IMPROCES(C). Copyright John Wagner 1991-92. All rights reserved. Well, here we are, version 4.0. I have to say that version 4.0 is a very major upgrade. There are new features and additions to the program that are so useful and so fun to work with that I'm probably spending more time playing with the program as I am writing it! Have fun! Changes for version 4.0: Bug fixes: Some GIF images with extensions were causing problems. Fixed. Monochrome PCX files without palette information were not being properly detected. Fixed. Some PCX files with a '3' identifer don't have palette information like they should, so IMPROCES is now checking for them and when found using a greyscale palette for these images. The IMPROCES project series: Coincident with the release of IMPROCES version 4.0 is the release of the IMPROCES project series. Instead releasing another huge tutorial like the last time, I am releasing small, project packages as time permits. The first project package entitled "Sharpening, Clipboard Painting and Pages" takes you through the sharpening of an image, using the new clipboard paint feature and using the PAGES feature. Get PROJECT1 today! New features: CLIPBOARD PAINTING!!!!!!!: This incredible new feature is a must have, must use, must see. After you decide where the clipfile is to be placed, one of the load options is called Clip Paint. Selecting clip paint, you select from one of 12 paintbrushes to "paint" in the clipboards image with. One possible use of this feature is, you can sharpen an image, cut it to the clipboard, reload the original, then paint in the clipboard, only showing those area that you wanted to sharpen. Incredible images can be created by painting in freeform images from many different clipfiles. Do to it's memory intensiveness and speed requirements, clip paint runs best when there is enough XMS memory on the system to load the entire clipfile into. If there is no XMS memory, IMPROCES will use the clipfile, but the slowness of accessing the disk drive for every pixel is agrevating. The one saving grace to this is, if the clipfile is less then 64K in size, IMPROCES will use BASE memory where speed is not a factor. FIVE (yep FIVE) work areas!!! IMPROCES will now let you load in up to five images into seperate work areas and move freely back and forth among them. Using this new feature, you can cut and paste with the clipboard (even paint with the clipboard!!!) between work areas. There are too many uses for this feature to be explained here, you'll just have to discover them all for yourself! FONTS, FONTS and MORE FONTS!!!: IMPROCES now supports the PCX bit-mapped font format. Included in the package are over 40 of these fonts for you to use. Now you can use an infinite number of fonts to annotate your images! Bitfonts are available in the size they are created and there is a toggle to scale them to twice as big. There is also a BOLD toggle and a SHADOW toggle. Locking mouse: If you hold down the Left Shift key, the mouse will remain on the horizontal plane it was on when the Left Shift key was pressed. Holding down the Ctrl key will lock the mouse onto a vertical plane. NEW COMMAND LINE SWITCHES: -IP = Image Palette. Always use images palette. -AM = Auto Menu. Always perform a menu adjust after loading an image. -AS = Auto Sort. Always perform a palette sort after loading an image. When -AS and -AM are specified together, the sort will take place first. -X = Expert mode. Don't ask "Are you sure" when the user wants to switch video modes. -MC = Still means Mouse Compatibility mode for folks with mouse drivers causing problems. -V=video Is available along with specific video drivers for each video card that IMPROCES support. This will force IMPROCES to use a specifed video driver, making it A LOT easier for me to add new video boards as I get the information on them. -IP: IMPROCES "borrows" two colors from every image for it's menus. The colors are 0 and 255. 0 is replaced with black (0,0,0) and 255 is replaced with white (63,63,63). These colors are active whenever IMPROCES has it's menus activated. You can restore the proper colors by closing all the menus. Well, now you can do more then that, now you can tell IMPROCES, use the images palette, don't borrow for your menus, just leave it alone. This is fine and dandy. Don't be surprised however if you use this option and you load an image and all of a sudden, you can't see the menus. If the images color 0 and color 255 are the same, you won't be able to see the menu. That is why, I also included and HIGHLY recomend that you use either of the next two command line parameters in conjunction with the -IP parameter... -AM: Every time you load an image, IMPROCES will perform the function that the COLOR-MENU ADJUST option does automatically. It is highly recomended that you use this command line parameter (or the next one, -AS) at all times when using the -IP parameter. NOTE: When loading an image into the virtual screen, the COLOR-MENU ADJUST option is disabled, and it is in this case too. -AS: Every time you load an image, IMPROCES will perform the function that the COLOR-SORT option does automatically. It is highly recomended that you use this command parameter (or the one above it, -AM) at all times when using the -IP