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Positive Image by Stephen Found
ÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿÿ
Program Type:- Photographic Image Processing and Retouching
System: Any TOS based computer. STE, TT and Falcon enhanced.
Memory Required: 1024k
Display Type: Any
Price: œ65 Introductory Price (normally œ79)
Postage: UK œ2.00, Europe (including Eire) œ5.00, rest of world œ10.00
Overseas Customers:- Contact us first to check if we have a distributor in
your country
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Floppyshop are delighted to announce the forthcoming release of Positive
Image, a high end image processing tool developed primarily for the Atari TT
and Falcon 030. Positive Image has come about as a result of extensive
research into professional photographic image retouching packages on non-
Atari machines. The result is an image processing studio, such as has never
before been seen running on Atari computers!
Positive Image runs on any TOS based computer but is enhanced to take full
advantage of the improved hardware on the STE, TT and Falcon, especially the
DSP on the Falcon. The blitter (if present) is also used to maximum effect.
There are two versions of Positive Image, one for 68000 based ST/e's the
other for 68030 machines (including PAK 68/3 accelerated ST/e's and Apple
Macintosh machines running MagiC Mac). The basic 68000 version contains all
the features of its big brother, being limited only by the slower processor
speed and lower resolution displays. If your ST/e, TT or Falcon has a
processor accelerator or graphic card fitted, this too will be used to its
fullest capabilities.
Positive Image is the ONLY GEM based image processing program to allow the
editing of 24-bit True Colour graphics on an ordinary ST in any resolution
(including low res!). A high spec system is not necessary in order to run
Positive Image, but the program will take full advantage of the increased
processing power if it is there! The following is a list of the program's
main features:-
System Compatibility
* Minimum requirements: 1 Meg of RAM only, 4 Meg of RAM (or more) and a
hard drive are recommended for serious use.
* Supports all screen resolutions (including ST low res) on the ST/e, TT
and Falcon including overscan, all virtual screen drivers and the various
resolution boosters such as Autoswitch Overscan on the ST and all known
hardware and software resolution boosters on the Falcon 030.
* Compatible with all official releases of TOS (1.0, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.62,
2.05, 2.06, 3.05, 3.06, 4.01, 4.02, 4.04) and the developer version of 4.92.
* Fully compatible with GDOS 1.1, AMC GDOS, FontGDOS, FSM GDOS, SpeedoGDOS
v4, SpeedoGDOS v5 and NVDI 3 with regard to both font and printer support.
* Compliant with all 100% GEM compatible graphics cards.
* Fully compatible with MagiC Mac.
* Fully compatible with Gemulator 4.
* Supplied in two versions for the different models in the Atari range. The
basic program runs on any Atari and the 68030 version runs on any 68030 or
68040 based TOS compatible system and takes advantage of the DSP in the
Falcon.
Multi-Tasking Features
* Fully compatible with Multi-TOS, Geneva and MagiC.
* Supports extended AES messages from Multi-TOS, WinX, Geneva and MagiC 3.
* Supports the Xacc and AV protocols for sending messages between programs.
* Support for Multi-TOS and MagiC 3's drag and drop protocol whereby a
group of images are dragged onto an open window and are all loaded in a
single operation.
General Features
* Extensive file support allows the following graphic formats to be
imported: AIM, Degas, Windows and OS/2 Bitmap, EZ-Art Pro, IFF (including
Deluxe Paint ST, standard HAM, high res HAM, HAM6, HAM8, HAM12 and 24-bit
HAM), IMG (including HyperPaint X-IMG and conventional X-IMG), InShape,
Imagelab, JPEG, MTV Raytrace, NeoChrome, PC Paintbrush, Photochrome,
Portable Network Graphic (PNG), Prism Paint, True Paint, Spectrum 512 (both
50hz and 60hz pictures), TrueVision Targa, TIFF v6 (including CCITT fax and
JPEG support) and Tiny.
* Saves out in most popular formats including TIFF, BMP, JPG, PNG, TGA,
XIMG, EZA, P?1 and NEO amongst others.
