
Following are the complete instructions to Degas Elite,  typed for 
your convenience with  great anfractuosity by your munificent  and 
magnanimous   Sewer Rat  without  any  expectance  of   quidproque 
whatsoever.   They were typed over two   very   tiring   sessions, 
totalling  9 hours and 46 minutes (8 hours straight in  the  first 
session, and 1 hour 46 minutes in the  second). Overall, this  doc
file totals 145K, thus providing an average of 14.87K per hour. It
contains  24,230  words at a healthy average of  41.35  words  per 
minute - not a bad average over 576 minutes !!


                  DEGAS ELITE - FULL INSTRUCTIONS


CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION


Degas  Elite  is  a sophisticated  graphics  and  drawing  program 
written by Tom Hudson for the Atari ST.  It works in and  supports 
all  three resolution modes,  so irrespective of the  monitor  you 
have, you can use Degas Elite to produce art and graphics. You can 
save  your picture to disk or print it on your  printer.  You  can 
even load pictures created in a different resolution from the  one 
you're using.  Degas works with one or two floppy disk drives, RAM 
disks and hard disk drives.

DEGAS  stands for 'Design and Entertainment Graphics Art  System'. 
Degas  Elite  is  the  second generation  of  the  original  Degas 
program.  We  have added many enhancements,  new features and  new 
capabilities to the original concept,and the program now uses  the 
power of the Atari ST computer much more than ever before.  It has 
significantly  changed since the first version,  so  we  recommend 
that you read this manual through first, before using the program. 
Users  familiar with the first edition of Degas will find many  of 
the  basic  drawing techniques and mechanics are  much  the  same. 
However,  many  features  such  as  block  manipulation,  stipple, 
multiple workscreens and the different levels of magnification are 
new to the Elite version.

Before  you  use Degas Elite,  you should read your ST  manual  to 
become  familiar with using the menus,  loading  programs,  making 
copies, the disk and other features of the machine.



CHAPTER 2 - GETTING STARTED


ABOUT THIS MANUAL

every  attempt  has  been made to provide  you  with  a  complete, 
comprehensive  manual.  However,  things  sometimes  change  as  a 
program  is developed or users often find something hidden  within 
the program,  tips, techniques or problems. In this case, you will 
find a file called READ.ME on the disk detailing any updates.  You 
should  print or read this file first before reading the  rest  of 
this manual.

Degas is not a difficult program to use,  but because of its  many 
features,  we  have organised the manual to fit an  easy  learning 
curve.  We  begin  with the basic tools and work up  to  the  more 
advanced  features.  If you're already familiar with the  original 
Degas,  you'll recognise a lot of the initial material here. There 
is  quite  a considerable amount of new  material  added,  so  you 
should at least browse through the manual to familiarise  yourself 
with  the differences between the early Degas and Degas  Elite.  A 
reference  guide is provided at the back (owners of ST  Doc  Disks 
will find this as a separate file on this disk.  I have done  this 
entirely for your own convenience, so familiar users don't have to 
print the whole file out just for the reference card - Sewer Rat), 
which covers a lot of the new features.  It is, however, not meant 
as a substitute for this manual.

BACKUPS

BATTERIES  INCLUDED  and the author both believe that  you  -  the 
buyer  of this program - should be able to make backup copies  FOR 
YOUR OWN USE.  Degas Elite is not protected, so before you use it, 
you  should  make a backup copy of  the program on a  blank  disk. 
Making  copies  and  formatting disks are  explained  in  your  ST 
manuals.  If you're not familiar with Atari ST disks and  folders, 
read the appendix on disks in this manual.  It will tell you  what 
files need to be on what disks.

Because you can backup the program,  we expect you to respect  the 
copyright  and  not give away,  sell or even lend copies  of  this 
program to others. You, the buyer, are the ONLY authorised user of 
this program.  The author spent many hours  designing,  developing 
and  writing this software.  His income depends on sales  of  this 
program  ;  pirate copies hurt him - he's an individual just  like 
you who works for his living.  Many other people worked very  hard 
to make sure this program works properly,  to test it and to write 
the manual.  Pirate copies also make their efforts less  valuable. 
It discourages everyone's further efforts  in this  field.  Please 
don't  make  or accept a pirate copy of this  program.  Piracy  is 
theft, just like shoplifting or burglary, and just as illegal. 
If you're reading a photocopy of this manual (or this  file),  you 
probably didn't buy the original program.  We ask that you  please 
destroy the copy immediately and erase the unauthorised copies  on 
your  disks.  A  legitimate  copy may be purchased  from  a  local 
dealer,  mail order house or directly from BATTERIES NOT  INCLUDED 
at 1-800-387-5707.

Well, I think they've made their point very well,but now I'd like
to add my bit to it. Obviously, those of you reading this  file
have got a pirated copy and although we at Sewer Software do not
condone or encourage piracy,  we are still providing the docs  for 
you.  We undertook the task of doc disks entirely for fun,  and to 
provide a service to ST users,  which as it turned  out,  involves 
catering to pirates needs.  To be honest,  we can't say that we've 
bought  every  program we've got,  but when something as  good  as 
Degas Elite comes along,  we buy it ourselves and suggest that you 
do  too.  We  feel that 'authors' of good software deserve  to  be 
rewarded,  and  as  such,  you  should buy  the  original  program 
yourself. Hopefully, these docs will allow you to realise just how 
good  the program is,  and encourage you to buy the  original.  If 
not, it's not our fault and we accept no responsibility for piracy 
eminating as a result of these docs.  Anyway, that's enough of the 
preaching and on with the docs ...... Sewer Rat !!

LOADING DEGAS ELITE

This  manual assumes that you have TOS in ROM.  If you  are  still 
loading  TOS  from  disk,  we suggest that you  have  your  system 
upgraded  to  a ROM version.  With TOS on disk,  you do  not  have 
sufficient  memory to use this program  efficiently.  Degas  Elite 
will not work on a 520ST unless it is equipped with TOS in ROM.

First,  turn on your Atari disk drive(s),  monitor, and then place 
the Degas Elite disk in drive A.  Place a formatted work disk  for 
saving pictures in the second drive - B. Now turn on your ST.

Hard disk users can run Degas  Elite from any drive or  within a
folder  on any drive,  and save to any drive or any  folder.  But, 
ASSIGN.SYS,  any font files and the AUTO folder with GDOS.PRG must 
be on the disk in drive A.

If you have a monochrome monitor,  you can simply run Degas  Elite 
as is.  However,  if you have a colour monitor,  you should  first 
select your desired resolution mode through the 'Set  Preferences'  
choice in the desktop 'OPTIONS' menu BEFORE you load Degas  Elite. 
You can't switch resolution mode once you're running the  program. 
Low  resolution has 320 by 200 pixels with a choice of 16 colours, 
medium resolution has 320 by 400 and four colours. High resolution 
is 640 by 400, and black and white are the only colours obtainable 
by a monochrome monitor.  Note that you CAN load pictures  between 
resolutions, as explained in the section on files.

If you only have a one drive system,  when loading the program  or 
pictures,  your ST will ask you to insert your A and B disks  into 
that drive.

When  the screen display shows you the contents of the disks  (you 
may  have  to 'open' a floppy disk to see the display  by  double-
clicking on the disk icon,  as explained in your ST manual),  move 
the  cursor (the figure on the screen you move with your  mouse  - 
usually an arrow,  but it can also be a brush shape while drawing, 
and hourglass or a bee) to the icon named 'DEGELITE.PRG' and press 
the left mouse button twice in rapid succession.  You can also use 
the 'open' command from the file menu to load Degas Elite.

Since  Degas Elite offers  up to eight workscreens  in memory  at
once,  it  uses a lot of memory.  You can restrict the  number  of 
workscreens,  thereby  retaining more memory for large  text  font 
files  or desk accessories by holding down the ALT key before  you 
load Degas and keeping it held until the message about workscreens 
appears on the screen.  You can have as few as two workscreens  or 
as many as eight if you have one megabyte of RAM to work in.


CHAPTER 3 - THE BASICS


THE MENU SCREEN

Take a look at the main menu screen. Across the top you'll see the 
pull-down  menu bar with the  selections  'Desk',  'File',  'Set', 
'Make'  and  'Block'.  Below  that is the  colour  palette  :  the 
available  colours  for your current resolution - 16  in  low  res 
mode,  4  in  medium res and two - black and white - in  high  res 
mode.  Below the colour boxes are the brush and pen shapes. On the 
left  are the graphic feature command boxes and to the  right  the 
current fill pattern, text and line pattern. The numbered boxes at 
the bottom right indicate which workscreen is currently in use.

When  you move your cursor into a feature box and press  the  left 
mouse button,  the box is highlighted , indicating you have chosen 
that feature. Double-clicking a box usually brings up a dialog box 
in which you determine aspects or parameters of that feature. When 
you select a colour,  the fill (if a mono fill,  explained below), 
text and line pattern change to that colour.

Brush and colour selection are essential to your drawing. Whatever 
you  draw in Degas Elite,  you use the colour and brush shape  you 
select  in the menu screen.  Many features also use the  line  and 
fill patterns.  Some require you to press and hold the left  mouse 
button, others to press the left mouse button and release it. Most 
of the time,  UNDO key erase the last thing you've drawn,  copied, 
moved or written,  but only if you haven't left the drawing screen 
or started another function.  Other keys are used for effects  not 
listed on the menu screen and as keyboard command substitutes  for 
menu selections.  Features that aren't available or appropriate to 
a  menu selection are greyed out and not accessible.  This is  all 
described in detail below.


KEYS AND KEYSTROKES

Several  features are toggled,  initiated or stopped  by  pressing 
different keys in either the menu or the drawing  screens.  Almost 
every option in the main menu can be activated in a drawing screen 
by a single keystroke.  The arrow keys also work to cycle  through 
brush  and colour choices in the drawing screens.  These  are  all 
explained in the appropriate sections and in the reference guide.

The most important key to remember is the UNDO key.  This  cancels 
almost  every  last action in a drawing screen and  restores  your 
picture to its original state before you began that action.


SCREENS AND MOUSE CONTROL

When  you load the program,  the first screen you see is the  menu 
screen.  It has the display of commands,  colours,  fill patterns, 
fonts,  lines, brush shapes and other features Degas Elite offers, 
as well as the menu bar with additional items. The current drawing 
screen is the inverted,  numbered box at the bottom right.  To get 
the drawing screen,  simply press the right mouse button ;  to get 
back to the menu, press it again. To select another screen to use, 
move the cursor to that number and click the left button.

The  mouse is used to control almost all  drawing  features.  Many 
keys also provide command controls.  To select a feature from  the 
menu screen,  you simply position the cursor over it and press the 
left mouse button. With many of the menu items, (not the pull down 
menus)  to  change  that feature or enter  the  feature's  dialog, 
double-click on the box.  For example, to select the type of text, 
double-click  on  the text box.  To select the font  or  typeface, 
double-click on the box displaying the current font,  to the right 
of  the menu screen.  The feature's dialog box can be  entered  by 
pressing the ALT key while clicking the left mouse button over the 
control box.   

In the drawing screen,  the left mouse button 'anchors' the cursor 
once  you  have  positioned it and activates  the  feature  chosen 
previously - for example,  the left mouse button sets the start of 
a line.  In many cases, the right mouse button cancels the feature 
before it is made permanent (as does the UNDO key).  Pressing  the 
left  mouse  button after something has been drawn accepts  it  as 
part of the picture (but UNDO still cancels it).

Degas now supports multiple drawing or workscreens,  depending  on 
your   memory  configuration.   A  520K  ST  will   support   four 
simultaneous workscreens,  a 1040 will support eight.  To select a 
screen to work in,  click on the numbered box at the bottom  right  
of the menu screen (or press a number on the keyboard).  When  you 
press  the right mouse button,  you enter that chosen  workscreen. 
You  can move to any workscreen from any other by simply  pressing 
the  appropriate numerical key.  You don't have to go through  the 
main menu screen first.

If  you press the HELP key while in the main menu,  you'll  see  a 
window  which lists the names of all your screens  (initially,  of 
course,  the lines are all empty). You can enter a name (click the 
cursor  on the line and start typing) or delete a name (click  the 
cursor on the name line and press ESC) or simply change it  (click 
on  the  line  and  use  Backspace  and  Delete).  Names  are  not 
necessary,  but  they  are convenient to help you  remember  which 
screens  are which.  If the screen are all loaded  from  different 
files, then you might want to enter the filenames here.

You  can  copy  blocks from one screen and  then  copy  them  into 
another.  You  can load and save pictures into  each  screen,  but 
there  are  limitations.   The  first  workscreen,   number   one, 
determines  what colour palette will be used by ALL  screens.  You 
can  only have one palette for all available screens.  THis  means 
that a picture loaded into workscreens two to eight which does not 
share the same colour palette as that in workscreen one will  look 
different from when it was saved or created.

A picture loaded into a workscreen other than number one therefore 
doesn't come with it's own colour palette ;  it must use the  main 
palette  shown  in  the menu screen.  This type  of  picture  when  
loaded from disk is called an image,   in the file menu.  You  can 
load an image into any of the workscreens.  Degas Elite first asks 
if  you  want  to  try to colour the  picture  using  the  current 
palette.  This  routine  attempts  to match  the  colours  on  the 
existing palette to those in the image's palette.

You  can  also simply load a colour palette from a  picture  file, 
using that menu option. This replaces the colour palette currently 
in  use.  A  picture in any workscreen is always  saved  with  the 
current  palette.You can copy an entire screen to  another  screen 
from the main menu. Simply click on a workscreen and hold down the 
left mouse button. Now drag the cursor to the number of the screen 
where  you want the first picture copied to.  You'll be  asked  to 
confirm  the copy.  The entire picture will be duplicated  in  the 
destination workscreen almost instantaneously. 

COLOURS

In low resolution,  you have 16 colours, in medium-res, only four. 
The current colour you're working in is shown in the palette   and 
the fill,  text and line boxes.  Colours may be changed by double-
clicking  on a palette box,  then sliding the boxes on  the  'red-
green-blue'  level bars until you reach the  desired  shade,  then 
click OK to make the change.  You can change other colours  within 
the dialog box by double-clicking on the 'mini-palette' at the top 
of the window.

Each  bar has eight divisions to indicate the relative amounts  of 
that  colour  to be added to the selected palette box.The  top  of 
each bar represents 100%, the bottom, zero. Move the cursor to the 
intended division in the bar and press the left mouse button.  The 
small box identifying the level jumps to the new division.  Or you 
can  use  the arrows at the end of each bar to move  the  box  one 
division in that direction.

With 100% of each colour,  you get white ;  with zero percent, you 
get  black.  The  colour numbers are read out beside  the  palette 
where it says 'RGB='.  The values range from zero to seven,  so  a 
colour number might be '136'.  White is always '777' and black  is 
'000' ; pure red is '700', green is '070' and blue is '007'. Greys 
can be '444', '555' or '666'.

Degas  won't let you change the rightmost colour box to  the  same 
colour  as the background (the leftmost box).  This is to  prevent 
you  from losing sight of the cursor,  text and boxes on the  main 
menu screen.  The background and rightmost colours must differ  by 
at least a small amount, so you don't get 'lost'.

You  can  copy a colour from one position in  the  palette  colour 
dialog to another by pointing the mouse to the colour you want  to 
copy,  pressing and holding the left mouse button,  and 'dragging' 
the  colour  to the palette location where you want to  place  the 
colour.  Remember  that  if the colour you are copying  the  first 
colour to is used in any of the workscreens, it will be changed on 
the pictures.

