Damsel Software Group presents ... DAVE'S DIGITAL ABSTRACT ART SCREEN SAVER, VOL 1 Compatible with Windows 3.1, 3.11, and Windows 95. ******************************************************** * For Power Users who want to get right to the program * * the Screen Saver is now loaded. Exit this text file * * and go right to where Windows stores its own screen * * savers. This screen saver will be listed in that * * group as Dave's Dig'tl Art 1. Select it. That's it. * ******* If you need more help, keep reading. ******** ******************************************************** To read this file easily, click on your "expand window size" symbol. Thanks! This file contains information on the following subjects: 1. Your Registered Product 2. Copyright Information 3. Minimum System Requirements 4. Setting Up Your Screen Saver 5. Screen Saver Function and Features 6. JPEG Image Compression 7. Monitor Display 8. Wallpaper and Image List 9. Uninstalling Your Screen Saver 10. Warranty Information In order to assist the reader, the older Windows 3.x instructions have been left intact. Windows 95 instructions, where different, are either given their own sentences or are indicated by the use of parentheses. This is the only time this README.TXT file will appear automatically. In the future you can read the file by coming back to your Windows 3.x Notepad, located under Accessories in your Program Manager menu, and opening the README.TXT file found in the DDA1JP directory, or by two clicks on the filename directly from within File Manager. In Windows 95 the Notepad is reached from the Start button followed by Programs\Accessories\Notepad. You may also read the file from your C:\> DOS prompt by typing TYPE C:\DDA1JP\README.TXT | MORE. You may exit this file at any time by clicking on the minus sign of Windows 3.x's Notepad window at the upper left-hand corner, or by clicking on the "X" Close button in Windows 95's Notepad upper right-hand corner. This README.TXT file can be printed in a variety of ways. In MS-DOS you can print it at any time from your C:\DDA1JP> prompt by typing COPY README.TXT PRN and pressing Enter. Within Windows it can be printed from the Notepad or from any other word processing program that can open a .TXT file. In Windows' Notepad you should set File\Page Setup\Left Margin to as low a value as possible before printing to insure that each line will print in its entirety. This text file will not appear during the actual running of the screen saver. 1. YOUR REGISTERED PRODUCT Your registered copy of Damsel's Dave Martsolf, Digital Abstract Art Vol 1 entitles you to a free User's Guide, a Catalog of other Damsel products and unlimited technical support. To obtain any of these items all you need to do is write to us at the address shown below or call us at 603 485-2677. Please be sure to state which program you have purchased to insure you receive the correct User's Guide. The Catalog is shipped automatically with each request. Unless you specifically request otherwise your name will also be placed on our mailing list for future product offerings and updates. Mail all requests to: Damsel Software Group P.O. Box 713 Concord, NH 03302-0713 If you have a technical question, problem, or even a helpful suggestion, write to us at the above address or call our phone/fax at 603 485-2677. Phone service will usually require us to return your call, so please be sure to leave both your number and the times during which you would like us to return your call. 2. COPYRIGHT INFORMATION The images contained in Damsel products may be used as wallpaper or as baseline images for private processing without restrictions. All commercial uses of the images contained within this screen saver are prohibited without prior authorization or arrangement with Damsel Software Group. The images cannot be resold as stand-alone graphics without the expressed written consent of Damsel Software Group. The screen saving functions cannot be redistributed under any conditions. 3. MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS All of the images contained in this Damsel product are built on a 256-color palette. A video display board with a minimum of 512K RAM and 256-color capability for display on a VGA or SVGA monitor is essential for optimal viewing of these images. The images are almost all 480 pixels wide and from 250 to 360 pixels high. They do not fill the normal 640 x 480 VGA screen format. You will need an IBM-compatible PC with a 386 or higher-type microprocessor (486 recommended), 4MB RAM, and a hard disk with 5MB free disk space. Damsel products run with MS-DOS 3.1 or higher using Windows 3.1 or higher. Damsel products are fully compatible with Windows 95. 4. SETTING UP YOUR SCREEN SAVER Exit this README file by clicking on the minus sign or the Close ("X") button of the Notepad window. Then, turn off any other screen savers you may be using unless they are the ones linked directly to your Desktop (Display) Accessories module, following the manufacturer's instructions. *** ACCESS IN WINDOWS 3.X *** To access your Damsel screen saver from Windows' Program Manager, 1. Double click on your Main icon. 2. Double click on the Control Panel icon. 3. Double click on the Desktop icon. 4. Once you are in the Desktop dialog box open the list in the Screen Saver area by clicking the button at the right of the box titled "Name:" (or by pressing TAB several times to go to the box, followed by ALT+DOWN ARROW). 5. Scroll on the slide bar until you find the screen saver titled "Dave's Dig'tl Art 1". Click once on the title to select it. You may also select the "Delay" time (of inactivity) in minutes which will precede the initiation of any screen saver selected. Password protection is also available and is described in the next section. 