
	 DRAWSTUDIO TUTORIALS


	 Terminology Used
	 ----------------
	  This manual uses a standard terms for describing the
	  action of the program and its user interface. Because
	  the program has a standard "look and feel" which is
	  shared by other Amiga programs, new users of
	  DrawStudio should have little difficulty navigating
	  around the program.

	  A few simple terms are explained below to give you an
	  idea:

	       - "Clicking". To "click" on an object or a
	       button in a window, depress the left mouse
	       button and release without moving the mouse.
	       Clicking is the most common mouse operation in
	       the program (after movement!).

		"Shift-clicking". Clicking the mouse as above,
	       only holding down either of the "shift" keys
	       whilst doing it. Shift clicking is used for
	       selecting multiple objects. Similarly, Control-
	       and Alt-clicking sometimes modify the operation
	       of clicking.

	       - "Dragging". To drag with the mouse, click down
	       with the left mouse button and move the mouse.
	       Once you are happy with the drag, release the
	       mouse button. Objects are moved on the page by
	       dragging them, and Shift-, Ctrl- and Alt-
	       dragging may sometimes be performed to modify
	       the drag operation.



	  Tutorials
	  ---------
	  Following are a few simple tutorials which will give
	  you an idea of the capabilities of the program.


	  Starting the Program
	  --------------------
	  To start DrawStudio, simply double-click on the
	  program's icon on Workbench. After the opening splash
	  window has opened, you will be presented with a new
	  project - ready for work.

	  --------------------------------------------------
	  IMPORTANT: If DrawStudio opens up with a screenmode
	  you would like to change, choose Project/Display and
	  click on the "Choose..." button (Screenmode section)
	  to select a screenmode of your choice. To save the
	  settings for later use, choose Settings/Save
	  Settings.
	  -----------------------------------------------


	  The main window is the project window, and currently
	  shows a blank page of paper. This window can be
	  resized using the sizing gadget on the bottom right
	  of the Project window. Down the left of the window is
	  a toolbar;

	       The top buttons in the toolbar select the
	       drawing tools (lines, circles, curves, text,
	       etc...)

	       and the bottom buttons allow you to change the
	       attributes of objects (colour, line thickness,
	       line ends, etc...).

	  At the bottom of the project window are two pop-ups
	  for the current page and layer (see later) and a
	  horizontal scroll bar for moving the page left and
	  right. To the right of the project window is a
	  vertical scroll bar. This allows you to move the
	  portion of the page which is currently being
	  displayed up and down.

	  The default screenmode is 16 colours and HiRes
	  Interlaced screen. This screenmode is available to
	  all Amigas (AGA and non-AGA), however you may change
	  the screenmode by selecting the "Project/Display..."
	  menu item to open the display requester as outlined
	  above.

	  The display requester also allows you to change the
	  display type of the page buffer. The page buffer is
	  the area of memory that DrawStudio uses when drawing
	  objects before they are displayed on the screen.
	  Although all colours are kept in 24 bit accuracy
	  internally, the page buffer can store either 1 bit, 8
	  bits or 24 bits of colour information.

	  Using more bits will allow DrawStudio to display
	  objects better on the screen, but will require more
	  memory to store the page buffer.

	       The 1-bit page buffer gives very fast redraws,
	       but only in black and white; this page buffer
	       requires the minimum amount of memory.

	       8-bit greyscale buffers display all the effects
	       available in DrawStudio, only without any
	       colour.

	       8-bit colour buffers will display in colour, but
	       do not show the transparency information that
	       will be shown in 8 bit greyscale.

	       24 bit buffers are the highest quality, showing
	       all the effects available in full colour; they
	       also require the largest amount of memory.

	  Choosing the page buffer type for your use depends on
	  what you are designing and how you wish to output the
	  final illustration. If you are using DrawStudio to
	  produce diagrams for a technical report for example,
	  using a 1 bit page buffer would provide all the
	  quality required with a very fast screen redraw. If
	  you are producing a drawing which will be printed out
	  on a black and white printer, using the 8 bit
	  greyscale page buffer will suffice. If you have a
	  fast Amiga with lots of memory, using a 24 bit page
	  buffer for all instances would be acceptable. You can
	  of course change the page buffer type at any time
	  during a design as needs require.


	  How to Draw Simple Shapes
	  -------------------------
	  To draw simple lines, rectangles, circles etc... on
	  the page, simply click on the appropriate tool on the
	  toolbar and drag the new shape out on the page.

