Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!sri-spam!mordor!lll-lcc!unisoft!hoptoad!dasys1!patth From: patth@dasys1.UUCP (Patt Haring) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Graphics Message-ID: <1182@dasys1.UUCP> Date: Thu, 3-Sep-87 04:11:51 EDT Article-I.D.: dasys1.1182 Posted: Thu Sep 3 04:11:51 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 5-Sep-87 17:16:49 EDT Organization: The Big Electric Cat Lines: 286 Keywords: Submissions to A+ Magazine SPEAKING OF GRAPHICS GRAPHICS GALLERY GLEANINGS by Roberta Schwartz and Michael Callery Guidelines for submissions, and word on three updates. We're delighted to tell you that we've been swamped with submissions for "Speaking of Graphics Gallery," and they're wonderful! Not only does this response give us a chance to see your work, but it also tells us what software and hardware you're using. Double-hi-res graphics created with Dazzle Draw seem to be dominating, although we've also received hi-res , double-hi-res, and super-hi-res images created with a variety of other programs. To date, landscapes are the prevailing subject matter. Most of you appear to be using an AppleMouse for input, and many of you use the ComputerEyes video acquisition system. Is anyone using a light pen? Contributions are coming from readers ages 8 and up! We've received lots of disks from school teachers across the country who are doing exciting work with Apple graphics in the classroom. We're saving these for an upcoming issue of A+ that will focus on education. If you're a teacher who's working with Apple graphics, we'd love to hear about it. Send us your students' work and a description of what they're doing. Although looking at your graphics is great fun, it can turn into a chore if you don't send your work on a self-booting disk that includes a slide show. Since you're using a variety of graphic programs, we've had to boot the appropriate program, look at a few images, boot another program, look at some images, boot another program, and so on, and so on. So bear with us while we establish some official guidelines for all "Speaking of Graphics Gallery" submissions. Slide Shows For graphics created with Dazzle Draw, use the Make Slide Disk option on the File menu. This option puts the ProDOS operating system and a slide show onto your blank disk. Next, save your completed images (up to six pictures) onto this disk. When you're ready to send us the disk, boot it, and you'll find easy-to-follow instructions for establishing the order in which you want the images to appear. You also get a choice of transitions and delays between pictures. Please select option 1, No Fade and then option 9, Wait for Keypress. Doing so allows us to display each image as long as necessary to photograph the screen, after which we can press a key to view the next image. For graphics created with Paintworks Plus, save your graphics as type $C1 files (screen format), and you can use the side-show program we gave you in our last column (A+, "Speaking of Graphics," June 1987) or a comparable presentation program. For graphics that you have created with Beagle Graphics, use the program Slide Show which is on the Beagle Graphics disk. Instruction for using this program are in the Beagle Graphics manual. If you're using Blazing Paddles, Complete Graphics System, or any other standard hi-res-graphics program, and if you don't already have a slide-show program, you can use the one in figure 1. Put the names of your pictures in the DATA statements starting at line 1000. Be sure to include the last line, 1900 DATA DONE in the program. Documentation When you send in "Graphics Gallery" submissions be sure to put your name and the name of the graphics program you used on the disk label. On a separate sheet of paper include your name, address, title of pictures (in the order they're displayed on the disk), the name of the program you used to create the images, the graphics-input device(s) you used, and the computer you used. Along with this information, feel free to include any descriptive notes about yourself and/or your work. We appreciate your cooperation and look forward to seeing your Apple art. Update - ComputerEyes As evidenced by "Graphics Gallery" submissions, many of you are using the ComputerEyes video-acquisition system. Since Roberta reviewed ComputerEyes (see A+, August 1986), Digital Visions has released Computer Eyes/2 for the Apple II family of computers. We use it on the Apple IIGS, in the IIe emulation mode, without a problem. (Digital Vision will soon release special software to let it work with the Apple IIGS gray-scales, as well as a new, full color digitizer for the IIGS). ComputerEyes/2 is a board that plugs into any slot of an Apple II Plus, IIe, or IIGS. It captures both standard and double-hi-res images in less than six seconds. A preview function lets you see the video input on your monitor before you capture it, a significant option that lets you focus your camera. The program runs under either ProDOS or DOS 3.3. New enhancement software features conversion programs that convert an Apple hi-res image to double hi-res (and back). They can also convert ComputerEyes/2 images to Print Shop Graphic format or Newsroom Photo format, or even Print Shop Graphic format to Newsroom Photo format, and vice versa. You can shrink or expand images by 1% increments or flip, invert, or scroll them. (This option is especially useful if your printer tends to squash or stretch images.) If you have a Video-7 Enhancer or Legend E' Card in your Apple IIe, you can also acquire impressive gray-scale (16-shade) images. For a limited time, Digital Vision is offering its customers a special purchase price for the Video-7 card. The price