parameter.NOTE: When loading an image into the virtual screen, the COLOR-SORT option is disabled, and it is in this case too. -X: Whenever you select a new screen mode from the MODE menu, IMPROCES asks if you are sure. This option disables this saftey feature. Explanation time: At this time, I feel an explanation is needed for the -IP, -AM and -AS options. I've often been asked why IMPROCES does "borrow" the colors for the menu and why it doesn't find the proper colors for the menu automatically and switch them around. Here is why, I HATE software that does things without asking first. Such software assumes that the user doesn't know any better, so it does things like switch an images palette around without asking the user if that is what the user wants. Sometimes the creator of an image has a perfectly good reason why one color index is a certain color and another one a different color. Switching these colors around automatically, without giving the option of not doing it is almost like saying "you don't know what you want, let me take care of this for you". Well, IMPROCES isn't that type of software, and I'm not that type of programmer. Now you have the option of letting the program do things for you automatically, or not do them. I made this a command line parameter so that it is a concious decison every time the program is run. If you wish to make these options your defaults, write a batch file and call it IP.BAT: d: cd\IMPROCES IMPROCES -IP -AM -AS Put it in a directory specified in your path (I have one called C:\BATCH for that very purpose) and everytime you type IP, IMPROCES will start with the parameters you like to use. You can also toggle these parameters while you are running the program with the new FILE-COMMAND options. Bottom Up Raster Targa images: Targa decoder now supports "bottom up raster" TGA files. These bottom up rasters seem to be very popular with video capture boards. Thanks to Randy Kovach for providing the image files to work with. 15 Bit Targa Images: IMPROCES now supports 15 bit (as well as 24 bit) TGA files. Thanks to Ralph Frantz for sending me the images to work with. Screaming Color Reduction!!!: Sped up the TGA color reduction process. I would say on the order of 50 to 70 percent, maybe more. It's fast. Force a .MAP file when loading a TGA: Instead of IMPROCES performing the color reduction on the TGA image, you can force it to use a previously saved .MAP palette file. STATUS BOX: Pressing the ALT key anytime the mouse cursor is visable, or anytime you are using the mouse for an operation will bring up a status box with the following information: Mouse X/Y coords Current Page # Current filename for the given page # After you read the info and hit the OK button, the mouse will be placed in the exact position it was in before the ALT key was pressed. ZOOMx2: ZOOMx2 has changed in video mode 320x200 only. You just scroll around the image as it is be zoomed. This zoom/scrolling is very fast. FAT BIT EDITOR: When the right mouse button is hit, the color of the pixel under the cursor will become the current drawing color. This pretty much does away with the 'W' and 'R' buttons use, but they are still there. Last loaded filename: When saving a file, IMPROCES now uses the current filename as the default filename to save as unless you edit it. Square Gradient floods: Added a square gradient floodfill. New mensuration options. Will now split a line, draw a perpendicular and take the angle between two lines. These features have been asked to be included by users who are using IMPROCES in medical applications. I'm sure other users can find good uses for them as well. ADJUSTABLE MENU COLORS: You can now change the default color that IMPROCES uses for it's menu. By creating an ASCII text file called colors.dat formatted like so: RED GREEN BLUE Example: 63 0 0 Would make a red menu. and placing it in the same directory as IMPROCES will change the default menu foreground color. To create this file, change to the directory IMPROCES is in and type: COPY CON COLORS.DAT Then press ENTER. Then, type in the R,G,B values on a single line, each value separated by one space: 63 0 0 and press ENTER. Then hit F6 (or Ctrl-Z) and press return. You can also a text editor, just make sure it saves the file in pure ASCII. New ways to register!: BY PHONE and COMPUSERVE: You may register IMPROCES with your Master Card or VISA! There are three ways you can do this: Ted Gruber Software: VOICE: (702)735-1980 Monday - Friday, 10am - 5pm PST Software Excitement!: VOICE: (800)444-5457 24 hours a day. IMPORTANT: Be sure to *SPECIFY* that you want to order the *REGISTERED* version of IMPROCES. Software Excitment! is a shareware distributor and an authorized distributor of the shareware version of IMPROCES, so if you don't specify the registered version, they might send you a copy of the unregistered version! COMPUSERVE: Type GO SE to visit the Software Excitment! online store. Specify floppy disk format, 5 1/4" 360K or 3 1/2" 1.44 meg. Your card will be charged $25 ($35 outside of North America) and I will ship your order as soon as possible. NOTE: Neither of the above phone numbers are for product support. See the section entitled "My phone number and product support" near the end of the IMPROCES.DOC file.