	  Notice how that when you have drawn an object, it is
	  surrounded by eight small rectangular points; these
	  are called the "bounding box points". These points
	  show the extremities of the object and are only
	  displayed when the object is "selected".

	  Many of the operations available in DrawStudio will
	  only be applied to the currently selected objects.

	  When the pointer tool is active, you may click on the
	  bounding box points to drag them and re-size the
	  object.


	  Changing the Appearance of Objects
	  ----------------------------------
	  By default, all new objects drawn on the page will be
	  drawn in the default style - black pen and no fill.
	  The things which determine how an object is drawn are
	  called the object's "attributes"; the object's
	  colour, pen thickness, pen style and line ends are
	  all attributes the object may have.

	  To change the attributes of an object you can either
	  use the Attributes requester ("Object/ Attributes..."
	  menu) or the pop-ups which are in the lower half of
	  the toolbar towards the left of the project window
	  (these popups are the four lowest rows of tools you
	  can see in the whole toolbar).

	  Try drawing a circle on the page and, while the
	  object is still selected, open the Pen (Line Colour)
	  pop-up (this is located in the row fourth from bottom
	  on the left).

	  Click on any of the colours on the palette. The
	  object's pen will change colour and the pop-up will
	  close. If the object has not redrawn in colour, make
	  sure that you are using either a 8 bit or 24 colour
	  page buffer. Try changing the Page Buffer to see how
	  it effects the way the colour fills are displayed on
	  screen.

	  Similarly open the Fill pop-up (next to the Pen pop-
	  up) and change the colour of the circle's fill.
	  Notice that objects can have no fill (None)- i.e. are
	  transparent.

	  To change the circle's Pen (Lines) dash style, open
	  up the pen (Line) dash pop-up. You can also change
	  the pen's thickness using the Pen thickness pop-up.

	  The bottom two pop-ups change the styles at the start
	  and end of lines. Making sure that there are no
	  objects selected on page (click on an empty area of
	  the page), draw a simple line. It will be drawn as a
	  single, thin line. To add an arrowhead to the line,
	  make sure the line is still selected and open the
	  Line start pop-up.

	  The line will now be drawn with arrowheads and the
	  pop-up will close.

	  But what happens if you want to draw lots of lines
	  with arrowheads? It would be a really annoying to
	  have to keep on selecting the pop-ups. DrawStudio
	  helps you in two ways.

	  The first method is to make all lines that are drawn,
	  be drawn with arrowheads. To change the default line
	  style (this also works for the colours and fills of
	  objects), make sure that no objects on the page are
	  selected then open the pop-up to change the arrowhead
	  style. Now all lines will be drawn with the arrowhead
	  that you've selected.

	  Another method allows you to "inherit" the attributes
	  from any other object on the current page. To create
	  an object using the attributes from an existing
	  objects, make sure that the original object is the
	  only object selected on the page and then create the
	  new object; it will be created with the attributes
	  inherited from the original object.


	  Complex Object Attributes
	  -------------------------
	  The previous section showed how the colours and line
	  styles of objects can be changed using the pop-ups in
	  the toolbar. For applying more complex attributes
	  (e.g. gradient fills), this must be done from the
	  Attributes requester (Object/Attributes).

	  Select any object you have on the current page and
	  open the attributes requester ("Object/
	  Attributes..." menu).

	  Here you can select the fill type of both the pen and
	  the object fill independently. Try giving the circle
	  you created above, a brick pattern for the pen and a
	  gradient fill for its centre.

	       IMPORTANT: Please Note that patterns can be
	       edited. You can choose the colour of the
	       foreground and background colours as well as use
	       transparent colours.


	  Drawing Aids
	  ------------
	  Creating illustrations with a drawing package is a
	  different process than using a paint package.
	  DrawStudio has a wide range of layout tools which
	  will aid you to create both accurate drawings and
	  realistic illustrations.

	  The simplest tool which is present in most drawing
	  packages is "Snapping to a grid". This is activated
	  by either toggling the "Layout/Snap to grid" menu
	  item or from the Snapping requester.

	  You can snap to the horizontal and vertical grids
	  independently and you may adjust the size of the
	  horizontal and vertical grids independently. Using
	  "snap to grid" is useful when creating technical
	  diagrams or flow charts.

