ICON GRAPHIX LOADING INSTRUCTIONS Cassette Version: LOAD "G-CASSETTE" or just LOAD "" Microdrive Version: This version of ICON GRAPHIX allows you to set up a high-speed Microdrive based system. Set up yourMicrodrive#1 with a blank, formatted cartridge and LOAD the program G-MICRO from tape with LOAD "". G-MICRO will automatically save a version of GRAPHIX on the cartridge which can then be quickly loaded by LOAD *"m";l;"GRAPHIX". This version will also save and load pictures from Microdrive. USING ICON GRAPHIX The screen is divided into two main regions - the drawing window in the middle and the option boxes around the outside. The boxes offer a selection of drawing tools which may be used to create a picture in the drawing window. Whichever tool you're using, it can be moved about the screen horizontally, vertically or diagonally, using the keys Z X C V (with KEYBOARD option) left down up right or via KEMPSTON joystick (J option) The tool will move over anything, option box or picture, without affecting it, unless you actually 'touch' the screen with the tool by pressing the CAPS, SHIFT key (or joystick trigger). DRAWING TOOLS To select any drawing tool, simply move the current one over to the box containing the new tool and press. The box will light up green to remind you which has been selected and the cursor will change into the appropriate tool. ICON GRAPHIX starts up using the Felt Pen. Felt Pen (Tool = pencil) The Pen can be used to draw directly to the screen: pressing the Pen on the drawing window will leave a spot and moving the Pen about whilst keeping it pressed will leave a 'free-hand' line behind. The Pen (and also the Brush and Spray Tin - see later) draws in the Current Pattern, which is shown in the square box at the lower right of the screen. This is plain solid ink to begin with; different patterns can be chosen by pressing the box of any desired pattern around the screen. All drawing done with the Pen, Brush or Spray will be in that Current Pattern until another is selected. The size and shape of the Felt Pen can be altered by pressing the Shapes box (see later). Spray (Tool = spray tin) The Spray acts just like the Pen except it draws a fuzzy spray blob of current pattern behind it when pressed. This effect is useful for things like trees, clouds and shading, or just plain grafitti. Brush (Tool - paintbrush) When you press the middle bristle of the Brush onto a region of solid Ink or Paper, that region will fill up with the Current Pattern. The Brush will fill up any continuous region, or even the whole drawing window if desired. If you fill a region by mistake, or in a pattern you don't want, you can put the shape back the way it was with UNDO (see later). Box (Tool = pencil) Selecting Box gives you a pencil capable of drawing accurate squares and rectangles. Put the pencil where you want one corner of the rectangle to be; then, keeping it pressed, move it across to the opposite corner. The rectangle is dragged out behind the pencil as long as you keep it pressed and remains behind when you release the press. Circle (Tool = arrow) This tool is like Box, above, in that you form shapes by fixing one corner, dragging, then releasing. However, this arrow will create circles and ellipses for you. The ellipse formed is always proportioned to fit inside an imaginary Box between the first fixed 'corner' and the current arrow position. A perfect circle is obtained when the imaginary Box is square. Line (Tool - pencil) As with Box and Circle, this tool lets you drag out a straight line behind it from a fixed point. This facility is useful for drawing diagonal lines, and may even be used to draw curves. Due to the 'lumpiness' of any screen curve, it is possible to form a reasonable approximation to a curve by joining together small line segments end to end. Rubber (Tool - 'R' In a box) Pressing this over any unwanted piece of drawing will rub out a bit the same size as the square rubber, or bigger regions can be erased by dragging the rubber over them. Finer-detail erasure can be achieved by selecting a small Pen and the white pattern, or using Magnify (see later). Note that, unlike all the other tools, Rubber won't let you choose a new Current Pattern. Push Page (Tool = crossed arrow) Pressing the Push Page tool to the drawing window lets you move the whole drawing screen around underneath it. This lets you are-compose a drawing, or get at the bits previously hidden behind the option boxes, including the normally 'forbidden' two lines at the bottom of the screen. OTHER FACILITIES UNDO If you press this box, it will actually undo the last thing you did - it will restore the screen to the way it was before you touched it last, meaning you can undo rubbing out, drawing, boxes, circles, lines and mistakenly filled regions. The only thing you can't Undo is a Pushed Page. but then you can always Push it back. CLS Clears screen. This is also UNDOable, as above. NEW (Skull-and-crossbones box) Clears screen, restores Current Pattern to black and re-selects Joystick or Keyboard, Cannot be UNDOne, so it asks you if you want to 'Really NEW' first: if so, press again. PRINT (Scroll of paper box) Pressing the Print box will send all 24 lines of your picture to the ZX Printer, or any printer which can be directly substituted