Ieditor starts-up with the toolbar active. To begin editing a new icon, press F2 1:Edit. Toggle pixels with the ENTER key. To return to the toolbar, cursor out of the grid and press ENTER. Most of the menu options are self-explanatory.
With Preferences, you can set default directories so you don't have to enter them every time. If Preferences is used it will create a LIST variable in the current folder containing the preferences.
The Test menu will insert the icon into the toolbar so you can see how it looks in use. The icon must have been opened as a matrix or saved as a matrix or picture and it must be 16x16 pixels for this to work. Changes won't be shown until it is saved again.
The Help menu will only work if the Help() program and help database (ieditorh) are available.
2.1 10/16/1998- Fixed a lot of bugs and added the ability to paste changes back into a larger picture.
2.2 10/20/1998- Fixed an error that saved pictures with an extra row and column.
It would be better to keep Image Editor and all its related files in one folder, but I have tried to make it easy for you to keep files elsewhere. The location of these files can be specified with Preferences. The only file that must have a specific location is the preferences file itself (ieditori [LIST]), which is created by Image Editor. This file must be in either the current or "main" folders when Image Editor is started.
Image Editor is a memory hog, it requires over 10kbytes of RAM to run. To avoid memory errors free up as much RAM as possible by archiving all your files. Image Editor itself (ieditor) will take up less space if it is archived in an untokenized state; that is, archive it prior to running it the first time. It takes longer to start this way but you will use over 500 bytes less archive space.
The only file required is ieditor.9xp, the others will be used only if available. I had all the toolbar icons internal to ieditor but the file size grew to over 10kbytes, so I made them external and optional. The toolbar icons are file_i, edit_i, exit_i, and help_i, and must be in either the current folder or a folder specified in Preferences. I also removed all the help information, placed it in a list variable (ieditorh.9xl), and wrote a separate program (help.9xp) that is called by Image Editor if it is available. The location of these two files can also be specified in Preferences or placed in the current folder.
The remainder of the files in the group are sample picture and matrix files. I've included them only for familiarization with the program.
Image Editor starts-up in toolbar mode. To begin creating a picture select menu item "Edit", if the program has just started the cursor will appear in the middle of the editing grid. Toggle individual pixels on or off by pressing ENTER while the cursor is over the desired square. To the left of the editing grid is a square that will show the picture in its actual size as you are editing. As you cursor through the grid the cursor only moves one pixel at a time. To move faster, hold down the 2nd key as you press the cursor button and the cursor will move two squares at a time.
To return to toolbar mode, cursor to any area outside of the editing grid and press ENTER, after a slight delay the toolbar will appear.
With the Edit menu you can perform various operations that will alter the image orientation; flip vertical, horizontal, and diagonal. "Negative Image" will turn off all pixels that are on and turn on all pixels that are off creating a negative image. "Clear Grid" will erase everything so you can start again from scratch. If you open a picture and copy a 16x16 grid to edit, you will be able to "Paste" the edited image back into the picture.
The image can be saved in both picture and matrix formats. Picture files take up less space and can be immediately used in a toolbar or displayed with RclPic and other instructions. Matrix files will be easier to load into Image Editor and can also be used to create pictures from within a program using NewPic. The save file options are in the F1 menu.
"Dimensions," in the F2 menu, allows you to save a picture or a matrix at any size from 1x1 to 16x16.
Picture files can be very large and there is no way that I'm aware of to determine their dimensions. Because of this, when a picture is loaded it is displayed on a blank screen and you must select a 16x16 pixel grid to load.
Use menu item "F1 1:Open Picture" to open a picture (PIC) file. When the picture appears, move the cursor to the top-left pixel desired and press ENTER, a 16x16 square will appear. This square indicates the limits of the grid that will be captured and includes the pixels covered by the square. If the selection is correct, press ENTER again on the same pixel as before and the grid will be captured. If the selection is not correct and you want to change it, simply move the cursor to the new location and press ENTER again. The selection will continue to change when you press ENTER until you select the same spot twice. After a selection has been made and captured it will be displayed in the editing grid where you can perform any of the editing and save options, or even paste it back into the picture. Image Editor will return to toolbar mode.
Select "F1 2:Open Matrix" and select a matrix (MAT) file. Matrices used to create pictures must be of dimension nx2, where n is the number of pixels used. For a 16x16 pixel picture n will be between 1 and 256. The matrix will be converted to an image and displayed on the screen. Image Editor returns to toolbar mode and you can use any of the editing and save options.
To see how an image will look in a toolbar select "F3:Test." For this function to work the image must be in matrix format inside Image Editor. If you opened an image as a matrix then it is in matrix format. If you have been editing an image, or if you opened it as a picture, you must first save it before it can be tested. Save it as either a matrix or a picture, Image Editor computes a matrix in both cases. If an image is again edited it will need to be saved before the changes can be tested.
If the help program (help.9xp) and help database (ieditorh.9xl) are where Image Editor can find them some minimal help will be available from within the program. If help is no longer needed both files can be deleted. I realize the help database is rather weak but I don't think much help will needed.
Preferences asks for five folders and saves this information in a file it creates named ieditori. The first folder is the location of the toolbar icons file_i, edit_i, test_i, and help_i. If these files are found they will be displayed in the toolbar instead of text. To conserve space these files may be deleted.
The second and third folders are the location of the help program and help database respectively. These files may also be deleted to conserve space.
The fourth and fifth folders are the default locations of your picture files and matrix files respectively.