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PC-SIG Diskette Library (Disk #2301)
[PCjs Machine "ibm5150"]
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Information about “PICTURETHIS 3 OF 4 (1130, 1474, 2302)”
Quickly and easily prepare professional-looking drawings for printing
on PostScript-compatible laser printers and imagesetters with
PICTURETHIS. Do them either freehand or by tracing ``template''
screens captured with a companion program, CAPTURETHIS.
Use PICTURETHIS even if you don't know how to program in the
PostScript page description language. View a screen representation of
your drawing as you prepare it, easily making additions and
alterations. Print PICTURETHIS drawings at lower resolution on some
dot-matrix printers, using the graphics screen dump program supplied
with DOS.
PICTURETHIS doesn't need a lot of fancy hardware -- just an IBM PC, XT,
AT, or compatible. It doesn't even require direct access to a laser
printer. Drawing files can be sent by mail or modem to a laser
typesetting service bureau for overnight return of low-cost prints with
300, 1270, or even 2540 dots-per-inch resolution.
ENCODALL.TXT
FONT ENCODING
KEYBOARD STANDARD SYMBOL
spacebar (Alt+32) space space
! (Alt+33) exclam exclam
" (Alt+34) quotedbl universal
# (Alt+35) numbersign numbersign
$ (Alt+36) dollar existential
% (Alt+37) percent percent
& (Alt+38) ampersand ampersand
' (Alt+39) quoteright suchthat
( (Alt+40) parenleft parenleft
) (Alt+41) parenright parenright
* (Alt+42) asterisk asteriskmath
+ (Alt+43) plus plus
, (Alt+44) comma comma
- (Alt+45) hyphen minus
. (Alt+46) period period
/ (Alt+47) slash slash
0 (Alt+48) zero zero
1 (Alt+49) one one
2 (Alt+50) two two
3 (Alt+51) three three
4 (Alt+52) four four
5 (Alt+53) five five
6 (Alt+54) six six
7 (Alt+55) seven seven
8 (Alt+56) eight eight
9 (Alt+57) nine nine
: (Alt+58) colon colon
; (Alt+59) semicolon semicolon
< (Alt+60) less less
= (Alt+61) equal equal
> (Alt+62) greater greater
? (Alt+63) question question
@ (Alt+64) at congruent
A (Alt+65) A Alpha
B (Alt+66) B Beta
C (Alt+67) C Chi
D (Alt+68) D Delta
E (Alt+69) E Epsilon
F (Alt+70) F Phi
G (Alt+71) G Gamma
H (Alt+72) H Eta
I (Alt+73) I Iota
J (Alt+74) J theta1
K (Alt+75) K Kappa
L (Alt+76) L Lambda
M (Alt+77) M Mu
N (Alt+78) N Nu
O (Alt+79) O Omicron
P (Alt+80) P Pi
Q (Alt+81) Q Theta
R (Alt+82) R Rho
S (Alt+83) S Sigma
T (Alt+84) T Tau
U (Alt+85) U Upsilon
V (Alt+86) V sigma1
W (Alt+87) W Omega
X (Alt+88) X Xi
Y (Alt+89) Y Psi
Z (Alt+90) Z Zeta
[ (Alt+91) bracketleft bracketleft
\ (Alt+92) backslash therefore
] (Alt+93) bracketright bracketright
^ (Alt+94) asciicircum perpendicular
_ (Alt+95) underscore underscore
` (Alt+96) quoteleft radicalex
a (Alt+97) a alpha
b (Alt+98) b beta
c (Alt+99) c chi
d (Alt+100) d delta
e (Alt+101) e epsilon
f (Alt+102) f phi
g (Alt+103) g gamma
h (Alt+104) h eta
i (Alt+105) i iota
j (Alt+106) j phi1
k (Alt+107) k kappa
l (Alt+108) l lambda
m (Alt+109) m mu
n (Alt+110) n nu
o (Alt+111) o omicron
p (Alt+112) p pi
q (Alt+113) q theta
r (Alt+114) r rho
s (Alt+115) s sigma
t (Alt+116) t tau
u (Alt+117) u upsilon
v (Alt+118) v omega1
w (Alt+119) w omega
x (Alt+120) x xi
y (Alt+121) y psi
z (Alt+122) z zeta
{ (Alt+123) braceleft braceleft
| (Alt+124) bar bar
} (Alt+125) braceright braceright
~ (Alt+126) asciitilde similar
í (Alt+161) exclamdown Upsilon1
ó (Alt+162) cent minute
ú (Alt+163) sterling lessequal
ñ (Alt+164) fraction fraction
Ñ (Alt+165) yen infinity
ª (Alt+166) florin florin
º (Alt+167) section club
¿ (Alt+168) currency diamond
⌐ (Alt+169) quotesingle heart
¬ (Alt+170) quotedblleft spade
½ (Alt+171) guillemotleft arrowboth
¼ (Alt+172) guilsinglleft arrowleft
¡ (Alt+173) guilsinglright arrowup
« (Alt+174) fi arrowright
» (Alt+175) fl arrowdown
░ (Alt+176) degree
▒ (Alt+177) endash plusminus
▓ (Alt+178) dagger second
│ (Alt+179) daggerdbl greaterequal
┤ (Alt+180) periodcentered multiply
╡ (Alt+181) proportional
╢ (Alt+182) paragraph partialdiff
╖ (Alt+183) bullet bullet
╕ (Alt+184) quotesinglbase divide
╣ (Alt+185) quotedblbase notequal
║ (Alt+186) quotedblright equivalence
╗ (Alt+187) guillemotright approxequal
╝ (Alt+188) ellipsis ellipsis
╜ (Alt+189) perthousand arrowvertex
╛ (Alt+190) arrowhorizex
┐ (Alt+191) questiondown carriagereturn
└ (Alt+192) aleph
┴ (Alt+193) grave Ifraktur
┬ (Alt+194) acute Rfraktur
├ (Alt+195) circumflex weierstrass
─ (Alt+196) tilde circlemultiply
┼ (Alt+197) macron circleplus
╞ (Alt+198) breve emptyset
╟ (Alt+199) dotaccent intersection
╚ (Alt+200) dieresis union
╔ (Alt+201) propersuperset
╩ (Alt+202) ring reflexsuperset
╦ (Alt+203) cedilla notsubset
╠ (Alt+204) propersubset
═ (Alt+205) hungarumlaut reflexsubset
╬ (Alt+206) ogonek element
╧ (Alt+207) caron notelement
╨ (Alt+208) emdash angle
╤ (Alt+209) gradient
╥ (Alt+210) registerserif
╙ (Alt+211) copyrightserif
╘ (Alt+212) trademarkserif
╒ (Alt+213) product
╓ (Alt+214) radical
╫ (Alt+215) dotmath
╪ (Alt+216) logicalnot
┘ (Alt+217) logicaland
┌ (Alt+218) logicalor
█ (Alt+219) arrowdblboth
▄ (Alt+220) arrowdblleft
▌ (Alt+221) arrowdblup
▐ (Alt+222) arrowdblright
▀ (Alt+223) arrowdbldown
α (Alt+224) lozenge
ß (Alt+225) AE angleleft
Γ (Alt+226) registersans
π (Alt+227) ordfeminine copyrightsans
Σ (Alt+228) trademarksans
σ (Alt+229) summation
µ (Alt+230) parenlefttp
τ (Alt+231) parenleftex
Φ (Alt+232) Lslash parenleftbt
Θ (Alt+233) Oslash bracketlefttp
Ω (Alt+234) OE bracketleftex
δ (Alt+235) ordmasculine bracketleftbt
∞ (Alt+236) bracelefttp
φ (Alt+237) braceleftmid
ε (Alt+238) braceleftbt
∩ (Alt+239) braceex
≡ (Alt+240) apple [some
printers]
± (Alt+241) ae angleright
≥ (Alt+242) integral
≤ (Alt+243) integraltp
⌠ (Alt+244) integralex
⌡ (Alt+245) dotlessi integralbt
÷ (Alt+246) parenrighttp
≈ (Alt+247) parenrightex
° (Alt+248) lslash parenrightbt
• (Alt+249) oslash bracketrighttp
· (Alt+250) oe bracketrightex
√ (Alt+251) germandbls bracketrightbt
ⁿ (Alt+252) bracerighttp
² (Alt+253) bracerightmid
■ (Alt+254) bracerightbt
ENCODLOW.TXT
FONT ENCODING
KEYBOARD STANDARD SYMBOL
spacebar (Alt+32) space space
! (Alt+33) exclam exclam
" (Alt+34) quotedbl universal
# (Alt+35) numbersign numbersign
$ (Alt+36) dollar existential
% (Alt+37) percent percent
& (Alt+38) ampersand ampersand
' (Alt+39) quoteright suchthat
( (Alt+40) parenleft parenleft
) (Alt+41) parenright parenright
* (Alt+42) asterisk asteriskmath
+ (Alt+43) plus plus
, (Alt+44) comma comma
- (Alt+45) hyphen minus
. (Alt+46) period period
/ (Alt+47) slash slash
0 (Alt+48) zero zero
1 (Alt+49) one one
2 (Alt+50) two two
3 (Alt+51) three three
4 (Alt+52) four four
5 (Alt+53) five five
6 (Alt+54) six six
7 (Alt+55) seven seven
8 (Alt+56) eight eight
9 (Alt+57) nine nine
: (Alt+58) colon colon
; (Alt+59) semicolon semicolon
< (Alt+60) less less
= (Alt+61) equal equal
> (Alt+62) greater greater
? (Alt+63) question question
@ (Alt+64) at congruent
A (Alt+65) A Alpha
B (Alt+66) B Beta
C (Alt+67) C Chi
D (Alt+68) D Delta
E (Alt+69) E Epsilon
F (Alt+70) F Phi
G (Alt+71) G Gamma
H (Alt+72) H Eta
I (Alt+73) I Iota
J (Alt+74) J theta1
K (Alt+75) K Kappa
L (Alt+76) L Lambda
M (Alt+77) M Mu
N (Alt+78) N Nu
O (Alt+79) O Omicron
P (Alt+80) P Pi
Q (Alt+81) Q Theta
R (Alt+82) R Rho
S (Alt+83) S Sigma
T (Alt+84) T Tau
U (Alt+85) U Upsilon
V (Alt+86) V sigma1
W (Alt+87) W Omega
X (Alt+88) X Xi
Y (Alt+89) Y Psi
Z (Alt+90) Z Zeta
[ (Alt+91) bracketleft bracketleft
\ (Alt+92) backslash therefore
] (Alt+93) bracketright bracketright
^ (Alt+94) asciicircum perpendicular
_ (Alt+95) underscore underscore
` (Alt+96) quoteleft radicalex
a (Alt+97) a alpha
b (Alt+98) b beta
c (Alt+99) c chi
d (Alt+100) d delta
e (Alt+101) e epsilon
f (Alt+102) f phi
g (Alt+103) g gamma
h (Alt+104) h eta
i (Alt+105) i iota
j (Alt+106) j phi1
k (Alt+107) k kappa
l (Alt+108) l lambda
m (Alt+109) m mu
n (Alt+110) n nu
o (Alt+111) o omicron
p (Alt+112) p pi
q (Alt+113) q theta
r (Alt+114) r rho
s (Alt+115) s sigma
t (Alt+116) t tau
u (Alt+117) u upsilon
v (Alt+118) v omega1
w (Alt+119) w omega
x (Alt+120) x xi
y (Alt+121) y psi
z (Alt+122) z zeta
{ (Alt+123) braceleft braceleft
| (Alt+124) bar bar
} (Alt+125) braceright braceright
~ (Alt+126) asciitilde similar
(Alt+161) exclamdown Upsilon1
(Alt+162) cent minute
(Alt+163) sterling lessequal
(Alt+164) fraction fraction
(Alt+165) yen infinity
(Alt+166) florin florin
(Alt+167) section club
(Alt+168) currency diamond
(Alt+169) quotesingle heart
(Alt+170) quotedblleft spade
(Alt+171) guillemotleft arrowboth
(Alt+172) guilsinglleft arrowleft
(Alt+173) guilsinglright arrowup
(Alt+174) fi arrowright
(Alt+175) fl arrowdown
(Alt+176) degree
(Alt+177) endash plusminus
(Alt+178) dagger second
(Alt+179) daggerdbl greaterequal
(Alt+180) periodcentered multiply
(Alt+181) proportional
(Alt+182) paragraph partialdiff
(Alt+183) bullet bullet
(Alt+184) quotesinglbase divide
(Alt+185) quotedblbase notequal
(Alt+186) quotedblright equivalence
(Alt+187) guillemotright approxequal
(Alt+188) ellipsis ellipsis
(Alt+189) perthousand arrowvertex
(Alt+190) arrowhorizex
(Alt+191) questiondown carriagereturn
(Alt+192) aleph
(Alt+193) grave Ifraktur
(Alt+194) acute Rfraktur
(Alt+195) circumflex weierstrass
(Alt+196) tilde circlemultiply
(Alt+197) macron circleplus
(Alt+198) breve emptyset
(Alt+199) dotaccent intersection
(Alt+200) dieresis union
(Alt+201) propersuperset
(Alt+202) ring reflexsuperset
(Alt+203) cedilla notsubset
(Alt+204) propersubset
(Alt+205) hungarumlaut reflexsubset
(Alt+206) ogonek element
(Alt+207) caron notelement
(Alt+208) emdash angle
(Alt+209) gradient
(Alt+210) registerserif
(Alt+211) copyrightserif
(Alt+212) trademarkserif
(Alt+213) product
(Alt+214) radical
(Alt+215) dotmath
(Alt+216) logicalnot
(Alt+217) logicaland
(Alt+218) logicalor
(Alt+219) arrowdblboth
(Alt+220) arrowdblleft
(Alt+221) arrowdblup
(Alt+222) arrowdblright
(Alt+223) arrowdbldown
(Alt+224) lozenge
(Alt+225) AE angleleft
(Alt+226) registersans
(Alt+227) ordfeminine copyrightsans
(Alt+228) trademarksans
(Alt+229) summation
(Alt+230) parenlefttp
(Alt+231) parenleftex
(Alt+232) Lslash parenleftbt
(Alt+233) Oslash bracketlefttp
(Alt+234) OE bracketleftex
(Alt+235) ordmasculine bracketleftbt
(Alt+236) bracelefttp
(Alt+237) braceleftmid
(Alt+238) braceleftbt
(Alt+239) braceex
(Alt+240) apple [some
printers]
(Alt+241) ae angleright
(Alt+242) integral
(Alt+243) integraltp
(Alt+244) integralex
(Alt+245) dotlessi integralbt
(Alt+246) parenrighttp
(Alt+247) parenrightex
(Alt+248) lslash parenrightbt
(Alt+249) oslash bracketrighttp
(Alt+250) oe bracketrightex
(Alt+251) germandbls bracketrightbt
(Alt+252) bracerighttp
(Alt+253) bracerightmid
(Alt+254) bracerightbt
ERRORS.TXT
PICTURETHIS(TM) "SHAREWARE" VERSION
RELEASE 3.00
MAY 15, 1990
ERROR MESSAGES
Copyright 1988, 1989, 1990 by Patricia Y. Williams and
Gregory Williams, All Rights Reserved.