If  you want to define a range of colours from say,  red to  blue, 
all  you have to do is define these two anywhere on  your  palette 
with  one  or  more colour boxes in between.  Select  one  of  the 
colours  by double-clicking the left mouse button on it  (a  check 
mark will appear in the colour's box),  then hold down the ALT key 
and click the left mouse button on the other colour.  Degas  Elite 
calculates the colours between the two you originally defined  and 
generates the intermediate shades automatically.This makes it much 
easier to generate a smooth colour transition.

There are other options available in the set colour dialog : VIEW, 
PICK, FIND and RESTORE. View lets you see the effect of the change 
on  your picture in the current workscreen ;  click here and  hold 
down the left mouse button. When you release it, you return to the 
dialog box.

Pick  displays all 512 colours of the ST's possible  colour  range 
(unless,  you have a monochrome monitor,  of course).  To select a 
colour from the display,  click the left mouse button on it and it 
will appear in a long bar, to the right of the display. Then, when 
you're satisfied with the colour,  click anywhere in that long bar 
to accept it. You'll return to the dialog box with that colour now 
chosen.

Find takes you to the current workscreen.  Here you use the cursor 
to  select a colour already in use in a picture.  Press  the  left 
mouse button and that colour is chosen for the current one in  the 
dialog  box.  This  is particularly useful if you want to  edit  a 
specific  colour  or  if  you want to  make  another  colour  only 
slightly different in shade. Examine the colour ; remember the RGB 
number  if  you're  going  to try  to  change  another  colour  to 
complement this one.

Restore  changes the palette to the original default colours  when 
you  loaded the program.  This is not the colours you load from  a 
picture file ;  this is the Elite default palette.  If you want to 
exit without changing the palette,  don't click on Restore ; click 
on Cancel.

In  high-res  or monochrome mode,  you have only two  'colours'  ; 
black and white :  there are no variations or shades of grey  (you 
get these through different density fill patterns).  When you draw 
or  build  a shape in monochrome,  you must do so  in  the  colour 
opposite  the background or the image won't show.  You can  select 
the  colour to draw in by positioning the cursor over  the  colour 
palette  box and pressing the left mouse button.  Doing this  also 
inverts the colours in the fill,  text and line boxes and outlines 
the colour chosen.

In monochrome, double-clicking on a colour box reverses the colour 
selection  to the other.  Also note that several features such  as 
colour  cycle  and  animation work differently or not  at  all  in 
monochrome than in any colour mode. 

The background colour in any resolution is always the leftmost box 
on  the  colour palette ;  them menu screen text and  colour  fill 
pattern  outline  colour is always the rightmost  box.  All  other 
boxes are foreground colours.  The colour palette is always  saved 
with  every  picture and block.  The palette is  replaced  by  the 
palette  of  any picture you load into workscreen one (or  if  you 
simply  load  a new palette,  explained  below).  Pictures  always 
load into workscreen one with their palettes. Images load into any 
workscreen and don;t bring their current palettes with them  (they 
use the current palette instead).

In a drawing screen (or workscreen),  the up and down arrows shift 
to the next colour up (right) or down (left) on the colour palette 
without  having  to  leave  and go to  the  main  menu  screen  to 
select one.


FILL PATTERNS

Fill patterns are not restricted to the fill feature.  They can be 
used  with other features such  as  draw,  brush,  eraser,  lines, 
geometric shapes, stipple and airbrush.

To choose a fill pattern,  position the cursor in the fill box and 
double-click the left mouse button.  Then select the pattern  from 
the display and click on OK.  You can also click on the arrow keys 
left  and  right  of  the pattern box to  cycle  to  the next fill 
pattern. Keep pressing until you find a pattern you want.

With  a  colour monitor,  you have two types of  fill  patterns  ; 
monoplane  (mono- or one-colour) and coloured  (multicolour).  The 
selection  between  these  types  is  made  by  clicking  on   the 
appropriate box in the dialog window.  With a monochrome  monitor, 
there are only mono fill patterns.

Colour fills paint over everything below them ;  mono fills an  be 
set  to  paint  over  the  picture or  let  it  show  through  the 
background  colour.  Colour fills can support all the  colours  in 
your  palette  at  once.   Colour  fills  always  paint  over  the 
background  in  brush and eraser  modes.  However,  if  change  is 
selected,  they  only  change the specified colour  to  that  fill 
pattern.

Mono fills only use the current palette choice and the  background 
(the  leftmost colour on the palette).  If the background  is  the 
current  colour  choice,  the other mono fill colour  becomes  the 
rightmost colour.  You can use mono fills with the  eraser,  brush 
and change.  Make sure 'pattern' is selected when drawing, because 
if  solid  is selected,  you get the solid colour  chosen  on  the 
colour palette, rather than the fill pattern. In the actual 'fill' 
feature,solid  and  pattern have a  different  meaning,  explained 
below.

In  the  chapter on pull-down menus,  in the  Make  Fill  section, 
you'll  learn how to create your own fill pattern,  replacing  any 
pattern - of the 36 colour or 36 mono available - with one of your 
own design.  Degas has 36 of its own pre-designed fill patterns in 
each  mode  for you to work with.  You can save your  own  designs 
to  disk  and load them in at any time over an  existing  pattern. 
Mono  fill  patterns  are save with a .FIL extension  and  can  be 
loaded into any other resolution. Colour fill patterns are save as 
either .FI1 or .FI2 (low and medium resolutions, respectively) and 
can only be loaded into the proper resolution.


LEAVING DEGAS ELITE

The  last selection in the pull-down file menu is  'quit'.  That;s 
the  only  proper  way to leave Degas Elite to  get  back  to  the 
desktop.  When  you quit,  the program asks you to confirm  it  by 
pressing the mouse button in the box. Never quit by simply turning 
the computer off.


CHAPTER 4 - THE DRAWING FEATURES 


BRUSH AND BLOCK MODES

Keystroke : B

Degas Elite has two basic drawing tools : the BRUSH and the BLOCK. 
In  brush  mode,  the cursor in the drawing screen is  always  the 
current brush shape. You select one of the 15 default brush shapes 
by positioning the cursor over the desired shape and clicking  the 
left mouse button.  Every brush shape except the crosshair can  be 
re-designed  into your own shape by double-clicking on  the  brush 
box.  When  you  select a brush shape,  the brush box  colours are 
inverted to highlight your choice.

The block is a new type of drawing tool,  not previously available 
on the earlier Degas program. It permits you to define any part of 
your  screen as a block - exactly as you would to move or  copy  a 
section,  of any size - and draw,  create geometric forms or erase 
with  that  portion just as you would a  brush.  Several  features 
don't  work with block or work somewhat differently than  they  do 
with brush, as described below.

A  block can be any rectangle,  from a single pixel to  an  entire 
picture.  To  define a block,  go to a workscreen where  you  have 
created or loaded a picture (or image). Now press ESC. This brings 
up  the crosshair lines for alignment.  Place the intersection  of 
the lines at the upper LEFT of where you want your block to begin. 
Now press and hold the left mouse button and drag it to the  lower 
right  corner of your block.  When you release  the  button,  that 
section  becomes  your block.  If you don't see  anything  appear, 
press the 'b' key to toggle block mode.  This newly defined  block 
acts exactly as a brush in most cases.

There are two parameters when using a block,  set when you double-
click on the block option in the main menu screen. As 'x-ray', the 
background  (leftmost) colour is transparent and lets the  picture 
below show through. As blocked, it paints over anything below with 
the  entire block.  Also,  you can define the boundaries in  which 
your block operates ; if you don't want its edges to go beyond the 
edges  of the screen,  choose 'edge stop'.  The other selection  - 
free move - lets the block edge escape (disappear) off the visible 
screen.

A  block  always stays available for use until you  define  a  new 
block,  in which case it is erased.  It can be hidden by  toggling 
brush mode and recalled again by toggling back to block. It can be 
copied  to any workscreen by pressing the left mouse button  once, 
or used as a brush by holding down the button and 'painting'  with 
it.  Blocks can be manipulated in special ways, described in their 
own selection below.

You  can  select  either  brush or block in  the  menu  screen  or 
pressing the 'b' key when in drawing mode. Your choice changes the 
type  of  cursor you use.  Many of the drawing features  (such  as 
geometric features) work in either mode.  Others (outline, shadow, 
mirrors) work only in brush mode.  The reference guide shows which 
are available in either mode.

The drawing modes are used for free-hand sketching and irregularly 
shaped  lines.  Drawing  is done with either a brush  or  a  block 
cursor,  in  solid or pattern mode.  There is also the  option  of 
normal,  smear,  colour  cycle or change.  For our  basic  drawing 
lesson right now, use normal. The others will be explained below.

Select  the brush box,  to be able to 'paint' on the screen  using 
one  of  the  brush  cursors.  You  can  either  use  it  to  draw 
continually by holding down the left mouse button,  or as a single 
'point'  by pressing the button once (the point command  selection 
only  allows you to draw a single point at a time).  In  any  draw 
mode,  the shape of the cursor is that of the brush shape shown on 
the  line  below  the colour palette.  The leftmost  shape  -  the 
crosshair - produces a line one point wide and high ;  it's easier 
to align your images with it than some of the the other shapes.

Choose a brush shape from the sixteen available ;  your lines  and 
figures  will be drawn with the shape and thickness of  the  brush 
you select. Creating a brush shape is done be selecting a brush to 
edit,  then  selecting 'Make Brush' from the make pull-down  menu. 
Every brush except the crosshair can be changed. This is described 
in detail in the section on pull-down menus.

Choose  a colour to draw in by clicking the mouse when the  cursor 
is over the correct colour box at the top of the menu  screen.  If 
you choose the same colour as the background, you won't be able to 
see your drawing. Changing the colour palette is described above.

You can toggle your brush shape up and down the available  choices 
in a drawing screen by using the right and left arrow keys.  These 
move  you  one  brush  shape  selection  in  that  direction   and 
automatically switch you into draw mode.


DRAWING OPTIONS

These menu features all use either the brush or the block. Many of 
these  features  can work in tandem with other  features  such  as 
mirror and shadow,  as explained later.  Features that don't  work 
with another are 'greyed-out' in the menu screen.  There are often 
dialog  boxes  associated with these features that  allow  you  to 
customise them to suit your own needs.  These boxes can be  called 
by  either double-clicking on the command box or pulling down  the 
'Set'  menu and selecting the appropriate choice.  Note  that  the 
cursor is also the current colour while drawing.

DRAW

Keystroke : D        
     
This  is  the basic drawing mode using the mouse  to  direct  your 
cursor.  Press the right mouse button to enter the drawing screen. 
Use the mouse to position the cursor and hold down the left  mouse 
button.  Your  drawing will start at that point.  Keep  the  mouse 
button  held down and move the mouse ;  the line you draw  follows 
the cursor.

If you want a different line width,  return to the menu screen and 
select  another  brush  shape  (not line  ;  that's  used  by  the 
geometric shapes and the line features) by clicking the left mouse 
button once when the cursor is in the desired brush box.  You  can 
also  select  another brush shape by pressing the right  and  left 
arrow keys rather than exiting to the main menu.

You can undo the last line drawn if you make a mistake.  The  UNDO 
key  erases the line drawn from the last left mouse button  press. 
If you draw several lines, it will only erase the last and only if 
you don't press either mouse button again before you press UNDO.

Drawing with a block is somewhat different. The edges of the block 
determine the colours that are drawn.

POINT

Keystroke : P

Point  works the same as Draw except that each press of  the  left 
mouse button leaves only a single point on the drawing screen, the 
same  siz,  brush  shape  and colour of the cursor  (or  block  if 
toggled).  Point isn't used to draw a line,  just single images of 
the brush shape or block.  You can populate the screen with images 
of  your custom brush shape - say a small figure like you'll  find 
in the brush file 'MAN.BRU'.

Use UNDO to erase the last point drawn on the screen.

ERASER

Keystroke : E

There  are several ways to erase a small section of the picture  ; 
one  method is to draw over the area you want to delete  with  the 
background colour.  This is suitable for small  areas,  especially 
when  using  one of the magnify modes.  Another way is to  copy  a 
block of the background over the area,  if it can be done  without 
ruining other parts of the picture as well. In some cases, you can 
simply use the eraser.

The  eraser  works just like the brush in draw ;  you  select  the 
brush shape in the menu screen,  but the colour is always the same 
as the background colour (leftmost box on the colour palette). The 
eraser  has  a  default brush shape,  but you  can  change  it  by 
selecting any shape you want.

Eraser shares most of the same options as brush draw mode.  If you 
select a mono fill pattern and click on the pattern box,  it  will 
erase  pixels  from the area you work  in,  leaving  a  background 
design the same as the pattern selected. If you have a colour fill 
and the pattern mode selected,  the eraser will simply act like  a 
brush and paint over the area with the fill pattern,  rather  than 
just erasing it.

Eraser works in regular draw mode,  even with slow draw,  but  not 
with  magnify.  To  erase  in  magnify  mode,  simply  select  the 
background colour and click on the pixel(s) you ant erased.

To cancel the most recent erase,  press UNDO before you press  any 
other keys or mouse buttons.


LINES

Keystrokes : L, K and R

Lines  extend  straight  in any direction from  the  first  cursor 
location  where  you press the left mouse button to  wherever  you 
move  the cursor and press the left mouse button again.  They  use 
the colour and brush shape like the draw modes above, but also use 
the line pattern (or block,  if toggled).  To change the  selected 
fill or line pattern,  move the cursor to the box on the right  of 
the  screen  and press the left mouse button on one of  the  arrow 
keys on either side.  You can cycle through the available patterns 
by  holding down the left mouse button.  Each arrow moves you  one 
step in that direction through the series.  Double-clicking in the 
pattern window also provides you with a dialog to choose your line 
or fill.

Lines can be drawn with both a fill pattern (colour or mono) and a 
line pattern.  The current fill pattern is shown in the box at the 
lower  right,  below  the  line pattern.  To switch  to  the  fill 
pattern,  first click on the 'pattern' box beside the 'solid' box. 
To see the results best,  use a thicker brush shape.  Combining  a 
broken  line  with a fill pattern often  creates  uniquely  shaped 
lines.

Customising  fill  and  line  patterns  (creating  your  own)   is 
described further on in this manual.  Another important feature to 
refer  to  when  drawing lines is  'snap',  which  establishes  an 
invisible  grid  on which you align your start and end  points  of 
lines for more accurate positioning.

Lines using a block cursor are also affected by the line  pattern. 
For example,  a dotted line used with a block will place the block 
at regular intervals on the screen.  Other effects such as  shadow 
and  mirrors  work  with  lines.  Experiment  with  the  different 
combinations  of brush and line shapes before you do  any  serious 
drawing.

REGULAR LINES

Keystroke : L

To draw a single straight line,  position the cursor at the  place 
on  the  screen  where you want the line to begin  and  press  and 
release the left mouse button. Now move the cursor to the position 
where  you  want the line to end.  You'll see that a  'shadow'  or 
'rubber  band' line attaches both points to indicate the  position 
of the line when drawn. The shadow also shows you the current line 
pattern.  When you press the left mouse button again,  the line is 
drawn between the two points.

Press  UNDO  to erase the last line drawn if you  make  a  mistake 
before you press either mouse button.

K-LINES

Keystroke : K

K-Lines  are  continuous lines ;  they work exactly  like  regular 
lines but don't stop when you press the left mouse button.Instead, 
the line continues from the last point where you pressed the  left 
mouse button.  K-Lines are excellent for drawing graphs or  charts 
where connected straight lines are used for data display.

