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BME Help
BME HELP SYSTEM
Pictures
Painting
Selections
Effects
Scripts
Pictures
How do I...
open a picture?
save a picture?
change the magnification?
move a picture in its window?
change the picture type?
change the palette?
Definitions
Painting
How do I...
paint in a picture?
change the brush size?
change the brush color?
pick up" a color?
fill a large area?
Concepts
Selections
How do I...
select an area?
deselect a selection?
move a selection?
copy a selection?
crop a picture?
Concepts
Effects
How do I...
apply an effect to a picture?
apply an effect to a selection?
undo an effect?
Included Effects
Brightness
Contrast
Emboss
Negative
Pixelize
Reduce Noise
Sharpen
Tiles
Trace
Gary's Effects
Scripts
How do I...
create an internal script?
play an internal script?
create an external ARexx script?
play an ARexx script?
Concepts
Troubleshooting
Why are...
dialog box labels messy?
pictures shown in the wrong colors?
Why can't I...
How do I open a picture?
To open a picture, choose Open from the Project menu. Select a picturefrom the Open file selector. Click Open.
BME can open pictures in these formats: PICT, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, BMP, IFFILBM, PCX and MacPaint.
How do I save a picture?
To save an open picture, choose Save from the Project menu. The SaveOptions dialog box will appear. Select a format for the picture and selectoptions if there are any for that format. Click Save.
To save the picture with a different name, chose Save As instead of Saveto display the Save file selector. Select a folder and enter a name. ClickSave.
BME can save pictures in these formats: PICT, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, BMP, IFFILBM and PCX. Some formats do not support specific picture types (RGB, CMYK,Palette, Grayscale or Black and White).
How do I change the magnification?
You can change the magnification of a picture at any time by selectinga magnification level from the View pop-up menu in the bottom scrollbaror with the Magnify tool. Click with the Magnify tool to increase the magnification;hold down Shift while clicking to reduce the magnification.
How do I move a picture in its window?
In addition to using the standard AmigaOS scrollbars, you can move apicture within its window by dragging it with the Move tool. Choose theMove tool and drag the picture to change the portion of it that is visible.If the entire picture fits into the window, the picture cannot be moved.
You can also move a picture when any tool is selected by holding downCommand while dragging the picture in its window.
How do I change the picture type?
Choose Black & White, Grayscale, Palette, RGB or CMYK to change tothe desired picture type. BME will convert the picture.
How do I change the palette?
Palette pictures have a fixed palette of colors. You can change thesecolors with the Change command from the Palette submenu in the Effects menu.This will display the Change Palette dialog box. Click on the small swatchof the color to change and adjust its red, green and blue components.
Picture
Bitmapped pictures are made up of a grid of pixels, or dots. BME canopen pictures, but it cannot open drawings. Drawings are defined as pointsconnected by lines and curves. BME works with pixels, not points.
PICT graphics can be pictures or drawings. BME cannot load PICT graphicsmade up of drawings.
Picture type
The colors of a picture can be defined in different ways:
Black & White: Pixels are either black or white.
Grayscale: Pixels are one of 256 gray levels.
Palette: Pixels are one of 256 different colors. Each color is definedby its Red, Green and Blue components. Each component is measured on a scaleof 0 to 255.
RGB: Colors are defined by their Red, Green and Blue components. Eachcomponent is measured on a scale of 0 to 255. RGB pictures are 24 bit.
CMYK: Colors are defined by their Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black components.Each component is measured on a scale of 0 to 255. CMYK pictures are 32bit.
How do I paint in a picture?
Choose the Paint tool. Click or drag in a picture window to paint withthe foreground color. Hold down Shift while painting to use the backgroundcolor.
How do I change the brush size?
The brush is normally one pixel in size. You can increase and decreasethe size of the brush by pressing the plus (+) and minus (-) keys.
Hold down Control while changing the brush size to change just the verticalsize; hold down Shift to change just the horizontal size.
How do I change the brush color?
BME allows you to set the brush's foreground and background colors. Theselected colors are shown in the Color palette when the Show Color Palettecommand is selected.
To change one of these colors, click on the foreground or backgroundswatch in the Color palette. For palette or grayscale pictures, select anew color from the small swatches on the right side of the Color palette.For CMYK or RTB pictures, change the color by dragging the sliders to newpositions.