is less than half the list price, so if you work a lot with digitized images, we suggest you contact the company. We found ComputerEyes/2, with the enhancement software, to be easier to use than the original ComputerEyes, and the images are even better. By the way, the price is the same as that of the original ComputerEyes, which means it's still a best buy. Fontrix Users, Take Note We've received inquiries about using Fontrix with the Apple IIGS or the ImageWriter II. If you're using these products, you need Fontrix Version 1.55. You can upgrade to this version by sending Data Transforms your original Fontrix program disk and $10. Watch for Data Transforms' new product for the Apple II family, Printrix. This software package lets you "typeset" your text files from word-processing programs in Fontrix fonts, with graphics merged into the text. We'll tell you more about Printrix after we've tried it. Programmers' Delight For those of you who are serious graphics hackers /tinkerers, Polarware is offering The Graphics Magician PICDRAW Developer Package, an update of the picture/object editor of the Graphics Magician. As the name implies, the Developer Package is intended for programmers and is, according to Polarware, "not likely to be a 'retail store' product." The existing retail graphics Magician package works only with hi res and double hi res. This version has been revised to run under ProDOS and works with hi res, double hi res, and, soon, super hi res with one module. If you're not familiar with the picture/object editor of the Graphics Magician, the program creates what computer-graphics professionals call a display list. As you draw, the program remembers the moves you make and the commands you give to create a graphic. Unlike a recalled image form a standard paint program, which just appears, a Graphics Magician picture/object-editor image is redrawn right before your eyes. PICDRAW recreates each and every one of your moves and commands. If you're clever and patient, you can take advantage of this feature and incorporate limited animation into your graphic. PICDRAW graphics are popular for use in educational software and adventure games for two primary reasons. First, these images take up much less disk space than standard or even compressed pictures. Second, because they're stored as display lists rather than bit maps, PICDRAW images can easily move from one brand of computer to another with only minor changes to accommodate different resolutions and color availability. Polarware also offers editors so that you can convert to other brands of computers. If you're developing graphics or programs for the educational or entertainment market, you may want to check out the PICDRAW Developer's Package. To use this product in a commercial application, you'll have to license it from Polarware. Long Live Ceemac! We recently received a letter from Brooke Boering, creator of the interactive-graphics programming language Ceemac, the language of Fire Organ. Fire Organ, available in many public-domain libraries, astounds everyone. Each key on the Apple keyboard generates a different rapidly moving graphic, and most of them are beautifully symmetrical. Nothing we've ever seen compares to it. Fire Organ was intended to entice people to buy Ceemac so that they too could create new "scores" (as Ceemac programs are called). Programming in Ceemac is not everyone's cup of tea. Ceemac is, like the displays it produces, eccentric but fun. Over the last several years, Boering has marketed, sold, duplicated, packaged, and mailed Ceemac to anyone enraptured enough by Fire Organ to want to give it a try. Now he's put versions of Ceemac up to 1.6 and its companion tool, Maestro, into the public domain. We expect it to appear in the major public-domain and users'-group libraries soon. Along with the language you'll get the source code of the Fire Organ scores so that you can modify and refine the ones you like. At $75, Ceemac was a bargain; now that it will cost you only what your users' group charges for a disk, you've no excuse. Give Ceemac a try! That's all for now. See you next month. ---------------------------------------------------------------- PRODUCT INFORMATION Ceemac and Maestro Brooke Boering Public-domain software available through users' groups Requires: Apple II Plus, IIe, or IIGS; 48K RAM; 5 1/4-inch disk drive. Not copy-protected; does not work with mouse. ComputerEyes/2 Digital Vision, Inc. 14 Oak Street, Suite 2 Needham, MA 02192 (617)444-7160 List Price: $129.95; with black-and-white video camera, $459.95; enhancement software, $24.95 Requires: Apple II Plus, IIe, or IIGS; 64K RAM; one 5 1/4-inch floppy-disk drive; video source such as a camera, VCR, or videodisc player. DOS 3.3 or ProDOS. Fontrix 1.55 Data Transforms 616 Washington Street Denver, CO 80203 (303)832-1501 List Price: Fontrix 1.55, $95; upgrade, $10 The Graphics Magician PICDRAW Developer Package Polarware Attention Jeffrey Jay 521 Hamilton, Box 311 Geneva, IL 60134 (800)323-0884 List Price: $95 Requires: Apple II Plus, IIe, or IIc; 64K RAM; one 5 1/4-inch disk drive. Not copy protected; does not work with mouse. ProDOS 8. ---------------------------------------------------------------- FIGURE 1: SLIDE-SHOW PROGRAM 1 TEXT:HOME 2 L1=8192: L2=16384:LOC=L1 3 READ F$ 4 IF F$="DONE" THEN GOTO 5 5 PRINT CHR$(4); "BLOAD";F$;",A";LOC 6 C=C+1 7 IF C=1 THEN POKE -16297,:POKE -1632,:POKE 1634, 8 IF LOC=8192 THEN POKE -163,: LOC=L2: GOTO1 9 POKE -16299,:LOC=L1 10 GOTO 3 15 END 1000 DATA picname1 1100 DATA picname2 1900 DATA DONE -- Patt Haring UUCP: ..cmcl2!phri!dasys1!patth Big Electric Cat Compu$erve: 76566,2510 New York, NY, USA MCI Mail: 306-1255; GEnie: PHaring FidoNet Mail: 1:107/132 or 107/222