* Full support for true (i.e. non paletted) 256 level Greyscales, fully
preserving the colour depth. These are even supported for image formats
which do not ordinarily handle this type of image!
* Comprehensive file information (filename, format, compression method,
dimensions, memory required, memory free) given when loading images.
* Handles conversions between monochrome, 16 colour, 256 colour, Greyscale
and True Colour, performing colour quantisation or palette boosting as
necessary.
* Colour selection compliant with both RGB and CMY standards.
* Supports separate editing of the red, green, blue and mask channels with
colour images.
* Subject to memory and/or available hard drive space, an UNDO buffer is
available at all times, allowing 'mistakes' to be reversed easily. UNDO
works for all operations in Positive Image.
* All images are stored internally in 24-bit format and all operations are
carried out on the 24-bit representation held in memory. This ensures that
the same quality results are obtained whether pictures are edited in
monochrome or True Colour.
* Uses tiling to redraw only the parts of an image that have been changed.
This is in addition to the fact that Positive Image's full screen redraws
are faster than any other Atari image processing package that we have
encountered.
* Near-instantaneous screen redraws in True Colour mode.
* Images can be intelligently rescaled and anti-aliased to suit the size of
your paper (or the dimensions of your choice provided they do not exceed
that of your paper!). Realistically you can print out an image at up to 400%
of its original size at 300dpi without any noticeable loss of quality.
* Optionally uses windowed dialogues which may be moved to a more
convenient location when work is being obscured. Access to the menu bar or
other GEM applications is also supported when running under Multi-TOS with
this feature enabled.
* Multiple dialogues can be open at the same time and you can move between
them freely, even under single-tasking TOS. In fact different tools can be
active for different images and Positive Image always remembers the
currently selected tool for the appropriate image!
* Includes its own virtual memory feature which runs on any Atari with a
hard drive. Positive Image is also fully compatible with TT Fast RAM and
virtual memory drivers on the TT and Falcon such as Outside.
* Supports multiple loading of up to five images at once from the Selectric
file selector and inserts the filemasks for supported formats into
Selectric's list of masks. These features are also available to users of the
Freedom file selector.
* Makes use of the GEM Clipboard for cutting and pasting of blocks.
* Allows you to specify your Clipboard directory and creates a Clipboard
for you if you don't already have one.
* Retains multiple blocks in the Clipboard to facilitate easier creating of
montages.
* Clipboard support includes the ability to clear all blocks or delete
individual blocks after use.
* Support for Brainstorm's DSP based JPEG decoder on the Falcon.
* Standard GEM compliant keyboard shortcuts for all menu options.
* Iconification of images to maximise desk space.
* All your preferred settings are saved as default to save valuable time
when next using the package.
* Floating toolbar with short tool descriptions being displayed as you
hover over their icons.
* GDOS fonts may be unloaded when not in use, in order to save memory.
* All the common text attributes such as bold, italic, underline and
outline may be applied to your text and previewed on screen before use.
* Powerful block handling features include the choice of 11 different
overlay methods with user definable transparency feature.
* The ability to use any of the RGB channels of the block or image as a
mask channel when pasting blocks.
* Supports the creation of 3D random dot stereograms and foreground
enhanced stereograms.
* Sixteen zoom levels allow you to scale an image up or down to a maximum
factor of eight. When zoomed (in or out), blocks, brushes etc are all scaled
accordingly. Outsize images can be zoomed out to view the entire image for
pasting blocks or defining localised regions for processing. Zooming in
allows fine editing right down to individual pixels.
* Fully illustrated in-depth 136 page manual which covers not only the use
of Positive Image itself but also the fundamentals of image processing.
Includes extensive cross-referencing, a glossary of over 250 terms used
within the manual, a guide to the various graphic file formats and a handy
trouble-shooting section. Written by a former regular contributor to several
popular Atari magazines.
Falcon Specific Features
* 3D graphic interface.
* Compatible with 32Mhz accelerators, probably 40Mhz too!