HortIdeas Publishing, Route 1, Box 302, Black Lick Road,
Gravel Switch, KY 40328 U.S.A.
1. PictureThis LOADING ERROR MESSAGES (PROGRAM EXITS DURING
LOADING, UNLESS NOTED):
MESSAGE: REASON: REMEDY:
CANNOT OPEN Bad configuration Delete configuration
CONFIGURATION FILE file file and reset
memory and aspect
ratio
CAN'T FIND PTS3D.OVR Data file not in Put file in current
or current directory
CAN'T FIND PTS3T.OVR directory
CONFIGURATION FILE Bad aspect ratio Reset aspect ratio
ASPECT RATIO ERROR: in PICTHIS.CFG
DEFAULT USED (does NOT exit)
CONFIGURATION FILE Bad memory spec Delete PICTHIS.CFG
MEMORY ERROR: in PICTHIS.CFG in current
DEFAULTS USED (does NOT exit) directory and
reload
PICTHIS3.EXE with
memory
specification.
Reset aspect
ratio.
CONFIGURATION FILE Error during read Delete PICTHIS.CFG
READ ERROR: of configuration in current
DEFAULTS USED file, does NOT directory and
exit reload
PICTHIS3.EXE with
memory
specification.
Reset aspect
ratio.
CONFIGURATION FILE Error during save Check file, disk
WRITE ERROR of configuration
file, does NOT
exit
2
ILLEGAL MEMORY Command line Try again
SPECIFICATION switch not
"1A" thru "5A"
NEED DOS 2.0 OR Running DOS 1.X Use DOS 2.X or above
ABOVE
OUT OF MEMORY Not enough free Remove memory-
memory resident programs,
use lower DOS
Version, use lower
memory limits,
and/or add RAM
PTS3D.OVR CORRUPT Data file bad Try another copy of
or (read error or data file
PTS3T.OVR CORRUPT wrong format)
2. SPECIAL ERROR MESSAGES (APPEAR ONLY WITH "H+" TOGGLED ON):
MESSAGE: REASON: REMEDY:
ALREADY SMOOTHING S pressed To smooth at other
when already endpoint, press
smoothing F2 first; to
smooth with a
different curve,
press Esc first
CAN ONLY MOVE Trying to move Zoom to 100% screen
TEMPLATE ON template on
100% SCREEN other than
100% screen
CANNOT CUT A Attempting to No need to cut it
SINGLE POINT cut a "dot"
CAN'T CHANGE CURSOR Can't change Change units
SPEED IN PIXELS cursor speed if
unit is pixels
DRAWING REMOVED Trying to clear Press R to restore
screen or draw drawing first
with drawing
removed
ENDPOINT NOT ON Trying to change Scroll or zoom to
SCREEN curve with only put both endpoints
one endpoint on on screen
screen
ENDPTS OR CONTROL Can't choose Scroll or zoom
PTS NOT ON SCREEN curve
GRID POINTS OFF All grid points Scroll or zoom
SCREEN off screen
3
MUST MOVE OFF When scaling, Move cursor off
ANCHOR POINT rotating, or anchor point
inclining did
not move cursor
after F1
NO SELECTABLE Initial points of Scroll or zoom
TRAILS/OBJECTS all trails, text
ON SCREEN blocks, & objects
are off screen
NO SMOOTHING Trying to smooth Define curve to
CURVE with no curve smooth with
defined to
smooth with
NO DRAWING R pressed to Import or create
remove or drawing first
restore drawing
when no drawing
exists
NO TEMPLATE T pressed to Import template
remove or first
restore template
when no template
exists
POINT OFF SCREEN When measuring Enter different
distance, percentage
resulting point distance
off screen
SCREEN MUST BE Trying to set Zoom to 100% screen
100% aspect ratio on
other than 100%
screen
VERTICAL ENDPTS Both top & bottom Draw original circle
OFF SCREEN endpoints of smaller
circle off the
screen when
attempting oval
3. OTHER ERROR MESSAGES (APPEAR WITH OR WITHOUT "H+" TOGGLED
ON):
MESSAGE: REASON: REMEDY:
ALL PART FILES All found part Check disk
BAD files bad
BORDER TOO LONG, Trail to be Zoom or scroll to
CAN'T FILL ON filled has too see trail filled;
SCREEN many pixels to does not affect
be filled on operation
Quickshow screen
4
CANNOT FIND COMMAND.COM not Copy COMMAND.COM
COMMAND.COM in current into current
directory or in directory or
directories in issue DOS
path when try COMSPEC command
to shell
CANNOT SCALE DRAW- Can't scale draw- Scale at EPS save
ING WITH TEXT ing once it has
text
CAN'T CHANGE GLOBAL Can only change In FREE state,
DASH PATTERN dash pattern press L, D
on line menu
CAN'T ERASE BORDER Trying to erase "Unfill" trail
OF FILLED AREA curve in trail first
that is filled
CAN'T HAVE XHIGH= Entered or placed Try again
XLOW OR YHIGH= cursor so highs
YLOW or lows same
CONFIGURATION FILE PICTHIS.CFG file Delete PICTHIS.CFG
ERROR is bad
CONFIGURATION FILE Error while If need higher
READ ERROR reading config- memory limits,
uration file; delete PICTHIS.CFG
the default reload with higher
memory limit memory limits
will be used
CURSOR MUST BE IN Cursor must be Move cursor
MARGIN FOR between left &
POSITION right margin
for position
justification
CURVE(S) EXCEEDED When scaling line Just for your
MAXIMUM LINE weights of information
WEIGHT drawing or
object along
with drawing or
object, a line
weight exceeded
the maximum and
was set to the
maximum
END/CONTROL POINTS Transformed Try again
OFF VIRTUAL object will have
SCREEN endpt or control
point off
virtual screen
FILE CANNOT BE File cannot be Retype filespec;
OPENED opened for read check disk and
or write (illegal drive
5
filespec or file
does not exist)
FILE HAS TOO MANY Trying to read Reload PICTHIS3.EXE
ELEMENTS drawing file with higher
that is too memory limits
large
FILE READ ERROR Error during read Check file type,
of template, disk, and drive
drawing, clip
art, face, part,
or data file
(probably wrong
file type)
FILE TOO LONG Data file too Edit data file
many lines
FILE WRITE ERROR - Error while save Check disk and
FILE NOT SAVED of PostScript, drive
clip art, face,
data, or
drawing file;
disk might be
full
FONT FILES NOT Font files not Enter directory
FOUND OR BAD found with font files
ILLEGAL ANGLE Entered illegal Try again
rotation or
inclination
angle
ILLEGAL ASPECT Entered illegal Try again
RATIO aspect ratio
ILLEGAL CURSOR Entered illegal Try again
SPEED cursor speed
ILLEGAL DASH Entered illegal Try again
MULTIPLE dash multiple
ILLEGAL DASH Entered illegal Try again
OFFSET dash offset
ILLEGAL FIELD Entered illegal Try again
field for data
plotting
ILLEGAL FIELD IN Line n of data Edit data file
LINE n file has bad
field entry
ILLEGAL FILL GRAY Entered illegal Try again
fill gray
ILLEGAL FONT GRAY % Entered illegal Try again
6
font gray %
ILLEGAL FONT Entered illegal Try again
NUMBER font number
ILLEGAL HEIGHT Entered illegal Try again
drawing height
or page height
for PostScript
file
ILLEGAL INDENT Entered illegal Try again
indent for
drawing for
PostScript file
ILLEGAL HORIZONTAL Entered illegal Try again
SCALE FACTOR horizontal
scale factor
ILLEGAL INCREMENT Entered illegal Try again
increment for
data plotting
ILLEGAL LENGTH Entered illegal Try again
dash or gap
length
ILLEGAL LINE GRAY Entered illegal Try again
line gray
ILLEGAL LINE Entered illegal Try again
SPACING line spacing
ILLEGAL LINE Entered illegal Try again
WEIGHT line weight
ILLEGAL MARGIN Entered illegal Try again
page margin for
PostScript file
ILLEGAL N Entered illegal Try again
n (every nth
pair)
ILLEGAL NUMBER OF Entered illegal Try again
POINTS number of pts
to plot
ILLEGAL PALETTE Illegal value Try again
entered for
palette choice
ILLEGAL % DISTANCE Entered illegal Try again
percentage
distance
ILLEGAL POINT Entered illegal Try again
SIZE point size
7
ILLEGAL SCALE Entered illegal Try again
FACTOR uniform scale
factor
ILLEGAL SIZE Entered illegal Try again
size when
scaling drawing
ILLEGAL SPACING Entered illegal Try again
spacing for
grid
ILLEGAL START Entered illegal Try again
start point for
data plotting
ILLEGAL VALUE Entered illegal Try again
value for XLOW,
YLOW, XHIGH,
or YHIGH
ILLEGAL VERTICAL Entered illegal Try again
SCALE FACTOR vertical scale
factor
ILLEGAL WIDTH Entered illegal Try again
drawing width or
page width for
PostScript file
INCORRECT FILE Wrong format for Check file
FORMAT drawing, clip
art, or face
file
INVALID FONT NUMBER Can't edit unless Select font
select font
KERNING FILE ERROR Read error on Check disk
kerning file;
not used
MAXIMUM NUMBER OF Selected maximum If grouping make
OBJECTS SELECTED number of text two smaller objects
blocks, trails, then group as one;
or objects if layering, layer
twice
MAXIMUM POINTS Already maximum Erase old noted
ALREADY NOTED number of noted points
points
MEMORY ALMOST FULL Defining curve or SaveDRW and GetDRW.
- SAVE DRAWING object with more Saving will delete
SOON than 98% of erased objects,
endpoint, curves & endpoints;
curve, object, if pixel memory
or pixel nearly filled, use
memory filled other than 100%
8
screen only; order
Registered version
MUST MOVE OFF FIRST Must move to set Move cursor
FLIPLINE POINT flipline
NEED TO SPECIFY AT Can't use 0 Specify field
LEAST ONE FIELD fields of file
NO EDIT WITH CURRENT Can't edit this Change margin or
MARGIN/CURSOR POS transformed move cursor
margin
NO FILES MATCH No files match Retype specification
SPECIFICATION "wild card"
specification
for directory
search
NO PARTS FILES No parts found Check disk
FOUND for selected
part
NOT ENOUGH FIELDS Line n of data Edit data file
IN LINE n file has too
few fields
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Insufficient Reload with lower
FOR CURVE memory for memory limits and/
SELECTION selecting or remove memory-
curve resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Insufficient Reload with lower
FOR DIRECTORY memory for memory limits and/
SEARCH directory or remove memory-
search resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Insufficient Reload with lower
FOR EPS SAVE memory for memory limits and/
EPS save or remove memory-
resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Insufficient Reload with lower
FOR FONT FILES memory to load memory limits and/
font files or remove memory-
resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Insufficient SaveDRW and GetDRW
FOR GOTO memory for and/or remove
endpoint or memory-resident
noted point programs; reload
selection with lower memory
limits
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Insufficient Reload with lower
FOR LAYERING memory for memory limits and/
layering or remove memory-
resident programs
9
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Insufficient Reload with lower
FOR MORE MARGINS memory to add memory limits and/
margins or remove memory-
resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Insufficient Reload with lower
FOR MORE memory to add memory limits and/
PARAMETERS text parameters or remove memory-
resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Insufficient Reload with lower
FOR OBJECT SAVE memory to save memory limits and/
object or remove memory-
resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Insufficient Reload with lower
FOR SCREEN FONT memory to load memory limits and/
screen font or remove memory-
resident programs;
can use without
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Trying to shell Reload with lower
FOR SHELL to DOS with memory limits and/
insufficient or remove memory-
memory resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Not enough memory Reload with lower
FOR TEXT to read in clip memory limits and/
art with text or remove memory-
resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO Insufficient SavDRW and GetDRW
COPY OBJECT memory to make
more multicopies
of object
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO Insufficient Reload with lower
COPY TEXT memory to copy memory limits and/
object with or remove memory-
text resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO Insufficient Reload with lower
CUT TEXT memory to cut memory limits and/
text or remove memory-
resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO Insufficient Reload with lower
DEFINE TRAIL memory for memory limits and/
defining trail or remove memory-
resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO Insufficient Reload with lower
EDIT memory to load memory limits and/
edit buffer or remove memory-
resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO Trying to trans- Zoom to 50%; Reload
DRAW COPY form object with with higher memory
insufficient limits
10
pixel memory
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO Not enough pixel Reload with higher
DRAW CURVES memory to draw pixel memory
curves limits
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO Not enough pixel Reload with higher
DRAW TEXT memory to draw pixel memory
text limits; Press J
to "greek" text
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO Trying to import Zoom to 50%; Reload
DRAW OBJECT object with with higher memory
insufficient limits
pixel memory
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO Insufficient Reload with lower
MOVE TEXT memory to move memory limits and/
object with or remove memory-
text resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO Insufficient Reload with lower
READ OBJECT memory to read memory limits and/
in object or remove memory-
resident programs
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY TO Insufficient Reload with lower
TRANSFORM TEXT memory to memory limits and/
transform object or remove memory-
with text resident programs
NOT ENOUGH TXTBLOCKS Already have SavDRW and GetDRW
FOR COPY maximum number
of text blocks
OUT OF MEMORY, Trying to save File will be saved
GetDRW TO drawing with correctly, but
CONTINUE insufficient drawing in program
memory is corrupt; GetDRW
to read in correct
drawing; reload
with lower memory
limits
OVER 90% OF Defining a curve SaveDRW and GetDRW;
MEMORY USED or object with saving will delete
more than 90% of erased objects,
endpoint, curve, curves & endpoints;
pixel, or object if pixel memory
memory used problem use other
than 100% screen
only; reload with
higher memory
limits for pixels
PAIR OUT OF Entered illegal Try again
RANGE pair number
PART FILE BAD OR Part file for Check disk for
11
MISSING, NO initial Kartoon !*.1 files (should
KARTOONS face bad be nine of them)
PART FILE NOT Part file not Check disk
FOUND found for face
PT3FONT.HLP NOT File for font Copy PT3FONT.HLP to
FOUND help not found default drive
*.SFT NOT FOUND OR One of screen Enter new directory
BAD font files not
found
TO CHANGE DASH, Can't change Press + or -
FIRST DO + OR - 0 dash
TOO MANY CURVES Too many curves SaveDRW and GetDRW;
IN OBJECT in imported saving will delete
object for erased curves
available
curve memory
TOO MANY CURVES Too many curves SaveDRW and GetDRW;
FOR TRANS- in new object saving will delete
FORMATION for available erased curves
curve memory
TOO MANY DIFFERENT Too many differ- Ungroup object, and
LINE WTS IN ent line wts do on sub-objects
OBJECT for global
parm change
TOO MANY ENDPTS Too many endpts SaveDRW and GetDRW;
FOR TRANS- in new object saving will delete
FORMATION for available erased curves;
endpt memory
TOO MANY OBJECTS Too many objects SaveDRW and GetDRW;
IN OBJECT in imported saving will delete
object for erased objects;
available
object memory
TOO MANY OBJECTS Too many objects SaveDRW and GetDRW;
FOR TRANS- in new object saving will delete
FORMATION for available erased objects;
object memory
TOO MANY PARTS Already 999 part Delete some part