To  stop the K-Line feature and move the cursor without drawing  a 
line,  press the right mouse button.  Press the right button again 
to return to the menu screen. K-Lines are re-activated by pressing 
the left mouse button again. UNDO erase the last line drawn.

RAYS

Keystroke : R

Rays are straight lines that all have the same central start point 
and  draw outward from it.  Press the left mouse button  when  you 
have  positioned  the  cursor  where  you  want  the  rays  to  be 
'anchored'.  Release  the button and move the mouse ;  the  shadow 
line follows.  Press the left mouse button again to draw the  ray. 
Move  the cursor to the next location and continue  drawing  rays. 
The  right mouse button cancels the ray feature ;  a second  press 
returns  you to the menu screen.  UNDO erases the last  ray  group 
drawn.


SPECIAL EFFECTS

AIRBRUSH AND STIPPLE

Keystroke : A and S

Airbrush and stipple are special drawing modes.  Airbrush paints a 
swatch  of  colour on the screen like a can of  spray  paint,  the 
colour  of the selected paint palette,  using a  circular  cursor. 
Stipple has a similar effect,  but it works with the current brush 
shape.  These features are especially useful for adding shading to 
three-dimensional  objects  such as  spheres.  Double-clicking  on 
stipple  and  airbrush command boxes brings up  the  customisation 
dialog window.

When you draw with the airbrush, you do so exactly as you would in 
draw  mode ;  with the mouse and the left mouse button held  down. 
Like a spray can,  airbrush continues to spray in one area as long 
as you hold down the button.  If you don't move the  cursor,  then 
you'll eventually get a round dot of colour.  The faster you  move 
the mouse,  the fewer drops hit the screen ;  the slower you move, 
the thicker the paint.  The paint is applied randomly, just like a 
spray  can.  Slow draw works with airbrush to increase  the  paint 
flow in the cursor location. Similarly, the stipple effect depends 
on how long you hold down the button.  Airbrush, since it paints a 
single  pixel rather than a line,  creates a 'finer'  effect  than 
stipple which paints a spot as large as the brush shape.

Both  features  can use either a solid or pattern  spray.  If  you 
select  pattern,  then  the pattern in the box is sprayed  in  the 
area,  randomly,  but adhering to the pattern's outline.  You  can 
also use them with colour fill patterns, in which case the current 
colour  in  the palette isn't used.  Double-click on  the  pattern 
display box and select colour.  Then choose a fill pattern to work 
in and watch the effect.

Airbrush  works in brush  draw mode  (not block) and has it's  own
brush shape ; a circle you select as small,  medium or large.  The
size  governs  the cursor shape - the area where  the  paint  gets 
sprayed.Flow governs the speed at which the paint fills the  space 
you're  spraying.  Stipple repeats the current brush shape  within 
the boundaries defined by the stipple range.You select the  number 
of pixels from the brush to use the effect.Stipple works in  block 
mode.

You  can  also adjust the speed of the flow in  both  airbrush  or 
stipple  box.  They work with shadow and mirror features  as  well 
(but not both together) as well as change.  Both can be used  like 
the point mode,  placing a random group of dots in the cursor area 
when  you press the left mouse button and release it  quickly.  To 
turn  the  airbrush or stipple off,  click the cursor  over  their 
command box again. the UNDO key erases the last spray.

While not difficult to use,  there area a lot of combination s and 
effects  that  you can get from airbrush  and  stipple.  Smear  is 
particularly  effective with stipple,  for example.  Using  either 
with  change can result in some striking effects and  very  subtle 
enhancements  to  your picture.  You should  experiment  with  the 
various uses of brushes,  speeds and patterns to understand  their 
effect.

MIRRORS

Keystroke : M

Like  a real mirror,  this feature reflects ;  it duplicates  your 
drawing on another part of the screen. This is useful when drawing 
an image for replication in more than one part of the screen or in 
creating irregular but symmetrical shapes. It can also be a lot of 
fun  ;  the  mirrors  can make your screen  behave  like  a  video 
kaleidoscope.

The screen can be divided into 'mirrors' with the exact centre  as 
the focal point.  Double-click on the mirror box and select  which 
type  you want to use.  The mirror type refers to where the  image 
will be duplicated. If you have a horizontal mirror, then whatever 
you  draw in the left or the right half will be drawn in the  same 
relative location in the other half,  reversed.  A vertical mirror 
splits  the  screen into top and bottom  halves  (drawing  'upside 
down').  A  diagonal mirror reflects in the opposite  quadrant  (a 
quarter of the screen) :  if you draw in the upper left,  it  also 
appears  in  the lower right corner.  If you  combine  all  three, 
whatever  you draw in one quadrant will be mirrored in  the  other 
three.

Mirrors  work  with all drawing,  line,  eraser and  shape  modes, 
although not together with shadow.

SHADOW

Keystroke : H

Shadow  duplicates each plotted point you draw,  a set  number  of 
pixels away from the original point,  in a colour and direction of 
your choice. It uses the brush shape to determine the thickness of 
the line,  if a line or brush is being used.  It works with  draw, 
point, line, shape and text modes.

Shadows  can  be  adjacent  or  completely  separate   duplicates, 
depending on how far away you set them and the size of your brush. 
Shadows are automatically drawn when you click on the shadow  box. 
With  filled figures like disc,  box or polygon,  the 'mono'  fill 
pattern  is also shadowed 'behind' the original,  but not  visible 
through  it.  This  is good for creating 3-D  effects  with  solid 
figures.  A coloured fill is not shadowed as a fill, but instead a 
solid shadow of the chosen colour from the palette is drawn  (read 
the  section on fill patterns below to understand  the  difference 
between mono and colour).

To  set  your shadow and select its colour,  double-click  on  the 
shadow box.  Shadows can be directed to follow your drawing in any 
one of eight directions,  and in any colour of the palette  (black 
and white in high-res). the shadow colour can be different from or 
the  same  as  the  drawing colour.  Click on  the  arrow  to  set 
the direction of the shadow and click on the colour palette.  Then 
select  the  number of pixels away from the original  to  set  the 
shadow.

Since there's only one 'colour' in high-res mode, the best shadows 
there are obtained when you use them on top of a pattern.  In  low 
and  medium  res modes,  shadows work better because you  can  use 
contrasting  colours  and shades.  Shadow works  well  with  other 
effects such as airbrush and stipple.

UNDO erases the last item drawn as well as its shadow.

OUTLINE

Keystroke : O

This  feature  draws an outline around any colour  you  click  on, 
using  the currently selected colour from the palette.  There  are 
three options, selected when you double-click on the outline box : 
initial/all  colours,  touching/adjacent pattern and  round/square 
corners.

Initial/all  defines  whether or not to outline only  the  initial 
colour you click on to start the outline or whether to outline all 
colours touching it.  Outlining stops when the program  encounters 
the background colour (the leftmost colour on the colour palette). 
If  you click on the background itself with initial  chosen,  then 
all colours will be outlined, except the background.

Touching/adjacent determines the method of search to determine  if 
colours  are  nearby.  Touching  only  searches  horizontally  and 
vertically,  and  the  area being outlined must be more  than  one 
pixel wide, if drawn diagonally, in order to be outlined. Adjacent 
searches diagonally as well,  and will outline even thin  diagonal 
lines.

Round/square determines how the corners of the outlined area  will 
look.  Round draws a diagonal line across square  corners,  square 
duplicates the corner exactly.

Outlines are very effective in business graphics,  around text  or 
to highlight parts of your drawing.

SNAP

Keystroke : N

Alignment  of lines,  shapes,  text and similar features is  often 
inaccurate  when  just using the eye and  hand.  Snap  provides  a 
simple  but  elegant  solution to the  problem  :  an  adjustable, 
invisible grid that 'snaps' your work to it. By double-clicking on 
the snap box,  you see the grid size dialog where you can select a 
grid  size between two and sixteen pixels.  The grid is  effective 
all over the screen, once established.

When  snap is active,  lines can only begin on a pixel that is  on 
the grid.Circles and discs can only centre on a grid pixel,  frame 
and box corners can only be set on the grid.You cannot draw on any 
of the pixels between grid points ,  although lines and  geometric 
shapes  will draw between the grid points,  even if they can  only 
start and end on these points. In Draw mode itself, it is possible 
to draw diagonals between two grid points, but not irregular lines 
between them. Snap is most effective with lines, shapes and text.

You'll see your cursor jump around on the screen when snap is on ; 
it  can  only draw on or between points on  the  grid.  Snap  also 
aligns the text cursor to its grid,  so you can position your text 
more accurately.

FILL

Keystroke : Z

Fill  does just that ;  it fills any enclosed area (or  the  whole 
screen)  with  the fill pattern selected in the box  in  the  menu 
screen.  Fill  stops when it reaches colour other than the one  in 
the area clicked on (i.e. stopping at an outline or border) or the 
edge of the screen.  Note that the 'solid' and 'pattern'  concepts 
work differently in fill than in drawing modes.

Select  Fill  from the main menu.  Go to the  drawing  screen  and 
position  the cursor inside the area you want  filled.  Press  the 
left mouse button.  The enclosed space is quickly filled with  the 
chosen pattern.

Degas fills an area to the borders and borders have to be solid to 
prevent  the  pattern from 'leaking' out into  adjacent  areas.  A 
border is defined as a colour area ;  Degas stops filling when  it 
encounters another colour or the edge of the screen. Make sure you 
have all the gaps sealed before you fill an area ; use the magnify 
mode to inspect the border if you think there may be a  hole.  You 
can  always  erase  the last fill before you return  to  the  menu 
screen  or press the left mouse button,  by pressing UNDO  on  the 
keyboard.
 
The fill pattern in high-res mode is either white on black or vice 
versa ;  selected by choosing the colour from the palette bar.  If 
you also change the background with set colour,  you may find fill 
doesn't have the right effect or doesn't appear to work  properly. 
It's working all right,  but you just need to go back to the  menu 
screen  and select the proper colour in order to display the  fill 
pattern properly.

Using  a colour monitor,  you select the mono fill pattern  colour 
by choosing one of the colours in the palette.  You cannot fill an 
area with a pattern of the same colour as the area itself  ;  your 
area  and fill patterns must have different  colours.  The  colour 
fill patterns can have up to the full number of available  colours 
in  each of them and their colours are independent of  the  colour 
chosen in the palette.

Fill uses the solid or pattern mode set in the main menu screen to 
determine transparency.  If set to pattern,  then fill works  like 
the 'X-ray' text feature ;  it will,  where possible, fill over an 
existing  pattern and still allow the picture to show through  the 
background  colour.  This  allows  you  to  combine  several  fill 
patterns  for  a new effect,  as long as there are  gaps  for  the 
pattern to leak through. Remember that a fill stops at any border. 
Also,  the  contents of the fill pattern determine how  and  where 
another  fill  will paint over it.  Some  experimentation  may  be 
necessary to find the results you want.

If  solid  is  selected,  fill paints over the  picture  with  the 
background colour regardless of what is below.  Also, colour fills 
ALWAYS paint over the background.  Note that the solid and pattern 
modes have different meanings in draw and fill use.

If  you hold the CONTROL key down before you press the left  mouse 
button  to  fill an area,  the fill pattern will be solid  in  the 
selected colour instead of a pattern.  This works even if you have 
chosen  a  colour  fill.  UNDO  also  erases  the  solid  fill  if 
necessary.


GEOMETRIC SHAPES

Geometric  shapes  are generally regular,  symmetric  shapes  like 
circles or squares. These shapes can be either outlines (circle or 
frame) or solid (disc or box). If outlines, they use the brush and 
line shapes and can use the fill pattern.  If solid,  they can  be 
filled with a colour or the current fill pattern.

Geometric  shapes treat the modes 'solid' and  'pattern'  somewhat 
differently  than other drawing tools - they work like they do  in 
the fill mode,  above. If solid is selected, then everything drawn 
over  another colour or shape will paint over it and cover  what's 
below.  With  pattern,  however,  it lets the painting below  show 
through the background colour in the fill pattern. This only works 
with 'mono' fills ; colour fills always act like a solid and cover 
anything below them.

To get a 'solid' (i.e.  one colour selected from the palette) fill 
using geometric shapes, hold down the SHIFT key while defining the 
shape, as described below.

CIRCLE

Keystroke : C

Outlined  circles  and ovals are easy to draw  with  Degas  Elite. 
Simply position the cursor where you want the centre of the  shape 
to be in a drawing screen.  For accuracy, you might want to draw a 
single  pixel point at the location first,  so you can  align  the 
shape properly with the rest of your drawing (use the empty  pixel 
in the crosshair brush pattern for alignment).

Now  press the left mouse button in the drawing screen.  Move  the 
mouse  in  any  direction ;  the circle or  oval  expands  in  the 
direction  you move the mouse.  The cursor remains visible in  the 
leading  edge  of  the outline box to show you  which  way  you're 
moving.  The outline box is merely to help you position the circle 
in your drawing ; it disappears when the circle itself is drawn.

Press  the left mouse button again ;  the circle remains in  place 
and  the outline box disappears.  The circle or oval is  fixed  in 
that  location ;  the right button erases it before you press  the 
left  mouse button.  A circle is not affected by the line  pattern 
but  is by the brush shape and whether solid or patterned mode  is 
selected. The outline assumes the thickness of the brush shape and 
draws using the current pattern unless solid is selected.  Circles 
may  be  plotted  with a portion of their  outline  'outside'  the 
screen area ; Degas will clip the outside but draw the rest. 

If you want a perfect circle,  not an oval (i.e. the radius is the 
same at all points),  then press and hold the ALTERNATE key before 
you press the left mouse button to draw your circle.  Now when you 
move  the cursor,  it will only go to locations which  ensure  you 
draw a circle,  not an oval.  Release the ALTERNATE key and  press 
the left mouse button to set the circle. UNDO erases it.

DISC

Keystroke : I

A disc is merely a circle filled with the selected colour and fill 
pattern.  It  is  drawn  the same as a circle  except  it  is  not 
affected by brush shape. It will not appear filled until you press 
the left mouse button to fix it. When you fix it, the circle fills 
with the current fill pattern. If you press and hold the SHIFT key 
before  you press the left mouse button,  the disc is outlined  as 
well  as filled with the pattern.  The outline is always the  same 
colour as the fill pattern,  if it's a mono fill. If it's a colour 
fill pattern, the outline is always the last colour (rightmost) on 
the  palette.  If  you want the disc filled with  a  solid  colour 
rather than a pattern,  press and hold the CONTROL key before  you 
press the left mouse button. 

A  disc is painted over any colour or drawing material  underneath 
it ; it it goes above any other material on the screen. you 'undo' 
a  circle or disc with the right button before you press the  left 
mouse button to fix it.  If you press the left button and fix  it, 
use the UNDO key to erase it.

FRAME

Keystroke : F

A frame is a square or rectangular outline. you draw it exactly as 
you draw a circle ;  position the cursor where you want one corner 
of the box to be drawn.  Now press the left mouse button and  drag 
the mouse to enlarge the frame.  The cursor appears at the leading 
corner to indicate direction. Press the left mouse button again to 
fix the frame or press the right button to undo it.

A  frame  is affected by both line and fill pattern and  by  brush 
shape.  You  can select a different line shape by positioning  the 
cursor  in the line box of the menu screen and double-clicking  or 
clicking  on one of the box arrows to cycle through the  available 
patterns. Experiment with combinations of both to see what results 
you can get.

