Copyright (c) 1994 Trionum Inc. All rights reserved. TRIONUM, PEP and ORCHIS are trademarks of Trionum Inc. All other brand and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

The name PEP is an acronym for "Picture Editing Package". PEP is a drawing program for personal computers. You can use it to create pictures composed of text and graphics, display these pictures on your computer's monitor, print them on your printer, and save them in files compatible with other software packages. All of the illustrations in this manual, for example, were drawn using PEP.

In order to install and use PEP, you will need to be familiar with the basic commands of the DOS operating system. If you have any questions about using DOS, consult your operating system manual.

In order to run PEP you need an IBM PC, XT, AT, PS-2 or compatible computer running DOS 2.0 or a later version of DOS. You also need a graphics display, either the color graphics adapter (CGA), the extended graphics adapter (EGA), the video graphics array card (VGA), or the HERCULES card. You do not need a floating point processor, a hard disk, or a mouse. If you have a mouse, you will be able to use it with PEP. In order to print directly from PEP, you need one of the following printers: an HP DeskJet, an HP LaserJet, a Canon Bubble Jet, a Postscript printer such as the Apple LaserWriter, an Epson printer, an IBM graphics printer, an IBM Color Printer, or a printer compatible with one of these. In addition, you can output pictures from PEP to both PCX files (a popular bitmap format) <[13.1]> and EPS files (the encapsulated Postscript format) <[16.10]>. Many word processors and desktop publishing packages accept graphics in these formats. Pictures that you draw in PEP can be included, in this way, into documents created by any of these compatible packages. If you are using Lotus Manuscript or Samna Word, these two word processors will accept graphics directly from PEP in the original PDL file format.

Before you can use PEP, you must install it on your computer. This means that you must first tell PEP about the hardware configuration that you have: the type of display, the type of printer, and so forth. The utility INSTALL.EXE supplied with PEP will guide you through this simple installation process. Full instructions for installing PEP are provided in Chapter <[17]>.

After this introductory chapter, is the main part of the PEP manual, namely the command descriptions in Chapters <[2]> through <[14]>. In those chapters, you will find a complete explanation of each of the commands available in PEP. In this present chapter, we provide the definitions and background information necessary to understand the chapters that follow. We strongly recommend that you read this chapter carefully before trying to use PEP. Then if you need information about a particular command, you will be ready to turn directly to the relevant section in the reference chapters. Chapter <[15]> describes the HELP system, which allows you to view this manual, while you are using PEP. After you have gained a little experience using PEP, you should look at Chapter <[16]>, the final chapter in the reference section. That chapter contains a number of hints and practical suggestions for approaching various problems. You may find this material helpful when you begin to apply PEP to real uses.

PEP commands are organized into a menu hierarchy. The menu that is displayed when you first load PEP is called the top menu. Certain commands in this menu cause new menus to be displayed. In some cases, these new menus also have commands leading to yet other menus, and so forth. Most of the time, however, you will be operating either in the top menu or in the menus one level down from the top. In each command menu, the first letters of the commands are all different. To execute a command just type its first letter. Alternatively, you can highlight a menu item by pointing to it with the cursor. Then, if you press RETURN (or the left mouse button), the highlighted command will be executed. For example, in PEP's top menu, if you type "I" (for "Insert"), a new menu will appear as shown in <[FIG07]>. This new menu contains all of the commands for inserting the different kinds of elements. (It contains a number of other commands as well.) If you now type "L" (for "Line") you will be ready to insert one or more straight lines. Throughout this manual we will name a command by listing the steps to that command from the top menu. This command for inserting straight lines, for example, is called the INSERT/LINE command <[2.1]>. In addition to the commands in the menus, there are a number of commands that you can execute at any time regardless of your position in the menu hierarchy. These commands are executed either by striking a single key, or by holding down the ALT key and striking a key. In either case, they are called single keystroke commands. More specifically, these commands are invoked by pressing a function key, a combination of ALT plus a function key, or a combination of ALT plus a letter key. Many of these commands can also be executed within the command menu hierarchy. For example, the single keystroke command ALT-R turns on and off the display of rulers. This command performs the same function as the SETUP/WINDOW/RULERS command <[12.2.10]> in the menu hierarchy. You should become familiar with three function key commands that are useful for obtaining information about PEP and your current state within it. These are described briefly below. For complete information about these and the other single keystroke commands, see Chapter <[14]>. Pressing the help key (F1) activates the HELP system, which gives you on-line access to the complete PEP manual. The HELP system is described in Chapter <[15]>. Pressing the status key (F2) temporarily replaces the command menu with current status information. Pressing the menu cycle key (F3) temporarily replaces the command menu with quick reference lists of the single keystroke commands: first, a list of the function key commands, second, a list of the ALT-function key commands, and finally a list of the ALT-letter commands. Pressing F3 a fourth time restores the normal menu display.