files for part files
TOO MANY TEXT Already have the Overlay drawings by
BLOCKS maximum number combining EPS
of text blocks files
TRAIL TOO LONG Too many curves Define shorter trails
FOR MEMORY in new trail
WARNING: COMPLEX- Trail too long; Redefine part of
12
ITY OF TRAIL may cause trail
MIGHT OVERFLOW printout to
PRINTER STACK fail
WARNING! TOO On viewscreen, Use R to remove
MANY PIXELS drawing file drawing, then zoom
with too to other than 100%
many pixels and use R again;
use viewscreen to
check memory;
DON'T zoom to 100%
screen unless you
remove drawing
with R; reload
with higher memory
limits
YOU CAN'T CHANGE Transformed Ungroup object; Make
THIS OBJECT IF object has new construction
SAVED initial point curve in middle of
off entire object and layer to
drawing screen rear; regroup
object with new
curve; transform
again
4. ERROR MESSAGES IN PictureThis EDITOR:
MESSAGE: REASON: REMEDY:
CAN'T PUT GO IN Go's can't be Delete code
SUB/SUPERSCRIPT in sub/super-
script
CAN'T TRACK KERN Outline fonts Delete code
OUTLINE FONT can't be track
kerned
CHARACTER TOO Margin very Reset margin
WIDE FOR narrow
MARGIN
CODE INCOMPLETE Can't end line End code
before ending
code
CODES CANNOT BE Must end type- End code
NESTED setting code
before start-
ing next code
CODE TOO LONG Code too long End code
CODE TOO SHORT Code too short Add to code
FONT FILES NOT Font files not Enter new directory
FOUND OR BAD found or bad
13
FONT HAS NO ACCENTED Current font has Change font
CHARACTERS no accents
GO NOT STARTED Can't end go Start go
GO'S CAN'T BE Can't nest go's End go first
NESTED
HAVE NOT STARTED Tried to end code Start code
CODE YET that wasn't
started
ILLEGAL CHARACTER Entered illegal Try again
character
ILLEGAL CODE Entered illegal Try again
typesetting
code
ILLEGAL FONT Entered illegal Try again
NUMBER font number
ILLEGAL GRAY Entered illegal Try again
font gray
ILLEGAL LINE Entered illegal Try again
SPACING spacing
ILLEGAL MARK Entered illegal Try again
NUMBER mark number
ILLEGAL NUMBER OF Entered illegal Try again
POINTS number of points
ILLEGAL NUMBER OF Entered illegal Try again
UNITS number of units
ILLEGAL PAIRWISE Pairwise kerning Take out code
KERNING not allowed
ILLEGAL POINT Entered illegal Try again
CHANGE point change
ILLEGAL POINT SIZE Entered illegal Try again
point size
ILLEGAL SUB/SUPER- Entered illegal Try again
SCRIPT PARAMETER parameter
MARK NOT DEFINED Can't goto un- Try again
defined mark
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Insufficient Save drawing and
FOR FONT FILES memory to use reload with
new font lower memory
limits
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Insufficient Save drawing and
TO COMPOSE memory to reload with
14
compose lower memory
limits
NOT ENOUGH MEMORY Insufficient Save drawing and
TO SAVE TEXT - memory to save reload with
EDIT ABORTED text block lower memory
limits
PT3EDIT.HLP NOT Help file not Check disk
FOUND found
SUB/SUPERSCRIPT NOT Can't end if Try again
STARTED YED not started
TOO MANY SUB/ Can't nest that Try again
SUPERSCRIPTS deeply
WARNING: CHARACTER Entered character Probably delete
HAS NO WIDTH not defined in character
current font
5. CaptureThis ERROR MESSAGES:
MESSAGE: REASON: REMEDY:
DOS version less DOS 1.X used Use DOS 2.X or above
than 2.0. NOT
INSTALLED
FILE ERROR, Illegal drive, Fix and try again
EXITING drive door
open, bad disk
NOT ENOUGH SPACE Disk space Insert new disk and
ON DISK, EXITING inadequate for try again
template file
FILE2301.TXT
Disk No: 2301
Disk Title: PictureThis 3 of 4 (1130, 1474, 2302)
PC-SIG Version: S3.01
Program Title: PictureThis
Author Version: 3.00A
Author Registration: $65.00
Special Requirements: 320K RAM, CGA, and PostScript or compatible printe
With PICTURETHIS, you can quickly and easily prepare
professional-looking drawings for printing on PostScript-compatible
laser printers and imagesetters. You can do them either freehand or by
tracing ``template'' screens captured with a companion program,
CAPTURETHIS. PICTURETHIS doesn't need a lot of fancy hardware -- just
an IBM PC, XT, AT, or compatible. You don't even need direct access to
a laser printer. Your drawing files can be sent by mail or modem to a
laser typesetting service bureau for overnight return of low-cost
prints with 300, 1270, or even 2540 dots-per-inch resolution. You can
print PICTURETHIS drawings at lower resolution on some dot matrix
printers, using the graphics screen dump program supplied with DOS.
You don't have to know how to program in the PostScript page description
language to use PICTURETHIS. You view a screen representation of your
drawing as you prepare it, so additions and alterations can be made
easily.
PC-SIG
1030D East Duane Avenue
Sunnyvale Ca. 94086
(408) 730-9291
(c) Copyright 1989 PC-SIG, Inc.
GO.TXT
╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ <<<< PC-SIG Disk #2301 PICTURETHIS (also #1130, #1474, #2302) >>>> ║
╠═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║ ║
║ To print beginning documentation and installation instructions, insert ║
║ Disk #1130 and type: COPY READTHIS.1ST PRN (press Enter) ║
║ ║
║ To print further documentation, disks #1474, #2301, and #2302 ║
║ (refer to READTHIS.1ST file), type: COPY [filename].TXT PRN (Enter) ║
║ ║
║ ║
║ Copyright 1990, PC-SIG, Inc. ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
TUTOR1.TXT
PICTURETHIS(TM) "SHAREWARE" VERSION
RELEASE 3.00
MAY 15, 1990
TUTORIAL, PART 1 OF 2 PARTS
Copyright 1988, 1989, 1990 by Patricia Y. Williams and
Gregory Williams, All Rights Reserved.
HortIdeas Publishing, Route 1, Box 302, Black Lick Road,
Gravel Switch, KY 40328 U.S.A.
Trademarks/Owners: CaptureThis and PictureThis/Patricia Y.
Williams and Gregory Williams; Hercules/Hercules Computer
Technology, Inc.; IBM and PC-DOS/International Business
Machines Corp.; MS-DOS/Microsoft Corp.; PostScript/Adobe
Systems Inc.; The Newsroom Pro/Springboard Software, Inc.
NOTE: Carefully read all of the terms and conditions of the
License Agreement (near the beginning of the READTHIS.1ST
file on distribution disk #1) PRIOR to using the
PictureThis and/or CaptureThis programs. USE OF THE
PROGRAM(S) INDICATES YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THOSE TERMS AND
CONDITIONS.
GETTING STARTED
This file and TUTOR2.TXT provide a "hands-on" tutorial to
introduce beginners to PictureThis and CaptureThis.
Print out copies of this file, TUTOR2.TXT, and KEYS.TXT
(so you can quickly look up the functions of various keys if
you forget them), and you'll be ready to try PictureThis and
CaptureThis. Happy drawing!
EXERCISE 1. RUNNING PictureThis
1. Make copies of the PictureThis distribution disks, as per
the READTHIS.1ST file on distribution disk #1, if you haven't
already. PLEASE don't run PictureThis using the original
distribution disks!
The following files are needed for this tutorial:
PICTHIS3.EXE
PTS3T.OVR
PTS3D.OVR
LEAF.TMP
LEAF.DRW
PIVY.DRW
CAPTHIS.COM or ACAPTHIS.COM
TEST1.DAT
GRAPHBOX.CLP
SCALE.CLP
AXIS.CLP
FONT91.*
2
FONT93.*
STANDARD.SFT
*.FAC
!*.* (part files for Kartoons, such as !NOSE.1 and !CHIN.5)
To use the DOS shell feature of PictureThis, you might
need to copy COMMAND.COM to your "RUN" floppy disk or hard-
disk directory for PictureThis
2. You MUST have a video board and monitor compatible with
CGA medium-resolution (320 x 200) graphics; a monochrome
(TTL) monitor with a Hercules-compatible graphics board
should work IF it has software or hardware CGA emulation
(several inexpensive CGA emulation programs are available,
some marketed as "shareware").
At the DOS prompt for the floppy disk drive containing the
PictureThis "PROGRAM" disk or for the PictureThis hard-disk
directory, key in "PICTHIS3"; then press Enter. Immediately
press Tab IF you have a Hercules-compatible graphics board
with CGA emulation. Some CGA emulators cannot handle direct-
to-screen writing in text mode, which is the default mode of
PictureThis. Pressing Tab (ONLY while the program is loading)
switches to (slightly slower) through-the-BIOS writing of
text characters. Otherwise, your computer might hang up. The
title screen should appear for a few seconds, and then a
copyright and ordering information screen should appear.
Please read it! When you press a key to continue, a blank
screen with a dotted frame and an X-shaped cursor at its
center should appear. This is the PictureThis drawing screen.
If you see "OUT OF MEMORY" when PictureThis tries to load,
you need to free up some memory by removing memory-resident
programs. If you still see "OUT OF MEMORY" after freeing up
as much memory as possible, you'll need to install more RAM
to run PictureThis. At least 512 KB RAM is required. See the
user manual for information on changing the memory needs of
PictureThis.
3. Knowing how to exit from a program is just as important as
knowing how to run it! To return to DOS from PictureThis, no
matter where you are in the program, press Esc (repeatedly if
necessary) until you see the prompt "Quit PictureThis? (Y/N)"
Then press Y if you really want to quit; press any other key
(including, but not limited to N) if you don't. Note:
Usually, PictureThis is INSENSITIVE TO CASE (here, Y is
treated the same as y).
Try it: press Esc. When you see the exit prompt, press any
key OTHER THAN Y. The prompt vanishes and you're still in
PictureThis. Press Esc again, then Y -- you're back at the
DOS command prompt.
Run PictureThis again by keying in "PICTHIS3" and then
pressing Enter (and, if necessary, Tab), as before. In the
Registered Version, but NOT this "Shareware" Version, you can
press Esc immediately after Enter (or immediately after Tab)
to bypass the title and copyright screens.
4. Press R and you should hear a beep, meaning that R is an
invalid key, currently (but not always) inappropriate. Don't
worry about pressing invalid keys: nothing else happens
except the beep. If you get tired of hearing beeps, you can
3
turn them off by pressing H.
Try it: press H, then R: no beep. Press H again, then R
again: the beep is back, AND an error message appears. Press
a key to make the error message go away. When you press H and
then R a third time, you're back to only a beep. The H
(for "Hear") key toggles among three responses to invalid key
inputs: beeping with no error messages, no beeping and no
error messages, and beeping with error messages. Note: Not
all invalid keys have associated error messages (a complete
list of error messages can be found in ERRORS.TXT). When
error messages are toggled on, special prompts appear during
some infrequently used and/or possibly confusing operations.
We recommend that beginners toggle on beeping AND error
messages and prompts, so, if you just pressed H three times,
as directed above, press it twice more.
To make sure beeping with error messages and prompts are
now toggled on, press W. This ("What's Happening") key turns
a status box on and off at the bottom of the drawing screen.
Press W a few times to see the box appear and disappear,
ending with it toggled on. For now, you can disregard most of
contents of the status box, but there should be an "H+" in it
to denote that beeping and error messages/prompts are on. If
there is just an "H " in it, only beeping is toggled on, and
if there is an "H-" in it, neither beeping nor error
messages/prompts are toggled on. Press the H key a few times
to watch the symbols cycle among the three possibilities, and
stop with "H+" showing. Then press W to toggle the status box
off.
Currently valid keys are listed in contextual help screens
which can be accessed (except when a menu is showing) by
pressing ?. Try it. Then press a key to return to the drawing
screen.
EXERCISE 2. ABOUT FILES
1. The "ultimate products" of PictureThis are files written
in the PostScript page description language, which contain
all of the information about your drawings needed by
PostScript-compatible printers and imagesetters to generate
hard copies. Six other kinds of files can be involved in the
production process: template files, drawing files, clip art
files, data files, Kartoon face files, and Kartoon part
files. (Also, font files are used when you place text on
drawings.)
CGA (medium- or high-resolution) graphics screens can be
captured in TEMPLATE FILES by using the CaptureThis (or
Alternate CaptureThis) program; these files then can be
imported into PictureThis to provide background screens for
tracing.
DRAWING FILES are used to store and retrieve information
about your drawings in a format usable by PictureThis; you
can save a drawing-in-progress in a drawing file for later
recall.
CLIP ART FILES save parts of drawings for use in other
drawings.
DATA FILES provide numerical data for plotting two-
dimensional graphs.
Kartoon FACE and PART FILES are used to store faces and
face parts used in Kartoons mode.
4
Following the instructions in this tutorial, you will work
with sample template, drawing, clip art, and data files, and
you will create a template file, two drawing files, two clip
art files, a face file, two face part files, and two
encapsulated PostScript (EPS) files. The recommended
extensions for names of PictureThis template, drawing, clip
art, data, face, and PostScript files are, respectively,
.TMP, .DRW, .CLP, .DAT, .FAC, and .EPS. All face part file
names start with an exclamation mark (!) and have numbers as
their extensions (example: !NOSE.3); face part files are
named and accessed automatically. Font file names have
extensions .FNM, .FIN, .FKN, or .SFT.
Access the file operations menu by pressing F10. In
response to the menu, press R (for "ReadTMP"). A prompt for a
template file specification appears, with a "wild card" file
specification in the second line. This file specification
consists of your current directory (see your DOS manual) and
"*.TMP." Press Enter and a directory page appears with all
files listed which match this file specification, with a
(reverse-color) block cursor on the first file name. Move the
block cursor to LEAF.TMP using the cursor keys (if necessary)
and press Enter. The drawing screen reappears and you should
see a representation of a leaf, which can be used as a
tracing template for your drawing. Note: Importing a template
file erases a template already on the screen. In Exercise 15,
you'll learn how to capture CGA graphics screens for use as
templates.
2. Press F10 to access the file operations menu a second
time. In response to the menu, press G. A prompt for a
drawing file specification appears with a "wild card" file
specification on the second line (your current directory and
*.DRW). Press Enter; a directory page appears. Move the block
cursor to LEAF.DRW using the cursor keys (if necessary) and
press Enter. The drawing screen will reappear with the same
template, plus curves (with a color different from the
template colors) along the leaf's edges and stem. These
curves comprise a drawing previously made with PictureThis.