BOX

Keystroke : X

A box is a filled frame,  like a disc is a filled circle ; it uses 
the  current colour and fill pattern.  You draw it exactly as  you 
would  a  frame.  It  doesn't appear filled until you  fix  it  by 
pressing  the  left mouse button again.  Like the  disc,  you  can 
create  an outlined box by holding the SHIFT key before you  press 
the left mouse button to fix the image.  You can also fill the box 
with a solid rather than a pattern by pressing and holding CONTROL 
before you press the left mouse button.

You  can also draw a frame or box with rounded  corners  ;  simply 
press  and hold down the ALTERNATE key before you  begin  drawing. 
The  rounding won't show until you press the left mouse button  to 
fix the box.  Rounding can be used with SHIFT or CONTROL keys  for 
outlined or solid fill.

Like disc, a box paints over anything drawn below it. You 'undo' a 
frame or box with the right mouse button before you press the left 
mouse button to fix it or the UNDO key after it has been fixed.

POLYGONS

Keystroke : G

Polygons are irregular,  filled shapes. You draw a shape just like 
you use K-Lines ; each press of the left mouse button starts a new 
straight  line from the current cursor position.  The right  mouse 
button erases the lines and UNDO erases the figure entirely.

Polygons  work slightly differently than  K-Lines,  however.  Your 
last  point  should  be drawn within three pixels  of  your  first 
point. Degas Elite automatically connects your starting point with 
the  last point and fills the area with the current  fill  pattern 
and colour.  Another method of making connections is to press  the 
RETURN  key.  Degas will link your last point to your first  point 
with a straight line ;  you don't need to worry about being  three 
pixels from the first.  If your lines overlap or cross,  there may 
be areas which don't get filled. 

to get an outline polygon,  press and hold SHIFT before you  start 
defining the figure.  To fill a polygon with a solid colour rather 
than  a  fill  pattern,  press and hold  the  CONTROL  key  before 
defining it.

Polygons  can only have a maximum of 25 line  segments,  including 
the connecting line between the first and last points.  If you try 
to establish any more,  the polygon erases itself and you have  to 
start over again.

The  polygon  or irregular block mode works exactly  like  polygon 
draw  for  defining the block to be  duplicated  (described  under 
blocks, below).


SLOW DRAW 

Keystroke : W

Degas is a fast drawing program ;  sometimes too fast when  you're 
trying  to be careful and accurate.  In order to make things  like 
aligning  geometric shapes easier or in positioning the cursor  in 
magnifying mode,  choose slow draw in the menu screen.  To turn it 
off,  return to the menu screen,  press the left mouse button when 
the cursor is again in the slowdraw box (or press the 'w' key in a 
workscreen).  Slow  draw  works with all Degas  drawing  and  text 
features.

To  change slow draw to suit your own needs,  double-click on  the 
box and select a number from two to eight.  The higher the number, 
the  slower  the draw (i.e.  the higher the lag in the  the  mouse 
travel across the screen).


MAGNIFY MODES

Keystroke : F1 to F10

Magnify is a special feature of Degas ; it expands an area of your 
drawing  to about a third of the full screen size so you can  work 
on it in more detail.

You  enter  magnify  mode from any drawing screen  by  pressing  a 
function key, and you return to the original mode you were working 
in when you're finished.  To engage the magnify feature, go to the 
drawing  screen by pressing the right mouse button (if you have  a 
blank screen,  then draw something to work with or load a  drawing 
in first).  Press a function key in the line of keys at the top of 
the  keyboard (F1 to F10).  F1 magnifies the are three  times,  F2 
four times and so on until F10 magnifies twelve times.  To cancel, 
press the right mouse button.

A small rectangle appears on the screen when you press a  function 
key  ;  this  is the definition box ;  it frames the area  of  the 
picture to magnify.  Use the mouse to move it around your  drawing 
so  that  the area you want to work in is inside  the  frame.  Now 
press the left mouse button.

The area you selected is magnified and displayed in the right hand 
section  of  the screen.  Left of it is the same  section  of  the 
screen  in actual size,  so you can see the results of your  work. 
The actual area being magnified is encased in a border so you  can 
locate  your work area exactly.  At the top,  on the left  is  the 
current  colour  palette - this palette only affects  the  magnify 
mode screen ;  it doesn't change the colour you're working with in 
regular  drawing mode.

Each square in the magnified picture is one pixel large, no matter
what the resolution. To change a pixel - to draw in magnify mode -
move  the cursor to the pixel in the right portion and  press  the
left mouse button.  The pixel becomes the colour you selected from 
the palette.
 
If  you  keep the left mouse button held down,  you  can  draw  in 
magnify mode in the selected colour just like the draw mode.  UNDO 
in the magnifying screen returns all of the most recently  changed 
pixels  to their original colour.  Unlike the original  Degas,  it 
doesn't  change ALL the pixels ;  it now works the same as in  the 
regular draw mode.

Watch  the  left  side to see how your  changes  affect  the  real 
drawing.  Magnify  is very good for adding detail,  for  smoothing 
large text, touching up and erasing small areas of the screen.

The  arrow  boxes on the upper right and the arrow keys  move  the 
image  a 'block' roughly one quarter the magnified screen size  in 
the direction of the arrow,  so you can move around the screen  in 
magnify  mode without having to exit to regular  mode  first.  The 
plus and minus signs change the magnification one level up or down 
and the function keys jump directly to that level without  leaving 
the  mode.  You  can also move the magnified are by  pressing  the 
appropriate  arrow  key on the keyboard,  and you can  change  the 
magnification by using the plus or minus keys on the keyboard.

To  return to the drawing screen,  press the right  mouse  button. 
You  can  then  move the definition box to  another  location  and 
magnify it or press the right mouse button again and return to the 
mode you were drawing in previously.


TEXT

Keystroke : T 

When  you load Degas Elite,  the program checks a file on drive  A 
called  ASSIGN.SYS.  This  is  a list of fonts to  load  with  the 
program,   which  are  also  read  automatically  from  drive   A. 
Customising  fonts and changing the ASSIGN.SYS file are  described 
in more detail in the appendix on the font editor. You can load up 
ten  different fonts into the system,  provided you have  adequate 
memory.  You  may  need to disable one or  more  desk  accessories 
(especially very large accessories) and even reduce the number  of 
workscreens to get more memory (hold the ALT key down when booting 
Degas Elite) to make enough room for your fonts.

The  text  feature  is for positioning characters -  a  text  font 
(letters and number) or graphics - on the screen.  the text box in 
the menu screen shows you the current text shape, size and colour. 
To change to another text size,  simply click on one of the arrows 
beside the box.  There are six sizes available in each  font.  The 
colour palette is used to change the text colour.Text always  uses 
the solid mode, never pattern.

Double-click on the box labelled 'text'. This brings up the dialog 
box  in which you select the type of text (x-ray or  blocked)  and 
the  font  style  (underlined,  thickened,  lightened,  skewed  or 
outlined).  Different style selections can be combined together to 
give you quite a range of font styles in which to work.

Text  uses  the  ST keyboard for entry ;  you can  use  upper  and 
lowercase letters,  punctuation and numbers.  You can also use the 
CONTROL key with the keyboard,  but not the ALT key. The BACKSPACE 
key  erases  the last characters typed from the right end  of  the 
text. UNDO erases the entire text before you press any other mouse 
button. RETURN starts your text over again at the beginning of the 
next line down,  so it doesn't overwrite initial text. Return also 
fixes  the  text  on the screen.  To shift the  cursor  to  a  new 
location, press either mouse button.

You  can  write  up to 80 characters of text  in  a  single  line, 
depending  on  the actual size of the text  and  your  resolution. 
Lower  resolution allows fewer characters in a  single  line.  The 
cursor  for text is a double rectangle which defines  the  maximum 
size in pixels that the font consumes.  The lower rectangle is the 
space  used by descenders.  Not every letter will use all of  this 
area,  but it is useful to indicate the absolute limits in  height 
and width a character may use.

A commonly used technique is shadowed or 3-D letters.  This can be 
done  very simply by using a shadow of a darker colour with  text. 
Other features work with text, including snap, slowdraw and cycle.

There  are  several sizes available for  text,  depending  on  the 
particular  font.  The colour palette is used to change  the  text 
colour.

BLOCKED TEXT

To  print  your text over the background  and  overwrite  anything 
below it,  select blocked text. Position the cursor where you want 
the  text to appear and start typing.  You can move the mouse  and 
the  text  will follow ;  you can position text  anywhere  on  the 
screen. When you press UNDO, it erases the entire line as does the 
right  mouse button.  The left mouse button fixes the text at  the 
cursor location.

X-RAY TEXT

X-Ray text works just like blocked text, except that it leaves the 
picture  intact  beneath it.  This means you can  write  over  one 
colour  with  another  or fill a coloured area with  text  in  the 
background colour.  When you are using OUTLINED text,  the text is 
automatically  drawn in X-ray mode,  due to a  system  limitation. 
This is usually not a problem,  but if you need it to be  blocked, 
you can type the text on another workscreen and use the BLOCK mode 
to grab it and place it where you like.  


ANIMATION AND CYCLE

Keystroke : TAB and CONTROL+Y

Animation  permit  you  to cycle a selection of  colours  in  your 
palette automatically, in either direction and simulate animation, 
if your picture is drawn to suit such cycling. Double-click on the 
animation box to set the cycling parameters.

First,  drag  your mouse along a range of colours on the  palette, 
left  to right,  holding the left mouse button down as you do  it. 
This defines which colours will be in the animation  group.  Next, 
click on which group to use - one to four.  You can set up to four 
different cycles,  but only one marked will be active at any time. 
Next,  select  the direction of the cycle ;  left  or  right.  The 
centre box is 'steady', i.e. no animation.

The animation speed can vary between slow and very fast by sliding 
the  box  in  the  speed bar from right  (fast)  to  left  (slow). 
Finally,  you can test the effect on the palette with the test box 
and in your current workscreen with the look box.

When you leave the set animation dialog you can turn animation  on 
by either clicking in the animation box or by pressing the TAB key 
at any time in any screen.

Cycle is a drawing tool which uses the animation palette to define 
its colours. Set the palette as above, then select draw, brush and 
a large brush.  Make sure you have selected a colour that is  part 
of  an  animation  group,  not outside it.  Now  go  to  an  empty 
workscreen  and draw ;  you'll see the lines you draw  are  multi-
coloured  ;  each colour in the palette selected for animation  is 
painted, in that order.

Cycle doesn't use the current animation group ; instead, it checks 
which  animation  group that colour is with and uses  that  group, 
even if it's not the one selected in the animation dialog.  If the 
same  colour  is  used in more than one  group,  then  the  lowest 
numbered group is used.

Cycle also works with frame, circle, text, line, rays, stipple and 
many other features.  However,  in some, such as geometric shapes, 
the first object is drawn in the selected colour, not drawn multi-
coloured. The cycle effect takes place when each successive object 
is drawn ;  if you don't leave the screen,  the next shape will be 
drawn in the next colour in the palette.  With text cycle mode, it 
will only be printed in the next colour after you press Return.


SMEAR

Keystroke : CONTROL+M

Smear is an effect,  and is not actually dependent on the selected 
colour.  It uses the brush to 'smear' colours where they touch. It 
takes  two adjacent colours and 'randomizes' their pixels  in  the 
area of the brush. The simplest way to show this effect is to draw 
a  wide line of one colour on a blank screen,  then  select  smear 
(make sure you switch to solid first) and run the same brush along 
the  edge where the two colours meet.  Smear works best when  used 
with Stipple drawing mode.


CHANGE

Keystroke : CONTROL+C

Change gives you the ability to selectively change any colour in a 
picture  - no matter where it is - to any other in  your  palette. 
Double-click  on the change box in the menu screen and select  the 
colour  you want to change by clicking on it.  Click on  OK.  Then 
select the colour you want to change it to,  in the main  palette. 
Now  select  your drawing tool ;  change works  with  any  drawing 
brush, stipple, lines and geometric shapes and airbrush.

Change  works with mono and colour fill patterns as well  and  the 
effect  can  be quite striking.  It is a very  powerful  tool  for 
adding special effects.  You'll find it most useful when loading a 
picture  from  a  higher resolution into a  lower  one  with  more 
colours. Using this feature, you can change specific areas, adding 
the additional colours where you want.


COMBINING EFFECTS

Many  of the effects described above can be combined together  and 
produce different results than when used alone or with simple draw 
mode.  For example, Change combines well with airbrush and stipple 
and can change a colour to a mono or even colour fill pattern. The 
results  off all of these combinations is not easy to describe  in 
text ;  it's better that you experiment with them yourself on  the 
actual  screen.  Try clicking on a feature in the main  menu  then 
clicking on others to see what works with that feature. The effect 
a combination has also depends on the background, the brush shape, 
solid  or  pattern mode,  colour or mono fill  and  sometimes  the 
animation group.

It  may be a good idea to copy your picture to another  workscreen 
and  test an effect on a copy rather than on  your  original.  The 
most  important  thing  to remember is that  most  things  can  be 
restored with the UNDO key.

Note too, that several effects such as animation, change and cycle 
don't work in high resolution (monochrome).
   

CHAPTER 5 - BLOCKS


DEFINING REGULAR BLOCKS

Keystroke : ESC

Blocks  are one of Degas Elite's most powerful  tools.  Basically, 
you  can define any section of a workscreen as a block,  up  to  a 
full  screen in size.  This block can be moved,  copied  to  other 
areas or screens,  used as a brush for 'painting' or as an eraser, 
used in geometric shapes and manipulated by special commands.

To define a block,  simply press ESC.  This generated the  movable 
horizontal  and  vertical lines that establish the  start  of  the 
upper left hand corner of a block. Move the lines so that they are 
in the right position to start the definition,  then hold down the 
left mouse button and draw the lower right corner of the box  that 
appears  to the desired location.  It only moves down and  to  the 
right of the upper left corner.  Release the button.  The block is 
now  defined.  It also automatically toggles the system  to  block 
mode.  If you don't actually garb a block,  you can return to your 
previous  mode.  If you press 'B',  it toggles you back  to  brush 
mode.  The  block only appears in block mode,  'attached'  by  its 
centre point to your cursor.

If  you press the Return key or the left mouse button,  the  block 
will be 'set' or painted in its current location.  If you press  a 
number key,  you move to that workscreen with the block intact. Or 
if you press the right mouse button,  you return to the main  menu 
screen where you can call the block menu and choose one of several 
manipulations on the block such as stretch and rotate. Finally, if 
you  press ESC again,  you undo the block and can redefine  a  new 
one.  The  block buffer is not cleared until you start  redefining 
again.

POLYGONAL BLOCKS

Keystroke : SHIFT+ESC

Polygonal  blocks  are  irregularly  shaped  blocks,  rather  than 
rectangular.  You  define them by pressing SHIFT plus the ESC  key 
and drawing a border around your desired area exactly as you would 
draw a polygon.  RETURN connects the first and last point. You can 
draw up to 25 line segments in this mode.

Polygon blocks work exactly the same as regular blocks except  for 
their irregular shape.  However,  the block mode must be set to'X-
Ray',  not  blocked or a rectangular block results instead  of  an 
irregular one.


COPYING BLOCKS

Degas has a very powerful ability to cut and copy sections of your 
picture. You can copy a portion from one area to another, copy the 
same  part  several  times or move a  section  around  to  another 
location on the screen.