The PEP screen is divided into a number of windows: a menu window, a text window, a button window, and one or more graphics windows. The menu window is used by PEP to display its commands and status information. The text window is used for prompts and error messages. The button window permits fast access to certain PEP functions via the mouse. The graphics windows are used for displaying and modifying your drawings. This subdivision of the screen is based on a system of non-overlapping areas called tiles. You can configure your screen by subdividing tiles, deleting tiles, moving tile boundaries, and assigning roles to tiles. These commands can be found in the SETUP/TILING menu <[12.1]>. In particular, it is possible to display multiple views of the open object in multiple screen tiles, each view at a different magnification. For example, one tile might be used for an overview, and another for editing in detail. One of the graphics tiles is displayed with a bolder boundary to distinguish it from the others. If you have a color display, the boundary of this tile will also be a different color, namely cyan, a light blue. This tile is called the active window. Any graphics tile can be the active window. You can determine which graphics tile is the active window by using the SETUP/WINDOW/NEXT (or ALT-N) command <[12.2.1]>. Once you have selected the active window, you can then modify its properties by using the commands in the SETUP/WINDOW menu <[12.2]>. There are also a number of single keystroke commands for the same purpose. For example, you can contract the display with the ALT-C command and expand it with ALT-E. You can shift the display by using shift and the keys of the numerical keypad (the NumPad keys) as shown in <[FIG17]>. Being able to control the active window display is crucial to using PEP effectively. We strongly recommend that new users, at a minimum, become familiar with the eight single keystroke commands listed below. They are described more fully in Chapter <[14]>, and additional information can be found in the discussion of the SETUP/WINDOW commands in Chapter <[12]>. ALT-C Contract the active window display ALT-E Expand the active window display ALT-R Display rulers in the active window ALT-G Display the snap grid ALT-T Display the entire object or page ALT-U Put window upper left corner at the cursor ALT-V Display a simplified view of the object ALT-W Re-initialize active window properties The installation utility creates a default screen configuration for you, which you can then change if you like. <[FIG05]> shows the most commonly used configuration. However, if you are using a CGA display or are not using a mouse, your default configuration will be somewhat different.

A scroll bar is a tool for using the mouse to move the view in a given window. In PEP, scroll bars may appear in a menu window, in a graphics window, or in a help document window. In this section, we will assume that you have a mouse. (If you do not have a mouse, there are commands for adjusting window views from the keyboard. See Chapter <[14]> for the single keystroke commands relevant to graphic windows and menu windows. See Chapter <[15]> for the commands relevant to help document windows.) Assuming then that you have a mouse, scroll bars will be automatically created in menu windows and help document windows, but only when they are needed. For example, the FILE/LOAD command <[8.2]> displays a menu of all available picture files. If there is not enough room in the menu window to display all of the file names, a horizontal scroll bar is created at the bottom of the window. You can use this bar, as described below, to control which part of the file name list is to be displayed. In a graphic window, two scroll bars are required, a horizontal bar to control left/right motion and a vertical bar to control up/down motion. You can enable or disable the display of scroll bars in a graphic window by using the SETUP/WINDOW/BARS command <[12.2.11]> (or the [B]-button or ALT-B). A scroll bar contains three buttons, an arrow button at either end and an unmarked button that can moved freely along the bar between these. This latter button is called the slider. The position of the slider shows the current location of the window view in its range of possible positions. The size of the slider shows what fraction of the range is currently visible. For example, when you contract a graphic window (so that twice as much is displayed in it), the sliders expand to twice their former size. To adjust the window view by a small amount, click on the appropriate arrow button. One click will move a menu window or a help document window up or down by a single line of text. A graphic window will be moved by a small fraction of the total range of motion. If you hold down an arrow button (that is, you click on it and do not release the mouse button), the window motion will be automatically repeated. To adjust the window view by a larger amount, click on the scroll bar outside the slider (above or below the slider on a vertical bar, to the left or right on a horizontal bar). One click will move the window view by one half of the size of the window. If you click on the slider, the mouse becomes locked to the slider. By moving the mouse, you now move the slider. When you click a second time, the slider and the window view become fixed in their new positions. Note that when the slider is moved, the window is immediately redisplayed. This is called hot scrolling. By clicking once on the slider and moving the mouse, you can browse over the entire range of motion before clicking again to fix a new position. In a graphic window, with horizontal and vertical bars, you can switch from one bar to another while browsing in this fashion by pressing the SPACE bar or middle mouse button. In this way, you can quickly scan the entire picture to locate a new window position. Hot scrolling can be disabled by using the SETUP/SYSTEM/HOT-SCROLL command <[12.3.6]>.