Note: Importing a drawing file erases a drawing already on
the screen. In Exercise 7, you'll learn how to save a drawing
file.
3. Encapsulated PostScript files are ASCII text files which
can be written, but not read, by PictureThis. To write such a
file for the leaf drawing, again access the file operations
menu by pressing F10, then, in response to the menu, key in
W. Respond to the next prompt ("Use current settings? (Y/N)")
by pressing Y to accept the defaults (see the PictureThis
user manual for more information). In response to the prompt
for a filespec, key in "LEAF.EPS" and then press Enter. The
file is written to disk, in the current directory. If there
is any problem, such as an open drive door, you'll see an
error message and have a change to correct the problem before
attempting the procedure again.
If you want to take a look at the PostScript file just
saved, you can shell to DOS. (Note: COMMAND.COM must be
accessible; see your DOS manual.) To shell, access the file
operations menu again by pressing F10. In response to the
menu, press D. The DOS prompt appears. At the DOS prompt, key
5
in "TYPE LEAF.EPS" and then press Enter. You can stop the
scrolling temporarily, by pressing Ctrl S; press any key to
begin scrolling again. At the DOS prompt, return to where you
were in PictureThis by keying in "EXIT" and pressing Enter.
EXERCISE 3. THE SCREEN
1. To access the miscellaneous menu, press F9. In response to
the menu, press P to select a different palette. There are
six palettes (three normal and three intense) available,
although your video card and/or monitor might not show each
palette differently.
Press 2 or 3 on the main keyboard (not on the numeric
keypad) to respond to the next prompt. For an intense palette
(not available with some video cards and monitors), press
Shift simultaneously with the number key.
Try this (F9, then P, then a number key, with Shift or not)
several more times to see which palette choices are available
with your video card and monitor. Stop at the palette you
find most pleasing.
2. Press T. This ("Template") key toggles the template off,
so you see only the drawing. It does NOT erase the template
permanently. Press T again to toggle the template back on.
Press R. This ("Remove and Restore") key toggles the
drawing off, so you see only the template. It does NOT erase
the drawing permanently. Press R again to toggle the drawing
back on.
Press D. This ("reDraw") key erases both the template and
the drawing, and then immediately draws them again -- useful
for removing "garbage" (extra and/or missing parts of curves)
which appears occasionally on the screen (especially when
erasing or manipulating objects, as explained later in this
tutorial). Such "garbage" may not be aesthetically pleasing,
but it ISN'T included in drawing or PostScript files made
with PictureThis, and preventing it would have slowed the
program's operation. The D key also has another function,
described in step 5 of this Exercise.
Press C. This ("Clear") key accesses a prompt to erase the
drawing PERMANENTLY! The drawing will be lost IRRETRIEVABLY
unless you saved it previously in a drawing file. In response
to the "Clear current drawing? (Y/N)" prompt, press any key
other than Y to make the prompt disappear; the drawing
remains. Press C again; since you can easily get LEAF.DRW
again, press Y. Only the template remains. To get LEAF.DRW
again, press F10 and then G; press Enter and use the cursor
keys (if necessary) to move the block cursor to LEAF.DRW.
Press Enter, and the leaf drawing appears again.
3. Note that the curves comprising the drawing have small
boxes at their ends. To see the drawing without these boxes
(and with no screen border), press V. This ("Viewscreen") key
is useful when you want to find out how much of the available
memory a drawing has used.
Press U to toggle on the "memory Used" box (the viewscreen
must be on); press U again to toggle the box off). For more
information on memory limits, see the user manual. No drawing
can take place while the viewscreen is on (the cursor is
gone!). Press Esc to return to the drawing screen.
6
4. To see an approximation of the drawing as it will appear
when output on a PostScript printer, press Q. The "Quickshow"
screen shows approximately correct line widths, fills, etc.
(see Exercises 6 and 9).
By using the Print Screen function (see your operating
system manual for more information), you can "dump" the
Quickshow screen to a dot matrix printer for a low-resolution
print of the drawing, assuming that you previously installed
a memory-resident graphics printer driver program appropriate
for the CGA graphics mode (such as GRAPHICS.COM, supplied
with PC-DOS, or a more sophisticated program such as Pizazz).
Press Esc to return to the drawing screen.
5. Six screen magnifications are possible: 50%, 100%, 300%,
600%, 1200%, and 2400%. You see the 100% screen currently.
Switch to the 50% screen by pressing - (on the numeric
keypad). Now switch back to the 100% screen by pressing + (on
the numeric keypad). Press + four more times to switch
successively to the 300%, 600%, 1200%, and 2400% screens.
Notice that the template is NOT shown on the 600%, 1200%, or
2400% screens (the template at these magnifications is too
coarse to be of much use). Switch back to the 100% screen by
pressing - four times. So: Press + to magnify, - to
demagnify.
When the magnification is "zoomed" to any screen except
the 50% screen, the screen centers on the cursor. (The 50%
screen always shows the entire available drawing area.) When
working on the 100%, 300%, 600%, 1200%, or 2400% screen, you
can center the screen on the cursor without "zooming" by
pressing X.
The T, R, and C keys work the same way at all screen
magnifications, but at the 50% screen, the D key also
switches among four algorithms for compressing the template
(the practical significance is that some template lines might
be visible only when some of the algorithms are used). Press
the numeric keypad - to switch to the 50% screen, then press
D repeatedly as you watch for subtle changes in the template.
(It might help to toggle the drawing off by pressing R, for a
better view.) If you zoom and then return to the 50% screen,
the template looks as it did when you left the 50% screen.
Test this if you want.
The viewscreen and the Quickshow screen also can be
"zoomed," using the + and - keys on the numeric keypad.
6. You can scroll around any screen EXCEPT the 50% screen.
Use the number keys (except 5) on the numeric keypad with
Shift pressed or NumLock toggled on. Try it. Note that the
scrolling increment is about one-quarter of the screen,
horizontally or vertically (or both, for diagonal scrolling).
Also note that when the cursor reaches the edge of the screen
during scrolling, it is "dragged along" by the scrolling, so
it remains at the edge of the screen. The viewscreen and the
Quickshow screen also be scrolled, using the same keys.
7. You can center the frame (the rectangular dotted box) on
the screen (at 100% to 2400% magnifications) by pressing
Shift 5.
You can center the frame on the screen and simultaneously
center the cursor in the frame (called "zeroing" the screen)
7
by pressing Z.
The viewscreen and the Quickshow screen also can be
centered and zeroed (even though the cursor doesn't show!),
using the same keys.
8. Whenever a screen (drawing, Quickshow, or view) is being
redrawn and a key is pressed which redraws the screen (+, -,
D, scrolling keys, and Q or V while at the drawing screen),
the drawing process stops immediately, and the newly
specified screen starts to draw. This speeds magnification
and scrolling of complicated drawings.
EXERCISE 4. CURSOR MOVEMENTS
1. Note: For cursor control via a mouse, refer to the file
PTMOUSE.TXT on one of the distribution disks. To move the
cursor anywhere on the screen, use the number keys (except 5)
on the numeric keypad (with Shift not pressed and NumLock
toggled off). Initially (if you have brought in LEAF.DRW),
the cursor moves one pixel horizontally or vertically (or
both, for diagonal movements) each time a number key is
pressed. Practice moving the cursor around, and then press
Ins, with Shift not pressed and NumLock toggled off. Use the
numeric keypad number keys again to move the cursor. Now the
cursor moves 10 pixels each time a number key is pressed. The
Ins key toggles between cursor movement increments (you can
think of these as cursor "speeds") of one and 10 pixels. (The
cursor also can be moved in "real" units: inches,
millimeters, centimeters, points, or picas & points. For
"real" units, both the "slow" and "fast" cursor "speeds" can
be changed; see the user manual on how to do this.)
2. To move the cursor to a corner of the frame, press Ctrl
Home, Ctrl End, Ctrl PgUp, or Ctrl PgDn. The cursor jumps to
the appropriate corner of the frame.
3. Another way to move the cursor around a drawing is to use
the endpoint selection operation, which you initiate by
pressing Del, with Shift not pressed and NumLock toggled off.
The cursor moves to the closest curve endpoint, all of the
curves having that endpoint are dashed, and (if "H+" is
toggled) a prompt to press +, -, Space, or Enter appears. Now
press + several times, so the cursor moves to each endpoint
in turn. Next, press Esc. The cursor returns to where it was
before Del was pressed.
Again press Del; press + a few times, then press - a few
times to return to the endpoint where the cursor went when
you pressed Del.
If you press - immediately after pressing Del, the cursor
jumps to the most distant endpoint. Try it. In general, + (or
Space) takes the cursor FORWARD through the sequence of
endpoints arranged (approximately) by closeness to the
original cursor position, and - takes the cursor BACKWARD
through the same sequence.
To select an endpoint at which to leave the cursor, press
Enter when the cursor is on the desired endpoint. The cursor
remains at the endpoint, and the dashing of the curves
having that endpoint goes away.
8
4. Press P. This ("Position box") key toggles the cursor
position box (at the bottom right corner of the screen) and
the relative cursor position box (at the top of the screen)
on and off in a three-way toggle (try it, and stop with only
the position box on). The number on the left in the
position box is the horizontal distance of the cursor from
the left of the frame in INTERNAL UNITS; the number on the
right is the vertical distance of the cursor from the top of
the frame in INTERNAL UNITS. Watch the numbers as you move
the cursor around the screen. Try this at various screen
magnifications.
What are internal units? PictureThis saves the positions of
the cursor and elements of drawings in internal units (ius).
These are integer values allowing extremely fine resolution.
(On the 50% screen there are 48 ius per pixel; on the 100%
screen there are 24 ius per pixel; on the 300% screen there
are 8 ius per pixel; on the 600% screen there are 4 ius per
pixel; on the 1200% screen there are 2 ius per pixel; and on
the 2400% there is 1 iu per pixel. For the default settings,
1 iu is approximately 1/1000 inch.)
You can move the cursor in internal unit increments as well
as in pixel increments. To switch to internal units, press I.
Now move the cursor around the screen again. Try it at
various screen magnifications. Ins still toggles between 1
and 10 units per cursor movement increment, but now the units
are internal units, not pixels. Press W to see the status
box. The fifth character from the right in the status box is
"I" (for internal units) Press I again. The "I" changes to
"E" (for external units). ("G" (for grid) is a third
possibility, as described in the user manual). The number
following this indicator is the cursor speed. The two
characters following the cursor speed abbreviate the current
units ("PX" for pixels).
EXERCISE 5. DRAWING CURVES
1. By following the instructions in the remainder of this
tutorial, you'll draw a leaf with three leaflets, using the
template already on the screen as a guide for the first
leaflet. But first, you need to erase the already completed
leaf drawing. Press C and then Y to do this. Make sure you
are at the 100% drawing screen (see Exercise 3.5), and that
it is centered (see Exercise 3.7).
2. Curves drawn in PictureThis are cubic Bezier curves, which
means that they are each completely determined by two
endpoints and by two "control points" (one associated with
each endpoint) which specify curve shape. To draw a curve,
you first set (specify the location of) its first endpoint,
then you set its second endpoint, then you position its
control points, and finally you set the curve.
Before you begin drawing, remember what was said earlier
about using Esc to cancel the current operation. If you
become confused or frustrated at any point, just press Esc
to restore the program to its state just before you began the
current operation. Also, we recommend that you press W to
toggle the status box on (if it is not already showing) while
learning to draw; in the status box is an indicator of the
current operation or state (before you begin drawing, it says
9
"FREE").
Start with the leaf's stem. Move the cursor to the tip of
the template leaf, at the upper left. The internal units of
the tip (shown in the position box) used when making the
drawing saved in LEAF.DRW are 972 (horizontal), 972
(vertical), but you don't necessarily have to duplicate that
drawing exactly. Press Ins and I as necessary to alter cursor
speed. When the cursor is where you want it, press F1. This
key sets the endpoints of curves. Now it says "LINE" in the
status box.
Move the cursor to the other end of the stem, at the top of
the small oval. The ius used when making the drawing saved in
LEAF.DRW are 6492, 3708, but, again, you needn't duplicate
that drawing exactly. When the cursor is where you want it,
press F1 again to set the curve's second endpoint. The curve
is actually a line at this stage, but the status box says
"CURVE" because you now are able to alter the curve's shape.
Move the cursor away from the second endpoint, up and to the
left, and the line becomes curved. You are moving the control
point associated with the second endpoint (which we'll call
the "second control point") away from the second endpoint.
Press F2. This key switches the cursor between control
points after both endpoints of a curve have been defined. The
cursor now is at the first endpoint, which is where the
"first control point" is located initially (control points
are always at their associated endpoints until you move
them). A dot marks the position of the second control point.
Now move the cursor away from the first endpoint, down and to
the right, and you can make the curve have an S-shape. You
are moving the first control point away from the first
endpoint.
Press F2 again. The cursor jumps back to the second control
point, leaving a dot to mark the position of the first
control point. Now you can move the second control point
again. You can keep pressing F2 and moving the cursor, in
turn, positioning both control points so as to shape the
curve the way you want it. The LEAF.DRW drawing has 1596,
1572 for the first control point's coordinates, and 5532,
2580 for the second control point's coordinates.
Now you need to set the curve. Press F3. This key sets a
curve after its two endpoints have been set and its two
control points have been positioned. The status box says
"FREE" again. You've just drawn your first curve in
PictureThis. Note that the cursor ends up at the second
endpoint; this makes it easy to draw a succession of
connected curves.
NoW for the end of the stem. The cursor is already where
the first endpoint of the next curve should be. There is an
important rule for drawing with PictureThis which is
exemplified here: IF YOU WANT CURVES TO CONNECT PRECISELY,
MAKE SURE THAT THEY HAVE A COMMON ENDPOINT. If you simply
move the cursor by eye, it can LOOK as if the cursor is
positioned exactly at an endpoint, yet it can be off by as
many as 47 internal units (on the 50% screen). The ways to be
SURE that you are at a previously set endpoint are either to
end up there after setting a curve (as you just did), or to
use the endpoint selection operation, as described in
Exercise 4.3.
Now switch to the 300% screen for a better view of what
10
you're doing. You will draw only the right side of the oval
to allow this leaflet to be attached to others in the final
drawing. Without moving the cursor, press F1 to set the first
endpoint of the right side of the oval. Now move the cursor,
set the second point, move the two control points (switching
between them by pressing F2 when necessary), and finally set
the curve with F3. In LEAF.DRW, the coordinates of the second
endpoint are 6444, 3828; it also has 6588, 3772 for the
coordinates of its first control point, and 6492, 3868 for
the coordinates of its second control point.