To  copy  a portion of a drawing,  go to the  drawing  screen  and 
define a block using the method described above.  If you press the 
left mouse button,  it sets the block in its current location.  If 
you continue to hold down the button,  the block acts like a brush 
and you can paint with it. UNDO cancels the last block.

There  are  two types of block parameters  :  X-Rat  and  Blocked, 
selected  when  you  double-click in the block  box  in  the  menu 
screen.

X-RAY BACKGROUND 

X-ray  makes the background colour 'transparent' in the block  and 
lets  the  drawing underneath show through that  colour.  This  is 
useful  for creating your own patterns ;  you can copy one  filled 
are over another with unique results.

The  background  colour  is made transparent  in  low  and  medium 
resolutions modes,  but the other colours are not,  so they  cover 
whatever  colour on top of which they are placed.  The  background 
colour  in  Degas is indicated by the leftmost box in  the  colour 
palette in the menu screen.

BLOCKED BACKGROUND

Blocked works exactly like X-ray except that the background is not 
transparent, so it covers up anything beneath the copy box.

FREE MOVE AND EDGE STOP

This  determines  if  the edge of the blocks  will  stop  when  it 
reaches  the edge of the screen (edge stop) or if it can be  moved 
off the visible edge (free move) at least as far as the cursor.


MULTIPLE COPIES 

You can make more than one copy of the same area very simply  with 
Degas ;  simply define the block as described above and move it to 
the new location.  Press the left mouse button (or  Return).  This 
duplicates  the  copy  box below its current  position  but  still 
allows you to move the original block to another location and copy 
it there as well.  This feature works equally well with X-ray  and 
blocked modes.


BLOCK MOVES

To  move a block,  define it as described above but hold down  the 
ALT  key while you define the block.  Move works just  like  block 
copy  except  that it picks up the rectangle you define  with  the 
mouse and cursor and doesn't leave a copy of it behind.  When  you 
press  the left mouse button or Return,  the area is fixed in  its 
new  location  and the area where it was  previously  is  returned 
to the background colour.

You can also make multiple copies with move like you can when  you 
copy  a block.  To return the section copied back to its  original 
location, press UNDO.


BLOCK MANIPULATIONS

ARROWS

Define  a block and go to a blank workscreen so you can  best  see 
the  following  effects.  Press the up arrow  key.  The  block  is 
inverted  in that direction.  Try the different arrow keys  ;  the 
block gets faced in the direction of the arrow.  UNDO cancels  the 
effect.

THE BLOCK MENU

Once  you have a block defined,  press the right mouse button  and 
exit  to  the main screen.  The block pull-down menu  has  several 
other features you can use to alter the shape,  size and facing of 
any  block ;  stretch,  rotate,  horizontal and vertical skew  and 
distortion.  Try  each  one in turn as you read  the  descriptions 
below. To restore the block, press UNDO. To set or 'fix' the block 
once you have changed it,  press the right mouse button and return 
to the main menu.

Note that once you select a type of manipulation to  perform,  you 
enter a blank screen (the block buffer) in which to work.  If  you 
change your block with one of these features, UNDO always restores 
it.  You  can  redefine a block within the changed block  in  that 
screen  by pressing ESC.  You can then apply the current  type  of 
manipulation to the new block and continue until you're satisfied. 
However,  UNDO  only restores the LAST block defined,  it  doesn't 
restore  back to the original block if you've defined other  block 
areas since.  UNDO also halts a block manipulation in the  process 
and restores it without continuing.

Be aware that some of these manipulations take several seconds  to 
perform  and the larger the block,  the longer they will  take  to 
complete. Be patient.

STRETCH

This  places the block in the upper left hand corner of  an  empty 
screen (the block buffer). To stretch the block, use the mouse and 
click  on the lower right corner.  An outline appears  around  the 
block.  Now  hold down the left mouse button and move that  corner 
anywhere  else  on the screen and release the  mouse  button.  The 
block will be drawn to the size of the outline box.

You  can also simply position the cursor on the screen  and  click 
the  left  button.  The block will be drawn so  its  bottom  right 
corner is located where the cursor was when you clicked.

Pressing  the  CONTROL key before starting the  stretch  operation 
will preserve the block's shape ;  that is,  its width and  height 
relationships will stay the same,  it will simply be scaled larger 
or smaller.

Pressing  the SHIFT key before starting a stretch  operation  will 
stretch  the  block horizontally ONLY - the  block's  height  will 
remain the same.

Pressing  the ALTERNATE key before starting the stretch  operation 
will  stretch the block vertically ONLY - the block's  width  will 
remain the same.

Click the right mouse button to return to the menu screen once you 
have the block stretched.  This 'fixes' the block at the new size. 
Once  you enter a workscreen,  the newly sized block is  available 
for placement or drawing.

ROTATE

Grab  any corner of the outline box when you press the left  mouse 
button  and rotate the outline clockwise or counter-clockwise  any 
number  of degrees.  When you let go of the mouse,  the  block  is 
remapped into an area of the same size, but with the new angle you 
define. The degrees of angle are shown in the upper left corner of 
the  screen.  Click the right mouse button to return to  the  menu 
screen.

H-SKEW AND V-SKEW

Horizontal  and vertical skewing allows you to offset  either  the 
top and bottom of a block (moving them horizontally,  or h-skewing 
right or left) or the sides (moving them vertically,  or v-skewing 
up  and  down).  Grab a corner with the mouse  and  move  it.  The 
opposite  face will be moved automatically the same amount in  the 
opposite  direction as you do this.  When you release the  button, 
the block is skewed.

DISTORT

Distortion  lets you move each corner of the block to a  different 
location  on  the  screen and distort  the  original  image  quite 
radically.  You can even overlap sections of the block itself  and 
'fold' the image. Grab a corner and move it while holding down the 
left mouse button.  Release the button when you reach the location 
you want.  When you've moved all the corners you want,  hold  down 
the  ALT key and click the left mouse button.  The block  will  be 
remapped  into that area.  This process can take a  modestly  long 
time, so be patient.

FORMAT, LOAD, SAVE AND REMAP

You  can  save and load blocks just as you would a  picture  file. 
Blocks are saved with the extension .BL1, .BL2, or .BL3, depending 
on  the resolution you're working in.  The colour palette  of  the 
block is saved with the image.

When you load a block,  you get an option to recolour it using the 
best  available  matches in the current colour  palette  (this  is 
further explained in the section on files,  below). If you say no, 
you  can  always recolour that block later,  by  using  the  remap 
menu command. A block can only be loaded if the block's resolution 
matches  the  current  screen resolution  ;  an  icon  file  (.ICN 
extension) will load into any resolution.

The format command allows you to save a block as either a graphics 
block (for use in Degas Elite or compatible graphics programs)  or 
as an icon file (a 'C' file for use with the Resource Construction 
Set and other utility programs or in your own programs).  The  RCS 
has a limit on the icon size, but you can use any size in your own 
program.  An icon is a monoplane image ;  it has no colour palette 
saved  with it.  Any colours in the block you save as an icon  all 
become the rightmost colour in the palette in any resolution. It's 
a good idea to reload your icon after you've saved it,to make sure 
it looks right in one colour.


CHAPTER 6 - THE PULL-DOWN MENUS


There are no keyboard equivalents fro the pull-down menu commands, 
since many of them require additional input or  information.  They 
can only be used from the main menu screen.


FILE

SET DRIVE

This allows you to set the default drive (not path) from which  to 
load and on which to save pictures and blocks.  Drives A through P 
are supported, so RAM disks and hard drives can be used with Degas 
Elite. Disk use and files are explained in the next chapter.

PIC TYPE

You can load several different types of pictures, including  other 
resolution pictures into the resolution you're using by specifying 
the type of picture it is before you load it.  The default type is 
always  the resolution in which you begin.  PI1,  PI2 and PI3  are 
low,  medium and high resolution Degas pictures,  respectively (it 
doesn't matter to the pic type if the file is compressed or  not). 
You  can also load in pictures made with  Atari  Neochrome,  8-Bit 
Koala Pad (tm) pictures ported from an Atari 800,  800XL or  130XE 
computer,  or  Amiga .IFF format pictures (using Electronic  Arts' 
file format).  Pictures are always saved in the current resolution 
as a Degas file with the proper extension to identify them.

COMPRESSION

Degas  has an automatic compression routine which reduces the size  
of  a standard picture file from roughly 34,000 bytes to  anywhere 
between 10,000 and 24,000 bytes.  You can turn compression off  if 
you want to save a picture in normal (uncompressed) format.  Degas 
Elite  reads  either  compressed  or  uncompressed  files  without 
requiring you to set anything before.

Compressed  Degas  pictures are save  with  .PC1,  .PC2,  or  .PC3 
extensions,  depending  on the resolution.  Compression on or  off 
only affects how the picture is saved, not loaded.

There are several reasons to use or not to use  compression.  Some 
word  processors  now allow you to include graphic files  such  as 
Degas  format  pictures  in them.  They usually  require  and  un-
compressed picture.  The same is true with several graphic display 
programs  (SHOWPIC2.PRG can display compressed  and  un-compressed 
pictures).  Translation  programs  which allow you to  turn  Degas 
pictures into other format files require un-compressed pictures to 
translate properly.

On the other hand,  compressed pictures take up about a third less 
space  on  a  disk,  so it is more efficient  to  store  files  in 
compressed and 'un-compress' them only as you need to.

LOAD PIC

This  is  used when loading a complete picture (image  and  colour 
palette) into workscreen one. When loading into other workscreens, 
this is disabled and you use 'load image' (below). See the section 
on   the  disk  which  explains  folders  and  files.   In   other 
workscreens,  this  option is 'greyed-out' and unavailable in  the 
pull-down menu.

You  have  to make sure your picture type  is  established  before 
loading  a picture.  When you load a picture saved in a  different 
resolution  from  the one you're using,  the  load  takes  several 
seconds to process and adjust ; you'll see the picture being drawn 
line  by line as Degas Elite processes it.  In monochrome or  high 
resolution,  colours four in medium or low resolution pictures are 
replaced  with  fill patterns which attempt to  match  the  colour 
densities in the original.

LOAD COLOURS

When you load an image into a workscreen other than one,  it  does 
not load the file's colour palette.  However, you may want to load 
the  palette separately or use another palette from the  disk  for 
your picture.  Palettes are saved with the picture files,  so  you 
click on the picture name,  not a specific palette name.  Palettes 
cannot be saved separately ; they exist only as part of a picture. 
A new palette always overwrites the existing one.

Obviously, in monochrome, there is no 'load colours' option.

LOAD IMAGE

This  loads the picture image without the colour palette into  any 
Degas  Elite  workscreen currently selected.  In  low  and  medium 
resolutions,  if the palette of the picture is not the same as the 
one in use at the time, then you are asked if you want the program 
to  try to recolour (remap) the picture using the closest  matches 
it can find in the existing palette. This is usually quite a close 
match if matches are at all possible.  If you say no, the image is 
loaded  and no re-colouring takes place.  You can always  recolour 
the workscreen later with remap (below).

In high resolution,  since there is no colour palette to load, you 
aren't  asked  if  you want the  image  remapped  and  recoloured. 
Instead,   colours  are  replaced  automatically  with  mono  fill 
patterns  in  an  attempt  to match the  shadings  with  fills  of 
different densities.

You  can  load an image into workscreen one,  by the  way  ;  this 
preserves your existing palette and only loads the picture.

SAVE PIC
This saves the current workscreen and the current palette to  disk 
using  the  appropriate  resolution  extender.   No  matter  which 
workscreen you save,  the current palette loaded with the  picture 
in  workscreen one (or the default if nothing has been loaded)  is 
saved  with the picture.  If you have compression turned  on,  the 
picture will be saved compressed with a .PC extender.  Click on  a 
name in the display or press ESC to clear the line and type in your 
own name if the name on the item selector box is not one you  want 
to use.

DELETE PIC

This  deletes a picture from the disk.  You select the picture  in 
the  same  manner as when you load a picture.  You  are  asked  to 
confirm the deletion before it is done.  Be careful! Once deleted, 
a  picture  cannot be restored.  You can delete a picture  in  any 
resolution, not simply the one you're currently using.

ERASE PIC

It's  easy to erase the selected workscreen ;  simply  select  the 
erase  pic command.  You'll be asked to confirm it by  positioning 
the  cursor  over  the 'OK' box in the window  that  pops  up  and 
pressing the left mouse button.  Be careful ;  you can't 'undo' an 
entire screen erase!

REMAP PIC

This  attempts to recolour the picture in the selected  workscreen 
using  the current palette,  in the same way as it does  when  you 
load  an  image.  The program attempts to find the  closest  match 
among the entire palette, then changes all the colours to suit the 
new  match.  Remapping an image can take several seconds,  as  the 
computer  examines and changes each pixel in the  picture,  so  be 
patient.

If you loaded an image into a workscreen and didn't recolour it at 
the  time of the load,  you can select that workscreen and try  it 
now.  You  can  also try to recolour a picture in  workscreen  one 
after you've loaded a new colour palette. The remapping process is 
'intelligent'.  That is,  it tries to match a colour on the screen 
with a colour in your palette and if it can't find an exact match, 
it  searches  for the closest one.  Blocks have  their  own  remap 
option  and when you load a colour fill,  you have the  option  to 
remap it as it loads.

PRINT TYPE

This  allows you to load the proper printer driver from the  disk, 
just as you would load a picture file. Several drivers for popular 
printers are supplied on the disk and others are available on  the 
Atari 16 bit SIG on CompuServe. Registered owners will be informed 
of new printer drivers as they are released. Once a printer driver 
is  loaded,  you  don't need to load it again  unless  you  change 
printers while you're working in the program.  It only needs to be 
loaded once each time you load Degas Elite,  before any  printing. 
Drivers have a .PRT extension.

If you are using a typical dot matrix printer with a single colour 
ribbon,  you won't get colours in your picture.  Degas will  print 
the  different  colours in shades of grey  instead.  Some  printer 
drivers  allow you to print either vertically or  horizontally  by 
holding  down  the ALT key before choosing Print  Pic.  These  are 
noted in the appendix listing the printer drivers themselves.

PRINT PIC

This prints the picture in the current workscreen on your printer. 
You  must have loaded the proper printer driver first.  Make  sure 
your printer is hooked up properly and online. With some printers, 
holding down the ALT key before you select print pic allows you to 
print  the picture vertically on the page.  This is noted  in  the 
appendix  on printer drivers.  If your printer  isn't  ready,  the 
system will 'hang' for about thirty seconds,  then control will be 
passed back to the program again.

If you press the UNDO key during a print operation, the print will 
be cancelled and you will return to the main menu screen.

Wait  for  the  cursor to return to normal  before  continuing  or 
removing your picture.

QUIT

This is the only way to properly leave Degas Elite.  Never  simply 
shut the machine off with disks in the drive.


SET

The set menu features duplicate those available by double-clicking 
or clicking with the ALT key held down in the command boxes in the 
main  menu  screen and all described in the earlier parts  of  the 
manual.  They  are provided as another way to get to the  commands 
and dialog boxes and don't offer any more features simply  because 
they're available through a menu.  Use which method seems best for 
you.


MAKE

Most  features in Degas can be altered to suit your  own  personal 
style  quite  easily.  The  Set and Make  menus  give  you  almost 
complete  control over every feature of the program.  Make  allows 
you to design custom patterns, lines and brush shapes.

MAKE FILL

This  allows  you to create a fill pattern  of  your  own.  First, 
select a fill pattern to change or replace.  You can change any of 
the  36 different patterns in both mono and colour but  you  can't 
have more than 36 in each.  Make your choice,  then click on  Make 
Fill.

