ÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜ ÜÜÜÜÜ Ü Ü Ü Û ß Û Û Û Û Û Û Û ßÜ Üß Û ÛÜÜÜÛ ÛÜÜÜÛ ÛÜÜÜ ÛÜÜÜ Û ßÜß Û ßÛ ÛßÜ Û Û Û Û Û Üß ßÜ ÛÜÜÜÛ Û ßÜ Û Û Û Û Û Üß ßÜ (TM) FOR WINDOWS AND DOS ß ß SHAREWARE EDITION Copyright 1994 ANDROMEDA SOFTWARE. All rights reserved. This is the Shareware Edition of GRAFFIX 3.4, a screen-capture system that includes programs for both Microsoft Windows and DOS. The executable program files are DGFX.EXE for DOS applications, and WGFX.EXE for Windows applications. The DOS program can be run alone for full-screen text and gra- phics screen captures from within DOS applications running in DOS or Windows, while the Windows program can be run alone for full-screen or single-window captures from within Windows appli- cations. DGFX.EXE and WGFX.EXE can also run simultaneously on the same computer for the ultimate flexibility in screen capture from within both Windows and DOS applications running in Windows. For simplicity, the explanations that follow focus first on the Windows version of GRAFFIX, then on the DOS version. GRAFFIX for Windows GRAFFIX is a clipboard viewer that can save all or part of the image on the clipboard to a graphics file in BMP, GIF, or PCX format. In Windows, the entire screen can be captured to the clipboard at any time by pressing the PrtSc key (Shift-PrtSc on 84-key keyboards), or just the currently active window by press- ing Alt-PrtSc. GRAFFIX does not need to be running in order to do this. GRAFFIX can then be opened to save the entire clip- board, or the image can be cropped by using the mouse to frame a rectangle of any size within the window before saving to disk. To save, choose the desired format from the File menu. A dialog box will list the files of the selected format in the current directory. You may select one of the files listed or type a new file name in the edit box. To change to another drive or direc- tory, highlight that item in the list box and click OK. When minimized to an icon or hidden by another window, GRAFFIX is still active in "popup" mode, which means it will pop up onto the screen or become visible whenever an image is placed on the clip- board. You can then save the entire image or any rectangular portion. To return to the application that was interrupted, simply click on that application's title bar or minimize GRAFFIX back to an icon. You can turn popup mode off by clicking on the "popup" item in the Options menu, which will remove the checkmark next to this menu item. In popup mode, GRAFFIX will pop up when you press the PrtSc key OR when another application places a bitmap on the clipboard that is compatible with GRAFFIX. The compatible formats are DDB (Device-Dependent Bitmap) and DIB (Device-Independent Bitmap), the two most commonly-used bitmap formats. If you attempt to save a clipboard bitmap whose format is not one of these two, GRAFFIX will respond with a dialog box that says "No bitmap exists on the clipboard." Cropping the Clipboard Image The GRAFFIX display window can scroll the clipboard image hori- zontally and vertically by means of the scroll bars. To mark a rectangular area for cropping, move the cursor to one of the top corners of the desired rectangle, depress the left mouse button, move the cursor to the diagonally opposite corner and release the button. Repeat this process to erase the rectangle and draw a new one. The width and height of the rectangle in pixel units will be displayed in the title bar, as will the x,y coordinates of the upper-left (UL) and lower-right (LR) corners of the rec- tangle. The origin of these coordinates is the upper-left corner of the window display area. To save the cropped image, select the desired format from the File menu. To erase the rectangle, press Esc or position the cursor anywhere on the image and click and release the left mouse button. File Menu Item: Save as BMP Select this menu item to save the contents of the clipboard to an uncompressed Windows Bitmap File with the filename extension BMP. 16-color, 256-color, and 24-bit true-color modes are supported. File Menu Item: Save as GIF Select this menu item to save the contents of the clipboard to a CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format file with the filename ex- tension GIF. This format utilizes LZW compression, and supports 16 and 256-color modes. GIF does not support 24-bit color modes. File Menu Item: Save as PCX Select this menu item to save the contents of the clipboard to a PC Paintbrush file with the filename extension PCX. 16-color, 256-color, and 24-bit true-color modes are supported. File Menu Item: Open BMP Select this item from the File menu to open a BMP file and place it on the clipboard. The image can now be saved in any of the three available formats, or cropped and then saved. Main Menu Item: Options Three options are available: Clear clipboard. Select this menu item to empty the clipboard. Popup mode. This is the default mode of GRAFFIX. When minimized to an icon or hidden by another window, GRAFFIX will pop up onto the screen whenever the clipboard receives a new bitmap image. Select this menu item to turn popup mode off or back on again. To return to the application that was interrupted, click on that application's title bar or minimize GRAFFIX back to an icon. Client rectangle. Select this menu item to draw a rectangle by entering its coordinates from the keyboard, instead of using the mouse. The default values that appear in the dialog box will draw a rectangle that contains the entire client area of the GRAFFIX window. To erase the rectangle, press Esc or click and release the left mouse button. Help Menu Online Help is available to explain the features of GRAFFIX. * * * * * * * * * * * * * GRAFFIX for DOS is a memory-resident utility that captures gra- phics and text-mode screens directly to disk files. It can be activated from within a running DOS application, such as a video game, by pressing the "hot key" combination Ctrl-Alt-Space. Graphics screens can be saved as either GIF or PCX files, and text screens as ASCII files. GRAFFIX supports all EGA, VGA, and SVGA gray-scale and color graphics modes, including 16 and 256- color, 