Switch back to the 100% screen and press Shift 5 (on the
numerical keypad) to center the frame on the screen. Next,
draw the bottom curve of the stem, starting at the endpoint
at the bottom of the stem end you just completed (the cursor
should already be there), and ending at the leaf tip
endpoint. Remember to use the endpoint selection operation to
make sure that you are at the previously defined tip
endpoint. The LEAF.DRW bottom stem curve uses first control
point coordinates 5556, 2628, and second control point
coordinates 1356,1668.
EXERCISE 6. MODIFYING CURVES
1. If you happen to make a mistake when drawing a curve, or
decide later that a curve should be altered, you can erase or
change the curve. To try this, press F4. The cursor moves to
the nearest endpoint, just as if you had pressed Del. Right
now, the cursor should already be on the tip endpoint. Select
that endpoint by pressing Enter. One of the curves having the
endpoint where the cursor is located becomes dashed, and a
prompt appears. You can switch the dashing between each of
the curves having the selected endpoint by pressing Space, +,
or - (try it). Dash the LOWER of the curves, then press
Enter. The curve modification menu appears. Press E (for
"Erase"). A prompt appears asking if you're sure you want to
erase the curve. If you answer Y, the curve is erased
IRRETRIEVABLY. Go ahead and press Y. (If you answer with N
(or any character except Y or y), the curve is not erased,
and the curve modification menu will reappear.)
2. You'll need to redraw the curve you just erased, but this
time, press F1 to define the curve's first (upper left)
endpoint, then use the endpoint selection operation (Del,
then +, -, and/or Space, repeatedly if required) to move the
cursor to where the curve's other endpoint should be (at the
bottom of the stem oval), and press F3. This sets a straight
line between the two endpoints, since neither control point
was moved away from its associated endpoint. Press F4, then
press Enter to choose the current endpoint (at the bottom of
the stem oval), then Space to choose the straight line, and
finally Enter to see the curve modification menu. You want to
"Change" the line to a curve, so press C. The menu and the
dashing go away; A CURVE WHICH CAN BE SHAPED IS NOW ON TOP OF
THE ORIGINAL LINE. The status box says "CHANGE." Move the
cursor with the numeric keypad number keys to shape the new
curve; notice the dashed line still in place to show you what
the original curve looks like. When you are changing a curve,
you can use the F2 key to switch between control points, as
usual. When the new curve's shape is acceptable to you, press
11
F3 to define the new curve. The old curve (represented by the
dashed line) is erased.
3. Press F4, choose the long curve again, then (at the curve
modification menu) press L (for "Line"). A line parameter
menu appears which allows you to change the chosen curve's
line weight (thickness), line gray, linecap (the way the line
ends), and line dash pattern. The top line of the menu lists
the parameters which you can change. The second line lists
the current values of those parameters. Press W. Now you can
key in a new line weight value in PostScript points (1 point
= 1/72"). Key in "20" and press Enter. Now press K (for
"Keep") or Enter to save the new line weight, followed by Q
to see the Quickshow screen. Notice that one of the long
curves is now MUCH thicker than the other. Press Esc to
return to the drawing screen.
Press F4 again; choose the thick curve again. Press L; then
press G. Now you can change the gray percentage of the curve.
The gray values range from 0% (white) to 100% (black). Key in
"50" and press Enter, then press K or Enter to save the new
line gray. Now look at the Quickshow screen (Q). Press Esc to
return to the drawing screen.
Press F4 again and choose the thick curve. Press L twice.
Now you can change the linecap (the way the line ends). The
default linecap is "Round," and you can see on the Quickshow
screen that the current thick curve has rounded ends. The
other two choices are "Butt" (the cap ends at the curve end
and is squared off) and "Square" (the linecap projects half
the width of the curve beyond the end and is squared off).
Try these and check the results on the Quickshow screen.
For details on changing the dash pattern, see the user
manual.
You can experiment by altering the line parameters and
checking the results with the Quickshow screen. It is
possible to change any combination of the line parameters at
one time before you press K for keep. If you press Esc while
at the line parameter menu, NONE of the changed values are
saved. Note that a white (0% line gray) curve doesn't show at
all on the white background, but does show where it crosses
another darker curve. While you are experimenting, change a
line weight to -1. This changes the curve to a "construction"
curve which shows on the drawing screen as a dotted curve,
but doesn't show at all on the Quickshow screen or the
PostScript output.
When you are done experimenting, change all curves back to
a line weight of 1, a line gray of 100 (black), and round
linecaps.
EXERCISE 7. CUTTING CURVES
1. All that remains to complete your drawing's outline is
adding the leaf edge curves. There is a potential problem
here: each of the (two) edge curves which you will draw share
the leaf tip endpoint, but they also need to intersect the
stem curves (near the stem oval) where there AREN'T any
endpoints currently. Recall that precise intersections of
curves occur ONLY at shared endpoints. We need to ADD an
endpoint "in the middle" (actually, nearer to the right end)
of each of the stem curves. This can be done by "cutting"
12
each of the curves into two curves which are very similar to
the parts of the original curves on both sides of the newly
added "middle" endpoint.
To begin the cutting operation, press F5. The cursor jumps
to the nearest endpoint, just as if you had pressed Del.
Select the rightmost endpoint of the upper stem side; next
select the upper stem side by pressing + until it is dashed
and then pressing Enter. Now you can move the cursor ALONG
the curve with the cursor keys until the cursor reaches the
point at which the leaf edge meets the stem (LEAF.DRW uses
6216, 3456). You might want to press Ins to slow the cursor
speed. Press F3 and PictureThis automatically cuts the
original curve into two curves at the newly chosen "middle"
endpoint. Now do the same operation for the lower stem side
(in this case, LEAF.DRW uses coordinates 6096, 3480 for the
new "middle" endpoint).
2. Now complete the leaf by drawing the upper and lower leaf
edges using the newly established endpoints. First draw the
lower leaf curve, starting at the lower endpoint. For the
lower leaf edge, LEAF.DRW uses 1380, 2868 and 4344, 3892 for
the control point coordinates. Next draw the upper leaf edge,
starting at the leaf tip. For the upper leaf edge, LEAF.DRW
uses 6216, 1406 and 3852, 1164 for the control point
coordinates.
3. At this point you should save your drawing! Press F10 to
access the file operations menu, then press S. A prompt
appears asking if you want to save the drawing as LEAF.DRW.
Answer with N. In response to the next prompt, key in:
"MYLEAF.DRW" and press Enter. It should only require a few
seconds for your drawing to be saved.
EXERCISE 10. DRAWING BOXES AND OVALS
1. Turn the template off by pressing T, and erase your
drawing by pressing C followed by Y.
2. To draw a box, move the cursor to where you want a corner
of the box and press B (for "Box"). Now move the cursor away
from the first corner. A box follows. When you are satisfied
with the size of the box, press F3. The box is set, and the
cursor returns to the initial corner. Each box made this way
has four straight lines connected at four corner endpoints.
You can treat each of the four straight lines as you would
treat any other curve.
3. To draw a square, press B at one corner of the square,
then press S (for "Square"). Two guidelines appear, running
through the cursor position at 45-degree angles. Move the
cursor along one of the guidelines by pressing one of the
"diagonal" cursor keys (7, 9, 3, or 1 on the numeric keypad).
A square follows. You can press the cursor key diagonally
opposite to the first one you pressed to go in the other
direction along the same guideline. If you now want to move
the cursor along the other guideline, you must first press
F2. Try it. The square disappears, and the cursor moves back
to the original corner. Now you can move along the other
guideline with the other two diagonally opposite cursor keys.
13
When you are satisfied, press F3 to set the square. If the
squares which you draw using this method don't appear to be
true squares, you need to adjust your screen's aspect ratio
(see the user manual).
4. To draw a circle, press O (for "Oval") with the cursor
positioned where you want the center of the circle. Two
guidelines appear through the cursor position, one horizontal
and the other vertical. Move the cursor along the horizontal
guideline with the 4 and 6 numeric keypad keys. A circle is
drawn, centered on the guideline cross, passing through the
cursor. When you are satisfied with the circle, press F3, and
the circle is set. It consists of four Bezier curves, each of
which can each be treated as any other curve drawn in
PictureThis. The cursor is positioned at the center of the
circle to facilitate drawing concentric circles.
If the circles you draw don't look like true circles, you
need to adjust your screen's aspect ratio (see the user
manual).
5. To draw an oval (ellipse), press O with the cursor where
you want the center of the oval, and start by drawing a
circle as above. When the circle is a reasonable size, press
F2. The cursor jumps to the top or bottom of the circle,
where the circle crosses the vertical guideline. Now you can
change the circle to an oval by moving the cursor up and down
(with the 8 and 2 numeric keypad keys). You can move the
cursor back to its previous position on the horizontal
guideline (to change the horizontal dimension again) by
pressing F2, and so on. When you are satisfied with the oval,
press F3. The oval is set as four Bezier curves, and the
cursor is positioned at the center of the oval.
6. Draw several boxes, squares, circles, and ovals, making
some of them overlap. Try pressing Esc at various points
while drawing, to see what happens. (Remember that, in
general, Esc backs out of an operation one step at a time.)
EXERCISE 9. MODIFYING TRAILS
1. A "trail" in PictureThis consists of one or more curves
which are treated as associated with each other. Usually,
trails are composed of curves continuously connected endpoint
to endpoint. Trails can be filled with gray shades and
combined to form "objects" which can be manipulated in other
ways. Whenever you draw a curve it is automatically put in a
trail. If the NEXT curve you draw has its FIRST endpoint in
the SAME place as the previous curve's SECOND endpoint, the
second curve is put in the same trail, and so on. When you
drew the leaf edges in Exercise 7.2, you drew them so
they would form a continuous trail (of two curves). The
curves which form an oval or a box are also automatically
placed in a trail.
2. Now you will fill some of the boxes, circles, and ovals
that are on your screen. To access the trail menu, press F6.
Then press F to fill a trail. The cursor jumps to the initial
point of one of the trails on screen (the initial point is
the first endpoint drawn in a trail), and the trail is
14
dashed. Press +, Space, and - repeatedly until the trail you
want to fill is dashed (in this case just pick any box or
oval), and then press Enter. A prompt appears, showing the
current gray fill percentage and asking for a new one. The
current fill should be -1%, meaning that the selected trail
is NOT filled (that is, it is transparent -- not the same as
white, which is opaque to parts of the drawing beneath it;
see below). Enter a number between 0 (white) and 100 (black).
The screen is unchanged (since fills do not show on the
drawing screen), so press Q to see the Quickshow screen. The
trail you have chosen is filled with a pattern representing
the shade of gray you have chosen. Now press Esc to return to
the drawing screen.
Fill other ovals and boxes with different gray percentages,
and check the results on the Quickshow screen. If you fill
some overlapping trails you will notice an important property
about PictureThis (and PostScript) fills: they are "opaque."
If a trail overlaps another trail, and the trail "in front"
is filled, the portions of the other trail that are "behind"
the first trail are NOT visible on the Quickshow screen or on
the PostScript output. Watch overlapping trails being drawn
on the Quickshow screen. First the "behind" trail is drawn
completely; then the "in front" trail is drawn, obscuring
part of the "behind" trail. It is as if the "in front" trail
is pasted over the "behind" trail. The order in which trails
are "pasted" on the Quickshow screen (and on the PostScript
output) initially is determined by the order in which they
are drawn (the earliest drawn are "pasted" on first), but
this layering can be changed easily (see Exercise 11.5).
3. On the drawing screen, scroll your drawing so that an edge
of the frame runs across your computer's screen (see Exercise
3.6). Now draw a circle so it is partially within the
frame and partially outside the frame. Fill the circle and
press Q. Notice that only the part of the circle WITHIN the
frame appears on the Quickshow screen. That is because the
frame "clips" your drawing: only portions of a drawing WITHIN
the frame show on the Quickshow screen and on the PostScript
output. It is easy to change the size and location of the
frame (see the user's manual).
4. If you have many elements in a drawing, the Quickshow
screen may take a long time to finish drawing. To stop it
before it completes drawing, press Esc. When you press Esc a
second time, the drawing screen reappears. Try it.
5. Try erasing one or more trails. To do this, press F6 to
bring up the trails menu, then press E (for "Erase"). A trail
is dashed. Choose a trail by pressing +, -, and/or Space
repeatedly, then press Enter. A prompt appears, asking if you
want to erase the chosen trail. Answer Y and the entire trail
is erased.
6. Now you will change the line parameters of some trails.
First press F6 to access the trails menu again; then press L.
Choose a trail in the normal mannner. When you press Enter, a
line menu appears. This menu is the same as the line menu for
a single curve (see Exercise 6.3), except with an added
parameter: the "join" of the trail, which refers to how two
15
curves of a trail are joined where they connect at their
endpoints. If the second line for any of the parameters says
"Mixed," then the curves in the chosen trail don't all have
the same value for that parameter.
You can change the line weight, line gray, and linecap of
ALL the curves in the trail, just as you changed them for an
INDIVIDUAL curve in Exercise 6.3. Try it and check your
results with the Quickshow screen. Try changing a filled
trail's line weight to -1 and check the Quickshow screen; you
should see a filled area with no boundary.
Also try changing the join for a box with thick black lines
(say, 40 points). The three possibilities are "Mitered" (the
default for boxes), "Rounded," and "Beveled." Look at the
joins on the 300% screen.
You also can change the dash pattern of ALL curves in a
trail; see the user manual for instructions.
7. Now return to your leaf drawing by pressing F10 and G,
then keying in "MYLEAF.DRW" and pressing Enter. Notice that
the current drawing is cleared before the new drawing is
brought in. Center the frame (if it isn't centered already)
by pressing Shift 5. Fill the trail made of the two edges of
the leaf with some reasonable gray value (say 50%). (It was
drawn as a continuous trail in Exercise 7.2.) If you look
closely, you will notice that the two leaf edges do not form
a CLOSED trail -- there is a small gap at the stem. When a
trail that is not closed is filled, PictureThis automatically
closes the trail by drawing a straight line of line weight -1
(a construction line) from the last endpoint in the trail to
the first one, and filling the resulting closed trail. In
this case, it doesn't matter, but you usually will want to
fill only closed trails.
After you have filled the trail, change all the curves of
this trail to a line weight of -1. Check your results on the
Quickshow screen. Notice that the stem is mostly covered by
the leaf fill pattern now; you will correct that in the next
step.
EXERCISE 10. DEFINING A TRAIL
Many trails are defined automatically as you draw them, but
sometimes you need to define a new trail of already existing
curves. The stem of the leaf was drawn as a continuous trail,
but since you erased one of its curves and redrew it, it is
no longer a single trail. This gives you the opportunity to
learn how to define trails. Press F6, then press D to start
defining a new trail. The cursor jumps to the nearest
endpoint (just as if you pressed Del). Move the cursor using
+, Space, and/or - repeatedly until it is on one of the
endpoints of the stem; press Enter. One of the curves
emanating from the chosen endpoint is now dashed. If it is a
stem curve, press Enter. Otherwise, press +, Space, and/or -
repeatedly until a stem curve is dashed and then press
Enter. The chosen curve becomes dashed-and-dotted, and the
cursor jumps to the other end of the curve. In the same
manner, choose the next stem curve, etc., until the cursor is
back to the original endpoint, then press D (for "Done"). The
new trail is now defined. A prompt appears asking for a fill
value for the new trail; enter some reasonable value (say,
16
75%) CONSIDERABLY DIFFERENT from the fill value of the leaf.