The window that opens up is the fill pattern creation  window.  It 
shows a magnified version of the current pattern and below it is a 
sample  of  what it looks like in normal size.  There  is  also  a 
colour  palette (if a colour fill was selected),  boxes for  erase 
(clears the entire design),  fill (fills either with the  selected 
colour  or  all black if mono),  flip (flips right  to  left)  and 
invert  (flips  top to bottom),  toggle  (reverses  colours).  You 
activate these features by clicking in the box.

The arrows on the side of the lower display allow you to select  a 
fill  pattern  in  that  direction  from  the  available  choices. 
Clicking on these arrows rotates the display through all available 
choices.

Grab  returns you to the current workscreen and provides  a  small 
fill-sized  box for you to position over the desired  area.  Press 
the left mouse button and this area is 'grabbed' and you return to 
the dialog with the area now in the pattern box.  Click the  right 
mouse button to return without grabbing anything. Note that if you 
are editing a monoplane fill and grab aa section of colour, you'll 
probably  get nothing but a solid black  fill  pattern.  Monoplane 
uses  background  and the rightmost colour only in the  make  fill 
process.

To edit a pattern,  click the cursor in the magnified display box. 
It  works like drawing in magnified mode in  the  workscreens.  In 
mono  patterns,  the pixel where you click is reversed - black  to 
white and vice versa.  In colour patterns,  the pixel becomes  the 
colour  selected from the palette above the image.  All  available 
colours  can be used in colour fill.  A fill pattern is 16  by  16 
pixels.

The  four large arrow boxes at the bottom move the entire  display 
one pixel in that direction. When the pattern reaches one side, it 
'wraps' around the edge and appears on the opposite side.

You  can load and save a single fill pattern just as you  would  a 
picture. The extender for filenames of mono fill patterns is .FIL. 
Colour  fill patterns are either .FI1 or .FI2,  depending  on  the 
resolution. you can only load a colour fill pattern of the current 
resolution. The palette for a colour fill is saved with it and you 
can remap any colour fill you load,  just like an image or a block 
(you can't remap a fill pattern later, however).

If  you've already used a fill pattern in your  picture,  it  will 
remain  that way and won't change when you edit or load a  pattern 
over  that selection.  You don't change something  you've  already 
used in your drawing when you change the fill pattern later.

MAKE LINE

First, select the line you want to change or replace from the line 
display box by double-clicking in it.

A  line  is a lot simpler to change than a  fill  pattern  ;  it's 
simply  a thread of 16-pixel segments.  You turn each pixel on  or 
off by clicking in the magnified display box. The arrows cycle you 
through the line types one at a time when you click on one.  There 
are no other options for lines ; they're very simple to adjust and 
edit.

MAKE BRUSH

This works in a similar manner to the Make Fill feature, described 
above,  except it works only in monoplane mode. You can select any 
brush  on  the line except the first (the crosshair)  to  edit  or 
change.  If the crosshair is selected,  this feature is greyed out 
until  another brush is chosen.  The boxes  erase,  fill,  toggle, 
invert and flip all work the same as in make fill.

Note that there is only one 'colour' in a brush,  so toggle simply 
reverses  the  brush  and  the  background  colours.  Multi-colour 
effects can be had by using the cycle or change features or  using 
a block as a brush. A brush shape is eight by eight pixels.

You  can load and save a single brush design to disk like you  can 
fill patterns.  The filename extender for brush files is  .BRU.  A 
brush shape can load into any resolution.


BLOCK

These features were all described earlier ,  under the section  on 
defining  and drawing with blocks.  You must have a block  defined 
for the manipulation features (rotate,  stretch,  h-skew,  v-skew, 
distort and remap) to work. Note also the difference between block 
and icon format files, as described previously.

You can load and save a block,  like you can a picture,  with  its 
own colour palette. You can select save to save it as an icon (for 
use  in the Resource Construction Set or other programs) or  as  a 
block using the format command. However, you can only load a block 
into  its  own resolution,.  An icon file can be loaded  into  any 
resolution, but unlike a block, an icon is only mono-coloured.


APPENDIX A : A BASIC GUIDE TO THE DISK


This  section is intended for users who are new to the ST  or  for 
readers  who want some basic understanding of how disks and  files 
are used.

When you save,  load or delete a picture or block file from  disk, 
Degas  produces  a  window which shows you the  current  disk  and 
folder you're using and a list of any pictures on the disk in  the 
current  resolution.  The  directory of pictures has  scroll  bars 
which  work just like the scroll bars in your desktop.  If  you're 
not familiar with using scroll bars,  read your ST manual for more 
information.

The  default  folder is \DEGAS\.  This is preceded  by  the  drive 
identifier  (like  A:).  If your pictures are  stored  in  another 
folder or simply in the root directory, click on the small diamond 
shaped  box in the upper left of the window to close  that  folder 
and go to the root directory.  If you need to open another folder, 
click  on its name in the display (folders are identified  with  a 
small diamond icon beside their name).

Setting  the  drive from the File pull-down menu  establishes  the 
default  drive  the program will save to and load  from.  you  can 
change  this anytime.  It is really only a convenience ;  you  can 
load  from  one drive and save to another if  you  wish.  You  can 
change the default drive name in the file selector box by clicking 
the  mouse on that line and using the ESC key to  clear  it.  Then 
type in the drive (and folder) you want to use. Click the mouse on 
the  grey  bar  above the filenames to activate  it  (don't  press 
Return).

Pictures  have  three  character extenders to  their  names  which 
define the mode :  PI3 is high-res,  PI2 is medium and PI1 is low-
res  mode.  Compressed  pictures are called .PC1,  .PC2  or  .PC3. 
Blocks are called .BL1, .BL2 or .BL3. Brushes and mono-colour fill 
patterns  have the extenders .BRU and .FIL respectively  ;  colour 
fill patterns have extensions of .FI1 (low-res) and .FI2  (medium-
res). Icons have .ICN extenders.

You don't have to type in the extender ;  Degas will automatically 
append the correct extender for your resolution mode.  If you  try 
to use a different extender,  Degas will warn you and you'll  have 
to try again or change your picture type from the file  menu.  You 
can't  save  or  load a picture with  the  wrong  resolution  mode 
extender either!

The name of the picture to be save,  loaded or deleted will appear 
in the space under the word 'Selection :' when you either type the 
name  or click on it from the directory.  If you want to use  this 
name,  move  the  cursor to the OK box and press  the  left  mouse 
button.  If you want to use a different name,  then use the ESC or 
the  backspace  to delete the characters of the  name  (unless  of 
course it's already blank) and type in the name you want.

You can also move the cursor over to the name in the directory box 
and double-click the left mouse button.  This will save,  load  or 
delete the picture with that name.

You  can load and save a block,  like you can a picture.  You  can 
select to save it as an icon (for use in the Resource Construction 
Set) or as a block using the format command.


SAVING A PICTURE

To save your drawing to disk, first place your picture disk in the 
disk drive.  In the menu screen,  select 'SAVE PIC' from the  file 
menu.  A  window will open showing you all of the pictures on  the 
disk in that resolution mode. Follow the procedure described above 
for  choosing  a name for your picture.  Be  careful  ;  saving  a 
picture with a file name already used causes the one on disk to be 
erased and written over by the one you're saving now.

If  you save a picture with the same name as one already on  disk, 
you'll  be asked to confirm that it's okay to replace the  picture 
on disk with the one in memory.

A  picture  is  saved in  compressed  format,  unless  you  select 
'normal' or uncompressed.  Compressed pictures take up less  space 
on a disk, but many outside programs need uncompressed pictures to 
work with.

Make  sure you have enough space on your picture disk  before  you 
load Degas.


LOADING A PICTURE

Loading  a picture is the opposite of saving one ;  you call up  a 
picture  from  disk to the drawing screen.  You can  only  load  a 
picture which matches your current picture type,  so the directory 
will only show you those pictures with the proper extender. If you 
want to load a picture with a different resolution or type, change 
the picture type first. Loading a picture from disk erases any one 
currently  in memory in that workscreen,  so be sure to save  your 
picture first if you want to keep it. You'll be asked if it's okay 
to  load  the picture from disk over the one in memory  before  it 
happens.


DELETING A PICTURE

You  can delete a picture from disk by selecting it the  same  way 
when  you  save or load one.  You can delete pictures  with  other 
resolutions  than  the  one you're in at  present.  Be  careful  ; 
deleting a picture is irreversible,  so make sure you really  mean 
to delete it.  Before you actually delete the picture,  Degas asks 
you to confirm or cancel the action.


SETTING THE DRIVE

This feature allows you to define a default drive that the program 
will always use for loading and saving.  This is a convenient  way 
to avoid having to enter a drive name and folder every time you do 
any file input/output.

When you first load Degas Elite,  the default drive is always  the 
one from which you loaded the program.  It assumes a folder called 
DEGAS is used to keep your pictures and other files. Folders are a 
convenient and efficient way to organise your disks and files.

If  you set another drive after loading,  Degas Elite assumes  the 
same  folder is on the other drive.  To go to the 'root'  or  main 
directory,  click  in  the  small  diamond-shaped  box  above  the 
filename display area.  It is possible to clear the entry lines in 
the  item selector box and enter your own drive and folder  names, 
using GEM rather than Degas Elite to control disk access. However, 
if you're not familiar or comfortable with this method, we suggest 
that you use the easier 'set drive' method instead.


BOOTING THE PROGRAM

When you turn on your computer, you need to have several things on 
the  'boot disk' in drive A:  (your only drive if you have  a  one 
drive system). These are :-

- The AUTO folder with the GDOS.PRG file in it.
- The ASSIGN.SYS file
- Any font files listed in ASSIGN.SYS

The  ASSIGN.SYS  file is a list of font files to load  when  Degas 
Elite loads. These must be the same as the font files on the disk. 
Neither font files nor ASSIGN.SYS should be in any  folder.  These 
are  described in more detail in the appendix on the font  editor. 
When  you boot the disk properly,  your screen will say  'GEM  VDI 
INSTALLED' before you see the desktop.  If it doesn't,  make  sure 
GDOS.PRG is in the AUTO folder on the boot disk.

The program DEGELITE.PRG and its resource file,  DEGELITE.RSC  can 
be  on  any disk in any drive,  but must be together on  the  same 
disk,  wherever  it is.  You can load and  save  pictures,  icons, 
brushes,  fill  patterns and everything else on any other disk  in 
any drive, including hard drives and RAM disks.

When  you load the Degas Elite program,  it immediately reads  the 
font  files from the disk in drive A.  Leave the boot  disk  there 
until  these files are read,  otherwise you won't have  any  fonts 
except  the system font.  Once they've been read,  you can  remove 
this disk and replace it with another to save your pictures.


APPENDIX B : SUGGESTIONS


HINTS AND TIPS

Drawing with Degas is remarkably easy. You can create some amazing 
works of art with a little patience and experimentation.  Learn to 
use  all  of the features first,  before you go on  to  draw  your 
masterpiece  :  tinker with different effects from line and  brush 
shapes, test shadows and make your own fill patterns. Every moment 
you  spend getting to know the system will make using  Degas  that 
much easier when you try your hand at some serious art.

Degas is well suited for such things as perspective drawing ;  you 
can  use the ray feature to draw lines from the  vanishing  points 
with ease. Shadows can be added to give extra depth and realism to 
a picture.  Shadows used with large brush sizes are excellent  for 
3-D effects.

Magnify  mode  is very useful for cleaning up  your  pictures  and 
adding  that  detail which makes the difference between  good  and 
great art.  Use it to smooth curves,  tidy type, add shadowing and 
when aligning your art to specific points.

When you use the text mode and a particularly large text,  you may 
find the result blocky and not very attractive. With magnify mode, 
you  can  simply  alter the text after you've  placed  it  on  the 
screen,  rounding edges, filling in portions where it is 'chunky'. 
You  can also add thin shading effects to text in magnify mode  or 
with  the  outline  command.   Different  types  of  text  present 
different effects - try working with skewed or outlined instead of 
regular text, or try using a different font.

Simple  outlines  around geometric shapes can  make  your  artwork 
stand out and look more professional.  The same goes for borders ; 
you  can create a hollow border with two frames,  one  inside  the 
other and display it like that or filled with a pattern.  You  can 
round the corners by drawing circles centered on the inside  frame 
then erasing the extra for another effect.  A simpler method is to 
hold  down the ALTERNATE key when drawing a box ;  that gives  you 
rounded corners automatically.

If  you're  trying to draw professional graphics  like  charts  or 
graphs,  you may find it easier to draw a frame around the working 
area of the screen and then turn on the grid effect.  Use the grid 
to  align  your  drawing.  You can even vary the grid  size  in  a 
drawing  for different purposes - say a large grid to align  large 
text labels and a smaller grid for more detailed work.

If you want to be able to see the drawing screen borders, separate 
from  the  background colour,  then first  change  the  background 
colour  (the  leftmost  box on the colour  palette)  to  a  colour 
different  from  that in which you want to work (say  a  green  or 
blue).  Then change another colour on the palette to that on which 
you want to draw - say white.  Now exit and choose 'fill'.  Go  to 
the drawing screen and fill the entire screen with the last colour 
before  you do any drawing.  This will give you a clean  art  area 
with a distinct border.

To locate the exact centre of your drawing screen, select the 'all 
three' mirror mode and line drawing.  Start your line anywhere  on 
the screen and move the mouse so that the line crosses over to the 
other side of the screen ;  top and bottom.  If you play with  the 
mouse a bit,  you'll find the lines intersect at one point only  ; 
that's  the centre.  Press the left mouse button to fix the  lines 
when they intersect.  You can then use magnify mode to colour  the 
centre  if you wish and the eraser to erase the lines you drew  to 
find the centre.

The brush shape can be used to generate special effects ;  you can 
change the shape to one you want and use it with point ,  line  or 
draw,  even  geometric shapes.  The MAN.BRU file is a 'man'  brush 
shape  you can use with point to scatter small figures  over  your 
screen.

You can create some nice effects using the mono fill patterns  and 
filling  one pattern over another - especially noticeable  if  the 
two  patterns are different colours.  This can be quite  striking. 
The  colour  fills  give  you an  enormous  range  of  effects  to 
discover.

Text display also works with the CONTROL key ;  press and hold  it 
when entering your text to see what other characters are available 
for  display.  There  may  be more to a  character  set  than  you 
realise !

There  are several Degas picture files available  on  CompuServe's 
SIG*ATARI  (many by Tom Hudson himself) and others will likely  be 
on other bulletin board systems soon. These are useful for filling 
out  your picture library and to give you some ideas for your  own 
art by seeing how other artists have done theirs.

You  can define a whole picture as a block,  then use stretch  and 
reduce  it down in size to one quarter or even one eighth  of  the 
original size. Paste it into an empty screen. Load another picture 
(or image) and do the same, pasting it beside the first block, but 
leave some white space around the pictures to add a line of  text. 
Keep  on until you've filled the screen.  Now use text to add  the 
picture's filename to the block. You can build a visual library of 
all your pictures this way !

Block  libraries are as important as entire  pictures  themselves. 
With a combination of blocks,  fill patterns and brush shapes, you 
can build a personal 'toolbox' of features, images and effects.

If you're customising or editing a picture,  define it as a block, 
then  copy it to an empty workscreen.  Now you can work on a  copy 
and leave the original intact.  This way,if you make a mistake you 
can't undo, you can go to the screen with the original and copy it 
back again without having to load it from disk.  It's also a  good 
idea  to  save the original and the working  version  as  separate 
files  until  you're satisfied with the changes .  Then  save  the 
latest version as the new 'original'.

