burton@parcvax.Xerox.COM (Philip M. Burton) (08/10/87)
I would like to get a "paint" program for my use, and also for my children's use. My system is an AT with an EGA/EGD with 256 KB of screen RAM. If you have experience with any, or better yet, have preferences, please comment, addressing the following points. * Ease of use. Consistency of functions. Use of function keys and the like (this may be a positive or a negative). * Functionality. Basically, this means the number of different painting/drawing functions available. * Input from other programs. Can I "capture" screens from other programs? Lotus 1-2-3 specifically, or any program in general? DOS or other text displays? * Output to other programs, such as a desktop publishing system, or even a different paint program. * Data formats used? What, if any, is a standard? * Appearance of printed output on an Epson dot-matrix printer. * Suitability for a child. Please post directly to the net. Thanks. -- Philip Burton Xerox Corporation 408 737 4635 ... usual disclaimers apply ...
fritzson@bigburd.PRC.Unisys.COM (Richard Fritzson) (08/12/87)
In article <415@parcvax.Xerox.COM> burton@parcvax.Xerox.COM (Philip M. Burton) writes: >I would like to get a "paint" program for my use, and also for my children's >use. My system is an AT with an EGA/EGD with 256 KB of screen RAM. I use PC Paint Plus, distributed by Mouse Systems with their optical mouse, but also available from other sources. It is simple to use (most paint programs are). My son has been using it much more than I have for the last six months. I don't know much about the keys, the only one we ever use is the one which means "UNDO last operation". I don't really like the way the menus work (click to cause a drop down, click again to select) but you get used to it. Since it is running on an MSDOS machine, not a MAC, the difference between it and MAC style menus isn't so grating. The only function I really miss is the MacPaint lasso where you can surround an irreguar shape and the loop "tightens" around it so you can move the shape. I can understand how that would be more difficult to design for a multicolor program though. Other standard features such as "fat bits", straight and curved lines, circles and ellipses, and flood with two color patterns, work just fine. From the 64 available EGA colors you can select a pallete of 16 for each image. I have a screen capture program that works just fine. I believe I got it with PC Paint Plus. If I didn't, then it's public domain and I can post it or send it to you. The format of the picture files is documented somewhere. I'm pretty sure I have a copy of that. I don't think there are any standards for this, unfortunately. I can't comment about hard copy, I only have a daisy wheel printer. My son, who just turned four, loves it. He especially enjoys "colorizing" black and white digitized images. He drew his first recognizable pictures with this program and I've noticed that his crayon skills (he still enjoys those too) have improved markedly in the last six months. I have also used MS Windows Paint (strictly black and white) and another color paint program (PC Paintbrush, I think) but prefer this one. -- -Rich Fritzson ARPA: fritzson@prc.unisys.com UUCP: {sdcrdcf,psuvax1,cbmvax}!burdvax!fritzson