Now a prompt appears asking if you want to change the line
parameters of all the curves in the new trail. Press Y and
change the line weights of all the curves to -1.
View your drawing on the Quickshow screen. Now the stem is
again "in front of" the leaf, because the stem trail was
defined more recently than the leaf edge trail.
TUTOR2.TXT
PICTURETHIS(TM) "SHAREWARE" VERSION
RELEASE 3.00
MAY 15, 1990
TUTORIAL, PART 2 OF 2 PARTS
Copyright 1988, 1989, 1990 by Patricia Y. Williams and
Gregory Williams, All Rights Reserved.
HortIdeas Publishing, Route 1, Box 302, Black Lick Road,
Gravel Switch, KY 40328 U.S.A.
EXERCISE 11. OBJECTS AND CLIP ART
1. You have finished drawing one leaf with filled areas, but
the ultimate goal is to draw a compound leaf with three
leaflets. To do this, you will group the trails of your leaf
into an "object" which can be scaled, saved as clip art,
copied, and otherwise manipulated. An object is a group of
trails, smaller objects, and text blocks (see Exercise 15)
which can be manipulated as an whole. To define your leaf as
an object, first press F7 to access the object menu. Then
press G (for "Group"). One of the trails on the screen is
dashed. Press Enter to select the trail. It is dashed-and-
dotted; the other trail is dashed. Press Enter again to
select the second trail also. Since there are only two trails
on the screen and you have selected them both, PictureThis
automatically stops the selection process and groups the two
trails into an object. If there were trails or objects on the
screen which you shouldn't be included in the new object, you
could select the trails/objects which you DID want to include
(in the usual manner, with +, Space, -, and/or Enter), and
then press D (for "Done").
2. Your new object (the leaf) now can be scaled down to
leaflet size, but first you should save it as clip art. To do
this, press F10 to access the file menu, then press E (for
"Export"). Since there is only one object on the screen, it
is automatically selected for exporting, and you are asked
for a file specification. Key in "LEAF.CLP" and press Enter.
The object is saved as a clip art file.
3. Since you have saved the object, it's safe to erase it. Do
this by pressing F7, E, and Y. (The object automatically was
chosen since it was the only one.) You should have a blank
screen, so draw a large box somewhere in the middle of the
screen and fill it, just to have something on the screen.
4. Press F10 to access the file menu, then press I (for
"Import"). Press Enter to see the directory, and choose
"LEAF.CLP" to be imported. The curves of the leaf (without
endpoints) are drawn on the screen in the positions they were
when you saved them, and a prompt ("OK? (Y/N)") appears.
Press Y, and the leaf is redrawn with endpoints.
18
5. Look at the Quickshow screen. The leaf should be in front
of the box, probably obscuring some or all of the box
(depending on where and how large you drew the box). When you
import clip art, it is placed at the FRONT of the drawing.
Let's change the layering so that the box is in front of the
leaf. To do this, press Esc to get back to the drawing
screen, then press F7 and L (for "Layer"). An object on the
screen becomes dashed. Choose the box in the normal way and a
layering menu appears. Press F to move the box to the front
of the drawing. Check with the Quickshow screen. Now repeat
this process, but move the box to the rear by pressing R.
Note that trails (for example, the box) which are not part of
objects can be treated like objects for most object
manipulations, including erasing, layering, moving, copying,
scaling, rotating, flipping, and inclining. (More about these
manipulations later.)
If there are several objects on the screen, you can move
the chosen object "Ahead of" or "Behind" selected objects,
thus putting it somewhere in the "middle" of the layering. To
try this, first press F7, then U (for "Ungroup"). The leaf is
selected automatically (it is the only object -- the box is a
trail and cannot be ungrouped), and a prompt appears, asking
if you want to ungroup the leaf. Press Y; the leaf now is two
separate trails. Now the box should be at the rear, with the
actual leaf in front of it and the stem in front of the leaf
(check on the Quickshow screen). Try to put the stem in back
of the leaf but in front of the box using the "Ahead" or
"Behind" options. (There are a least two ways: F7, L, select
the stem, B, select the leaf, D; and F7, L, select the leaf,
A, select the stem, D.) To continue with the drawing, relayer
so the stem is in front, and group the leaf and stem; erase
the box.
EXERCISE 12. MANIPULATING OBJECTS
1. You need to scale down the leaf down so three leaflets
fit on the screen. Press F7, then press S. The leaf is chosen
(and dashed) automatically, since it is the only object on
the screen. A prompt appears asking if you want to replace
the original object. Press Y, since you want only a small
leaflet. (If you pressed N (or any character except Y or y),
when you completed the operation, both the original large
leaf AND the smaller scaled leaflet would remain.) A prompt
appears (assuming "H+" is toggled; if it is not, toggle it
on, press Esc twice to get to the "FREE" state, then start
this Exercise again). The prompt says "Move then F1 to set
anchor point." The anchor point is the point around which the
object will be scaled; it will not move when the scaling is
complete. In this case, the upper-left tip of the leaf is an
appropriate anchor point, so press Del, followed by +, Space,
and/or - repeatedly until the cursor is at the tip of the
leaf, then press F1. You are asked if you want to scale by
cursor movement or direct entry. Press D. (To learn how to
scale by cursor movement, see the user manual.) Next you are
asked if you want uniform scaling (horizontal and vertical
scaling by the same amount); press Y. At the prompt, key in
the factor by which the leaf will be scaled: ".5" (to make
the leaflet half as big as the original leaf); press Enter. A
prompt about scaling line weights appears; press any key
19
other than Y or y to answer negatively. (See the user manual
for more details.) A leaflet is drawn on the screen (without
endpoints), and you are asked: "OK? (Y/N)." Answer "Y"; the
old (large) leaf is erased, and the new leaflet is drawn with
endpoints. You might notice some "garbage" on the screen;
this doesn't affect the PostScript output, but if it bothers
you, press D to redraw the screen without the unwanted dots.
2. Two more leaflets are needed. To make copies of the
leaflet now on the screen, begin by pressing F7, then C. The
leaflet is selected and dashed automatically, since it is the
only object on the screen. A prompt appears: "Move then F1 to
set start point." The cursor should be at the endpoint where
the lower section of the leaf joins the stem, which makes an
appropriate start point, so just press F1. Another prompt
appears: "Move then F3 to set finish point." Move the cursor
to the right with the cursor key 6 until it is at about 5046,
2228. A dotted line follows from the start point. Press F3. A
copy of the leaflet appears (without endpoints) at the new
location. (Notice that the start point of the original
leaflet is copied to the finish point, with the rest of the
leaflet copied around it; this allows for precise placement
of any part of an object.) A prompt asks if the copy is
"OK?"; press Y. Another prompt asks if you want to copy
again; press Y again. Now make a second copy of the leaflet.
The start point remains the same; a dotted line connects it
to the cursor. Move the cursor to a new finish point
(approximately 4566, 3188); press F3 and another leaflet
appears. Answer Y to the "OK?" prompt, but N to the "Again?"
prompt.
3. You now have three leaflets, but they are not oriented
correctly for joining together to make a leaf. To orient
them correctly, start by "flipping" the upper-right leaflet.
To do this, press F7, then F. Now you must ACTIVELY choose
the upper-right leaflet, since there are three objects on the
screen; do so in the normal manner. Answer Y to the prompt
about replacing the original object. Another prompt appears:
"Move then F1 to set first flipline point." Press F1 at the
current cursor position (the cursor should be where the lower
part of the leaf joins the stem). Another prompt appears:
"Move then F3 to set second flipline point." Move the cursor
to the tip of the leaflet (a dotted line follows) and press
F3. A mirror image of the leaflet, flipped over the dotted
line, appears (without endpoints), and you see the "OK?"
prompt (which you should answer by pressing Y).
4. Next, the upper-right and lower leaflets must be rotated
so they can be attached to the stem of the original leaflet.
Press F7, then press R. Select the upper-right leaflet and
answer Y to the "Replace original object?" prompt. A prompt
appears: "Move then F1 to set anchor point." The anchor point
for rotation is the point about which the object will be
rotated; it does not move during the rotation. In this case,
the anchor point should be at the lowest endpoint of the
stem. Move the cursor there and press F1. Choose whether to
enter a rotation angle by cursor movement or direct entry; in
this case, press C to choose cursor movement. (See the user
manual for details on how to rotate by direct entry.) A new
20
prompt appears: "Move then F2 to set 0 degree direction."
Move the cursor near the tip of the upper-right leaflet,
press Del to get exactly to the endpoint, and press F2. A
solid line will have followed from the anchor point; the
angle of rotation is measured at the anchor point from this
line. A final prompt appears: "Move then F3 to set rotation
angle." Move the cursor to the right. A dotted line is drawn
from the anchor point to the cursor. Press P to turn on the
relative position box (see Exercise 4.4). When you are
rotating an object, the relative position box shows the
rotation angle (the angle between the solid and dotted line).
Move the cursor until the angle is about 83 degrees, then
press F3. A rotated leaflet (without endpoints) and the "OK?"
prompt appear; answer the prompt with Y, and the rotation
operation is complete. Similarly, rotate the lower leaf by
about -50 degrees about the lowest stem endpoint. (Note that
in PictureThis, angles are positive in the clockwise
direction.)
EXERCISE 13. CONNECTING CURVES SMOOTHLY
1. Now you need to extend the original (middle) leaflet's
stem. Since the stem is small, it is easier to work on the
300% screen; first move the cursor to about 4740, 3084, then
press + to zoom to the 300% screen, centered on the cursor.
Turn the relative position box off and the current position
box on by pressing P twice, so you can see the most important
areas of the screen.
2. The stem extension should look like a continuation of the
stem, so the curves making up the extension should have line
weight -1 (that is, they should be construction curves), the
same as the curves making up the stem. We could draw them as
regular curves and then change their weight to -1 later, but
it's easier to change the current "default" line weight and
draw them as construction curves in the first place. To do
this, begin by pressing L. A line parameter menu just like
the one for trails appears. The only difference is that the
state in the status box reads "NEWLNS" rather than "TRLNS" as
it for trails. The current values of the line parameters are
on the second line of the menu. These values are assigned to
all newly drawn curves. The line parameters of previously
drawn curves are NOT changed if the values are changed. You
can change any of these line parameters, just as you can
change the line parameters of an individual curve or trail.
Change the current line weight to -1. All curves drawn from
now until you change the current line weight again are
construction curves.
3. The new stem extension should connect smoothly with the
stem already there. This is easy to do using the built-in
smoothing capability of PictureThis. To begin drawing the
stem extension, first move the cursor to the upper stem end
and press F1 to start a new curve. Now press S to indicate
that you want to connect the new curve smoothly (tangent at
the shared endpoint) with an existing curve. One of the
curves emanating from the endpoint is dashed; cause the side
(long) curve of the stem to be dashed by pressing +, Space,
and/or - as necessary, then press Enter. A guideline through
21
the endpoint and TANGENT to the side of the stem appears.
Move the cursor to the other end of the curve (at about 5252,
3540); press F1. Press F2 to jump the cursor back to the
first control point, then move the cursor. It is constrained
to move ALONG the guideline. Since the cursor moves ONLY
along the guideline (which is tangent to the existing curve),
the two curves join smoothly at the endpoint, and in the
PostScript output they appear to be one continuous curve. Set
the first control point at about 3936, 2584. Set the second
control point at approximately 5060, 3460 (in the normal
manner -- the second control point is NOT constrained by a
guideline). Press F3 to establish the curve; the guideline
disappears.
4. When you are drawing a continuous curve by connecting
several sequentially drawn curves smoothly, it is desirable
to smooth at EVERY successive endpoint. You can do this by
pressing A (for "Automatic smoothing"). Notice that the "A"
at the left side of the status box now is followed by a "+"
instead of a " ." This means that automatic smoothing is
toggled on. Your cursor still should be at the second
endpoint of the curve which you just drew. Press F1 to start
the next curve. A tangent guideline automatically appears
tangent to the last curve drawn. Now move the cursor to about
5204, 3612; press F1.
If you find the screen too crowded with guidelines, you can
make them invisible by pressing E (for "Erase"). All types of
guidelines (for smoothing, ovals, and squares) become
invisible, but the cursor still moves along the invisible
guidelines. You can toggle the guidelines back on by pressing
E again. The "E" in the status box is followed by a "+" if
the guidelines are invisible, by a "-" if they are visible.
Finish the curve by placing the first control point
(smoothed) at about 5288, 3560, the second control point (not
smoothed) at about 5276, 3636, and pressing F3.
Now press F1 again; since automatic smoothing is on, a
tangent guideline appears (only momentarily if guidelines are
toggled off). Move the cursor to the original stem's lower
endpoint and press F1, followed by S, and choose the stem's
side (lower) curve to smooth by. You now are smoothing on
both ends of the curve. The control points should be set to
about 4888, 3512 and 3832, 2560 (or whatever gives a good
looking stem -- but be sure to move each control point at
least a little way from its associated endpoint, or the
curves won't join smoothly).
5. Fill the trail which you just made (the stem extension)
with the same gray percentage you used for the original stem
(75% was suggested). Look at your drawing on the Quickshow
screen at 300%, then zoom down to the 100% screen. The stem
should appear smooth (within the limitations of the screen
representation).
EXERCISE 14. MOVING OBJECTS
1. You now need to move the two side leaflets so their stems
intersect the main stem realistically. You could cut the
curves which form the main stem and then (after moving the
side leaflets to approximately the correct positions) extend
22
their stem ends to meet those cut points, but that isn't
necessary in this case. It's easier to move the stem ends of
the leaflets so they completely overlap the main stem. Since
they are all filled with the same gray and are not outlined,
they will look fine on the PostScript output this way. Move
the cursor to about 4452, 2820 and zoom up to the 300%
screen. All of the stem ends should be visible.
2. To move the bottom leaflet, press F7, then M, select the
leaflet, and move the cursor to the lower endpoint of its
stem end and press F1 for the start point. Now move the
cursor to about 3956, 2632. Press F3 for the finish point.
Watch closely as the new stem end is drawn; does it
completely overlap the main stem and not stick out the other
side? If it looks good, answer Y to the "OK?" prompt. (If it
doesn't, answer N and move the finish point a little.) Move
the other leaflet similarly, by setting the right endpoint of
its stem end to the start point and moving the cursor to
about 3986, 2626 for the finish point. Check your work on the
Quickshow screen at both 300% and 100%. Your drawing of a
poison ivy leaf is complete. (Of course, it isn't quite
botanically correct, because we kept the drawing simple for
purposes of this tutorial.)
