image out with the left mousebutton and
fade in with the right mousebutton. The middle button exits the mixer mode.
There are also two different modes in mixer. Full image mixer and mixer
that mixes the area that has radius of line-width. This mode can be selected
from the mixer control window that opens after dragging. Note that this
feature doesn't work at the moment in any other than 32-bit screen-modes.
Also if you drag from somewhere else than ImageViewer you risk crashing the
program. And as this feature is not completely finished you should make sure
that the dragged image fits completely in the window (if it crosses the window border
something nasty might happen).