April 1995 README for TrueSpectra Light Beta Release 12 -------------------------------------------- Welcome to the first generally distributed version of TrueSpectra Light to be used for Beta testing purposes only. Please ensure that your use of this version of TrueSpectra is in compliance with the license agreement contained in the file LICENSE.TXT. Put simply, this version of TrueSpectra Light does not contain, other than very small hints, any detailed help within the program. It is being released on the basis of numerous requests by individuals who wish to try TrueSpectra's new object-oriented approach to image processing and page layout without being prodded, advertised to death, or otherwise pre-sold on its merits. We are hoping that we will hear a broad array of comments, and very likely, challenges to our interface design. The goal is to be able to refine this design on the basis of your input before commercial shipment. We specifically want to know what you feel its strengths and pitfalls are, how you feel it compares to other windowing environments, and most importantly, how you would make improvements (E-mail objects@ibm.net). Our experience to date indicates a strong interest in end-user object- oriented applications employing a truly modeless interface. However, we have also been told that on systems with very slow response times, modeless operation is not necessarily better than the ever faithful hour glass - so if you are able to take the time to E-mail to us, please give us an idea of TrueSpectra Light's response times on your system. This Beta version of TrueSpectra Light is Shareware and may be used and distributed in accordance with the license agreement in the file LICENSE.TXT until September 15, 1995. If you enjoy the program and wish to be kept informed of our commercial release (and special beta-testers' discounts) please send us your name and address, beta comments, and $10.00. As our way of thanking you, if you also enclose a floppy diskette containing one complete TrueSpectra project (one .GDO file, associated bitmaps, and font files, if necessary), we will print it for you on one of our Kodak dye-sublimation printers at 300 dpi in an 8x10 format and mail it back to you with a note of thanks. Our mailing address is: TrueSpectra Inc. c/o Beta Test Release 12 20 Holly Street, Suite 206 Toronto, Ontario Canada M4S 3B1 Please note that due to print packaging restrictions, we will not be able to return your floppy disk if you have sent a project to be printed. Ensure that projects fit entirely on one floppy (ie. use JPEG compression for bitmaps) and that the origin is the area of the project that you wish to be printed (Zoom Origin). Do not use file compression utilities like PKZIP as we have a special system, similar to TrueSpectra Express sold in the retail digital photofinishing market, set up for this purpose which is optimized to rapidly print the first, and only the first, project found on a single floppy. Sorry, at this time we can only print one project per beta-tester. 1.0 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS ----------------------- To run TrueSpectra, you will need the following minimum: - A PC running OS/2 2.1 or later; and, - A video card and driver supporting at least 256 colours. It is recommended that you have: - System RAM totalling 6 MB plus the combined size of all bitmaps to be loaded simultaneously; - Video installed to support 65536 colours at 800x600 resolution; - A numeric co-processor or a Pentium or 486DX processor; and, - 10MB of available swap space. 2.0 INSTALLATION ---------------- To install TrueSpectra, create a directory on your hard disk (TSPECTRA) and copy the following files into it: TSPECTRA.EXE - The main executable TSPECTRA.BMP - Defualt bitmap SHAPES.IFF - System shape library README.TXT - This file LICENSE.TXT - License agreement To install the sample projects, copy all files with any of the following file extensions: *.GDO - Project files *.ORC - Object archives *.JPG - JPEG-format bitmaps *.BMP - OS/2 / Windows bitmaps Note that many of the project and object files refer to the bitmaps and therefore, will not load correctly if the referenced bitmaps are not available. Lastly, create a desktop reference for TrueSpectra by copying a program template and entering the path (x:\TSPECTRA\TSPECTRA.EXE) and working directory (x:\TSPECTRA) on the first page of the settings notebook and the name of the program (TrueSpectra Light Beta) on the last notebook page. Now, double click on the icon to start TrueSpectra Light. Note the known text problem below - but don't worry although the text may not display in some cases, it is present in the project file and may later render if you get updated video drivers. Start by loading some of the sample project files (.GDO) and experimenting with the interacting objects. 3.0 A FEW SPECIAL HINTS ----------------------- Here are a few items which might help you begin using TrueSpectra: - At any time, a popup menu can be brought up by clicking the right mouse button on the main window. These menus are context-dependent. For instance, if an object is selected, the popup menu will list actions which apply to the selected object. - To create an object or import a bitmap, draw a rectangle where you would like the object to appear. This is achieved as follows: (1) Move the pointer to where you would like one corner of the rectangle to be. (2) Press and hold the left mouse button. (3) While still holding the left mouse button, drag the pointer to the opposite corner of the rectangle. (4) Release the left mouse button. After drawing the rectangle, click the right mouse button to see the popup menu. There will be menu options for loading objects and bitmaps. - Objects can be selected by clicking the left mouse button on top of