Gray Paint 2.0 documentation

Description
GrayPaint 2.0 is simple graphic editor. It works in 16 gray levels mode. It was initialy developed for high zoom editing. This is usefull for games design. However this version is much more capable.

Requirements:
You need an EZ processor. It means Palm IIIx,V,Vx and any grayscale Visor (as far as i know). Or anything, which displays 16 levels of gray in the same way, as Palm does. GrayPaint should work under any OS, which comes with these devices (3.1 and higher).
Note, you don't need to have 3.5 OS !

Installation:
Please remove previous version of GrayPaint before installing this new version. I mean all 1.x version and also all beta versions of 2.0. The image database has to be deleted too !

Install these files using standart install procedure.
GrayPaint.prc - the program. Has to be installed.
GrayPaintDB.pdb - database with demo images. Doesn't have to be installed.

Toolbar:
Main toolbar is placed on the right side. It contains only very basic tools.
All other tools are accessible throught tools menu. All tools can be also invoked with graffity shortcut.

The big icon on the top of the tool bar shows the active tool. In the upper corner you can see the shortcut key ot the tool. Some tools shows also actual brush size shown in the lower corner. Tapping this icon will invoke the Tools menu.

There is fast tool picker placed under active tool icon. It contains these basic functions.
format: [shortcut] name - description

[m] Move - replaces the view. Activate, then select new view center.
[backspace] Undo - undo last operation.
[i][o] Zoom in, Zoom out - changes magnification (1x,2x,4x,8x,16x) - actual zoom level is shown on the toolbar.
[space] Swap - swaps curent foregroud and background color.
[p] Pick - activate, then pick new foreground color from the image. Actual pixel coordinates will be displayed on the toolbar.

The rest of the toolbar is ocupied by the color picker. The foreground color is marked with large dot in the 
upper left corner. The background color is marked with smaller dot in the lower left corner.
Single tap on a color cell will select the foreground color. Doubletap will select the background color.

Tools menu
You can acces tools menu by tapping the active tool icon in the upper path of main toolbar. Some icons represents new tools, which will be selected by tapping them, some icons represents single operation (for example "Clear" will clear screen). Tapping icons with brush size mark will change actual brush size, without selecting any tool. If you only want to change brush size, tap to desired size and then tap outside any icon. This will exit the menu, but the brush size will be affected. Each icon also has shortcut letter written in the upper left corner. If the rectangle region is defined, you can also see icons for rectangle operations and modes.

Tools description
format: [shortcut] name - description

[c] Clear - clears the screen with then background color
[1][2][3] Set brush size - sets the brush size. Exact brush size is in the lower left corner.
[5] Draw mode - Basic draw tool. Affected pixels are set to foreground color.
[4] Draw Autoswap - Works in same way like normal draw mode. Only when begining the stroke on pixel with foreground color, pixels are set to background color. Most palm black & white editors works in this mode. Usefull for 2 color sketching in high zoom.
[6] Shading mode - If the color of affected pixel is lighter than foreground color, it is darkened 1 level. If it is darker, it is lightened 1 level. No pixel is affected twice during 1 stroke. Usefull for lightening/darkening and shading.
[7] Coal mode - This is a little bonus. This tool was not in the original idea. But with this tool, you can really PAINT and SKETCH on Palm. How it works ? With 1 pixel brush it works like the shading mode. Except, if you cross 1 pixel twice in 1 stroke, it will be affected twice. So you can scribble over some area and make it darker and darker, or lighter and lighter. But 1 pixel brush is only usefull in high zoom. With brush size 2,  the pixel in the center of the brush is affected twice. Pixel surrounding the center pixel are affected once. This gives nice smooth antialliased line, if applied more times over. And with brush size 3, the line is little darker (if you use dark foreground color), but even more round and smooth. Test all 3 sizes under high zoom. You'll get the difference.
[8] Blur mode - Affected pixels are blured with their neighbourhood. Very usefull for drawing antialiased sprites and for smoothing and shading.
[9] Selective eraser - This tool works in little strange way. But it is very powerfull. It replaces foreground color with background color. Usefull for final recoloring of sprites and also for some tricks.
[f] Fill mode - Clasicall flood fill.

[d] Define rectangle - Defines rectangle area in the image. First tap for the upper left corner, then for the lower right. You should see 'crawling ants' marked rectangle.
[a] Define all - Defines whole image as rectangle.
[r] Redefine rectangle - Defines last defined rectangle as rectangle. 

Rectangle tools: (these can be picked from menu only when the rectangle is defined)
[u] Undefine - removes the rectangle mark from the image. Rectangle can be recalled back using 'Redefine' function.
[k] Clone tool - You can clone and drag content of the rectangle and place it anywhere on the image. Actual background color will not be moved (i.e. background color is transparent). If you need all colors to be moved, set foreground color to be same as background color.
[t] Tile tool - this clones content of the rectangle in the tiles exactly 1 by 1. You can draw brick, define the rectangle and fill whole screen or construct a room. Transparency rules works in the same way like with the Clone tool.
[y] Flip horizontal, vertical - Flips the area inside rectangle in desired direction.
[z] Rotate clockwise - This rotates content of the brush 90 degrees clockwise.
[enter] Apply - Apply active draw mode to whole rectangle area. For example, if you have blur tool selected, whole rectange will be blured.

Image management
Image manager is invoked by tapping 'Menu' silk button. You should not need any aditional help for using it. Maybe this little one: for now there really is not a way how to change order of images. Categories or private records are not supported too.

Tips and tricks
-Know the shortcuts. They are fast and powerfull.
-Calibrate contrast of your display. Press contrast button (or use graffity shortcut 'q'). The color picker will be replaced with contrast slider. Above is calibration image and contrast mark. The gray rectangle inside the chessboard pattern should have approximately same level as the pattern. Look from distance or with eyes almost closed. Adjust contrast in that way you dont see the rectangle. This will make color 7 to be exactly between black and white. Note, that this was developed for PalmV and PalmVx. Contrast setting works diferently on other models, so this could not be possible.
-Graffity for dot (double tap graffity area) will unzoom and center the view.
-You can hide toolbar with shortcut 'v'.
-You can clone actual image without leaving editor screen with shortcut 'w'.
-You can use hardware buttons for scrolling and zooming the image.
-You can replace view and change zoom during rectangle definition.
-Check out the demo images.
-Check out the Questions website.

Import & export
Tool for exporting images from database and for creating database from images for PC platform is being developed.

Don't be shy !
If you think you made some art with this software, send me your GrayPaintDB.pdb and I'll show your pictures in virual gallery on our web site. You should be able to find the database in you Backup directory.

Price
Graypaint 2.0 is distributed for free. Import/Export utility will be distributed for some little fee (less than 10$). So if you like this software, please wait for release of this utility and buy it.

Actual version, fixed bugs, new features:
2.0.0 (Mar 16,2001) Initial release

Contact:
Questions web site: questions.hyperlink.cz
Email: Questions@seznam.cz