For  small  movements of the cursor,  use the ALT  and  arrow  key 
combinations,  or  SHIFT+ALT and arrow keys for one-pixel  shifts. 
This  gives  you greater control over precise movements  than  the 
mouse.

Once  you have learned the keyboard commands,  you can  toggle  or 
initiate  a feature from a drawing screen without having to go  to 
the main menu.  Remember that some features toggle other modifiers 
such as solid or pattern.

Change is a very powerful feature.  You can use it as a solid or a 
pattern,  with  airbrush  or stipple ;  its range  of  effects  is 
amazing.  You  should explore this feature more thoroughly to  see 
how  you can use it in your pictures.  Change is very  useful  for 
adding colours to a picture when loading medium or high resolution 
pictures into a low resolution screen.

Many features combine to create quite different effects from  what 
they  appear to do alone or with simple  draw/brush  combinations. 
Experiment with the combinations to see what works best for you.

Sometimes  you want to work with a larger brush than is  available 
from  the shape palette.  The easy way to do this is to  draw  the 
desired brush (circle,  disk, box or frame are very useful here if 
you  want a symmetric brush shape) in an  empty  workscreen,  then 
define  it  as a block.  Use block in draw  mode.  One  caution  : 
drawing  with  blocks  is  slower than with  a  brush,  so  do  it 
carefully.  It's  easy to 'outrun' your block with your mouse  and 
then have to wait while it tries to catch up.


PROBLEMS

One  of the first things to make sure of when using Degas is  that 
you're not trying to draw or fill using the background colour.  If 
you  try to draw over one colour with the same one,  nothing  will 
show !!

Remember  that you can undo a mistake with wither the right  mouse 
button or the UNDO key, depending on the feature you're using, try 
UNDO  first ;  it may even interrupt the process taking place  and 
stop  it  in  the middle,  so you on't have  to  wait  until  it's 
finished  to  undo  it.  Don't go to the menu  screen  or  another 
workscreen before you try to undo an effect ;  if you do  so,  you 
won't be able to undo anything.

Examine the space on your disks to make sure you have enough  room 
to save pictures ; each uncompressed picture takes 32K of space on 
a  disk,  each compressed picture about 24K.  It's a good idea  to 
make backup copies of your art as you go along - before you try to 
make  changes.  That  way you always have a copy to work  with  if 
something goes wrong.

It's  a good idea to save your picture frequently as you  work  on 
it ;  that way, if you have a power failure or other problems with 
your machine, your art won't be completely lost.

Keep backup copies of your art on separate disks,  even that which 
is  still in the drawing stage.  Nothing is more frustrating  than 
losing a picture because of a disk failure.

When working on a picture 'in progress',  copy it first to another 
workscreen,  then  work on it.  If you're not satisfied  with  the 
changes,  you can restore the original from the first copy at  any 
time and start again. Use the screen name feature to help remember 
which picture in which workscreen is associated with a  particular 
file.

Finally,  make  sure you set your screen resolution,  mouse  click 
time and key press before you load - in the GEM desktop  mode.  If 
you  find the computer doesn't respond well to the mouse click  or 
key press,  try making it either slower or faster and see if  that 
works better.


APPENDIX C : THE FONT EDITOR


The Font Editor (FONTEDIT.PRG on your disk) is a  special  program 
which  you  use  to  create your own fonts  -  character  sets  of 
letters,  numbers and punctuation.  Or you can create map symbols, 
special  graphics,  international  character sets,  text  or  game 
images  for  your own use.  It produces fonts that  must  then  be 
converted into GEM fonts before they can be loaded into the  Degas 
Elite  program  (the ASSIGN.SYS file must be  amended  to  include 
their filenames as well).

Using the font editor is very simple ; it works very much like the 
'Make  Fill' feature in Degas Elite.  First,  load the program  by 
positioning the mouse cursor on the program icon when in GEM  mode 
and double click the left mouse button.  When it loads, you see an 
empty  grid at the bottom left corner of the screen ;  this  is  a 
magnified  image of a single character ;  each block in  the  grid 
represents one pixel in the selected character.  Along the  bottom 
is  a real size display of each character with their  system  font 
equivalents above.

You can change the 128 'normal' characters (the first half of  the 
normal ASCII character set) in the Atari character set to anything 
you  want.  That's  all  of  the  standard  letters,  numbers  and 
punctuation  on  the  keyboard -  upper  and  lower-case.  Letters 
pressed  with  the CONTROL key are along  the  top  line.  Letters 
pressed with the ALTERNATE key however won't show in Degas Elite ; 
there is no 'alternate' character set.

At the top of the screen you see several boxes -  view,  character 
and font - which hold all of the font editor features.  You select 
a  feature by positioning the cursor in the box and  pressing  the 
left mouse button. Several of these features may also be activated 
by function or keyboard presses.

User defined fonts have six sizes, listed below. Your user-defined 
fonts  work  exactly the same as the system font as  far  as  text 
positioning and display goes.


LOADING A FONT

Keystroke : F8

The  default font in Degas Elite is the ST's 'system  font'  which 
can't be edited.  When you run FONTEDIT.PRG, you have a new, blank 
set of characters with no definitions.  You can create a new  font 
for your own use or you can load a font from disk and edit a  part 
or all of it.

If you want to edit or change a font file on disk, select the load 
box  in the font box or press the F8 function key.  You'll  see  a 
directory  of files with the .FNT extension.  Select the file  you 
want with the mouse cursor then click on the OKAY box to load  it. 
You  can  then alter or edit that font.  Selecting the  erase  box 
completely clears out the current font and gives you a blank  font 
to work with.


EDITING A FONT   

Keystroke : F1 to F7

You  can edit the characters shown at the bottom of the  screen  - 
the default blank or empty font or characters from a loaded  font. 
A character set can be text,  graphics,  special symbols -  almost 
anything  you can imagine.  You can use a character set to  create 
terrain for a game,  for international characters such as Greek or 
Russian, for mathematical symbols or more.

First,  move  the cursor over the character you want to  edit  and 
press  the left mouse button.  This loads that character into  the 
grid  at the lower left (16 pixels high by 8 wide).  Now  you  can 
edit that character.  Use the mouse to move the cursor and turn on 
or  off  the  pixels in the grid exactly as you  do  in  the  fill 
pattern  editor.  The font pixels are simply on or off - black  or 
white  - colour has no effect.  You choose a font colour from  the 
palette in Degas Elite' menu screen.

The editing features are all shown in the character box. The ARROW 
KEYS  move  a character one pixel in that direction  (or  use  the 
keyboard arrow keys below the UNDO key). FILL SOLID (or the INSERT 
key)  turns on all pixels in a character.  ERASE (or the  CLR/HOME 
key)  erases  (turns  off) all pixels.  TOGGLE  'flips'  pixels  ; 
switching  on for off and vice versa.  These work just like  fill, 
erase  and  toggle  options in the fill pattern  editor  in  Degas 
Elite.

Vflip  and  Hflip flip a character vertically (top to  bottom  and 
vice versa) or horizontally (left to right),  mirroring its  shape 
along  the  chosen  axis.  Copy lets you  copy  one  character  to 
another.  You'll  be prompted to select the character you want  to 
copy - move the cursor to it and press the left mouse button - and 
which character you want to copy it to - use the same process. The 
right mouse button cancels the copy if pressed before you  pressed 
the  left  button.  The  UNDO key restores  the  character  you're 
working with and cancels your changes to it.

The  view  box lets you see your font in the various  heights  and 
widths on a separate screen (you can also use the function keys to 
display  the  font).  Each  height will later  be  turned  into  a 
separate font file by the conversion program.

Font Size :                        Pixel Size :     Function Key :    
                 
1 - Half height, normal width      8 by 8               F1
2 - Half height, double width      8 by 16              F2
3 - Normal height and width        16 by 8              F3
4 - Normal height, double width    16 by 16             F4
5 - Double height, normal width    32 by 8              F5
6 - Double height, double width    32 by 32             F6

To return to the editing screen, press either mouse button.

Half-height mode must be enabled first in order to make the  first 
two sizes readable (the default mode).  The half-height mode  uses 
every other row of pixels in the character,  starting at the  top. 
To  disable the half-height mode select the disable box (or  press 
the  F7  function  key).  The status of the  half-height  mode  is 
displayed in the box at the top of the screen.  Also, if disabled, 
the  text sizes one and two will appear in half-intensity  in  the 
view box.  In order to see the first and second sizes,  the  half-
height mode must be enabled. 

If your font won't be readable in half-height modes,  disable  the 
half-height  feature  by selecting the box or  pressing  F7.  This 
means  that your font will only have four sizes.  When you save  a 
font,  the  half-height switch is saved with the  file,  so  Degas 
Elite knows whether or not the font can be displayed in that size. 
If  disabled,  the conversion program will not create a  file  for 
that font size (see below).


SAVING A FONT

Keystroke : F9

To save the font you've been working on to disk,  select the  save 
box  in the font window or press the F9 function  key.  You'll  be 
given the directory window,  where you can select a font with  the 
mouse  or by typing in a new file name.  Saving and loading  fonts 
works exactly like saving and loading pictures.  You don't have to 
type the extension ;  Degas Elite does it automatically. The half-
height switch (see above) is saved with the font.

Fonts are saved with their proper name,  the name that appears  on 
the list of fonts when you select one to use in Degas  Elite.  The 
files names do not have to be the same as the font names, although 
a similar name saves you from confusion later.

The fonts you create with this editor are all '16' point size. You 
might  want  to name their files with this  information,  such  as 
'COMPUT16.FNT'.  Other  fonts can be loaded which  have  different 
sizes (see the ASSIGN.SYS section, below for information).


ERASING A FONT

The  erase  box in the font window is used to completely  clear  a 
font,  leaving you a blank character set to work with.  You'll  be 
asked to confirm this when you select it.


EXITING THE EDITOR

Keystroke : F10

Press the F10 key when you're ready to quit.  This returns you  to 
the desktop screen in GEM.  You can then run Degas Elite and  load 
your new font in to the system by selecting the 'load font' box in 
the menu screen.


SYSTEM FONT

The  default  GEM font is called the  'system;  font.  It  can  be 
returned  to  in Degas Elite by selecting the '6x6  SYSTEM'  as  a 
font.  You cannot edit this file with the Font Editor program.  To 
restore  a  blank  font to the  editor,  use  the  erase  feature. 
Remember  that when you change a font in Degas Elite,  it  doesn't 
change any text already entered on the screen, only the text which 
is about to be entered.


THE ASSIGN.SYS FILE

This  file contains the list of font files which Degas Elite  will 
load when it is booted.  It must be in the root directory on drive 
A when you load the program,  as must all of the font files  (also 
on  your boot disk,  the file GDOS.PRG must be in a folder  called 
AUTO).

The Degas Elite Font editor creates single font files for use with 
the  main  program.   However,  other  font  editors  may  produce 
different size fonts which can be used by Degas Elite as well. You 
just  have to make sure that the names of the files are listed  in 
ASSIGN.SYS. Here is a typical ASSIGN.SYS file :

     01p screen.sys
     ATR10.FNT
     ATR14.FNT
     ATR18.FNT
     ATR36.FNT
     IBM10.FNT
     IBM14.FNT
     IBM18.FNT
     IBM36.FNT
     02p screen.sys
     03p screen.sys
     04p screen.sys
     21 fx80.sys
     EPSHSS36.FNT
     31 META.SYS
     ^Z

This  shows  several font files are to be loaded :  all  have  the 
extension ".FNT".  However, there are actually only two fonts here 
:  Atari  (files that begin with 'ATR') and IBM (files that  begin 
with  'IBM').  Each file is for a font of a different size  (point 
size).  The Font Editor only produces one size (16 point), however 
the  conversion  program  (see  below) makes  the  one  font  into 
separate  files  equal to each of the available  font  sizes  (see 
editing, above).

The other information in the file consists of screen drivers  (the 
0npscreen.sys files), the default printer driver (21 fx80.SYS) and 
its  default  font  (EPSHSS36.FNT) and the meta  file  driver  (31 
META.SYS).  The  file  must end with a Control-Z.  Do  NOT  change 
anything  except the names of the fonts listed  immediately  after 
the  first  screen driver (in this case,  the Atari and  IBM  font 
files).

To  add  a  font to this list,  type in the name  of  the  file(s) 
immediately after the existing font list.  To delete a file or  an 
entire font, delete the line(s) which have the filename(s) of that 
font.  Each  font filename must be on a single line and each  line 
must end with a carriage return.  Any font file not named on  this 
list will NOT be loaded into Degas Elite when you boot the program 
next.

Note  that  you should use a text editor or  word  processor  that 
creates an ASCII file only : HomeText, PaperClip Elite, HabaWriter 
(in  ASCII mode) and Final Word are examples of programs  that  do 
this.  If you use other programs,  such as ST Writer, you may have 
to 'print' the file to disk first (in ST Writer, set the left, top 
and  bottom margins to zero first,  and page length to  twice  the 
number of lines you're using, including the last Control-Z).


CONVERTING YOUR FONTS TO GEM FONTS 

The  Program FONTCONV.PRG takes a font editor file and  translates 
it  into  several GEM font files,  one for each height  (if  half-
height is disabled,  it will not be created).  Each file should be 
listed in the ASSIGN.SYS file afterwards, to allow it to load into 
Degas Elite (see above).  To run this program, double-click on the 
program  icon  and select the font file to convert  from  the  GEM 
selector box. you can then change drives by clicking on the drive/ 
folder line, pressing ESC, entering your own drive/folder name and 
clicking on the grey bar.

When you pick the Degas font file to convert, it displays a dialog 
where you enter the name of the font for both the normal width and 
double  width  (extended) fonts.  These are assigned  unique  font 
identifier  numbers.  You  can also enter  a  four-character  font 
filename  prefix or let the program use a default -  for  example, 
the  COMPUTER.FNT file defaults to COMP for the prefix,  and  will 
generate COMPHS08.FNT (Half height,  single width, 8 points high), 
COMPSS16.FNT (Single height and width,  16  points),  COMPDS32.FNT 
(Double height, single width, 32 points) as the first file group - 
these are assigned the first font identifier number.  The extended 
(double  width)  font is  COMPHD08.FNT  (Half/Double,  8  points), 
COMPSD16.FNT  (Single  height,   double  width,   16  points)  and 
COMPDD16.FNT (Double height and width, 32 points).You can click on 
the  appropriate  buttons in the dialog to output  only  the  font 
sizes you want.

Each  font takes up the memory required by the font files  plus  a 
bit  of  overhead.  That's  one reason to  reduce  the  number  of 
workscreens when you boot Degas Elite (hold down the ALT key  when 
loading) - each workscreen is 32,000 bytes in size!  You could use 
a  single font file for any font,  but then when you go to  change 
text sizes, Degas Elite has to use that single font to extrapolate 
all other sizes.  Then - at especially large or small sizes -  the 
font may become distorted or simply unattractive.  With a file for 
each text size, there is no distortion when changing sizes.


APPENDIX D : SHOWING YOUR PICTURES


SHOWPIC2.PRG  is an automatic picture display program  which  will 
cycle  continuously through all of the Degas Elite pictures  on  a 
disk. Double-click on the SHOWPIC2.PRG icon to run this program.