them, or by cycling through the existing objects using the TAB key. - An object is composed of a region (the area of the page which is to be affected) and a tool (the mechanism through which the region is affected). There are currently five region types and six tool types. Any tool can be combined with any region to create a variety of special effects. Experiment! - Objects are layered one on top of the next. Each object affects the appearance of any objects which are below it. So, for instance, if a rectangle object which uses the wave tool is placed above the white background, the object will not have a visible effect. But if that same object is placed above a black text string, the text string will become wavy. Another example: To adjust the contrast of a bitmap object, create an object above it which uses the contrast/brightness tool. Then the contrast can be adjusted by modifying the settings of the new contrast/brightness object. - Don't be phased by invisible objects! They can come about in a few different ways. Here are some to watch out for: (1) The object's region is an empty text string. (2) The object's tool is one of Contrast & brightness, Greyscale or Wave, and there is no object behind it. (3) Translucency is set to the maximum. (4) Contrast & Brightness objects are invisible by default because their default settings do not modify the colour at all. Here are a few guidelines to help beginners avoid invisible objects: (1) Try to keep track of which objects exist. The objects can all be found by pressing the TAB key repeatedly to cycle through them. Also, watch the object count at the left-hand-side of the access bar. It may tell you if there are more objects than you think. (2) Name your objects whenever possible. This will help you to keep track of which object is which when you are tabbing through them. (3) If you locate an invisible object, either delete it (via the menu option in the popup menu) or modify its tool or region properties to cause it to appear. Use the rules above to determine why the object is invisible. - Don't zoom in too far on objects which use the wave and emboss tools! If you do so, your machine will thrash. Don't worry about it too much though. The useable range is reasonable. 4.0 BETA FEATURE OVERVIEW ------------------------- Beta features include: - Advanced projects may be created using low-resolution bitmaps. A high- resolution bitmap may be substituted at the time of final output. This enables you to create professional-quality results on a home PC. - Support for the following bitmap file formats: .JPG .BMP .VGA .BGA .RLE .DIB .RL4 .RL8 .GIF .PCX .TIF .TGA .VST .AFI .IFF .LBM .VID .PGM .PPM .KPS .IAX .XBM .SPR .PSE Not all of the above are supported completely. In particular, only 24-bit formats can currently be written to. - Drag & drop of files onto the application icon. - Painless rotation, resizing and shearing of any object at any time. - Paragraph-text layout with justification and line-spacing options. These block-text objects can, like all objects, be manipulated painlessly at will. Special effects can be applied. - Objects interact in ways never before accomplished on a PC. - Fluid multithreading assures that the user interface is never stalled. 5.0 UPCOMING FEATURES --------------------- To expect in the next release: - Text hyphenation - Variable paragraph spacing - Shearing of objects via direct manipulation - Translucency masks - Flowing of text between columns To watch for in future releases: - More complete bitmap file format support - Direct on-screen text editing - Painting of special effects - More special effects 6.0 KNOWN PROBLEMS ------------------ On some PCs, text is not rendered correctly at certain sizes, when rotated to certain angles, or when certain shears are applied. In particular, if the angle is exactly 180 degrees, it usually will not render. A simple workaround is to apply a tiny shear, zoom back 200%, or modify the angle slightly to force the object to render correctly. IBM XGA-2, S3, and latest Matrox MGA video accelerators seem most resistant to this problem but we are still seeking a solution and would enjoy hearing from anyone with font rendering experience as it may make sense to simply build this functionality into our render engine to ensure predictable results with all video drivers. In release 12, loading and saving threads do not report on their progress. During a project save operation, it is possible to close the application thereby destroying the save thread before it has completed the save. To avoid this, do not immediately close the application after a save. It has been reported that TrueSpectra will "crash" on machines with over committed resources, particularly when loading large projects containing huge bitmaps. We are very concerned about this problem and suspect it is a message queue overflow problem. If it appears that you have experienced this problem, please let us know of the circumstances. When performing a rendered save at high resolutions (for example, at 3000 by 2400 resolution), TrueSpectra does not warn you of the size of the resulting file or the fact that it may take a few minutes to complete the render. Some users are also saving 1.5 times their desired resolution, then loading the resulting bitmap, depixelizing and saving at the final resolution to get the desired anti-aliased effect. While this produces very effective results, don't forget that to reload the large rendered bitmap may push your machine beyond its capabilities if available RAM is not at least the size of the bitmap. 7.0 OTHER PROBLEMS ------------------ This software is in beta release. Please report any bugs you find by E-mailing objects@ibm.net. TrueSpectra is a trademark of TrueSpectra Inc. Program copyright 1993, 1994, 1995 TrueSpectra Inc.