////// CardMaker 2.1 ©1990 by Terry W. Gintz //////

CardMaker is a programmer's aid for creating card image data that can be
used in any card game.  Version 2.1 now provides support for Basic
programmers.

About the Menus:

The Main menu has the operational commands, Make Suit, Load
IFF, Change Images, Save Images and Load Images, Generate Code and Quit.

Make Suit will create a card suit on screen according to the Suit Menu:
hearts, clubs, spades, or diamonds.  These images can be redefined with the
Change Images option after loading an ILBM IFF file.  An empty template with
the custom color palette that CardMaker uses is provided for the user to draw
his own images.  There are 47 images that compose a standard 52 deck of
cards.  Jokers would have to be defined separately as a Jack, for instance,
if required in a card game such as Canasta.  Each of the images has a
limited size range to fit the blanks that make up the card fronts.  These
are outlined in the empty template.

Selecting "Change Images" from the main menu calls up a window containing
all the current card images and a cancel gadget.  All the images are actually
gadgets, and clicking on any of them will close the window and return the
user to the main window.  The image clipping routine is invoked and you may
clip any image from the window by clicking twice with the left mouse
button.  Click once to set one corner of the image, and release the button.
Move the mouse to the opposite corner of the image you wish to grab and
click again.  Trace lines appear that extend across the screen as an aid to
define the image you are clipping.  Once the image has been set, the program
takes over and transfers the image to the card image selected.  If the image
is too large to fit the image selected, the screen will flash.  In either
case, the user will be returned to the change image window, where the
results of the clipping will be seen.  The process is repeated for as many
images the user wishes to change, until clicking on Cancel.

"Load IFF" loads any ILBM file, up to 5 bitplanes, lo-res or up to 320
pixels wide and 200 rows high, and displays the picture as an image
on the main window.  Color information for that file is also loaded and
displayed.  The user is supplied an empty template with the default palette
of CardMaker therein, to allow matching the colors of the card images as
they initially appear inside CardMaker.  The user is free to use any palette
desired, however, as the default system colors are restored during menu
and requester operations.

"Save Images" allows you to save the current set of card images for future
edit.  Takes about 20K of disk space for each set of images.  Also saves the
current screen palette.

"Load Images" loads a set of images that has been saved previously.  Also
loads the screen palette for the image set.

"Generate 'C' Code" calls up a file requester and writes the USHORT data
for all composite card images in that suit to the file requested.  This
takes an average 70K bytes for one suit (maximum 103K), so be careful to
have plenty of space on your disks before executing this command.
Cursor changes to a digital wait image (:01) while the disk transfer is
going on.  Palette information for the current screen's ColorMap is also
written.  Images for the cards are 51 pixels wide by 66 rows high, to
whatever depth is selected.  The implementation of suitable image/bob
structures for the image data created is left to the user.

"Generate 'Basic' Code" writes the PALETTE statements and DATA statements
that are necessary to use the basic PUT command.  You must READ the data
statements into an array before using PUT to place the card image in the
output window.  A sample basic program, "queen.bas" is supplied to illustrate
how to use the basic file created by CardMaker.  You need an integer array
of 3+4*66*CARDDEPTH(number of bitplanes in card data)elements for
each card image used in your basic program. 

A Depth menu is provided to allow the user to limit the number of bitplanes
that are generated in the finished image data.  This menu affects the number
of bitplanes that are loaded through "Load IFF", also.  The screen
depth for CardMaker is not changed by the Depth menu, and images saved
through the "Save Images" option are always saved with all 5 bitplanes.
You will see the affect of using a two-bitplane image when you use the
"Change Image" option after loading a two-bitplane (four-color) IFF file.

Any questions, comments or donations for CardMaker should be address to:

Terry W. Gintz
4237 Marcum Lane
Eugene, Or 97402

A donation of $20 for CardMaker gets you the documentation to all my current
programs, plus additional help with CardMaker if you need it, plus any of the
other programs for $5 off their suggested price, plus upgrade privileges for
$10.