for it e.g. the Alphacom. SHAPES (Tool = arrow) When you press this option you are given a tray full of 16 different pen shapes to choose from, with the current shape ringed. You can either pick a new shape by pressing it with the arrow and then exiting by pressing OK, or keep the old one by pressing Undo in the tray. (Whenever you have a tray in centre screen, the only options available are the ones in the tray - the rest won't respond.) The next time you use the Pen it will draw with the new shape. MAGNIFY (Tool = arrow) This lets you enlarge a piece of screen so that you can draw on it in single dots at a time, for extra fine detail. After pressing Magnify, position the arrow over the region of drawing window you want to blow up and press again. Each large dot on the new screen may now be set or reset by pressing it with the arrow. To save this new piece of picture press Magnify again. The entire subsection of screen can be erased by pressing the Rubber box, but to throw away whatever you've done to the magnified piece, hit UNDO. EDIT PATTERN (Tool = pencil) If you would like to create your own drawing or filling patterns, select any unwanted pattern and then press the Current Pattern box. It will appear Magnified in the centre screen tray with a life-size 'swatch' of pattern above it. You can then alter the pattern by pressing on or off the large pattern's dots (as in Magnify). The 'swatch' will show how the new pattern looks normal- sized. To save this pattern, press OK, pressing UNDO will restore the old one. COLOUR Normally, any picture you draw will be shown in black Ink on white Paper To add colour to your picture, press the square COLOUR box-this will put you In COLOUR mode. Any colour you may have previously added will re-appear on the black-and- white design. A palette of colour options appears across the top of the screen: there are 8 Inks (squares marked 1) and 8 Paper colours (P) available. You can also set Bright and Flash with the blue and yellow strip beneath the Inks and Papers: from left to right, the four bars allow you to set Normal, Bright, Flashing and Bright Flashing. On entering COLOUR mode, you're given an arrow which can be used to select one of the two COLOUR tools, or the COLOUR options (see later). The COLOUR tools are: PEN when this is selected, you can use it to fill In squares of colour on top of your design, the Pen will fill In using the Current Colour - on entering COLOUR mode, the Current Pattern Box Is coloured in with the Current Colour, This can, of course, be changed: new attributes can be chosen by Pressing the appropriate section of the Palette at the top of the screen with any COLOUR tool. PUSH-PAGE tool- this is used the same way as the ordinary Push Page tool, except in COLOUR mode it will push the colour squares around and leave the design where it is. This may be useful to match up colours with a design which has previously been Pushed around the screen. The COLOUR options (which you can select with any COLOUR tool) are: CLS - restores the colours to Black on White, no Flash or Bright, if you wish to start colouring in again from scratch. UNDO - Puts back the colours after a CLS or removes the last bit of Pen colouring-in done. NEW - pressing the skull-and-crossbones symbol returns you to ordinary drawing mode, saving the coloured overlay of your design in memory. The colour are placed at the correct location next to the design in memory so that a SAVED picture can be LOADed back later as a normal, coloured SCREEN $ (Note that NEW does an automatic UNDO unless you 'fix' the colours first by pressing the Pen box). LOAD and SAVE Upon pressing the Load Save box, a menu is given of the different Load/Save options available. NB. a Picture is equivalent to a SCREEN $ including colour and a Document is a Picture plus any new Patterns you may have created. Press the option desired - you must now enter a filename with which to SAVE or to LOAD. Type the filename in the space provided (Caps, lower case, numbers and symbols are all allowed. CAPS SHIFT Zero will rub out the last character) and then ENTER. You can still go back and change the Load/Save option at this point if you want. If the filename's no good or you decide not to Load or Save you can press Undo at any point to return to the main program. Hit OK to actually do the LOAD or Save: - CASSETTE OWNERS Load: Position the tape before the file you want to load - press OK then PLAY on the tape player. Save: Position the tape at an empty section - when you hit OK the program will ask you to 'Start Tape...' as usual, MICRODRIVE OWNERS Load: Just hit OK: If the file exists it will be loaded from drive #1. Save: OK saves to drive #1: remember to ERASE any old files of the same name first. If at any time a Load/Save error occurs, or you break out of the program using any key from B to SPACE, you may re-enter the program simply be typing RUN and ENTER. PROGRAMMING: Terry Wiley GRAPHIC DESIGN: Ian Elliott (c)1985 A.S.L./ICON SOFTWARE LTD. The programs recorded on this cassette and the packaging are copyright. No reproduction of the programs is permitted without the written approval of A.S.L. and Icon Software Ltd. Published and distributed by A.S.L. P.O. Box 88, Reading, Berks, England. Duplicated and manufactured by Dalagenic Ltd.