////// SCREEN GRABBER v1.4 REALM Copyright 1992-96 ////// created by Joey Sherman ******* WARNING ******* Don't mean to alarm anyone but there is a bug that may cause your system to crash. I'm not aware of any others at this time but it's simple to avoid. I'll fix it, soon as I figure out how. 1) Choosing CANCEL when saving to a copy protected disk will cause the computer to bomb out. To avoid this simply insert a non-copy protected disk or pop your disk out and un-copy protect it. Index --------- (1.0) INTRODUCTION (1.1) LEGAL NOTICE (1.2) DISTRIBUTION (2.0) INSTALLATION (3.0) SCREEN GRABBER (3.1) THE FORMAT SELECTOR (3.2) MAIN BUTTONS (4.0) CONFIGURE SCREEN (4.1) ASCII SETTINGS (4.2) DEF SETTINGS (4.3) COLOR CARD BUTTON (4.4) .XIMG(x16) BUTTON (5.0) CLIPPING (5.1) FIXED BOX CLIPPING (5.2) DRAG CLIPPING (6.0) THE FUTURE (1.0) ---- //////// INTRODUCTION ///////// Welcome to Screen Grabber! Hope you like this program and some of it's odder features. Screen Grabber currently supports all resolutions up to 8 Bit planes (256 colors). True Color support has not been added at this point but is planned. It basically allows you to save the entire screen or portions of the screen in a wide range of formats. If you use GEnie please send E-Mail to REALM with any problems or suggestions. I'm always glad to help! (1.1) ---- //////// LEGAL NOTICE //////// REALM can not be held responsible for any damages occurring to any object/person from the use/misuse of this product. The use of this software is entirely the responsibility of the end user. (1.2) ---- //////// DISTRIBUTION //////// This program is now public domain and may be distributed freely. Please distribute the program in it's original ZIP'd form with all files included. It may not be sold in any manner. The source code has been included to help other GFA programmers. You may use the code in your own programs or edit Screen Grabber for your own needs. You may not edit Screen Grabber and re-distribute it. (2.0) ---- //////// INSTALLATION //////// Installing SCREEN GRABBER is as easy as copying three files to your root directory on your Boot disk. If your using a Hard Drive, drive C: should be your boot partition. If your using a Floppy Drive, then make sure the Floppy disk is inserted when you power up the computer. To install SCREEN GRABBER simply copy the files SCREEN_G.ACC, SCREEN_H.RSC and SCREEN_L.RSC onto the root directory of your Boot disk. If your unsure of how to copy files check your Atari manual, it's a very simple procedure. NOTE: If you do not use ST Low or ST Medium resolutions you won't need the SCREEN_L.RSC file placed on your root drive. Once you have the files copied simply re-boot your computer by pressing CTL+ALT+DEL, using the reset button or just switch resolutions and your ACC's will be re-loaded. If all went well "Screen Grabber" should appear under the "Desk" Menu option. If not, make sure you have enough room for it. Your only allowed 6 desk Accessories so make sure you haven't exceeded the limit. Also check to make sure the proper files are indeed in the root directory and not in a folder. (3.0) ---- //////// SCREEN GRABBER ///////// Screen Grabber is an Accessory that can be called from within any program using the GEM Menu bar. It allows you to save the entire screen or a piece of the screen in several picture formats. It's very simple to use but there are a few hidden features you'll want to read about. To call Screen Grabber simply pick it's name under the "Desk" option in the Menu bar. The Main dialogue box will appear in the center of the screen. All your cutting choices can be made from this screen. NOTE: When using Screen Grabber on a Graphic Card it's important to select the GRAPHIC CARD button on the configure screen. See (4.3) COLOR CARD BUTTON below. (3.1) ---- //////// THE FORMAT SELECTOR //////// Once you've called Screen Grabber from the Desk Menu, you'll need to select the picture format you wish to use. On the left side of the Main screen is the scrolling format display. The picture formats supported in the current resolution will be displayed between the up and down arrows. You may scroll up or down through the available choices by clicking on the appropriate arrow. To select a format simply click on it with the Left Mouse button. The format will become black when selected. Once the format is chosen it will stay selected even if you exit the ACC. The format choices are displayed as extenders. If your not familiar with extenders, they are the last 3 letters after the decimal place in a filename. For Example, an uncompressed Degas ST Low resolution picture, would be "FILENAME.PI1", where ".PI1" is it's extender. If you wish to create an ST Low resolution Degas picture, you would choose the .PI1 option in the file display. Choosing extenders can be confusing especially since different formats have the same extender. If your not sure which format the extender belongs to, check in the display bar across the top of the dialogue box. When you select different formats it will change to give a longer definition of the currently selected format. For example, ".DEF" will show "DynaCADD Exchange". Now you know it's the ,DynaCADD Exchange File, format. Some different formats have the same extender. This is especially true with the ".IMG" format. In order to make these easier to identify you may notice a small letter added to the extender. For Example: ".IMGs" and ".IMGx" Below is a list of formats currently supported by Screen Grabber. All formats are uncompressed. .PI1 - DEGAS ST Low Resolution .PI2 - DEGAS ST Medium Resolution .PI3 - DEGAS ST High Resolution .NEO - NeoChrome .PNT - Prism Paint .PAL - Prism Paint Palette file .IMG - GEM Monochrome Images .IMGx - GEM XIMG Color Images .IMGs - Seurat Color Images .DEF - DynaCADD Exchange Format (See Config) .PGF - Atari Portfolio Screen .TXTa - Converts pixels to B&W ASCII (See Config) .TXTc - Converts pixels to A-P ASCII (See Config) .LSTp - GFA listing of picture .LSTv - GFA listing of VDI palette (3.2) ---- /////// MAIN BUTTONS /////// There are several buttons on the Main screen of Screen Grabber. Among these are CLIP,SCREEN,CONFIG,SAVE,EXIT and the lower bar displaying the version number. CLIP and SCREEN are radio buttons so you may select only one at a time. They are grabbing choices so no immediate action will occur. All others will take action as soon as they are selected. (a) CLIP - When CLIP is selected the user will be able to cut out a section of the screen using the mouse. This may be disabled in some formats. See (5.0) CLIPPING below... (b) SCREEN - When SCREEN is selected the entire screen will be saved without any cutting allowed. (c) CONFIG - When CONFIG is selected it will bring up the configure screen. This screen contains extra choices and settings. See (4.0) CONFIGURE SCREEN below... (d) SAVE - When SAVE is selected the actual saving process begins. First, the normal GEM file selector will appear allowing you to input a name for the picture your creating. Screen Grabber will automatically handle the extender for the file. If you put the wrong extender or no extender it will be replaced with the correct one. Then, any clipping required by the user will take place. See (5.0) CLIPPING below... (e) EXIT - When EXIT is selected Screen Grabber will be closed. It remembers all settings and directory locations even when closed. (f) The Display Bar - When the display bar is selected a small box with REALMs address will appear. (4.0) ---- //////// CONFIGURE SCREEN //////// The configure screen is entered by clicking CONFIG on the Main screen. It contains several features that can be set for various formats. Once these features are selected they will remain selected until the computer is rebooted, turned off, resolution changed or the user selects another. The Configure screen consists of two major sections labeled ASCII and DEF. It also contains three buttons marked COLOR CARD, .XIMG (x16) and OK. Only the OK button takes immediate action. (4.1) --- /////// ASCII SETTINGS /////////// The ASCII definition section is available for setting parameters used by two file formats,"(.TXTm) ASCII Mono" and "(.TXTc) ASCII Color". These parameters define the manor in which the screen is converted into a text file. During the process one pixel on the screen will be converted to 1 character in the text file. At the end of each line a RETURN will be added (See (2) WIDTH below). The ASCII section contains four user settings, HEIGHT, WIDTH, BLACK and WHITE. There is also a button that toggles among 3 other choices, PAGE, FREE and N PAGES. The current choice is displayed in the button at all times. (1) HEIGHT - This setting defines the height of the text file in ASCII characters. (2) WIDTH - This setting defines the width of the text file in ASCII characters. There is a RETURN placed at the end of each text line. It's important to note that the return defines where one line ends and the next begins. If you import your text file into a program that cannot handle the width you have entered, your image may look distorted. (3) WHITE - This is the character chosen for any pixel that is the background color. This only affects the "ASCII Mono Image" format. (4) BLACK - This is the character chosen to for any pixel that is NOT the background color. This color is considered to be black. This only affects the "ASCII Mono Image" format. Directly below the above user settings is a button which toggles between PAGE, FREE and N PAGES. This button controls the manner in which your clipping rectangle operates. (1) PAGE - This option sets the clipping rectangle to the size specified in the WIDTH and HEIGHT box's. It then clips and saves only 1 page of text. (2) FREE - This option has no size limit. It places a RETURN at the end of each line and treats the entire image as a single page with no size limit. (3) N PAGES - This option divides the screen into several pages. This option might be useful if you wish to create an ASCII poster. The clipping box will automatically divide the screen into separate pages for easy printing. The page size is taken from the WIDTH and HEIGHT settings. The ASCII Color Image format is slightly different then the Mono format. It works in up to 16 colors and converts each pixel into a letter. Color 0 starts on the letter "A" and Color 15 ends on the letter "P". This was originally added for someone needing to create Cross Stitch Patterns. The nice thing about ASCII Color Images is custom fonts can be created to replace the letters A-P with symbols. You can then print your image using the custom font and end up with any kind of print out you might wish IE: a Cross Stitch Pattern. NOTE: In order for an ASCII Image to be displayed/printed properly you must use a font that is constantly spaced. Each letter must occupy the same amount of space or the letters will bunch up and the image will be distorted. The default parameters are setup for the Atari SHOW command in resolutions of 640 width or greater. Simply double click on your Text file then choose PRINT or SHOW. It should appear/print correctly. (4.2) ---- //////// DEF SETTINGS //////// The DEF definition settings are available for setting the parameters used by the ".DEF DynaCADD Exchange" format. This format allows the screen in up to 16 colors to be converted to a DynaCADD v2.00 Exchange file. It does this by converting each pixel into a single entity or group of entities. The DEF section contains one user setting known as SPACE. There is also one button that toggles 4 choices: POINT, LINE, SOLID and CIRCLE. (1) SPACE - Space defines the space between the entities or the size of the entities. For instance when SOLID is selected each pixel will be converted into a square exactly the size of the SPACE setting. Directly below the SPACE setting is a toggle button for selecting the entity type that will be created. (1) POINT - This option converts each pixel into a DynaCADD POINT entity. The distance between points will be the size set in SPACE. (2) LINE - This option converts groups of pixels into a DynaCADD LINE entity. Slightly different from point, line divides it's entity's into groups of like color pixels in order to save space. For instance, if the first line of your clipping area is solid black, it will create 1 black line. If your image had 12 red pixels and 2 white pixels it would create two lines. 