PEP's default cursor is a small solid box. Several other forms of cursor are also used: crosshairs, lines, and boxes of different types. The shape of the cursor depends on the operation you are performing. There are several ways to move the cursor in PEP. These are described below.

If you have a mouse, you can move the cursor by simply moving the mouse.

Eight NumPad keys can be used to move the cursor. The arrow keys move the cursor in the direction of the arrow. The corner keys (Home, PgUp, PgDn, and End) move the cursor diagonally (up-left, up-right, down-right, and down-left, respectively). See <[FIG08]>. These eight keys are called the cursor motion keys. How far the cursor moves with each keystroke is determined by the SETUP/SYSTEM/STEP command <[12.3.1]> (or the Grey-minus key). This command cycles through three modes: a single pixel mode and two multiple pixel modes: full-step and half-step. In single pixel mode, each keystroke moves the cursor one pixel on the screen. In the multiple modes, each stroke moves the cursor one multiple-pixel step. The default step size is 10 pixels (5 pixels for a half step). You can change the size of the cursor step with the SETUP/NUMBERS/STEP-SIZE command <[12.4.1]>.

If you need to move the cursor over a large distance, using the cursor motion keys can be tedious. If you do not have a mouse, you may want to use the automatic cursor motion capability. You can start the cursor moving, accelerate it, change its direction, and stop the motion when the cursor arrives at its destination. To start the cursor moving, press the Grey-plus key, and then press one of the cursor motion keys. The cursor will begin to move at a constant speed in the direction indicated by the motion key. To make the cursor move faster, press the same key again. To change direction, press a different cursor motion key. To stop the cursor, press the Grey-plus key a second time.

PEP provides a snap grid capability to assist you in aligning picture elements with one another. You can control the horizontal and vertical spacing of the grid points by using the SETUP/NUMBERS/GRID-SPACE command <[12.4.2]>. You can make the grid visible in the active window by using the SETUP/WINDOW/GRID command <[12.2.9]> (or ALT-G). At any time, you can press the function key F8 to move the cursor from its current position to the nearest grid point. This is called manual snapping. By using the SETUP/SYSTEM/GRID command <[12.3.2]> (or ALT-S), you can turn on automatic snapping. When snapping is on, if you insert, move, or duplicate an element using the cursor, the element will be positioned on the grid, not at the cursor position, but at the grid point nearest to it. The snapping options are available whether or not the grid is visible.

In PEP, the cursors appear in a variety of forms: cross-hairs, horizontal and vertical hairlines, and rigid and stretchable boxes. In the case of stretchable boxes, which are used, for example, during editing to stretch a picture element, one corner of the box is mobilized at any given time. This corner can be moved by any of the methods just described. The mobile corner is distinguished by a small solid box marker. To change the mobile corner, press SPACE or the Grey-star key. The next corner counterclockwise is mobilized. <[FIG13]>.

PEP stores pictures in files called picture files. These files have the extension PDL, which stands for "Picture Description Language". To display, print, or modify the pictures in a picture file, you must first load that file into your computer's memory by using the FILE/LOAD command <[8.2]>. That file then becomes the loaded picture file. A PDL file might contain only one picture, but often it will contain more than one. Each file is actually a library of pictures, and each picture has its own name. A picture in a PDL file is called an object. To display, print, or modify an object, you must first select it using the OBJECT/OPEN command <[7.1]>. This displays the object on your screen, ready to be edited. We will refer to it as the open object. If you modify the open object, and want to save the changes to disk, this also is a two step process. First you close the open object using the OBJECT/CLOSE command <[7.2]>; then you save the file containing that object to disk using the FILE/SAVE command <[8.3]>. The basic units that make up objects are called elements. The elements of an object can be lines, arcs, text, filled regions, groups of elements, and other objects. Each object in a file is assigned an object name. The objects in a file may be independent of one another, or they may be interrelated, some objects being used as elements inside of others. In this case, we may refer to these elements as sub-objects of the objects in which they appear. These sub-objects may contain yet other objects. Objects may be nested to any depth. In summary, a typical editing session consists of loading a picture file from disk, opening an object for editing, modifying the open object (via insert, delete, and modify commands), printing the result, closing the open object, and saving the file back to disk.