6. After selecting Dave's Dig'tl Art 1 screen saver choose OK in the upper right-hand corner of the dialog box and exit back to the opening screen. The screen saver will now appear after the initial chosen period of inactivity passes. *** ACCESS IN WINDOWS 95 *** 1. Press or click your mouse on the Task Bar's Start button. 2. Highlight or click on Settings, from the first menu. 3. Click on Control Panel, from the second menu. 4. When the Control Panel window opens, double click on the Display icon. 5. Click on the tab titled Screen Saver. 6. Scroll down the list of screen savers and click on the name "Dave's Dig'tl Art 1". At this point you can also set the screen saver's "Wait" time or enter a password. Password details are available in the next section. 5. SCREEN SAVER FUNCTION AND FEATURES All of Damsel's screen savers have preset display times and transition effects (the methods used to transition between one image and the next). Most of this screen saver's image files are stored in the JPEG format. The length of time required to decompress each image and perform transition effects will depend directly on the size and speed of your microprocessor (386, 486, or Pentium) and the power of your video graphics card. Damsel has set the display times to be approximately 20 seconds for each image using a 486-type machine running at 33 Megahertz. Faster 486 and Pentium machines will exhibit slightly shorter display times. Users with 386-type machines will notice longer display times and an initial blank screen lasting up to one minute as the microprocessor decompresses the first image. Additional blank screen time of up to one minute between images will also appear on slower machines when decompressing the larger JPEG files. Your screen saver has been installed in the "Mouse Aware" mode, meaning that any movement of the mouse will disengage the screen saver. Disengagement may take several seconds if the program is interrupted during one of the image transitions. This wait could last up to a full minute on 386-type machines. 486-type machines are recommended. The screen saver may be put into a "Mouse Ignore" mode where only a depressed key on the keyboard will deactivate the screen saver. The program will recommence using the next image in its sequence when the selected delay time reactivates the screen saver. To access the Mouse Aware \ Mouse Ignore setup choices click on the Setup (Settings) button of the Screen Saver section of the Desktop (Win95's Display) dialog box (accessed by the Program Manager\Main\Control Panel\ Desktop command sequence in Windows 3.x, or by Windows 95's Start\Settings\ Control Panel\Display\Screen Saver command sequence). Once there, the choices are found on the left side of the upper tool bar. The Mouse icon on the upper horizontal tool bar is a toggle switch. A box at the lower left of the screen will tell you which mode you have chosen. Click on the exit icon or the Windows' "X" at the upper right-hand corner to leave this box. Before leaving you may wish to set a password. Damsel screen savers have incorporated the same Password protection scheme offered by the original Windows screen savers. This feature is also found in the Setup (Settings) dialog box of the Screen Saver section of the Desktop (Display) dialog box. A click on the Password button (Key icon) brings up a screen with the "Enter New Password" entry line. As you type in your selected password, asterisks will appear for each letter. Clicking on the OK button will bring up a confirmation screen where you will be asked to reenter the same password. Clicking the OK button here will return you to the original Setup (Settings) screen. Note that if you have several Damsel products, they will all use the same password. A change to a password for one screen saver will affect them all. Exiting will activate your password protection. With the screen saver activated, any motion of the mouse in the Mouse Aware mode or keyboard entry in the Mouse Ignore mode will bring up an Enter Password dialog box. The password must be correctly entered in order to gain access back to the active Windows environment. If you forget your password your best option is to copy PGX.INI from your original Disk #1 directly to your WINDOWS directory and then enter a new password, if desired. If you wish to change or remove the password you must return to the Setup (Settings) screen of the Screen Saver section of the Desktop (Display) dialog box. To enter a new password follow the same procedure as described above. You will first be asked to enter your current password. To remove the password simply click on the OK button of both the Enter New Password input screen and the Reenter New Password screen without filling in the input line. 6. JPEG IMAGE COMPRESSION In order to save space on your hard disk Damsel uses JPEG graphics file compression techniques on most images used in this screen saver. JPEG, a standard developed by the Joint Photographic Experts Group, is a complex compression method that gives the developer control over the degree to which a file is reduced in size for storage. This method does result in loss of image fidelity since individual pixel data is not maintained. At high compression ratios , the mathematical algorithms average large groups of pixels resulting in a reduced number of colors and image blockiness when displayed. Any developer using this method must make judgment calls concerning image quality versus file size. A full 640 X 480 256-color image in Microsoft BMP format (used in Windows wallpaper) is over 308K bytes in size. By contrast, full-screen JPG (JPEG) image files used in a screen saver such as Microsoft's Scenes average around 33K bytes per image. Damsel Software Group has elected to set the trade-off between disk space and image quality a bit more in the direction of high image quality. Damsel's JPG format results in file sizes averaging over 70K bytes per image. Each image is manually optimized to meet image resolution requirements without sacrificing valuable hard disk space. Five of the images, BARDREAM.BMP, SPRNGPOL.BMP, BRAZLIQD.BMP, DRAPE01.BMP, and ALPGLASS.BMP have been supplied in the BMP format so that you may use them as Windows wallpaper (see Section 8 below). 