Paint Shop by Robert Voit Version 1.20 Paint Shop is a Windows 3.0 program. Due to memory requirements for holding large pictures, Paint Shop should be run under Windows 386 Enhanced mode. Paint Shop will allow you to display pictures, alter them and save them. Loading and Saving of GIF pictures and Dithering of any picture is done in the background, so you may continue to work in Windows as Paint Shop is taking care of the processing of your picture. Paint Shop does allow for multiple instances (more than one copy of Paint Shop may run at the same time). Menu Items: File - Open - Allows you to select file to be displayed. Save as - Allows you to select the file format and a file name for the displayed picture to be saved as. Exit - Ends Paint Shop. Edit - Copy - Copies the entire picture to the clipboard, unless you marked an area of the picture. Then, only the marked area is copied to the clipboard. To mark an area, move the cursor to the beginning point to be marked off. This point must be within the picuture area. Press and hold down the left mouse button, move the cursor to the ending point to be marked. Release the left mouse button. Your area should now be marked. Paste - Copys a bitmap from the clipboard to Paint Shop. Alter - Flip - Flips the picture vertically. Mirror - Flips the picture horizotally. Rotate Right - Rotates the picture to the right. Rotate Left - Rotates the picture to the left. Stretch/Shrink - Allows you change the size of the picture. Trim - Makes the marked area the current picture. See Edit-Copy on how to mark an area. Dither-Mono - Reduces the picture to a black and white picture. Please see the notes on dithering that follow this section. Dither-Color - Reduces a 256 color picture to the 16 colors used by Windows. View - Full Screen - Will display the picture outside of a window, thus using the full screen to display the picture. Click a mouse button or press any key on the keyboard to exit from full screen. Help - Registering - Displays information about how to register Paint Shop. About - General information about Paint Shop. Some notes on using Paint Shop: Dithering Mono: When you elect to dither a colored picture to black and white, a dialog box will appear allowing you to determine the way that the picture should be dithered. I have found that no single method for dithering will do a good job on all pictures. I have also found that what I consider to be a nice dithered picture is not what you may consider to be good. For these reasons Paint Shop will allow for 24 different outcomes of a dithered picture. These different possibilities are setup by the selections you make using the Dither-Mono dialog box. A description of these choices follows: Your choices fall into 3 categories. You must select one choice from each of the 3 categories. These categories are: Palette weight, Palette color and Dither type. Palette weight - You may select weighted or non-weighted. A weighted palette will set more of the original colors to black and white, instead of dithering out the color. You will find that edges are usually sharper using a weighted palette. Palette color - You may select Grey, Red, Green or Blue. When a picture is dithered, it is done so accourding to the original colors of the picture. This then means that the colors should be reduced to their grey values and those values used as the palette colors to dither against. I have found that MUCH better pictures may be obtained if the picture was dithered relative to only one component of the original palette. In otherwords, only using one of the components from Red, Blue or Green. A picture with alot of flesh tones comes out better if you only use Red. A picture that is mainly Green will look better if you only use the Green, ect. Dither type - Paint Shop uses a technique called error diffusion to do the dithering. Within error diffusion, there are 3 algorithms that are most popular. They are Floyd-Steinberg, Burkes and Stucki. They each give different results. And each takes a little longer than the previous, with Stucki taking about twice as long as Floyd-Steinberg. What the best choice to each of the 3 categories are is completely subjective. Like I said, my choices may be different than yours. That is why I have given you the choices. But 24 different possibilities? Don't despair. The best choices can usually be narrowed down by selecting- a Weighted palette and Floyd-Steinberg as the Dither type. Then dither against Grey, Red, Blue and Green. This then will tell you the best Palette Color to dither with. After finding the best palette color then try a non-weighted palette. Since all the dither types will have about the same outcome for weighted and non-weighted palettes, you will now know the answer to Palette weight and Palette color. So far you've done 5 dithers. Next use your Palette weight and Palette color that you've found to be best and dither using the other 2 dither types. At most you will have done 7 