Objects drawn in PEP are defined in a coordinate system that is independent of any output device. When the picture is printed or displayed, its size is determined by a pair of stretch factors. There is a horizontal stretch and a vertical stretch. If the stretches are both 1 when the object is drawn, each point in the object is represented by exactly one pixel on the printer or the display. If the stretches are increased, the size of the object's image is made larger; if they are decreased, the image is made smaller. If you are printing, the object may also be rotated or drawn in mirror image. When we speak of object coordinates, we mean the device independent coordinates in which the object is defined. A pair (X,Y) of object coordinates defines the position of a single point in the object before stretches and rotations have applied. This happens in the following way. The X coordinate determines the horizontal position of the point. X equals 0 for points on the left edge of the object and X increases for points farther to the right. The Y coordinate determines the vertical position of a point. Y equals 0 for points at the top edge of the object, and Y increases for points farther down. The coordinates (0,0) represent the upper left corner. <[FIG12]>. You can, if you wish, always leave the printer stretches at their default values of 1. (This is what we recommend for most purposes anyway.) In this case, just think of the object coordinates as representing the locations of the individual pixels on the printed page.

The menus in PEP have a dual role. Primarily, they are lists of commands, but many menus also display status information. These two functions interact to produce commands of different types. These are described below. In some cases a single command plus associated status display requires more than one line in the menu. In these cases, the extra lines are indented to distinguish them from command names. <[FIG03]> shows a typical PEP menu. This one is the MODIFY/LINE-STYLE menu <[4.18]>. There are four commands (NIBTYPE, PENSIZE, DASHES, and QUIT), and six status data items. In this example, the status information contained in the menu reports the following facts: the current line is drawn with a pen whose shape is an ellipse, the pen size is 4 pixels wide and 2 pixels deep, the line is dashed, and the dashing pattern is 1 dot on for every 8 dots off. The PEP commands are explained one by one in the chapters that follow. To better understand the meaning of any particular command and its status items, consult the section devoted to that command in the appropriate chapter.

A second kind of menu is used when you are selecting from a list of names. For example, when loading a picture file, you are presented with a menu of all files in the current directory with the appropriate extension. In such a case, the first letters of the menu entries are usually not all different, so a slightly different method is used when choosing a item from a name menu. The items listed in a name menu are displayed alphabetically. The menu appears with an initial item highlighted. As you begin to type a name, at each keystroke the highlight moves to the first entry compatible with the keys typed so far. At any point, you can select the highlighted entry by pressing RETURN. The highlight can also be moved with the Up-Arrow, Down-Arrow, Home, and End keys. If the list of names is too large to fit in the menu window at one time, you can use Left-Arrow and Right-Arrow, or PgUp and PgDn to move the highlight into successive menu pages. Also, you can highlight an item by simply pointing to it with the cursor.

There are three ways to move up the menu hierarchy. Most menus include an explicit QUIT command; when you type Q (for QUIT), you are taken back to the previous menu, the next higher menu in the hierarchy. The second method is to use the super-escape key (Function key F10). Pressing this key takes you in a single step to the top level menu no matter where you are in the command structure. Finally, you can use the Escape key (ESC). Pressing this key takes you back one step in the command execution. Often, ESC is equivalent to QUIT, taking you back to the prior menu. Sometimes, however, it takes you back to an earlier stage in the same menu. For example, when you insert a line, you first choose a start point and then choose an end point. If you are at the second stage (choosing the end point), pressing ESC takes you back to the first stage (choosing the start point). In any case, if you continue to press ESC, you eventually return to the prior menu and ultimately to the top level menu. If you have a mouse, pressing the right mouse button is equivalent to using the ESC key.

Some menu commands select a value from a small list of options. These multiple choice commands also display the currently selected value in the menu. The data is displayed either on the same line as the command name or on the following line in the menu. When you press the command letter, the next option in sequence is selected and displayed. Press the command letter repeatedly to cycle through the complete set of options until the desired choice appears in the menu. <[FIG24]> shows the SETUP/SYSTEM menu <[12.3]> and illustrates the operation of the SETUP/SYSTEM/GRID command <[12.3.2]>. This command enables and disables automatic grid snapping, a feature that assists in the positioning of newly inserted elements. If grid snapping is OFF, then pressing G (for GRID) in the SETUP/SYSTEM menu turns snapping ON. If snapping is ON, pressing G turns it OFF. The menu shows the current state. This is a typical example of a multiple choice command.