	  DrawStudio also allows you to snap to objects -
	  snapping to object ends, points, lines and curves is
	  supported. This is very useful when creating artistic
	  illustrations, as these types of illustrations do not
	  fit well to a regular grid. To try snapping to an
	  object, open the snapping requester and select all
	  the snapping to object buttons.

	  Now draw a Bezier object which contains both lines
	  and curves. Now create a simple line object and as
	  you are dragging the end of the line near the Bezier
	  object, notice how the line end snaps to the Bezier
	  object. The mouse pointer will change to show whether
	  the line is snapping to a line, curve, point or end
	  of the curve.

	  When you release the mouse button, the line will be
	  created which snaps EXACTLY to the location on the
	  Bezier curve.

	  Another tool which can prove very useful is the align
	  tool; this is available through the Align requester
	  ("Object/ Align..." menu). This allows you to align
	  object to each other or to the page as a whole;
	  objects may be left, right or centre justified with
	  respect to themselves or the page. The align
	  requester can also be used to distribute (i.e. spread
	  out) objects on the page.

	  For example, to centre an object on the page, select
	  any object on the page and open the align requester
	  and play with the different settings to see how
	  powerful this function is. There is a Preview to make
	  things more intuitive for you.


	  Pages, Layers and Objects
	  -------------------------
	  So far, we have only considered adding objects onto a
	  single page. DrawStudio supports multiple pages (much
	  the same way as a DTP program or a word processor),
	  allowing documents to be created which will be
	  printed out to several pages. To change the current
	  page or to add or delete pages you can either click
	  the page pop-up at the bottom of the project window
	  or select the "Layout/ Pages..." menu item.

	  Each page can also contain a number of "layers". A
	  layer is like a layer of glass that is laid on the
	  page, onto which you can draw objects. Each layer is
	  transparent, showing through the layers below it;
	  layers can be added and deleted from either the layer
	  pop-up at the bottom of the project window or by
	  selecting the "Layout/Layers..." menu item.

	  Layers allows you to create illustrations by drawing
	  the layers one at a time. For example you may want to
	  draw the background of an illustration first,
	  followed by the foreground objects. This has the
	  advantage that once a layer is finished it can be
	  made un-editable (so that you won't accidentally
	  change it) or displayed greyed out to make foreground
	  layers clearer to see. Layers can also be made
	  entirely invisible if required.

	  By default, all pages are created containing one
	  layer called "Layer 1". To create another layer, open
	  the layers requester ("Layout/Layers..." menu) and
	  click the "New" button; a new layer called "Layer 2"
	  will be created.

	  Click "OK" to close the requester. Now when you
	  create new objects they will be added to Layer 2 and
	  you will not be able to edit any objects that are on
	  Layer 1 (go on, just try moving one!).

	  Once you have objects on both layers you can try
	  changing the displaying of the layers in the layers
	  requester (try making a layer "greyscale" and then
	  "invisible"). The order of the layers can also be
	  changed by dragging their names in the list; layers
	  at the top of the list are drawn above layers lower
	  in list.


	  Text
	  ----
	  Text can be added to the page using the text tool.
	  Try selecting the text tool and clicking on the page.
	  A cursor is shown and you may enter text by typing
	  directly onto the page - pressing the "Enter" key
	  will move the cursor to a newline.

	  The text may be justified to either left, right or
	  central justification using the "Text/ Alignment"
	  menu. To change the font style, open the font
	  requester ("Text/ Font..." menu) and choose a new
	  font.

	  To edit the text later, just double click on it with
	  the text tool.


	  Effects
	  -------
	  DrawStudio will allows you to warp and bend most
	  objects to provide a range of special effects. This
	  is all performed through the warp requester
	  ("Effects/ Warp..." menu).

	  Create some text and make sure it is selected. Open
	  the warp requester. Try clicking through the range of
	  effects available, adjusting the slider to enhance or
	  reduce the scale of the effect. When you have found
	  an effect you wish to try, click "Warp" to apply the
	  effect.

	  Custom warps can be created by clicking on the "Use
	  envelope button". This draws a bounding box
	  "envelope" with points that can be stretched and
	  moved to create stretched envelope.

	  This is very much like stretching a rectangular piece
	  of rubber -once you click off the object, it will be
	  stretched like the envelope.


	  Finally...
	  ----------
	  I hope this has given you a rough idea of the some of
	  the capabilities of the program and some of the tools
	  available for creating illustrations. The most
	  effective way to find out about the program is to
	  purchase the full version which will come with a
	  comprehensive manual. To order DrawStudio, See the
	 "Order Information" file.