1 red line 12 SPACEs long and 1 white line 2 SPACEs long. Instead of 14 lines each 1 SPACE long, they are condensed into two lines that create the same length. It also locates the lines 1 SPACE apart horizontally. (3) SOLID - This option converts groups of pixels into a DynaCADD SOLID entity. The SOLID mode works exactly like the line mode except each group of pixels will be a solid rectangle the thickness of the SPACE setting. This method will create an image exactly matching the one captured. (4) CIRCLE - This option converts each pixel into a DynaCADD CIRCLE Entity with the diameter of SPACE and placed 1 SPACE apart. NOTE: DEF files can get rather large so you may wish to experiment with little tiny pieces first. Depending on the image it may be advisable to try different methods until you find one you like. If your interested in wood or metal working this option comes in handy for plotting prick punch patterns for pie tin punching. (4.3) ---- //////// COLOR CARD BUTTON //////// The COLOR CARD button should be selected when using a color graphic card. The program operates faster with it off so you may wish to check if your card will operate without it. If your images are scrambled then you need to select it before saving. Once it's selected it will remain until you reboot, turn off the computer or change resolutions. (4.4) ---- //////// .XIMG(x16) BUTTON //////// The .XIMG (x16) button controls the manner in which an XIMG file is saved. Sometimes programs dislike XIMG files that do not have a width equal to a multiple of 16. For instance, an IMG thats only 9 pixels wide might load scrambled. This button won't effect the clipped IMG, it simply sets the width in the header to a multiple of 16. If you experience problems with color IMG files loading into a certain program then select this button. The result using the same 9 pixel example above will be an image 16 pixels wide where the last 7 are the background color. (5.0) ---- //////// CLIPPING //////// Clipping will occur if CLIP is selected in the Main Screen or the currently selected file format is smaller then the screen itself. Clipping will require using one of two methods. The proper method will be chosen by Screen Grabber. (5.1) ---- /////// FIXED BOX CLIPPING //////// Clipping by a Fixed Box is used when a file format requires the image to be an exact size. The process involves moving an imaginary box around the screen then clicking the left button when the desired image is surrounded. When using this method the following keys are active: UNDO - Undo will return to the Main Screen without saving. P - The P key will allow you to preview a color screen in mono. Pushing the key repeatedly toggles between color or mono. It's possible your clipping box may disappear if all the colors turn to black. Simply press the key again to return to color. Mono in this mode means the background color is white and all other colors are black. During the process of clipping the right hand corner of the screen will contain a number display. This display contains the screen coordinates (in pixels) of the upper left hand corner of the clipping box. "X:" is the width of the screen and "Y:" is the height. The upper left hand corner of the screen is considered 1,1. (5.2) ---- /////// DRAG CLIPPING //////// Drag clipping is used when a file could be any size or contain a number of fixed size box's. First, choose the upper left hand corner of your clipping box and click the left mouse button. Second, move the mouse to place an imaginary box around the desired image area. Third, click the left button to complete the process and save the image. When using this method the following keys are active: UNDO - Undo will return to the Main Screen without saving. ESC - Escape will allow you to start over if you misplaced the first corner. P - The P key will allow you to preview a color screen in mono. Pushing the key repeatedly toggles between color or mono. It's possible your clipping box may disappear if all the colors turn to black. Simply press the key again to return to color. Mono in this mode means the background color is white and all other colors are black. During the process of clipping the right hand corner of the screen will contain a number display. When selecting the first corner it contains the screen coordinates (in pixels) of the cross hairs location. "X:" refers to the width and "Y:" refers to the height. During the selection of the second corner the display contains the distance (in pixels) from the first corner. In other words it's the exact size of the image. "dX:" and "dY:" represent the relative distance from "X:" and "Y:". The upper left hand corner of the screen is considered 1,1. (6.0) ---- //////// THE FUTURE //////// Screen Grabber still doesn't do everything I wish. Here's my own wish list: 1. True Color support. 2. ALT+HELP grabbing (for those hard to reach areas) 3. Support for Icon Grabbing 4. True B&W conversion of color image through dithering 5. More Formats, at least TGA and TIF (See 1) Thank You for Supporting REALM! Go Home.... the Directions are over...