You can also set the brush color with the Eyedropper tool.
How do I "pick up" a color?
It is often easier to select an existing color in a picture from thepicture itself rather than setting the brush color manually. To "pickup" a color, choose the Eyedropper tool from the toolbox. Click topick up the color below the mouse as the new foreground color. To selectthe background color, hold down Shift while clicking.
Hold down Option when another tool is selected to temporarily switchto the Eyedropper.
How do I fill a large area?
Select an area of the picture with the Marquée tool. Choose Fillfrom the Effects menu. Hold down Shift while choosing Fill to fill the areawith the background color instead of the foreground color.
Brush
The brush that you paint with is rectangular. You can change the horizontaland vertical size of the brush, but not its shape.
How do I select an area?
To select an area, choose the Marquée tool and drag in a picturewindow to define a rectangular selection area.
How do I deselect a selection?
To deselect a selected area, choose the Marquée tool and clickon the picture or press the Space Bar.
How do I move a selection?
Drag a selected area with the Marquée tool to move it to anotherposition. The part of the picture below the selected area will be set tothe background color.
Hold down a Shift key while dragging to move a copy of the area ratherthan the selected area itself.
How do I copy a selection?
Select an area with the Marquée tool. Choose Copy to copy it tothe clipboard without modifying the selection, or choose Cut to copy andremove it from the picture.
To open a copy of the selected area in a new window, choose Clone fromthe Effects menu.
How do I crop a picture?
To crop a picture, select the part of the picture you want to keep andchoose Crop from the Effects menu.
Selection
A selected area is shown with a dashed outline. You select areas to cutand copy them, apply an effect to them, or to move them.
How do I apply an effect to a picture?
To apply an effect to an entire picture, deselect the selected area,if applicable, and then choose the effect from the Effects menu.
How do I apply an effect to a selection?
To apply an effect to a selected area instead of an entire picture, selectan area with the Marquée tool and then choose the effect from theEffects menu.
How do I undo an effect?
If you don't like the results of an effect, choose Undo from the Editmenu.
Brightness
This effect brightens and darkens pixels. You can set the brightnessadjustment from 100 to 100%.
This effect cannot be used on black & white or palette pictures.
Contrast
This effect increases and decreases the differences between colors. Youcan set the contrast adjustment from 100 to 100%.
This effect cannot be used on black & white or palette pictures.
Emboss
This effect creates a three dimensional effect by emphasizing edges.There are no options.
This effect cannot be used on black & white or palette pictures.
Negative
This effect inverts the colors of pixels to create a negative. This ismost useful for grayscale and black & white pictures.
This effect cannot be used on palette pictures.
Pixelize
This effect breaks a picture into blocks of pixels to make the picturejaggier. You can set the size of the blocks (cells) and how the color foreach is chosen.
Average uses the average of all colors in the cell. Center uses the centerpixel's color. Minimum and maximum uses the min and max color values inthe cell. Random selects a color from any pixel in the cell and Upper Leftuses the top left pixel's color.
Reduce Noise
This effect removes isolated clusters of pixels below a certain size.This is useful when cleaning up scanned images and when preparing a picturefor tracing. You can set the noise size below which pixels should be replacedwith the background color. Be careful not to set the noise value too high,or you will eliminate important parts of your picture.
This effect cannot be used on black & white or palette pictures.
Sharpen
This effect improves the "focus" of a picture. Use it to correctblurry pictures.
This effect cannot be used on Black & White or palette pictures.
Tiles
This effect tiles thumnails of the picture or selection in the pictureor selection. You can set the number of horizontal and vertical tiles.
Trace
This effect traces the edges of a picture and creates a drawing thatmatches the picture. Drawings are made up of points connecting line andcurve segments. They usually lack the realism of a photograph, but can bescaled without loss of detail and are smaller and faster.
This effect is a basic autotracer. The resulting drawing is saved inIFF DR2D format-a structure drawing format that can be imported into PageStream.
The Trace effect allows you to set several options:
Sample Rate: This determines how many pixels should be used for tracking.Use Fine for low resolution pictures and Coarse for high resolution pictures.
Precision: Use Tight for faster tracing that results in a complex drawing.Use Loose for slower tracing and a more efficient drawing. If your drawingwill not print to PostScript, reduce the tracing precision.
