armond@sdsu.UUCP (Armond Mehrabian) (02/01/89)
I just received SuperPaint 2.0 on an upgrade ($56) and I am very impressed by the new abilities. After I have more than just the few hours that I have used it so far, I will give more comment, but at short first look I think that Silicon Beach has done it again. Some of the new features of interest are: Autotrace with true editable bezeer(?) curves-- this feature lets you select an object in the paint layer and have it automatically traced into an object in the draw layer. You can adjust the degrees of conformity to the original object, whether you want it traced with bezeer's or polygon arcs, the relative number of lines that it takes to create the trace as well as how rounded or squared you want the trace to be. Once an object is created, it can be switched from a polygon trace to a bezeer and visa versa. (This is probably the best selling point!) Slant, rotate and distort in the draw layer-- I you liked Clickart effects, this is for you. I haven't tried the output on a lazer printer yet, but it should keep full draw layer resolution. Freehand drawing of bezeer curves-- Draw a curved line and editable bezeer curves are matched to the line. Mixed fonts and styles in the same block in the draw layer-- This using lazer fonts along with the slant rotate stuff has good potential in my eyes. Plug in modules for the paint layer tool pallet-- Some nice ones are included, like a caligraphy pen, a 3-d box tool and an assortment of "mixed icon burshes" (a brush that puts a random line of icons on the page as you move it, like feet, stars, drops, etc). A little time with RezEdit and you can probably have a field day with some of these. Well thats all for now, lets here some other reactions. I'll try to be moere critical in my next posting. David
mcnabb@zaphod.ncsa.uiuc.edu (02/02/89)
Not being very familiar with either, I was wondering how SuperPaint 2.0 compares with MacDraw 2. Any comments? (I hope this doesn't start a war.) For example: I have heard that MacDraw 2 handles color, but only 8 colors. How about SuperPaint 2.0? Are there any other serious contenders?
drew@cat45.CS.WISC.EDU (Shawn Drew) (02/04/89)
In article <600012@zaphod> mcnabb@zaphod.ncsa.uiuc.edu writes: > >Not being very familiar with either, I was wondering how SuperPaint 2.0 >compares with MacDraw 2. Any comments? (I hope this doesn't start a war.) > >For example: I have heard that MacDraw 2 handles color, but only 8 colors. >How about SuperPaint 2.0? Are there any other serious contenders? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^??????? Are you kidding?? Canvas 2.0 blows them both out of the water by miles!!!! ****** The opinions expressed in this article are my own ****** ********** Who else would want to claim them? *********** drew@cat18.cs.wisc.edu shawn@h8001.cae.wisc.edu
pff@beach.cis.ufl.edu (Pablo Fernicola) (05/23/89)
I just got my SuperPaint 2.0 upgrade. It's capabilities are great, (should we say, Super?). However,... the draw layer dragging is sloooow (as in version 1.0p), but ... version 1.1MS that shipped with the MS Word 4.0 upgrade was noticeable faster (than 1.0p & 2.0), What gives??? Me and a friend are running SEs with 1 Meg and the programs are in the hard disk (I even optimized my disk), the system is 6.0.2. "It gets a little bit better, it gets a little bit worse. "It gets a little bit better, it gets a little bit slow."-> MS Word 4.0 & SuperPaint 2.0 -- pff@beach.cis.ufl.edu Pablo Fernicola - Machine Intelligence Laboratory - UF THIS IS THE STANDARD DISCLAIMER THAT EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT. The above mentioned computer user has no knowledge whatsoever of what he is talking about, nor does he have my backing. Signed: The user's employer.
bklaas@cmdfs2.intel.com (Brian Klaas~) (07/20/89)
Does anyone have any experience with SuperPaint 2.0? I am thinking
about upgrading ($50), and was wondering if it was worth it.
Thanks,
Brian
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******************************************************************************mjkobb@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael J Kobb) (08/05/89)
In article <112@cmdfs2.intel.com> bklaas@cmdfs2.intel.com (Brian Klaas~) writes: > >Does anyone have any experience with SuperPaint 2.0? I am thinking >about upgrading ($50), and was wondering if it was worth it. I like the program myself. I don't own a copy, (I've got 1.something), but I used it at work. They've added some nice features, although some of those features seem to come at the expense of speed (It was kinda slow on the SE I used it on). The biggest plus for me is the ability to manipulate text in the draw layer: Stretching, rotating at any angle, slanting, etc. When printed to a LaserWriter, it looks great! --Mike Standard Disclaimers...
