clem@frenzy.sybase.com (12/27/89)
In response to: foy@aerospace.aero.org (Richard Foy) >Speaking of HAM paint programs... Can anybody out there comment on Digi-Paint >3? Sorry if this topic has already been beat to death here recently. > >#include <std.disclaimers> I don't have PhotonPaint so I can't make a comparison for you, but I have a criticism of Digi-Paint3. The only thing that bugs me about it is the Magnify feature they use. The way they upgraded it from the earlier version was to make the magnified area a pull down screen. The difficulty with this is when you want to see the whole picture as you work on the magnified area it's impossible to do if your working on the lower part of the picture. In that case you can't have both screens up at the same time. They're previous version had this solved somewhat by giving you a small square of the area you were working on in a top corner while the magnified image took up the rest of the screen. That was awkward too, but better than this current version. If anyone has found a way around this problem I'd be very glad to hear it. Deluxe Paint III has a much better magnify screen. I understand they have a Deluxe Productions that can do HAM.(?) Does anyone know if the magnify feature on that program is the same as on Deluxe Paint III (where the screen is divided vertically and you can scroll around either screen seeing both areas at the same time)? If so, that might be enough to make me buy it, although it's expensive. All other aspects of Digi-Paint3 I love. The mapping function is great, and the tinting and 'Rub-Thru' is unique and very handy. I think the menus have become more complicated, and sometimes annoying to deal with, but overall I really like the program for HAM painting. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ + David Clemons + + Reply to: clem@frenzy.sybase.com + + + + "Don't, don't believe, don't believe the hype," + + -Public Ememy + +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
hrlaser@sactoh0.UUCP (Harv R. Laser) (12/28/89)
In article <7684@sybase.sybase.com> clem@frenzy.sybase.com () writes: > >In response to: foy@aerospace.aero.org (Richard Foy) > >>Speaking of HAM paint programs... Can anybody out there comment on Digi-Paint >>3? Sorry if this topic has already been beat to death here recently. >> >>#include <std.disclaimers> > > >I don't have PhotonPaint so I can't make a comparison for you, but I have a >criticism of Digi-Paint3. > >The only thing that bugs me about it is the Magnify feature they use. The way >they upgraded it from the earlier version was to make the magnified area a >pull down screen. The difficulty with this is when you want to see the whole >picture as you work on the magnified area it's impossible to do if your >working on the lower part of the picture. In that case you can't have both >screens up at the same time. They're previous version had this solved somewhat >by giving you a small square of the area you were working on in a top corner >while the magnified image took up the rest of the screen. That was awkward too, >but better than this current version. If anyone has found a way around this >problem I'd be very glad to hear it. There are quite a few items in DigiPaint 3 that seem to be a step backwards from DigiPaint 1 (hereafter DP3 and DP1, and Photon Paint 2.0 will be referred to here as PP2 and Deluxe Paint as DPIII :-) PP2's magnify mode is superior in just about every possible way. It appears as a movable draggable sizable window on top of your main painting area. Gadgets around the magnify window's border let you scroll around the picture, zoom up or down in magnification (about 10 levels of zoom I think), pick another area to magnify, and some other stuff I forgot. DP3's magnify window as you mentioned isn't even a window but a separate slide-up screen that only has one level of magnification. DP3 has a few other annoying quirks: it won't properly recognize ColorText (tm) fonts at all, even if the ColorText wedge is run prior to the program. (PP2 will). So don't buy any ColorFonts if your main reason is to use 'em with DP3. They won't work. Some simple tasks like halving the size of a brush (something one does often in paint programs) used to be easy in DP1 - the menu item "brush/resize/half" took care of it. That menu item is missing from DP3 and now you have to grab a brush, swap/copy it and then map it to a new smaller rectangle shape. Argh. DP1 had a nifty "smoothen horizontal/vertical" menu item that affected the entire picture. It's also missing in action in DP3. Try drawing a very small (like under 1/2" onscreen) filled circle in DP3. I always end up getting something that looks like it was popped out of a plastic model kit - y'know a circle with little bits of "flashing" around it.. not perfectly round. DP3 does have some real slick and wonderful features, not the least of which is that it has a "port" and programs (such as DigiView and Chris Bailey's new "TMPtoDP3") can talk to it and feed pictures directly to its screen... something no other Amiga paint program I know of can do. But Photon 2.0 just seems, to me, a more "Deluxe Paint"-ish type program with better thought-out features. What a lot of people would ultimately like to see is for Dan Silva to add HAM mode to DPIII (IV? V?) but then E/A would be competing directly with themselves (Deluxe PhotoLab) or maybe Dan just doesn't like HAM. Dunno. > >Deluxe Paint III has a much better magnify screen. I understand they have a >Deluxe Productions that can do HAM.(?) Does anyone know if the magnify feature That would be news to me. Deluxe Productions operates ONLY in hi-res Overscan as far as I know. Zuma Group's "TV*SHOW" which is somewhat similar can handle HAM or just about anything else you'd care to throw at it. E/A just (or is just about to) released Deluxe Video III but I haven't paid close enough attention to it to know whether it can deal with HAM imagery or not. I did find it kinda amusing that in their ads, E/A makes direct comparison between Deluxe Video III and Right Answer Groups "Director" which apparently E/A perceives as the main competition. The two programs couldn't be more different in approach to simlar problems. Director has NO interface. DVIII is ALL interface. But I digress. As far as the "HAM Paint program wars" (Amazing Computing's Bandito's favorite topic it seems) serious artists will try all of the programs anyway and usually end up owning all of them as each has its uses and each does things the others don't. -- Harv Laser | SAC-UNIX, Sacramento, Ca. People/Link: CBM*HARV | UUCP=...pacbell!sactoh0!hrlaser