3. Before you add text to the drawing, you should group the
three leaflets and the main stem into an object and save it
as clip art (see Exercise 11). You also should save your work
as a drawing periodically (see Exercise 7.3), and now is a
good time to do it. If you are adventurous, you might want to
scale down the leaf (with three leaflets) and combine several
of them with some stems to make a whole poison ivy vine! The
scaled-down leaves might not look very precise on the drawing
screen or Quickshow screen, but they should look fine on the
PostScript output. (In general, if you want something small,
first draw it big, and then scale it down; very little
accuracy is lost. Or you can draw a small object on the 600%,
1200%, or 2400% screens.)
EXERCISE 15. ADDING TEXT
1. Now you are going to add some text to your poison ivy
drawing. First, you'll label some of the parts. Move the
cursor to about 3054, 595; press F8. The text menu appears.
To enter text, you need to specify point size (size of the
text characters; 72 (PostScript) points = 1"), a font number
(typeface), line spacing (distance between successive lines
of text), justification (positioning of text on the page),
and gray value (0% -- white -- to 100% -- black). All of
these text parameters have default values (note that the
default value for font number is 0, an invalid number, and
it MUST be changed to a valid number before text can be
entered), as shown on the second line of the menu. Press P to
see the parameters menu. Press F to choose a new font. A
prompt appears asking for a font number. Fonts are numbered
from 1 to 9999. Press ? to see a help screen giving
previously assigned numbers for the 35 PostScript fonts found
in most PostScript-compatible laser printers. Right now,
you'll be using Times-Roman, font number 91 on the chart.
Press any key to return to the font number prompt, then key
23
in "91" and press Enter. PictureThis searches for the
specified font's information files in the current directory,
and then in the \FONTS subdirectory (if it exists) of the
current directory. If the font information files aren't
found, you are asked to key in a new directory. You CANNOT
use a font unless its information files have been read. Back
at the text parameters menu, press P to change the point
size. At the prompt, key in "20"; press Enter. When you
change the point size, the line spacing automatically is set
to 120% of the point size (in this case 24 points), but it
can be reset independently. The rest of the parameter
defaults are fine for now (position justification and 100%
(black) text), so press K (or Enter) to keep these
parameters.
Back at the text menu, press E to edit. The drawing screen
is replaced by a full-screen editing screen. This is a
"counting editor" with many features tailored to technical
typesetting, but in most cases you can use it like a
conventional text editor. The bottom line gives brief
descriptions of the active function keys. The top line gives
information about how your text will appear on the drawing
screen, but it can be ignored for now. (You can press F1 to
see an editing help screen.) For now, key in the single word
"leaflet" on the first line of the editing screen; you can
use the cursor, BackSpace, and/or Del keys to help correct
mistakes. Next, press F5; this "sets" the text in the editor
onto the drawing screen. The drawing screen reappears as you
last saw it, and the word "leaflet" appears, beginning at the
cursor position. (This assumes that the screen font file,
STANDARD.SFT, is in the current or \FONTS directory. If it
isn't, you're asked for a new directory.) Notice that the
cursor is at the BASELINE of the word (where the characters
"rest"). You have just set your first PictureThis "text
block" (that is, the text on the screen which results from
pressing F5 when in the editor).
Now move the cursor to about 3534, 3475 and press F8 TWICE;
(this is a short cut into the editor when the current text
parameters are as desired). Type the word "rachis" (that's
the technical term for the stem to which the leaflets of a
compound leaf are attached), and press F5. This second label
appears at the current cursor position.
Next you need to draw pointers from the labels to the parts
they label. Change the line weight for subsequently drawn
curves to .5 points (see Exercise 13.2). To move the cursor
to the BEGINNING of each text block in turn, press Tab, then
proceed as for endpoint selection: press + (or Space) and/or
- to cycle repeatedly to cycle around the text blocks. If you
press Shift Tab and then + (or Space) and/or - repeatedly,
the cursor goes to the END of each text block in turn. Try
both. Now draw a line from the the beginning of the word
"leaflet" to the left leaflet. Endpoints of about 3366, 667
and 4038, 1339 are appropriate. Next, draw a line from the
word "rachis" to the stem. Try endpoints at about 3822, 3307
and 4062, 2707.
Text blocks can be treated as objects or grouped as parts
of objects, for manipulation in any of the ways in which non-
text objects can be manipulated (moving, copying, scaling,
rotating, saving as clip art, etc.). They even can be edited
AFTER they have been manipulated. See the user manual for
24
more details.
2. Now, make a title for your drawing. You will "center" the
title text in a "margin." Margins are boxes in which text
blocks set from the editor are placed. The current margin is
the default one, which is at the same position as the default
frame. This default margin is fine for now. Move the cursor
to the left of the margin by pressing Ctrl L. (The cursor
also can be moved to the right, top, and bottom of the
current margin by pressing Ctrl R, Ctrl T, and Ctrl B,
respectively. Try it.) Move the cursor to about 0, 4344.
Press F8, then P. Change the font to "93" (Times-Bold) and
the point size to "50"; then press J followed by C to change
the justification to centered. Press K (or Enter) to keep the
new text parameters and return to the text menu. Press E (or
F8 or Enter, whichever it most convenient) to get into the
editor. Key in "Poison Ivy"; press F5. The words "Poison Ivy"
appear at the VERTICAL position of the cursor, centered
between the left and right sides of the margin. Notice that
the characters are drawn twice (the second time slightly
displaced up and right from the first), to indicate that they
are "bold" (note: "italic" characters are shown slanted).
PictureThis uses the same screen font to show characters of
all standard PostScript fonts, so each on-screen character's
FORM isn't much like it will appear in the PostScript output,
but each character is shown with quite accurate PLACEMENT,
WIDTH, and HEIGHT.) View your drawing on the Quickshow
screen, then save it.
3. To finish the illustration, a technical description of
poison ivy will be added. First draw a box to contain the
description. Place its corners at (exactly, please!) 5502,
4776 and 7656, 3144. (Use the I key to switch to a cursor
speed of 1 iu per key press when necessary.) You now need to
make a new margin within the box, to contain the text. First
press F8. Now press M (for "Margin"). Draw the new margin as
you would draw a box: go to one corner (5646, 3624) and press
F1; move the cursor to the other corner by pressing Ctrl PgDn
(to go to the lower right corner of the frame, which also is
the lower right corner of the box just drawn) and then moving
back a little to 7512, 4656. Press F3 to set the second
corner of the new margin box. Notice that the margin is a
little smaller than the box; that's so the text won't go all
the way to the edges of the box. The new margin looks like a
box of a different color, with no endpoints at its corners.
Press F8 again, then +, Space, and/or -; this allows you to
cycle through the margins previously defined (two in this
case: the default and the one you just made); stop with the
new margin showing (to make it the current margin), and press
Esc to return to the "FREE" state.
Since the box is such a small part of the screen, it will
be easier to work at the 300% level. Move the cursor near the
center of the box (about 6558, 3912); press +. Before
entering the text, the cursor must be at the proper position;
move it to 5646, 3360. Press F8 to see the text menu. The
text parameters need to be changed again; change the font to
font 91 (Times-Roman), the point size to 10, and the
justification to full. (Full justification means that the
text lines up vertically both on the left side of the margin
25
and on the right side of the margin; this is accomplished by
adding extra space as needed between words.) Try a short cut
into the editor by pressing Enter twice. (Enter can serve as
a substitute for K (for "Keep"), as well as a substitute for
E (for "Edit" in the text menu.) Font 91 will be the main
font for the description, but the first two words actually
need to appear in Times-Bold, font 93. You could do this by
changing the font in the text parameter menu and making two
text blocks (one would consist of the first two words in
bold, the other the rest of the text in roman), but it is
easier to change the font for a few words in a text block by
using typesetting codes in the block. To start a typesetting
code, press Ctrl A. A left pointing triangle, signifying
"typesetting code begins," appears where the edit cursor was.
Now key in "ft93"; this code means change to font number 93.
End the typesetting code by pressing Ctrl Z (a right pointing
triangle ends the code). Key in "Rhus toxicodendron." (This
is the scientific name for poison ivy). To switch back to the
Times-Roman font, press Ctrl A; key in "ftp"; press Ctrl Z;
code means switch back to the previous font (in this case,
font 91). The top status line says (among other things!)
"FT91"; move the cursor back into the middle of "Rhus
toxicodendron" and the status line says "FT93"; it also gives
the current (that is, at the current cursor position) point
size ("PT10"), justification ("JF"), text gray percentage
("GR100"), and line spacing in points ("LS12"). The remaining
numbers tell how much space within the current margin box
(both vertically and horizontally) have been used and remain
to be used, with the cursor at its current position. All of
this status line information can be quite useful when you are
entering complicated text, but it can be ignored most of the
time (including right now). Move the cursor to the end of the
current line by pressing the End key on the numeric key pad,
and key in a single space, followed by the following
paragraph (DON'T press Enter until you're done!):
Suberect and bushy, scrambling over fences, walls,
etc., or in woods climbing by rootlets to
considerable heights. Leaves pinnately 3-foliolate;
berries whitish or cream-colored, 5-6 mm. in
diameter. Abundant in hedgerows, thickets, and
woods. To many persons, poisonous to the touch.
End the text with an Enter. This prevents the last line from
being fully justified. You will have noticed that the text
automatically wrapped long before it reached the end of the
editor line. It wraps when the margin line is full. Look over
your text and correct any errors. (Check the editor help
screen by pressing F1 to see the functions of various keys,
if you want.) When you are satisfied, press F5 to set the
text. The paragraph you typed in appears on the drawing
screen.
You'll notice that the spaces between the words in the
fourth line are rather large. This isn't desirable, so you
need to edit the paragraph. To do this, you need to "cut" the
text block back to the editor for re-editing. First press Tab
to make sure the cursor is at the beginning of the text
block; then press F8, followed by C (for "Cut"). The menu box
disappears, the text block is dashed, and an information
26
block about the dashed text block appears at the bottom of
the screen. Press Enter to select the text block. (You could
choose other text blocks, EVEN THOSE OFF THE SCREEN, by
cycling through them, using the +, Space, and/or - keys.) The
text block is erased, and the text menu reappears. The text
block isn't lost, it's in the editor. Go into the editor (by
pressing E, Enter, or F8) to edit the text block. The spaces
in the fourth line were exceptionally large because the word
"considerable" is too long to fit on that line. This can be
remedied by hyphenation. PictureThis does NOT have automatic
hyphenation (it would require too much memory!), so you must
do it yourself. Key in a hyphen ("-") FOLLOWED BY A SPACE
after the "consider", so it looks like "consider- able." Now
press F3 to "compose" the text. Composing recalculates where
the text wrapping must occur for each of the lines in the
editor. You should compose whenever you have made changes to
the text, so you can see the correct wrapping. Now press F5
to set the text block. Now the spaces between the words in
the seventh line are a little large. If you want, you can cut
the text block back to the editor again, change "diameter" to
"dia- meter," and then set the text. With experience, you
won't need to look at the text on the screen each time to
decide where to hyphenate; in the editor, if a long word
wraps when you are in the middle of it, you can insert a
hyphen right there and then.
Cutting can be very useful. You can cut the text back to
the editor to correct errors, to change any of the text
parameters (point size, font, justification, etc.), to change
the position of the text (i.e., screen cursor position), or
to change the margin. Try it. You particularly might want to
see what changing the justification to right, centered, and
left (without changing anything else) does to the text.
Go to the 100% screen by pressing -; center the screen by
pressing Shift 5; then IMMEDIATELY press Q to see the
Quickshow screen. Notice that you DON'T have to wait until
the screen is completely drawn to scroll, zoom, Quickshow, or
view. The drawing stops where it is and begins anew on the
just specified screen. If you find that the drawing takes too
long to redraw because of the text, press J (for "Jabber");
the screen redraws with the text "greeked," that is, with
just baselines and ascender (along the tops of letters) lines
are shown, instead of the individual characters. The
Quickshow screen also shows greeked text. If you press J
again, the text is greeked on the drawing screen, but
individual characters show on the Quickshow screen. Pressing
J a third time returns to showing individual characters on
both the drawing and Quickshow screens.
4. Your drawing is complete, so save it (see Exercise 7.3).
(A drawing previously completed using this tutorial is named
PIVY.DRW on one of the distribution disks.) Also save your
work as an Encapsulated PostScript file. See the user manual
for the many ways you can modify your drawing's final output
(including scaling from tiny to huge, changing the page
orientation, and/or moving the drawing's position on the
page(s)).
5. Deliver your resulting EPS file(s) to a laser printer or
imagesetter. How you do this depends on the particulars of
27
your situation. Consult laser printer user manuals or
typesetting service bureau personnel, as appropriate.
Encapsulated PostScript files produced by PictureThis also
can be imported into many page layout programs.
EXERCISE 16. KARTOONS MODE
1. Kartoons mode allows -- as they say -- "kids of all ages"
to make an unlimited variety of cartoon faces very easily. It
was our 10-year-old son's idea (and he and his 7-year-old
brother contributed some of the Kartoons artwork included on
one of the distribution disks); but we enjoy 'tooning around
at least as much as he does!
To enter Kartoons mode, press K. (If there's a already a
regular-mode drawing, you're asked whether you really want to
clear it and enter Kartoons mode, and if the Kartoons part
files (!FOREHD.1, !NOSE.5, etc.) aren't in the current
directory, you're asked for a new directory.) A face appears
on the screen in parts, forehead first, then ears, chin,
eyebrows, eyes, and nose. We call him "Joe"; see what he
looks like on the Quickshow screen by pressing Q, then press
Esc to get back to the drawing screen. Notice that there is a
box drawn around the forehead. This indicates that the
forehead is the current part. Press U (for "Use part"); the
current forehead is erased and a new one appears. You can
cycle through all the possible foreheads (that is, those with
part files) by pressing U, +, or Space (for the "forward"
direction), or - (for the "backward" direction) repeatedly.
When you find a forehead you like, press Enter to keep that
forehead. Now press K (for "Khoose block"). The box moves to
the left ear. Continue pressing K (or +, Space, and/or -) to
cycle through the different parts. Stop at a box by pressing
U to start cycling through the parts for that box. You can
make a huge number of unique faces just using the supplied
parts! Look at some faces on the Quickshow screen.
2. If you find a face you'd like to have easily accessible
in the future, you can save it as a face file. Press F10 and
then P (for "PutFAC"). You're asked for a filename. We
recommend that you use the extension .FAC.
You can retrieve this face, or any of several included on
the distribution disk. To do this, press F10 to see the file
menu, then press G (for "GetFAC"). Press Enter to see the
filenames of all the face files in the current directory.
Choose one with the block cursor; press Enter; the current
face is replaced by the one you selected. You can use K and U
to change the new face, too.
3. You can make your own part files. Our sons made many of
those on one of the distribution disks -- can you top those?
It's fun to try, and an excellent way to practice many of the
PictureThis operations. Part files actually are just
specially named clip art files, so they can be objects,
trails, and/or text blocks. You can use nearly all of the
normal PictureThis operations in Kartoons mode; the only ones
which you can't use are getting a drawing (you can get a face
instead) and plotting data (see Exercise 17).