steve@violet.berkeley.edu (Steve Goldfield) (08/05/89)
In article <432@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> mjkobb@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Michael J Kobb) writes: #>In article <112@cmdfs2.intel.com> bklaas@cmdfs2.intel.com (Brian Klaas~) writes: #>> #>>Does anyone have any experience with SuperPaint 2.0? I am thinking #>>about upgrading ($50), and was wondering if it was worth it. #> #>I like the program myself. I don't own a copy, (I've got 1.something), but #>I used it at work. They've added some nice features, although some of those #>features seem to come at the expense of speed (It was kinda slow on the SE I #>used it on). The biggest plus for me is the ability to manipulate text in the #>draw layer: Stretching, rotating at any angle, slanting, etc. When printed #>to a LaserWriter, it looks great! #> #>--Mike #> #>Standard Disclaimers... It's also nice to be able to mix fonts and styles. I haven't noticed it being slow on my Mac II. Steve Goldfield
peter@aucs.uucp (Peter Steele) (08/08/89)
> Does anyone have any experience with SuperPaint 2.0? I am thinking > about upgrading ($50), and was wondering if it was worth it. Save your money. Although it has a lot of features, it is *SLOWWW* and very buggy. Put the money towards Canvas or something else. In my opinion, SuperPaint has missed the boat. -- Peter Steele, Microcomputer Applications Analyst Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada B0P1X0 (902)542-2201x121 UUCP: {uunet|watmath|utai|garfield}!dalcs!aucs!Peter BITNET: Peter@Acadia Internet: Peter%Acadia.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
peter@aucs.uucp (Peter Steele) (08/08/89)
> #>>Does anyone have any experience with SuperPaint 2.0? I am thinking > #>>about upgrading ($50), and was wondering if it was worth it. > #>I like the program myself. I don't own a copy, (I've got 1.something), but > #>I used it at work. They've added some nice features, although some of those > #>features seem to come at the expense of speed (It was kinda slow on the SE I > It's also nice to be able to mix fonts and styles. I haven't > noticed it being slow on my Mac II. I use it on a Mac II and it's SLOW. Not for a objects, but as soon as you get anything even moderately involved, it slows down like it hit a brick wall. I can take the same file over to Mac II and experience no slowness whatsoever. I also have found SuperPaint 2.0 very buggy, as have other users here. It does not work well on our file server either. It has trouble finding it's "pouches". -- Peter Steele, Microcomputer Applications Analyst Acadia University, Wolfville, NS, Canada B0P1X0 (902)542-2201x121 UUCP: {uunet|watmath|utai|garfield}!dalcs!aucs!Peter BITNET: Peter@Acadia Internet: Peter%Acadia.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
mjkobb@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Michael J Kobb) (09/22/89)
Hello! I've been working on a project this summer designing dialog boxes for
a piece of software. The software I chose to do this was SuperPaint. I own
1.0, which has always worked fine for me, but I was able to borrow 2.0 from
a friend for the purposes of this project. I was favorably impressed, at
first, with the new features, like the n-gon and the ability to stretch
text, etc. The speed could have been better, though...
Anyway, I started work on the dialogs, and much to my dismay, as they became
more complicated (in the object layer), the software would crash while saving.
This not only wiped out the changes since the last save, but it KILLED MY
SAVED FILE, too. Needless to say, I was a bit peeved. This happened on both
a MacPlus (2.5MB RAM, trillions of inits, MF 6.1b7, 128k Ram Cache, Sys 6.0.2),
the same Plus under just Finder with no cache, and on a Mac II with tons of
memory and almost no inits (basically, Pyro).
Question: What's going on? This seems like a pretty big bug to me! These
drawings were complicated, but they certainly weren't unreasonable. I mean,
we're not talking about 500 objects, here! To further complicate matters,
SuperPaint 2.0 won't save in any format even remotely compatible with other
software! 1.0/1.1 won't open it properly ("This document is too large to be
a SuperPaint document. Scaling to fit", then scales all objects down in size).
Draw opens the 2.0 format (they call it PICT), but loses all of the grouping,
text formatting, etc. (all of which was very necessary).
I was able to get the work done by doing _one_ dialog/page, thereby keeping the
object count down (and I also saved dual copies of each file, so that when the
limit was reached, I had another).
Comments? I was going to send in my upgrade $$ for 2.0, but I don't plan to
do so now, unless this has all been fixed...
