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Getting Started
The first time you start LogoArt on your machine you'll have all default
values set. Some of these may not be appropiate for your configuration.
Check the following:
- Path for temporary files. This path must be available on your system-
make sure you have enough space on that drive. LogoArt uses extensively this
directory for creating temporary files, specially for bitmap operations. For
setting the directory open the settings-notebook and go the
Import-page. If you are not sure enter for ex. c:\tmp.
Create that directory if it does not exist.
- Vectorizer. Make sure KVEC.EXE is on your system's path.
To check it go to a command prompt and type kvec. This is important
if LogoArt is going to do import of WMF and export of WMF, HPGL, DXF and AI.
Additionally, KVEC performs vectorization of bitmaps. This works only
if LogoArt is able to call KVEC internally.
- Settings for importing bitmaps. The Import
page in the Settings-Notebook let you set the basic display mode
for bitmaps imported into LogoArt. This is, bitmaps imported thru the
Import-menu under File or using drag/drop. The default
mode is to display bitmaps in the original size, tiling if needed.
To display imported bitmaps as thumbnails select Thumbnail and
Best fit, Width and Height to 128 Pixel. Press Save
if you want to save these settings for the next time you start LogoArt.
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Basic Operations
- Marking/selecting objects. An object is selected if you see edit handles
on the corners (small boxes), ie. on vector-points of the object. If this is not the case then
click once on the object. Single-Clicking twice on the same
object, or clicking a second time on an already marked object brings up
(for most objects) a panel on the upper region of the drawing area. This
dialog disappears again after you click on a free region of the drawing area.
The panels shown are object-specific and allow to enter additional parameters
for the object, or show some kind of information.
A bitmap-object for ex., will show the path of the loaded bitmap, dithering-
mode used for displaying, and other attributes.
Note: Notice the difference between single-clicking
twice and double-clicking. Double-clicking may not work as expected.
Marking more than one object
- To mark more than one object press the CTRL-Key and click on the
object with the left-mouse key. As long as you keep the CTRL-Key down,
new selected objects will be appended to the select list.
- Optionally, click
with the left mouse button on a free area and move the mouse to contain
all objects you want to select.
- To mark all objects at once press the CTRL-key and the '+'-Key (plus).
- Unmarking objects. Press the ESC-key
once, or click on a free area on the LogoArt drawing area (no object under
the cursor). You can also use the CTRL-key and the '-'-Key (minus).
- Context menu. For bringing up the context menu for an object, select
it first, then click once with the right-mouse button. The context menu
is object-specific, and will show additional operations which can be performed
on the object. Notice that many options on the context menu can also be applied
from the main menu of Logoart. On the other hand some options, notably bitmap
operations and bitmap special effects, can only be applied from the main menu.
Tip:When working with bitmaps imported thru
drag/drop, you may want to disable the tile option for the bitmap.
A program bug will prevent from picking objects in the neighborhood of a selected
bitmap-object with tile-option set (usually for bitmaps imported thru drag/drop).
Do this thru the context-menu.
- Moving an object. You can always move one or more marked objects
by just clicking and holding the right-mouse button. The mouse need not be on
the object, as long as it is marked. If no object is marked then you have two
more options: 1) go with the mouse to the object, press and hold the right-
mouse button. The object will move and will not be marked. 2) press and
hold the left-mouse button while on an object. After releasing the object
again, it is in the marked state.
You may want to experiment a while
until you feel comfortable with this procedure.
- Editing an object. All objects within LogoArt (even bitmaps), are
composed of a basic type and vectors defining the dimensions of the object.
The origin of an object is marked with an "X", the other points are marked with
the current edit-handle symbol (by default a small square). Positioning
the mouse on an edit handle, pressing and holding the right-mouse button
and moving the mouse changes/moves that point interactively.
Tip:A more exact
procedure of setting a point's position is as follows: click once with the
left-mouse button on an edit handle (not on the object), and a point-dialog
shows on the top of the drawing area. Enter the point coordinates in pixel
or page units, relative to the object's or the page's origin.
Click with the right-mouse button while on an edit handle in order
to get a context menu for the point. Among others here you can insert another
point at the current position, or delete the current one.
- Setting the color. Dropping a color from the color palette
on an object changes by default the outline of the object. Press and hold
the CTRL-key to change the color fill. It is not necessary to mark an object
for this operation, as long as the cursor (color tool) is on the object
you want to change the color of.
Note:If an object(s) is selected then only
those objects are updated, regardless of where you drop the color on.
- Drag/Drop. Most of the raster-images (BMP, GIF, TIF,
JPG,..) together with the vector-formats WMF and ART are directly supported
by LogoArt thru drag and drop. Even raw text will be accepted. In this case
Logoart generates automatically a paragraph-text object for the text-file.
To drop a file or files use your favorite file-browser and just drop the
files on the LogoArt screen.
Importing raster-images will just add rectangle-objects with the
bitmap-size to the current drawing (You may want to disable the tile-option).
Importing WMF or ART on the other hand, will replace the current drawing
with the one to be loaded. To append a WMF or ART file to the current
drawing using drag and drop, press the CTRL-key while doing the dropping.
- Cut/Copy and Paste.Cut/Copy and Paste
is a handy method for
duplicating objects and bitmaps. The regular cut/paste operations save the
objects in internal lists for the current drawing only. As soon as
you select new these lists are deleted.
In order to save objects between drawings put the object in the clipboard
instead. The clipboard is also ideal for exchanging objects between two
instances of LogoArt.
- Shortcuts for tool selection One
key combination you will be using often is CTRL and right-mouse button
down. This combination changes the mouse pointer to the
selection tool, and back to the currently selected tool. This
helps out from constantly picking the select-tool from the toolbar.
- Eliminating noise from the screen display
The current version of LogoArt may not optimally eliminate screen noise
in some situations. Press the ESC-Key twice for forcing a screen-update.
One single ESC unmarks all currently marked objects.
- Creating bitmaps from drawings. A
common procedure is to generate on the fly bitmaps from LogoArt objects,
for ex. to apply special effects to the new bitmap object. Mark the object
and from the bitmap-menu select crop to bitmap.
This operation creates on the lower-left corner of the drawing a bitmap
of the object.
Note:To pick a bigger area
than the objects dimensions you have two choices:
- use select region-menu under bitmap to select a rectangle, then
copy to clipboard the rectangle, and paste from clipboard
from the edit-menu.
Tip:
Notice that with this operation you can actually pick any region from the
screen. Seen any icon you thought you could use? use this option to select that
region and copy it to the clipboard. Start the system icon-editor and
paste the icon from the clipboard.
- create a rectangle object of the dimensions
you need and put it as background from the object you want to save as
bitmap. Select the rectangle (Background) and click crop to bitmap.
- Changing the relative position of an object.
All objects in LogoArt are saved in a list following the order in which objects
have been created. The object created last may cover the previous one. This
element order can be changed with the Bring up/Bring down menu-entries.
These operations are also on the actions-bar.
In some situations, marking
objects which are tight together may pick the wrong object because of the
ordering list.
- Multiple instances of LogoArt. For
complex drawings is a good idea to start two instances of LogoArt. One
instance for assembling the big picture, the 2nd one for doing the detail work
on single elements. When done with a piece put it in the clipboard, so that
the 1st instance of LogoArt can pick it from there.
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