Showpic2  is  intelligent ;  it knows the type of  monitor  you're 
using ;  it will only display high-res pictures on the  monochrome 
screen  and both low and medium (in the same show!) on the  colour 
monitor.

the  program  runs  with compressed  and  uncompressed  files  and 
optional  display Block files.  It also has a new option  to  show 
file  names  for  each  picture.  It  lets  the  user  select  any 
combination  of  drives and will search those drives down  to  one 
sub-directory (folder) level.

Showpic2 runs by itself,  cycling endlessly through the  available 
pictures for display. Each picture is shown for four seconds - the 
time it takes to load a picture - unless you change the  time.  To 
alter the viewing time, press the function keys :-

     Key                 Time
     F1                  4 seconds
     F2                  8 seconds
     F3                  12 seconds
     F4                  16 seconds
     F5                  20 seconds
     F6                  24 seconds
     F7                  34 seconds
     F8                  44 seconds
     F9                  54 seconds
     F10                 64 seconds

The  space bar pauses a picture and holds it until pressed  again. 
RETURN quits the program and puts you back in the GEM desktop.

Other public domain picture display programs are available on  the 
Atari 16 Bit SIG on CompuServe.


APPENDIX E : FILE FORMATS AND COMPRESSION
                     
 
PICTURE FILES

Picture  files used by Degas Elite can be in one of two formats  : 
COMPRESSED  or  UNCOMPRESSED.  Uncompressed files are  saved  with 
.PI1,  .PI2 or .PI3 extenders, for low, medium and high resolution 
respectively.  Compressed  files can be identified by their  .PC1, 
.PC2 and .PC3 extenders.

The original Degas program saved its pictures in the  uncompressed 
format,  and is unable to load compressed files.  For this reason, 
if  you  are saving a picture that will be sent to a user  of  the 
original Degas program, be sure to save it in UNCOMPRESSED format.

UNCOMPRESSED FILES :

1 WORD (2 bytes) : Resolution flag

This is a WORD value that is either 0 (low resolution),  1 (medium 
resolution) or 2 (high resolution monochrome).

16 WORDS (32 bytes) : Colour palette

This is a table of 16 WORD values that make up the colour  palette 
for the image, in standard ST BIOS format.

32000 BYTES : Picture image data

This  is a raw memory image of the picture as it is stored in  the 
ST.  All  ST  images  are 32000 bytes  in  length,  regardless  of 
resolution.

The following part of the Degas picture file is optional :  it  is 
used  to  tell  the  computer  the  settings  for  colour  palette 
animation.

4 WORDS (8 bytes) : Left animation limit table

This is a table of 4 WORD values which specify the left limits  of 
each of the four colour animation channels.  The values range from 
0-15,  indicating  that the corresponding colour palette entry  is 
the left range of the animation channel's range.

4 WORDS (8 bytes) : Right animation limit table

This  is a table of 4 WORD values which specify the  right  colour 
palette  limit for each of the four  animation  channels,  ranging 
from  0-15.  This  table  is used in  conjunction  with  the  left 
animation limit table to specify the range of the animation cycle. 
This  value should be greater than or equal to  the  corresponding 
left animation limit value for the proper operation.

4 WORDS (8 bytes) : Animation channel direction flag

This  is  a table of four WORD values which  specify  the  cycling 
direction  for the corresponding animation channel.  A value of  0 
indicates that the channel shifts its colours to the LEFT, a value 
of  1 indicates that the channel is turned OFF,  and a value of  2 
indicates a RIGHT shift.

4 WORDS (8 bytes) : Animation channel delay

This  is  a table of four WORD values which specify the  speed  at 
which the colour registers in the animation channel range will  be 
shifted.  The  range of permissible values in these  variables  is 
from  0-128,  indicating  the  number of  60-hertz  delay  periods 
between colour shifts. A value of zero in this table indicates the 
maximum speed,  approximately 60 shifts per second ; a value of 60 
is approximately one shift per second ; a value of 120 roughly one 
shift every two seconds.


COMPRESSED FILES

Compressed Degas picture files are similar to uncompressed  files, 
but have two main differences.

The first difference is that the first two bytes in the file  (the 
resolution  flag)  has  the high-order bit set  to  indicate  that 
the picture is compressed.  That is,  a value of $8000 means  low-
resolution compressed,  $8001 means medium-resolution  compressed, 
and  $8002 means high-resolution  (monochrome)  compressed.  Other 
bits  in this flag may be used in the future,  so do a simple  bit 
test when checking for compression.

The colour palette is not compressed, you can read it normally.

The second difference in a compressed file is that the image  data 
is compressed using a special process, making it a variable length 
less than 32000 bytes.  When reading this data,  the program  must 
check for the following byte values :-

 0.....127   :- Copy the next n+1 bytes literally
 -1...-127   :- Copy the next byte -n+1 times
 -128        :- No operation (ignore)

The  data  is  compressed so that each  scan  line  is  compressed 
separately, and each bit plane is also compressed separately. That 
is,  the first data in the file will be the data for the low-order 
bit plane of scan line 0,  followed by the data for the next  bit-
plane of scan line 0,  and so on,  with the low-order bit-plane of 
scan line 1 next. This process repeats until all bit-planes of all 
scan lines are processed.

The  colour animation data is stored in uncompressed form  and  is 
read normally, if present.


BLOCK IMAGE FILES

The  block  image  files used by Degas Elite is a  subset  of  the 
Electronic Arts Interchange File Format (IFF). This file format is 
used  by the Amiga personal computer,  and by using  this  format, 
Atari and Amiga users can easily exchange clipped images and whole 
pictures,  if  desired.  The  file  format  is  described  in  the 
Commodore  Amiga  document  'EA IFF 85  Standard  for  Interchange 
Format Files', which is available through Commodore-Amiga. The IFF 
concept  is  more  than  just  a  picture  storage  standard,  but 
encompasses many types of files.

If  you are interested in reading the IFF block files in your  own 
programs,  issue #2 of START Magazine, the ST Quarterly (published 
by Antic Publishing,  524 Second Street,  San Francisco, CA 94107) 
has an article and program source code which describes the reading 
of IFF files.

The  Degas  Elite block files can be identified by the  .BL1  (low 
resolution),  .BL2  (medium resolution) and .BL3 (high  resolution 
monochrome) extenders on the files.  These files are only loadable 
into the corresponding resolution, and can store from one pixel to 
an entire screen.


ICON FILES

If you are a programmer,  Degas Elite has a handy ability to  save 
block images in an ICON file format.  These files are readable  by 
the Digital Research Resource Construction Set program,  and allow 
you to use Degas Elite as an advanced icon or bit-image editor.

Icons  and  bit-images are loadable into any  resolution  (because 
they are single-plane images that do not carry colour  information 
with them), and have the side-benefit of being a readable file. In 
fact,they  are designed to be included in your C source  code  and 
compiled  directly  into your programs!  (Great,  but  what  about 
68000 ??  - Rat!)

The file format looks like this :-

/*DEGAS Elite Icon Definition */
#define ICON_W 0x0009
#define ICON_H 0x0008
#define ICONSIZE 0x0008
int image[ICONSIZE] = {0xc180,  0xe180,  0xf180,  0xd980,  0xcd80, 
0xc780, 0xc380, 0xc180};

This  is  an icon file for a bit image of an 'N' shape.  It  is  9 
pixels wide (line 2),  8 pixels high (line 3),  and takes 8  words 
to define the shape  (line 4).  Lines 6 and 7 are the  icon  data, 
stored  in hexadecimal format.  Note that any hex data lines  with 
commas  at  the end (indicating there is more data  to  follow  in 
subsequent  lines)  must  have  a  space  character  (32  decimal) 
following the comma, even though you cannot see it. This is due to 
a  quirk in the Resource Construction set program.  Each  line  is 
terminated with a CR/LF combination.


FILL FILES

Degas  Elite  has  two types of  fill  patterns  :  Monoplane  and 
multiplane fills. The monochrome mode can only use monoplane fills 
because it only has one bit-plane.  The ST's colour modes can have 
full-colour  fill patterns,  which are defined with more than  one 
bit  plane.   Monoplane  fill  patterns  can  be  used  with   all 
resolutions.

MONOPLANE FILL PATTERN FILES

These files,  stored with .FIL extenders,  are simply 16 LONGS (32 
bytes)  of  data. {Just  a quick note here  :-  for  those  fellow 
'coders' reading this,  (and for those who don't know),  16  LONGS 
(long-words) is actually 64 bytes, not 32 as stated above (i.e. as 
stated  in the manual) - Rat !!}.  Each fill pattern is 16  by  16 
pixels,  and is defined by the low words of the 16 LONGS, each one 
making up one horizontal line of pixels in the pattern.  The first 
low-order WORD is the first line in the pattern,  the second  low-
order WORD is the second line in the pattern,  and so forth.  Each 
ON bit corresponds to an ON pixel in the pattern.

LOW-RESOLUTION FILL FILES

These files, stored with .FI1 extenders, are a little more complex 
than  the  monoplane fill pattern files.  The first 16  WORDS  (32 
bytes) in the file is the ST colour palette data that was used  to 
create  the  fill pattern.  This becomes important  when  matching 
different  colour  palettes to approximate the colours  that  were 
originally used. See the section on remapping colour fill patterns 
in the Degas Elite manual.

The  remaining 128 bytes in the file are two sets of 16 WORDS  (16 
WORDS  x 4 bit-planes = 64 WORDS = 128 bytes - Rat !!) which  make 
up the four bit-planes for the fill pattern. To get all 16 colours 
to  work in the fill pattern,  we must have four  bit-planes.  The 
bit-planes  are identical to those of the monoplane fill  pattern, 
but are stored with the low-order plane first (i.e. plane 0-1-2-3, 
bits 1-2-4-8).

To use the bit-plane data,  simply read it into memory and use the 
vsf_udpat() function to set up the user-defined fill pattern  (Why 
does  the  author of this manual assume that all readers  are  low 
intelligence  C  programmers ???).  Be sure to  specify  that  the 
pattern uses four bit-planes.

MEDIUM RESOLUTION FILL FILES

These files are similar to the low-resolution fill files,  but use 
an  extender of .FI2 to indicate that it's for  medium-resolution. 
Like  the low-res fill pattern files,  the first 32 bytes in  this 
file are the colour pattern for the fill pattern. The remainder of 
the file is the 64 bytes of data which makes up the two bit-planes 
for  the  pattern (16 WORDS x 2 planes).  These  planes  are  also 
stored low-order plane first.

Use  the  vsf-udpat()  function to set the pattern  as  the  user-
defined selection, using a value of 2 for the bit-plane parameter.


BRUSH FILES

Degas  Elite uses a simple format to store brush files (using  the 
extender .BRU).  This file format is identical to that used by the 
original Degas, so all files are interchangeable.

Each brush file is an 8 x 8 pixel square, for 64 pixels total. The 
brush  file is simply a 64-byte block of data,  one byte for  each 
pixel in the brush.  A byte value of zero means there is no  pixel 
in the location, a byte value of 1 indicates that the pixel is on. 
The  upper-left pixel in the brush is the first byte in the  file, 
the next pixel to the right is the second,  and so on.  The lower-
right pixel in the brush is the 64th byte.


FONT FILES

In  order  to  provide better fonts  with  higher  resolution  and 
proportional spacing,  Degas Elite does not load fonts itself, but 
delegates  this task to the GEM Graphics Device  Operating  System 
(GDOS). GDOS loads font files that are stored in the GEM font file 
format,  described  in  the GEM VDI  manual.  The  original  Degas 
program's  fonts  may  be converted to GEM  font  format  using  a 
utility  program  found  on CompuServe's  Atari  Special  Interest 
Group for the ST, ATARI16.


PRINTER DRIVERS

If  you are an experienced machine language  programmer,  you  may 
wish to write a custom printer or plotter driver,for monochrome or 
black and white printers,  using either the Centronics (R) printer 
port or the RS-232 port.

The printer driver must itself be position-independent, executable 
68000  machine language code.  It must be exactly 2000 bytes  long 
(if it's shorter,  pad to the end of the file with zeroes, i.e use 
dc.b x,  where x = 2000 minus the length of your printer driver  - 
Rat !!)

Degas  Elite provides five pieces of information for  the  printer 
driver to be able to carry out its function :-

1) The printer driver command
2) The screen resolution
3) The base address of the current screen
4) The address of the colour palette information
5) The address of a 1280-byte work area

PRINTER DRIVER COMMAND

This is a WORD value which may contain two different values -  one 
or zero - which indicate the function the driver is to perform.

If  the value is zero,  the printer driver is to set up  the  data 
values it needs,  then initialise the printer or plotter.  If  the 
initialisation was successful, the driver should return the number 
'1' in register D0.W.  If unsuccessful, the driver should return a 
'0'   in  D0.W.   No  other  values  should   be   returned.   The 
initialisation will always be executed before the dump function.

If the command value is one,  the driver is to perform the  screen 
dump function. The driver must examine the screen RAM, extract the 
pixel  information,  convert it into a format that the printer  or 
plotter can use,  then send it to the device via one of the ports. 
The  driver should perform a status operation before each byte  is 
sent to the printer to be sure it is ready to receive the data. If 
the  device  isn't ready after a reasonable  timeout,  the  driver 
should  return  a value of '0' in D0.W to indicate  an  error  has 
occurred.

During  the  screen dump operation,  the driver should  check  the 
keyboard periodically to see if the user has pressed the UNDO  key 
to abort the dump operation. Stop all output and return a value of 
'2' in D0.W.

If the screen dump terminates normally,  return with D0.W equal to 
a value of '1'.

SCREEN RESOLUTION INDICATOR

This is a WORD value which indicates the resolution of the picture 
to be dumped :-

Zero means 320 by 200, 16 colour picture
One means 640 by 200, 4 colour picture
Two means 640 by 400, monochrome picture

SCREEN BASE ADDRESS POINTER

This  LONG  value is the starting address of the  memory  used  to 
store the current screen picture information.  The block of memory 
is  always  32,000  bytes  long.   All  pixel  addresses  must  be 
calculated from this address.

COLOUR PALETTE POINTER

This  LONG  value is the starting address of  the  colour  palette 
information.  The  palette consists of sixteen word  values  which 
contain  the Red,  Green and Blue colour settings for each  colour 
register.

WORK AREA ADDRESS

This  LONG value is the start of a 1,280 byte work  area  reserved 
for the printer driver's use. Since the driver must operate at any 
point  in  the  system's memory,  this address  provides  a  safe, 
convenient area of memory to store tables, pixel information, data 
buffers, etc.

OTHER INFORMATION

The printer driver is called with the C language statement :

PRINT(COMMAND,REZ,SCREEN,PALETTE,WORKAREA)

Upon  entry  into the driver,  the variables may be found  at  the 
following locations relative to the stack pointer (A7) :-


COMMAND     4(A7)
REZ         6(A7)
SCREEN      8(A7)
PALETTE    12(A7)
WORKAREA   16(A7)

The printer driver should save all registers except D0 upon  entry 
and restore their contents before returning.

Commented  examples  of 68000 printer drivers source code  may  be 
found  in  the Data Library of the Atari 16 Bit  Special  Interest 
Group (SIG) on the CompuServe Information Service.



Well,  here we are at last .....  145K,  9 hours,  46 minutes, one 
smoking  red hot keyboard and 10 very tired  fingers  later,  it's 
finally finished.  This mammoth effort was courtesy of Sewer  Rat. 
For  more information,  see the Quick Reference File also on  this 
disk (Sewer Doc Disk 10).
  
  
         
           
  