--Mike
Disclaimer: I think that disclaimers are an incredibly sad statement about our
society. Nonetheless, nothing that I say can or should be construed as having
been said by anyone. Ever.thecloud@dhw68k.cts.com (Ken McLeod) (09/25/89)
In article <734@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> mjkobb@media-lab.media.mit.edu (Michael J Kobb) writes: >a piece of software. The software I chose to do this was SuperPaint. I own >1.0, which has always worked fine for me, but I was able to borrow 2.0 from >[...] >Anyway, I started work on the dialogs, and much to my dismay, as they became >more complicated (in the object layer), the software would crash while saving. >This not only wiped out the changes since the last save, but it KILLED MY >SAVED FILE, too. Needless to say, I was a bit peeved. This happened on both >a MacPlus (2.5MB RAM, trillions of inits, MF 6.1b7, 128k Ram Cache, Sys 6.0.2), >the same Plus under just Finder with no cache, and on a Mac II with tons of >memory and almost no inits (basically, Pyro). SuperPaint 2.0's 'PICT' format doesn't seem to be quite standard. I also experienced quite a few crashes-while-saving, usually with files that had a number of grouped objects in the Draw layer (between 20 and 50 individual objects). Sometimes the file would appear fine, then when it was re-opened later, the sizes and positions of the objects would be radically distorted, both with respect to the page and to each other. This happened under conditions identical to Michael's, except I was running System 6.0.3. Needless to say, I don't use SuperPaint 2.0. Are other people experiencing similar crashes? I haven't heard anything on the net to indicate this is a quality-assurance blowit of Word 3 proportions, although if our experience is typical, it would sure seem that way! -- ========== ....... ============================================= Ken McLeod :. .: UUCP: ...{spsd,zardoz,felix}!dhw68k!thecloud ========== :::.. ..::: INTERNET: thecloud@dhw68k.cts.com //// =============================================
mec@cbnewsj.ATT.COM (michael.e.connick) (09/26/89)
Gee, we use SuperPaint all the time for doing quite complex graphics and have never had a single crash with it. We're running it under MF 6.1b9 and System 6.0.3. We've found SuperPaint 2.0 to be a simply great program! ----------------------------------------------------- Michael Connick mec@mtfmi.ATT.COM 201-957-3057 AT&T Bell Labs MT 3F-113 (Dept. 79153)
joseph@cooper.cooper.EDU (Joe Giannuzzi) (09/27/89)
in article <26695@dhw68k.cts.com>, thecloud@dhw68k.cts.com (Ken McLeod) says: > > Needless to say, I don't use SuperPaint 2.0. Are other people experiencing > similar crashes? I haven't heard anything on the net to indicate this is a > quality-assurance blowit of Word 3 proportions, although if our experience > is typical, it would sure seem that way! > I updated from SuperPaint 1.1MS to SuperPaint 2.0 recently. After using it for a short period of time I reported some very strange bugs in it. The computer center I purchase Mac software for updated SuperPaint 1.1MS and received the updated version SuperPaint 2.0a a week later. Version 2.0a has a slightly different manual than 2.0 and fixes most of the bugs. I have not seen an update patch to change 2.0 to 2.0a, but then again I might have missed it. +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Disclaimer -> Reality is just a figment of your imagination. | | | | Remember -> Spatula City, for all your spatula needs. (UHF) | | | | Joseph -> joseph@cooper.cooper.edu OR cmcl2!cooper!joseph | +---------------------------------------------------------------+
kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) (09/27/89)
In article <26695@dhw68k.cts.com> thecloud@dhw68k.cts.com (Ken McLeod) writes:
< SuperPaint 2.0's 'PICT' format doesn't seem to be quite standard. I also
<experienced quite a few crashes-while-saving, usually with files that had
<a number of grouped objects in the Draw layer (between 20 and 50 individual
<objects).
<
< Needless to say, I don't use SuperPaint 2.0. Are other people experiencing
<similar crashes? I haven't heard anything on the net to indicate this is a
<quality-assurance blowit of Word 3 proportions, although if our experience
<is typical, it would sure seem that way!
I don't have the crashes, but there are other problems with SuperPaint
drawings in Word 4.0. Don't even think of taking a SuperPaint drawing
from Word 4.0 back to SuperPaint to change it. (I know, there is supposed
to be some kind of linking between the two, but I just haven't explored
that feature yet.)
When you get the drawing (from Word 4.0) into SuperPaint, even though it
had been grouped, the pieces are now widely scattered. When you ungroup
it to work on it, you may find some of the pieces missing until you assign
a larger drawing size. If you haven't given SuperPaint more than its default
700K to work with, you can't even do that.
But if you persist in putting the pieces back together and import the
drawing back into Word, you'll find that some invisible parts (beyond Word's
dotted outline) cover up remaining text on the page. It displays but does
not print.