Lines Only: Select this to create a drawing made up of only line segments.This reduces the complexity of traced drawings.
Ignore Detail: Use this to ignore background noise. This is similar tothe Reduce Noise effect, but does not modify the picture and it uses a differentalgorithm. Use a setting of 0 to trace everything, or 15 to ignre largeamounts of detail.
Ignore Color: Select a color to ignore, if desired. This allows you totrace the subject of a picture without its background.
What is Gary's Effects?
Gary's Effects is a package of twelve effect filters that are sold separatelyfor $25. Contact SoftLogik Publishing to order Gary's Effects.
The effects in this package are: Average, Blur, Convolve, Equalize, Gamma,Histogram, Hue/Saturation, Maximum, Median, Minimum, Solarize, and Threshold.
How do I create an internal script?
The easiest way to create a script is to record it. Choose Start Recordingfrom the Scripts menu. Any actions you make after choosing this commandwill be recorded. When you are done, choose Stop Recording.
The Edit Script dialog box will appear with a script of the recordedactions. You can edit the script as required. If you want to list the scriptin the Scripts menu, select Display in Menu. To assign the script to a functionkey, choose a function key and modifier. Click OK.
How do I play an internal script?
Choose Show Script Palette from the Window menu to display the Scriptspalette. Select a script and click on the Play button.
You can also play internal scripts by choosing them from the Script menu,if they are listed there, or by pressing a function key assigned to a script.
How do I create an external ARexx script?
Create an internal script to use as the basis for an external script.Select the script in the Script palette and choose Export from the palette'spop-up menu. Enter a name for the script in the file selector and clickSave.
How do I play an ARexx script?
Select Play External Script from the Script menu. Select a script fromthe file selector and click Open.
Internal scripts
Internal scripts do not rely on external scripting languages. They mayuse commands only; queries are reserved for external scripts because internalscripts lack variables and flow control statements.
Internal scripts should be used for simple tasks. External scripts offermore control and thus can be used for almost any task for which commandsand queries exist.
ARexx
ARexx is the AmigaOS scripting language. It can be used to control yourAmigaOS computer and applications. It allows your scripts to query PageStreamand to send it commands.
Why are dialog box labels messy?
PageStream uses the SoftLogik AmigaOS font family included for its interface.If you have changed the PageStream assigns, the interface (especially theEdit palette) will appear messy. The following assign is required in yours:user-startup file for the SoftLogik interface fonts to work: "assignFonts: SoftLogik:Fonts add".
Why are pictures shown in the wrong colors?
Palette pictures that have a color palette different from your AmigaOSsystem palette will appear incorrect when displayed in 256 color mode. BMEwill display the color with the system palette, regardless of the actualcolors in the picture. Because BME was designed to be used with PageStream,changing the system palette to display the picture properly would corruptthe display of PageStream and other programs loaded at the same time.
The best solution is to switch to thousands or millions of colors. Ifyou cannot do this, convert the picture to RGB.
Do not change color modes when BME is loaded. Quit BME before changingcolor modes.
Open a picture?
PageStream uses filters to import text and graphics. Filters are storedin the System:Extensions:SoftLogik: Filters directory. If you have movedthe filters from this directory, PageStream will not be able to import textor graphics.
Move the filters back, or reinstall PageStream, to solve the problem.
Scripting
Command & Query Format
[optional] Brackets enclose optional parameters.
(group) Parentheses group together parameters.
(group)... An ellipsis after a group indicates that you can repeat thegroup of parameters one or more times.
a | b Vertical bars separate alternative parameters from which you mustchoose a single parameter.
Commands are case insensitive.
Arguments and Variables:
Some commands require you to enter an argument to the command or to specifya variable to hold a result. Variables and arguments in the command descriptionsare followed by a backslash and a letter to indicate their type:
/i Integer: Whole numbers, positive or negative.
i.e., -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3\
/d Decimal: Any number.
i.e., 1.25, -13.789
/s String: Text. You can break text into lines by typing \\n. i.e., "Mytext", "More than one\\nline."
/v Variable: Used to hold a single result.
/a Array: A stem variable used to hold multiple results.
BME Help Chapter url:BMEcmd/BMEmain
created:2006-03-10 16:50:12 last updated:2006-09-02 21:15:57
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