Pressing C clears the face and returns you to normal
drawing mode (after a prompt). (If at any time you get a
28
message saying you're almost out of memory, press C to clear,
then K, and you're back in Kartoons mode with the same face,
and more free memory.)
Return to Kartoons mode, if necessary. To make a new pair
of eyebrows, press K until the current block is around the
left eyebrow. Erase the current left eyebrow by pressing F7
and E, choosing the eyebrow object in the normal manner, then
pressing Enter and answering Y to the prompt. Now draw a new
eyebrow in the general area of the current block. It can be a
single curve, a filled trail, or a number of trails. (It
DOESN'T need to be in the current box, but it probably will
fit in with other parts better if it is.) Check it on the
Quickshow screen, to make sure the line weight, etc., is
reasonable. If the eyebrow is made of more than one trail,
group the trails (see Exercise 11.1). Press Y (for "Yes save
part"). Choose the eyebrow in the normal manner (it should be
dashed) and press Enter; the eyebrow which you drew is added
to the left eyebrow part files; now it can be retrieved in
the usual manner, using U. You also should make a mirror-
image right eyebrow. To do this, press K one time to change
the current block to the right eyebrow; erase the current
right eyebrow; flip the left eyebrow over a vertical center
line (see Exercise 12.3); press Y and choose the new right
eyebrow to save. Of course, you don't have to erase a current
part object to make a new part. You can add to or change an
existing part, group it as an object, and save the new object
as a part file.
EXERCISE 17. PLOTTING DATA FROM A FILE
1. PictureThis allows numerical data from a file to be
plotted automatically in a two-dimensional graph. A simple
sample data file TEST1.DAT is on one of the distribution
disks. It consists of some comments and eleven lines of data
with two numbers in each, the first being the line number (0
through 10) and the second being the first number squared
(0,1,4,9,16,...,100), thus making two columns. (See the user
manual for acceptable formats for data file; files produced
by many spreadsheet and scientific programs can be used with
few or no changes.)
Before you start, make sure you're in the regular drawing
mode (not Kartoons), and toggle on the status box and "H+";
make sure that the default frame is the current one (F, Y),
and change the current units to inches (F9, U, I, Enter; see
the user manual for more details), and turn the position box
on if it isn't on already. The position box now measures in
inches from the top left corner of the (default) frame. Set
the line weight to .25 points (L, W, ".25," Enter).
To plot the data in TEST1.DAT, begin by pressing F10 to see
the file menu. Then press U (for "UseDAT"); you will be asked
for the data file's file specification, so key in "TEST1.DAT"
(prfaced by its path, if it isn't in the current directory).
You're asked for the x field (x means horizontal, field means
(more or less) the column number), press Enter to accept the
default field 1. You're then asked for the y (vertical)
field; press Enter to accept the default field 2. PictureThis
then reads the data file and reports how many pairs (one
number of each pair in the first field of each line and the
other number of each pair in the second field of each line)
29
are in the file, and how many data points can be plotted with
the current memory available. You are asked for the 1st pair
to plot; press Enter to accept the default (pair 1, on the
first (non-comment) line of the file). Another prompt appears
asking if you want to plot EVERY pair, every 2ND pair, or
every 3RD pair, etc.; press Enter to accept the default
(every pair). You then are asked how many points to plot;
press Enter to accept 11 (the total number of pairs in
TEST1.DAT).
Now you need to define the limits of plotting. All data
points which fall outside the boundary you define (by
specifying its lower-left and upper-right corners) are NOT
plotted. A prompt appears telling you to move the cursor to
xlow, ylow (defining the lower-left corner of the boundary)
and press F3; move the cursor to about 1.0, 4.5; press F3. A
prompt shows the minimum value of x in the file and asks you
to enter XLOW (the value of x at the plot boundary's lower-
left corner); press Enter to accept 0. Similarly, press Enter
at the next prompt to accept 0 for YLOW (the value of y at
the plot boundary's upper-left corner). You see a prompt
telling you to move the cursor to xhigh, yhigh (defining the
upper-right corner of the boundary). Move the cursor to
about 7.0, 1.0; press F3. Press "Enter" twice to accept the
default values of XHIGH (10) and YHIGH (100). PictureThis
automatically scales the data points between xlow, ylow and
xhigh, yhigh. Finally, you can choose whether to plot dots or
lines; in this case, press L to plot lines. The file is read;
a graph is plotted between xlow, ylow and xhigh, yhigh; and
you are shown how many data pairs were plotted, as well as
the number of the last pair plotted. Press a key to continue.
2. Import the clip art file AXIS.CLP included on one of the
distribution disks. As you can see, this consists of labeled
horizontal and vertical axes for the graph. It was made by
importing SCALE.CLP (also on a distribution disk), scaling it
larger for the horizontal axis, rotating, flipping, and
scaling smaller for the vertical axis, and adding appropriate
labels. You can try all that for practice if you want.
3. To highlight the graph's data points, a small object can
be copied to each endpoint on the curve. PictureThis allows
multicopying of an object to every, or selected, endpoints of
a trail. To do this, first import the clip art file
GRAPHBOX.CLP. This is a small white-filled box. Move the
cursor to near the bottom left of the drawing, then press
F6 to see the trails menu, followed by O (for "Object to
Endpoints"). Now you must select a trail; choose the trail
which was plotted (+ or -) and press Enter. Now select the
small square as the object to copy, and press Enter. A prompt
appears asking you to move the cursor to the start point of
the object and press F3 (the start point is the point which
will be copied directly over each endpoint); move the cursor
close to 2.0, 3.0 (the center of the clip-art box) and press
F3. You're asked if you want to copy to ALL endpoints of the
trail; answer Y. The small box automatically is copied to
all of the endpoints. This multicopying ability is useful not
only for data plots; it can make interesting designs quickly.
Erase the original box, since it is no longer needed.
30
4. Finally, the graph needs a label. Move the cursor to
approximately 2.3, 1.9. Press F8. Press P to change the
parameters; set the point size to 30, and make sure that the
font is 91, and that the justification is position. Press
Enter twice to get into the editor. Now key in: "y =
x<spo>2<spx>" (with the "<'s" and ">'s" replaced by Ctrl A
and Ctrl Z, respectively). (The "spo" typesetting code means
start a superscript; the "spx" code means end a superscript.
The superscript text (in this case a "2") is made smaller and
moved up to form a superscript. The text returns to normal
with the "spx" code. Similar codes ("sbo" and "sbx") work for
subscripts. Subscripts and superscripts can be nested.) Press
F5 to set the text. If you are satisfied, your data plot
drawing is complete. Save it as both DRW and EPS files, and
print the EPS file if you want. Exit from PictureThis by
pressing Esc and Y.
EXERCISE 18. CAPTURING SCREENS FOR USE AS TEMPLATES
1. To install the memory-resident CaptureThis program used
for capturing screens, with CAPTHIS.COM in the current
directory, key in "CAPTHIS" and press Enter.
A message noting that CaptureThis has been installed should
appear, and the DOS prompt should return.
Now run PictureThis. If you get an "OUT OF MEMORY" error
message, your computer doesn't have enough memory to run
PictureThis with CaptureThis installed. If you have other
memory-resident programs installed, remove them or reboot
without them and try again. If you still cannot install
CaptureThis and then run PictureThis, you should try
capturing a screen using CaptureThis from a CGA graphics
program that needs less memory than does PictureThis, or you
should try Alternate CaptureThis with PictureThis (see
below).
As soon as the title screen is completely displayed (when
it says "PictureThis" in script), press Shift PrtSc. After
these keys are pressed, CaptureThis checks your computer's
BIOS to determine the current video mode; if, according to
the BIOS, the mode is CGA text, NOT CGA graphics, then a
warning message appears at the top of the screen: "NOT CGA
GRAPHICS! Try Capture? (Y/N)"/"ESC to exit." This should NOT
happen unless you pressed Shift PrtSc too late -- when the
copyright/ordering information screen (in text mode) is
displayed. If you DO see this message, press Esc. Exit from
PictureThis and then try again. Occasionally, an applications
program programs the video controller chip directly for CGA
graphics, but fails to update the BIOS; if the screen looks
like CGA graphics even though CaptureThis has determined
(from the BIOS) that it DOESN'T seem to be, you could still
try to capture the screen in a template file for importing
into PictureThis by pressing Y. Then you would respond to the
prompts which follow. We recommend that you use the extension
".TMP" for template files. If the captured screen isn't CGA
graphics, its file will produce "garbage" when imported into
PictureThis.
Or, if you wanted a normal screen dump to a printer, you
would press N. Caution: If a printer is not connected, or if
it is turned off, your computer might hang up. For a graphics
mode screen dump, you must have installed a memory-resident
31
graphics printer driver program appropriate for the graphics
mode (such as GRAPHICS.COM, supplied with PC-DOS for dumps of
CGA graphics screens to IBM-compatible dot matrix printers)
PRIOR to installing CaptureThis.
Alternatively, to proceed WITHOUT capturing or dumping the
screen, you would press Esc.
If, according to the BIOS, the current video mode IS CGA
graphics, a different message appears: "Perform Screen
Capture? (Y/N)"/"ESC to exit." This is the message you should
be seeing now. To capture the screen in a template file for
importing into PictureThis, press Y. Now key in "PTTITLE.TMP"
and press Enter. Directory specifications can be used for
files (this might be necessary, to write the file on a
different disk, if you get a "disk full" error message). Each
template file takes about 16 KB. Again, we recommend that you
use the extension ".TMP" for template files.
If, instead, you wanted a normal screen dump to a printer,
you would press N. Caution: If your printer is not connected,
or if it is turned off, the computer may hang up. For a CGA
graphics screen dump, you must have installed an appropriate
memory-resident graphics printer driver program (such as
GRAPHICS.COM, supplied with PC-DOS for screen dumps to IBM-
compatible dot matrix printers) PRIOR to installing
CaptureThis.
Alternatively, to proceed without capturing or dumping the
screen, you would have pressed Esc.
If CaptureThis doesn't work correctly with your computer
(an example is the Zenith Z-100 running ZPC) or with
particular programs (examples are those which "take over" the
keyboard), you should try the Alternate CaptureThis program
instead. Once installed, this program doesn't require any
keyboard input other than Shift PrtSc to capture CGA graphics
mode screens, and thus will work even with programs which
"take over" the keyboard (unless they take over the Print
Screen interrupt; to date, we've found only one program that
does this: The Newsroom Pro).
To install Alternate CaptureThis, reboot your computer;
then, at the DOS prompt corresponding to the drive containing
the disk with ACAPTHIS.COM, key in "ACAPTHIS"; then press
Enter. A message noting that Alternate CaptureThis has been
installed should appear, and the DOS prompt should return.
Now run PictureThis. As soon as the title screen is
completely displayed (when it says "PictureThis" in script),
press Shift PrtSc. If Alternate CaptureThis determines (from
your computer's BIOS) that the current video mode is NOT CGA
graphics, it performs a normal screen dump to a printer. This
should NOT happen unless you pressed Shift PrtSc too late --
when the copyright/ordering information screen (in text mode)
is displayed. Caution: If a printer is not connected, or if
it is turned off, your computer might hang up. For a graphics
screen dump, you must have installed a memory-resident
graphics printer driver program appropriate for the non-CGA
graphics mode PRIOR to installing Alternate CaptureThis. If
you get a normal screen dump, or your computer hangs up, try
again.
If, according to the BIOS, the current video mode IS CGA
graphics, Alternate CaptureThis will capture the screen in a
file named A0.TMP (in the current directory). Subsequently
captured screens will be saved in files having the following
32
sequence of names:
A1.TMP, ..., A9.TMP, B0.TMP, ..., B9.TMP, ..., C0.TMP, ...
Caution: Each time ACAPTHIS is installed, it saves screens in
files (beginning with A0.TMP) WRITING OVER ANY EXISTING FILES
IN THE CURRENT DIRECTORY WITH THE SAME NAMES WITHOUT WARNING
-- so after saving a series of files with ACAPTHIS, you
should rename them before installing ACAPTHIS again, to guard
against overwriting, and to provide more descriptive names.
2. In PictureThis, press F10 to access the file operations
menu, then press R and key in the name of the file you just
saved (PTTITLE.TMP if you used CaptureThis, or A0.TMP if you
used Alternate CaptureThis), with a directory specification
if necessary. And there's the template!
Now that you've completed this tutorial, we recommend that
you explore PictureThis and CaptureThis on your own,
referring as necessary to the user manual to learn more about
the details of how these programs work. The user manual
contains more details and examples on areas covered by this
tutorial AND information on how to use the MANY features NOT
covered in this tutorial (working in different units,
changing the cursor speed, using a grid, scaling the drawing,
noting points, measuring distances, many more text features,
etc.) Have fun!
Directory of PC-SIG Library Disk #2301
Volume in drive A has no label
Directory of A:\
TUTOR1 TXT 54455 5-19-90 8:04a
TUTOR2 TXT 58851 5-16-90 8:50a
ERRORS TXT 37678 5-16-90 9:45a
ENCODLOW TXT 12599 5-16-90 9:23a
ENCODALL TXT 13147 5-16-90 9:29a
KEY DRW 7708 5-11-90 7:53p
KEY EPS 6882 5-11-90 7:53p
ENCODING PS 35145 3-01-90 12:00p
STANDARD DRW 3197 3-01-90 12:00p
SYMBOL DRW 3405 3-01-90 12:00p
ZAPFDBLO DRW 2945 3-01-90 12:00p
ZAPFDBHI DRW 2939 3-01-90 12:00p
DASH1 DRW 6363 3-01-90 12:00p
DASH2 DRW 6459 3-01-90 12:00p
DASH3 DRW 6459 3-01-90 12:00p
DASH4 DRW 6459 3-01-90 12:00p
FONTNO EPS 10605 3-01-90 12:00p
TEST1 DAT 125 5-06-90 9:39a
TEST2 DAT 1792 9-14-89 1:01a
LEAF TMP 16192 5-01-89 10:15a
LEAF DRW 656 5-02-90 1:26p
AXIS CLP 1866 5-06-90 10:19a
GRAPHBOX CLP 116 5-06-90 10:10a
SCALE CLP 814 5-06-90 10:21a
PIVY DRW 5569 5-04-90 2:22p
STICKFIG CLP 398 5-01-89 10:15a
BLKSIDE CLP 584 5-01-89 10:15a
BLOCK CLP 1920 5-01-89 10:15a
FLOWER CLP 362 5-01-89 10:15a
FLOWERS DRW 5746 5-01-89 10:15a
TOYCAR DRW 7066 5-01-89 10:15a
SHADFIG DRW 1772 5-01-89 10:15a
SHADFIG EPS 1686 5-01-89 10:15a
PLOT DRW 8447 5-06-90 10:18a
GO BAT 40 1-01-80 6:00a
FILE2301 TXT 2295 9-19-90 9:19a
GO TXT 1002 1-01-80 12:45a
37 file(s) 333744 bytes
10240 bytes free