Sometimes, you can make a new drawing from scratch; sometimes, if you keep
the original SuperPaint drawings, you can modify those and paste them over
the old drawing. Sometimes nothing works. I had to go to another drawing
program in one case. I made five drawings, reinstalled SuperPaint, and did
everything else I could think of to no avail. All I could do was use
another drawing program to get remaining text on the page to print.
The kinds of drawings I do are very simple, but they make heavy use of
text, and they require some of the text to be white on black backgrounds.
I like the feel of SuperPaint better than any other program because you
can see the object you're moving around, not just some outline. I tried
MacDraw II for some more complicated drawings that required rotated objects
and found that it doesn't seem to have any tools or commands to stretch
or freely rotate objects (to give it some perspective).
I wish the problems could be solved, but so far I haven't really complained
to anyone either. Where would you start - Microsoft or Silicon Beach (or
both)?
Shirley Kehrdnagent@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Mark D Phillips) (09/28/89)
Regarding the reports of crashes and problems with SuperPaint 2.0: I used to have problems with miscellaneous crashes and polygons growinga on Save/Close/Open of a file, but Silicon Beach released a new version numbered 2.0a which seems to have fixed those problems, as well as SP's not being able to print with LaserWriter driver 6.0. Silicon Beach has not seen fit to inform users of the update, but if you call tech support with problems, they are happy to mail out the new version (as long as you are a registered user, of course).
steve@violet.berkeley.edu (Steve Goldfield) (09/28/89)
In article <2686@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> dnagent@jhunix.UUCP (Mark D Phillips) writes:
#>Regarding the reports of crashes and problems with SuperPaint 2.0:
#>
#>I used to have problems with miscellaneous crashes and polygons growinga
#>on Save/Close/Open of a file, but Silicon Beach released a new version
#>numbered 2.0a which seems to have fixed those problems, as well as
#>SP's not being able to print with LaserWriter driver 6.0. Silicon
#>Beach has not seen fit to inform users of the update, but if you
#>call tech support with problems, they are happy to mail out the new
#>version (as long as you are a registered user, of course).
I just spoke to Silicon Beach and asked them to send me this
version. They emphasized that there wasn't really a bug in the
previous version and that I would only need it if I used
driver 6.0 which comes with system 6.0.3. So those who haven't
upgraded that far yet need not worry.
Steve Goldfieldtiml@maxwell.Concordia.CA ( TIM LAPIN ) (09/28/89)
In article <26695@dhw68k.cts.com> thecloud@dhw68k.cts.com (Ken McLeod) writes: > > SuperPaint 2.0's 'PICT' format doesn't seem to be quite standard. I also >experienced quite a few crashes-while-saving, usually with files that had >a number of grouped objects in the Draw layer (between 20 and 50 individual >objects). > Needless to say, I don't use SuperPaint 2.0. Are other people experiencing >similar crashes? I haven't heard anything on the net to indicate this is a >quality-assurance blowit of Word 3 proportions, although if our experience >is typical, it would sure seem that way! > I too have problems with Superpaint 2.0. When I try to read in scanned images at 300 dpi it crashes. When I try at 200 dpi it firsts tries to re-scale the drawings then it crashes. If any one has a fix to this or a reason why I would appreciate it. -- Tim Lapin |Tel: (514) 848-7639 | My opinion is that Computer Centre |INTERNET: timl@maxwell.concordia.ca| my opinion is mine, Concordia University |BITNET: timl@vax2.concordia.ca | all mine. (Ahem)
dnagent@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Mark D Phillips) (09/28/89)
In article <1989Sep27.203828.12583@agate.berkeley.edu> steve@violet.berkeley.edu (Steve Goldfield) writes: > >I just spoke to Silicon Beach and asked them to send me this >version. They emphasized that there wasn't really a bug in the >previous version and that I would only need it if I used >driver 6.0 which comes with system 6.0.3. So those who haven't >upgraded that far yet need not worry. > You were misinformed. In the letter I received along with the 2.0a update, Cindy Taylor of Silicon Beach Software Technical Support states "As I promised, enclosed is a new version of SuperPaint which works with the LaserWriter Driver 6.0. It also fixes the problem where filled polygons grow upon saving and reopening a document." So there clearly was more to the 2.0a update than fixing the LW 6.0 incompatabilities. And, while I never pinned the problem down, I found that the unexplained crashes upon saving a document in SuperPaint did not occur after I started using version 2.0a.