7. MONITOR DISPLAY The program configures the image display to your screen by first reading your on-line graphics display format. If your monitor is not configured for 256 colors, the program will display 256-color images by constructing a 16-color standard VGA dithered image from the colors available in this format. Usually, the result of this mathematical process is visually grainy, looking much like a needlepoint design for the images in this screen saver meant to use 256 colors. If you find the images barely recognizable and you have a minimum of 512K RAM on your video display board, there is probably a driver you can load which will support 256-color display. Consult your machine and Windows documentation for more information regarding your specific situation. The JPEG format performs its original compression from the 24-bit color (also known as 16.7 million colors or True color) graphics level. The 256- color display will show part of the compressed information, but a computer which can show 24-bit color will show an even more realistic image. In the case of these computer graphics the major benefit is in areas of subtle graduated shadings. Soft or foggy color transitions will suddenly flow with 24-bit color instead of showing distinct stepped gradations in the 256-color mode. 8. WALLPAPER AND IMAGE LIST To use Damsel's JPG images as wallpaper for Windows the picture file format for must be changed from JPG to Microsoft BMP format. Your Windows program does not have this capability, it must be purchased from a third party vendor. These programs can be purchased as stand-alones for under US$100.00. Five of the images, BARDREAM.BMP, SPRNGPOL.BMP, BRAZLIQD.BMP, DRAPE01.BMP, and ALPGLASS.BMP have been supplied in the BMP format so that you may use them as Windows wallpaper by copying them to the Windows directory. Do not delete their original presence in the DDA1JP directory or the screen saver will not function properly. If you have the ability to reformat the JPG images into the BMP format, the following list can be used to match individual image titles to filenames. Image Title On-screen Filename Image Dimensions --------------------- ------------ ---------------- Primeval Dawn Primdawn.jpg 480 x 360 Drop in the Bucket Drops001.jpg 480 x 360 Whirlpool Bath One Whrlpol1.jpg 480 x 360 Barred Dreams Bardream.bmp 480 x 360 Damsel Wing Damslwng.jpg 480 x 360 Copper Ripple Coperrpl.jpg 480 x 360 Spring Pool Sprngpol.bmp 480 x 360 Drop Transit Droptran.jpg 480 x 320 Core Drive Coredriv.jpg 480 x 320 Kiwi Kiwi.jpg 480 x 320 Volcanic Hideaway Hideaway.jpg 480 x 360 City by the River of Dreams Citydrem.jpg 480 x 360 Sand Stones Sandston.jpg 480 x 360 Closing Gate Closgate.jpg 480 x 360 Pigment Radiation Spray01.jpg 480 x 320 Brazen Liquid Brazliqd.bmp 480 x 360 Facet Seven Facet007.jpg 480 x 360 Coiled Bravado Bravado.jpg 480 x 360 Wave of Passion Passion1.jpg 480 x 360 Fire Roll Fireroll.jpg 480 x 360 Ascot Ascot2.jpg 480 x 360 Drape Lite One Drape01.bmp 480 x 360 Stream Leader Raweggs.jpg 480 x 360 Final Fold Finlfold.jpg 480 x 360 Alpine Glass Avenue Alpglass.bmp 480 x 360 9. UNINSTALLING YOUR SCREEN SAVER Your screen saver has been loaded to a directory named DDA1JP unless you chose otherwise during the installation procedure. In order to enable you to access the screen saver Damsel has loaded two additional files into your WINDOWS directory, DDA1xxxx.INI and DDA1xxxx.SCR, where 'x' is any number. If you have chosen a password, the program has also copied PGX.INI to the WINDOWS directory. To remove the screen saver from your hard disk simply delete all files in the DDA1JP directory (or your own directory name chosen during installation) and the DDA1xxxx.INI and DDA1xxxx.SCR files located in your WINDOWS directory. This can be done quickly from your Windows 3.x File Manager, found in your Program Manager's Main menu, or from your Windows 95 My Computer or Explorer applet. Also, remove PGX.INI if present. If PGX.INI contains an active password and you do not remove the file, the next time you load any Damsel screen saver you will find that the old password has immediately been attached to it. If you have forgotten that old password, you will have to manually copy the new PGX.INI file into your WINDOWS directory in order to overwrite the old pass- word. You can find this screen saver PGX.INI file either in the DDA1JP directory or on your original installation Disk #1. 10. WARRANTY INFORMATION The publisher makes no warranty concerning the function or fitness of any programs or graphics files reproduced on diskettes included in this package. Neither Damsel Software Group, or its authorized agents shall be held liable for consequential, special, indirect, or other similar damages or claims, including loss of profits or any other commercial damages, and in no event will the liability for any damages to the purchaser or any other person ever exceed the price paid for the license to use the software, regardless of any form of the claim, even if Damsel Software Group has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party. Damsel Software Group specifically disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose or application. Windows and MS-DOS are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corp. DAMSEL SOFTWARE GROUP ... hopes you enjoy DAVE'S DIGITAL ABSTRACT ART SCREEN SAVER, VOL 1 ... and looks forward to supplying you with the best in screen savers, wallpaper, and future animated screen savers. ... AND REMEMBER, your thoughts and suggestions are always welcome. !!! HAPPY VIEWING !!!