Some menu commands require you to type in a name as an argument. For example, FILE/SAVE <[8.3]> requires a file name. These are called string input commands. For these commands, when you press the command letter, a highlight appears in the menu. The highlighted area may have a default string already displayed in it; to choose this default simply press RETURN. Alternatively, you can type in a new name into the highlighted area. End the string by pressing RETURN. While typing into the echo area, you can correct mistakes by using the backspace key (delete last character) and ESC (delete entire string). Press ESC a second time to abort the command.

XY input commands are similar to string input commands. These commands require two numerical arguments. For example, PRINT/MARGINS <[6.10]> needs two arguments for the left (X) and top (Y) margins respectively. For such a command the following two lines of the menu display the current status of these arguments. When you press the command letter, these two lines change: they now begin with X= and Y= respectively. This is to indicate that X and Y have become valid command letters. To change the X value, press X to highlight the X line. Type the desired value exactly as described under string input commands. Similarly, press Y to start input for the Y argument. <[FIG04]> shows the MODIFY/LINE-STYLE menu <[4.18]> as it looks after you have pressed P (for PENSIZE) to enable input of the width (X) and depth (Y) of the current pen. A few XY input commands ask for stretch factors. For example, SETUP/WINDOW/STRETCHES <[12.2.13]> lets you set the magnification of the active graphics window display. The smallest possible stretch is 1/256; the largest is 255. You can type in an integer (e.g. 2), a fraction (e.g. 3/4), or a decimal (e.g. 2.75). The remaining XY input commands (the majority) ask for integer values. The legal range for arguments varies from command to command. You can type an integer directly, or you can enter a value in physical units: inches, centimeters, or points (a point is 1/72 of an inch). To enter a value in inches, add the letter "i" to the end of the input string. To enter a value in centimeters, add "c". To enter a value in points, add "p". As before, you can type an integer, a fraction or a decimal. For example, the following are legal input strings for numbers: 33 (thirty three abstract pixels or object coordinates), 3/4i (three fourths of an inch), 2.5c (two and one half centimeters). If you ask for inches, centimeters, or points your input is converted into object coordinates by applying the current dots-per-inch value in the X or Y direction as appropriate. This value defaults to your current printer density, but it can be changed by using the SETUP/NUMBERS/INCH command <[12.4.5]>. In a similar way, you can specify a multiple of the current cursor step size or the current snap grid interval by adding the letter "s" or "g" to an integer, fraction or decimal number. You can view and change the current value of the step size and grid interval by using the SETUP/NUMBERS/STEP-SIZE <[12.4.1]> and SETUP/NUMBERS/GRID-SPACE commands <[12.4.2]>. If you type in a number in any of these ways, the new value that you enter replaces the old X or Y value as formerly displayed in the menu. However, if the string that you enter begins with a plus sign or a minus sign, then the new value is added to, or subtracted from the former value. This is relative XY input. As an illustration, if you want to move an element to the right by one half of an inch, use the MODIFY/MOVE command <[4.1]>, press X to enable X coordinate input, and enter the string "+1/2i". The number of pixels in one half of an inch will then be added to the current X position of the element, moving it to the right as required. A few XY input commands allow you to enter four numbers rather than just two. For example, the PRINT/WINDOW command <[6.12]> lets you print a rectangular piece of the open object instead of printing the entire object. To specify the window, you need to enter four coordinates, the left, top, right, and bottom of the window. For these XY input commands, typing the command letter once enables XY input in the first of two XY coordinate pairs; typing the command letter a second time enables input into the second pair.

PEP has been designed so that you can use a mouse if you have one, but a mouse is by no means necessary. Every PEP function can be accessed directly from the keyboard. Cursor motion, in particular, can be controlled from the keyboard in a number of ways which have been described above. If you do have a mouse, pressing a mouse button is equivalent to pressing one key on the keyboard. Pressing the left mouse button is equivalent to pressing RETURN (carriage return). Pressing the right mouse button is equivalent to pressing ESC (the escape key). Pressing the middle mouse button (if your mouse has a middle button) is equivalent to pressing SPACE (the space bar). In the discussion below, we use the key names RETURN, ESC, and SPACE without explicitly mentioning the mouse. In each case you can use the equivalent mouse button instead. <[FIG06]>.