joseph@cooper.cooper.EDU (Joe Giannuzzi) (09/29/89)
in article <1989Sep27.203828.12583@agate.berkeley.edu>, steve@violet.berkeley.edu (Steve Goldfield) says: > > I just spoke to Silicon Beach and asked them to send me this > version. They emphasized that there wasn't really a bug in the > previous version and that I would only need it if I used > driver 6.0 which comes with system 6.0.3. So those who haven't > upgraded that far yet need not worry. > I have both version 2.0 and version 2.0a and believe me, there is at least one serious bug fix that I can think of off the top of my head. In version 2.0, if you have many objects grouped together in the draw layer and save the file then reopen the file the objects will be slightly shifted. Version 2.0a does not do this, and I've tried. +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | Disclaimer -> Reality is just a figment of your imagination. | | | | Remember -> Spatula City, for all your spatula needs. (UHF) | | | | Joseph -> joseph@cooper.cooper.edu OR cmcl2!cooper!joseph | +---------------------------------------------------------------+
hal@krishna.cs.cornell.edu (Hal Perkins) (09/29/89)
In article <115028@felix.UUCP> kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) writes: >Don't even think of taking a SuperPaint drawing >from Word 4.0 back to SuperPaint to change it. <<description of troubles delete>> >I wish the problems could be solved, but so far I haven't really complained >to anyone either. Where would you start - Microsoft or Silicon Beach (or >both)? I suspect that this is a problem with Word, not SuperPaint 2.0. The Expressionist program has similar trouble. Expressionist creates equations as PICTs with embedded comments describing the structure of the equation. It needs the information in the comments to reconstruct an equation that's been pasted into Expressionist for editing. PICTs that have been pasted from Word into Expressionist are so badly mangled that Expressionist chokes on the result. I wouldn't be surprised if Word is trashing SuperPaint pictures as well. Hal Perkins hal@cs.cornell.edu Cornell CS
mead@hamal.usc.edu (Dick Mead) (09/29/89)
In the Word 4.0 upgrade stuff I read through, (every does read it, right?) it specifically states that the supplied SuperPaint 1.1 is to be used for import/export of graphics, and that SP2.0 is not compatible with that particular function. Now, if you are indeed using version 1.1 as supplied with the Word 4.0 update, then there is a problem, otherwise there is no problem, just a feature.
humtech@ucschu.UCSC.EDU (Mark Frost) (09/29/89)
In article <115028@felix.UUCP> kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) writes: >In article <26695@dhw68k.cts.com> thecloud@dhw68k.cts.com (Ken McLeod) writes: >I don't have the crashes, but there are other problems with SuperPaint >drawings in Word 4.0. Don't even think of taking a SuperPaint drawing >from Word 4.0 back to SuperPaint to change it. (I know, there is supposed >to be some kind of linking between the two, but I just haven't explored >that feature yet.) > >When you get the drawing (from Word 4.0) into SuperPaint, even though it >had been grouped, the pieces are now widely scattered. When you ungroup >it to work on it, you may find some of the pieces missing until you assign >a larger drawing size. If you haven't given SuperPaint more than its default >700K to work with, you can't even do that. Weird. I was working on a project with lots of little pictures. I started drawing the small internals of the picture, rotating as necessary, grouping those smaller objects into bigger objects, working on those and finally grouping the little objects (no more than 20) into one large object. Then if say, I quite the application and came back in, there seemed to be about a 40% chance the my object(s) would be corrupted. Corrupted in the sense that the smaller objects that were now grouped into the larger object had drifted apart a pixel or two (and essentially looked like crap now). I then needed to ungroup several times until I had ungrouped all the objects and "sub-objects" in the now screwed up object in order to fix the thing. If I left the screwed up object(s) alone, it was also possible that it ("object drift") would happen again messing up my object even furthur. All in all, for a 30-hour project, I spent probably 8 hours correcting the objects after SuperPaint 2.0 screwed them up. Unfortunately, since I had already invested so much time with it, I didn't have anything else, and I had a deadline, I stuck with SuperPaint. I had this problem on an SE/20 and a IICX. Needless to say, I will never use SuperPaint 2.0 again. Mark Frost Office of the the Computing Coordinator Humanities Division University of California at Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, California 95064 (408) 459-4603 Internet: humtech@ucschu.UCSC.EDU Bitnet: humtech@ucschu.bitnet Uucp: ...!ucbvax!ucscc!ucschu!humtech
Mike.Bielen@f347.n107.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Mike Bielen) (10/05/89)
I have successfully used SuperPaint 2.0 with Word 4.0's "hot link"
function. I can update a SuperPaint document, open Word, and have the
image within Word 4.0 automatically update.
I haven't encountered any imcompatibility problems.
Mike
--
Mike Bielen via cmhGate - Net 226 fido<=>uucp gateway Col, OH
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