dithers. The good knews is that the more you use the dithering option, the better you get at knowing what will be the best selections. I rarely have to dither a picture more than 2 times to get what I expected. FILE FORMATS SUPPORTED: BMP and RLE files: BMP come in 2 formats (Windows and OS2) Paint Shop will read and write the OS2 BMP format. The Windows BMP as 3 compression routines (RGB, RLE4 and RLE8) Paint Shop will read all 3 compression routines, you can write RGB or RLE8. *note: PAINT BRUSH will not read a RLE8 BMP. Paint Shop does not write RLE4 since both PAINT BRUSH and WINDOWS have problems reading them. RLE files are BMP file with a compression routine of either RLE4 or RLE8 (they are not the rle file format as can be found on Compuserve). Paint Shop will read either one, but will always write RLE8 GIF files: There are 2 versions of the GIF file formats 87a and 89a (with or without interlacing). Paint Shop supports both versions and interlacing. If the GIF is a mulitiple image file, Paint Shop only reads the first image. Paint Shop can SAVE AS either version 87a or 89a. When saving a gif file I find no advantage to creating the new version 89a. Eventhough you have the capability of saving as an 89a, please save all gif files as 87a. IMG files: IMG files are mono-color (black and white). Paint Shop will read and write IMG files. In order to save as an IMG the picture must be mono. If your picture is in color then use "Alter - Dither-Mono" to dither the color picture to black and white, then save as IMG. PCX files: PCX files come in 4 different versions. Paint Shop supports version 5. Version 5 is the version that Paintbrush (that came with Windows 3.0) reads and writes. Acknowledgements: OS2: OS2 is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Windows: Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Paintbrush, PCX files, BMP files: Paintbrush is a trademark of ZSoft Corporation. PCX and BMP files are products of Paintbrush. (not sure if they are trademarks or Service Marks) GIF files: The Graphics Interchange Format(c) is the Copyright property of CompuServe Incorporated. GIF(sm) is a Service Mark property of CompuServe Incorporated. For further information, please contact: CompuServe Incorporated Graphics Technology Department 5000 Arlington Center Boulevard Columbus, Ohio 43220 U. S. A. IMG files, GEM, Ventura Publishing: Not sure if any one ownes a trademark on the IMG file format. IMG files are used by GEM a product and trademark of Digital Research Inc. and by Ventura Publisher a product and trademark of Ventura Software Inc. RLE files Not sure who if any one ownes a trademark for this file format. I would appreciate knowing if anyone does know. Note: this is the RLEs used by Windows, not the CompuServe RLE format. SHAREWARE: Paint Shop is user supported software. You may use it for a free 30 day trial period. If you continue to use Paint Shop after the 30 day trial period, please license the program by sending $25.00 ($26.50 for Minnesota residents) to: Robert Voit 17743 Evener Way Eden Prairie, MN 55346 CIS-72557,256 Please include your CIS # if you have one. PRODUCT SUPPORT: Registered users may obtain support by contacting Robert Voit at the above address, CompuServe number, or at 612-934-7117. LISCENSE AGREEMENT: You may not transfer your liscense without written permission from ROBERT VOIT. TERM: The liscense to use this program is effective until terminated. You may terminate the liscense by destroying all copies of this program. It will also be terminated upon failure to comply with any of the terms or condition of this agreement. WARRANTY: THIS PROGRAM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. In addition, Robert Voit specifically disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose with respect to defects in the program license granted herein in paticular, and without limiting operation of the program license with respect to any particular application, use, or purpose. In no event shall Robert Voit be liable for any claims for lost profits or any other commercial damage, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damage. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you. In no case shall Robert Voit's liability exceed the license fees paid for the right to use the licensed software. GOVERNING LAW: This statement shall be construed, interpreted, and governed by the laws of the state of Minnesota. PAINT SHOP DISTRIBUTION: Unregistered (unliscensed) copies of Paint Shop may be freely distributed, provided both PS.exe and PS.txt are distributed togeather. No fee, charge or other compensation may be accepted for the distribution of Paint Shop. Except, Public Domain Disk Vendors may charge a nominal fee for distribution of the program. The receipiant of Paint Shop must be informed, in advance, that the fee paid to acquire Paint Shop does not relieve the receipiant from paying the Registration Fee for Paint Shop if the receipiant uses Paint Shop.