24-bit color (VESA modes), monochrome EGA and VGA modes, and text modes up to 132 columns by 60 rows. To minimize memory requirements of this TSR, the old CGA and Hercules graphics modes are not supported. SVGA modes are supported for adapters whose BIOS is VESA-compliant, which includes most SVGA adapters on the market. USING GRAFFIX for DOS Super-VGA modes are supported for video cards that have the VESA BIOS extension. GRAFFIX looks for this extension when you make it resident, and prints a message on the screen indicating whether or not the VESA BIOS extension was found. Some SVGA cards, such as the Video Seven WIN.VGA, require that you run a utility program that installs the VESA BIOS extension in RAM before an application can make calls to the BIOS extension. In the case of the Video Seven card, this utility is named V7VESA.COM. Putting V7VESA on a separate line in your AUTO- EXEC.BAT file will automatically load this driver every time you turn on your computer. In the absence of the VESA BIOS extension on SVGA cards, GRAFFIX supports the standard VGA modes, but will terminate and return to the application when it encounters a mode it does not recognize. When GRAFFIX is activated in graphics mode, a prompt for a file name appears at the top of the screen. The cursor is invisible in graphics modes, but you can enter a file name as you would in text mode, and backspace to delete characters you may want to change. If no file name is entered before you press Return, GRAFFIX defaults to the file name SAVE#XXX.GIF/PCX, where XXX is the sequential number of the file, and writes the file to the current drive and directory. You may enter the file name with a drive and directory prefix, such as d:\dir\filename, where d represents any drive letter and dir any directory or subdirectory name. The prompt will accept more than one directory in the pre- fix, such as d:\dir\subdir\filename, for a total of up to 23 characters. The file name prompt is drawn with palette number 15 against a background of palette number 0. Occasionally, there may be in- sufficient contrast between these two colors for the prompt to be visible. In that case, simply press p or g to select PCX or GIF, then press ENTER to use the default file name. No file name prompt appears in 24-bit color modes, as some adap- ter cards do not support text output in these modes. Instead, the filename defaults to 24BITxxx.PCX in the current directory, where xxx represents the number in the sequence of files saved. The GIF format does not support 24-bit color. Video games sometimes use "tweaked" graphics modes that are not supported by the BIOS. GRAFFIX may be unable to capture these screens correctly. The time GRAFFIX takes to capture a graphics screen and save it to disk depends on the speed of your computer, the file format chosen, and the graphics mode. A GIF file takes longer to create than a PCX file, because the compression algorithm is more com- plex, resulting in a file that is more compact. The higher the resolution of the graphics mode, the longer it will take to cre- ate the file, because of the greater number of pixels that must be encoded. When the screen capture is completed, GRAFFIX will signal you with a beep. During a SVGA screen capture, GRAFFIX will generate a series of ascending tones; each tone indicates that the video card has switched to a new page of memory. This is to reassure you that the program is indeed processing data, and not hung up in an endless loop. RUNNING DGFX.EXE AND WGFX.EXE Since DGFX.EXE is a TSR, it must be launched from the DOS prompt BEFORE opening Microsoft Windows. It cannot be properly in- stalled in memory from a DOS "shell" activated by clicking a DOS icon in Windows, nor can it be run from the Windows "Run File" menu. However, once DGFX.EXE has been installed as a memory- resident program, it can be activated from within a DOS program that was launched from DOS, from Windows, or from a DOS shell in Windows. GRAFFIX for DOS is activated by pressing the "hot-key" combination Ctrl-Alt-Space. This is the way to save a full- screen graphic image that is not framed by a window. WGFX.EXE is run the same way as any other Windows program, either from the "Run File" menu or by clicking on its icon, having first installed it in a program group window. The Windows documenta- tion explains how to add a DOS or Windows program to a group. In popup mode, WGFX.EXE will only pop up in Windows, not in DOS or in DOS programs running in Windows. GRAFFIX for Windows and DOS, Shareware Edition, Version 3.4. Copyright 1993, 1994 ANDROMEDA SOFTWARE. All rights reserved. To register and receive the Professional Edition of GRAFFIX for Windows and DOS, send $39 + $1 shipping to: ANDROMEDA SOFTWARE 125 North Prospect St. Washington NJ 07882 NJ residents please include sales tax. Comments, questions, or suggestions about GRAFFIX can be addressed to the author, Steven A. Brown, on CompuServe at [73140,3340]. INTERNET: 73140.3340@compuserve.com CREDIT CARD ORDERS VISA or MasterCard orders can be placed by telephone to (908) 689-0047. Postal mail or e-mail orders must include your name, address, VISA or MasterCard account number, and expiration date. Please specify method of delivery. The Professional Edition of GRAFFIX can be sent to you by first-class mail on 3«" disk, or e-mailed to your Internet address, in which case the file GRAFFIX.ZIP will be encoded as graffix.uue. CompuServe members can elect to receive GRAFFIX.ZIP as binary e-mail. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY THIS SOFTWARE IS SOLD "AS IS," WITHOUT WARRANTY AS TO PERFORMANCE OF MERCHANTABILITY OR ANY OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. BECAUSE OF THE VARIOUS HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ENVIRON- MENTS INTO WHICH THIS PROGRAM MAY BE PUT, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED. GOOD DATA PROCESSING PRO- CEDURE DICTATES THAT ANY PROGRAM BE THOROUGHLY TESTED WITH NON- CRITICAL DATA BEFORE RELYING ON IT. THE USER MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING THE PROGRAM. ANY LIABILITY OF THE SELLER WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE PRICE.