* Fast DSP code handles most processor intensive operations such as re-
scaling, rotating, filtering, dithering and such like.
* Works on both VGA and RGB monitors as well as ordinary TV sets.
* Fully compatible with ScreenBlaster BlowUp030 and other resolution
enhancers.
Printer Support
* Fully supports printing from any version of GDOS or SpeedoGDOS.
* Also includes its own printer drivers as an alternative to those
available with the various GDOS versions.
* Non-GDOS based printer support includes all 9-pin and 24-pin Epson and
IBM models (colour and mono), HP DeskJet (colour and mono), HP LaserJet, IBM
ProPrinter, Epson Stylus (mono and colour) and Postscript printers.
* Supports half-toning, random dithering, clumped (the method used by
newspapers) and Floyd-Steinberg dithering as options to use when printing
out.
* Uses data compression when printing to HP Laserjets and Deskjets to
reduce printing time.
* Images can be printed to disk if memory is low. These files can then be
double-clicked from the GEM Desktop and sent directly to the printer. They
can also be printed out from PC, Mac and Unix machines if you transfer them
via a PC formatted disk.
* Can export images in PostScript format.
Image Processing Features
* All the usual tools such as Brightness/Contrast, Contrast Stretch,
Negate, Threshold, Histogram and Equalise are present as well as many
revolutionary new ones.
* Images can be rotated to any angle in either a clockwise or anti-
clockwise direction to an accuracy of one degree. Uses DSP on the Falcon.
* Real-time mirroring of images.
* Comes supplied with six commonly used image processing filters (including
smooth, sharpen and remove noise) built-in.
* Allows the user to create his/her own external filters for use with
Positive Image. The package includes about a dozen useful pre-defined
external filters including Blur, Emboss, Erode and Vibrate.
* Supports 256 level (8-bit) masking. Includes a configurable gradient mask
tool which allows you to create your own masks.
* Allows processing of user defined rectangular, circular, elliptical and
bezier area definitions within Greyscale and True Colour images without
affecting other areas of the image.
* Powerful auto-trace tool supports user-defined tolerance level to allow
easy selection of multi-coloured areas of similar RGB value eg; could be
used to select a sky background.
* Pixel precise area selection of any shape supported by use of Alpha
Channel handling.
* Image warping (two different implementations supported) and shearing
enable life-like twisting and distorting of images. The closest you'll
get to morphing on a non-frame based package. You must see these features to
believe them! They are fully operational in the demo version!
* Supports gamma correction of images for screen and/or printer.
Image Retouching Features
Besides having a powerful compliment of image processing tools, Positive
Image includes a number of localised retouching tools with user definable
brush size and shape. These are for the main part, similar in concept to
those found in any standard graphics package, but further enhanced to fully
exploit the image processing capabilities of Positive Image. The retouching
tools are as follows:-
* Sharpen/Blur - A dual purpose tool which applies a local high pass
sharpen (or blur) filter to the pixel beneath the mouse. The area affected
is directly related to your chosen brush size.
* Dodge/Burn - A dual purpose tool which lightens or darkens each pixel in
the area beneath the mouse, when used on Greyscale or True Colour images.
* Eraser - Erases any given area using a 15x15 pixel block.
* Fill - A standard fill tool as found in most graphics packages but with
user control over opacity, fade and strength.
* Spraycan - A traditional airbrush tool with the added advantage that you
can set opacity, fade and strength to suit.
* Paint - A standard painting tool which applies you chosen colour to the
image relative to the size and shape of your selected brush.
* Pencil - Identical to paint except that it always works at single pixel
level, regardless of the size of the brush.
* Rubber Stamp - A multi-purpose cloning tool.
* Full user configurability of all image processing tools allowing you to
set the Opacity, Fade and Strength to make them work like 'real' paint!
All retouching tools may be used in Positive Image's variable zoom mode to
ensure pixel precise accuracy,
Price and Availability
The development of Positive Image is nearing completion and will be released
within a matter of weeks. The retail price has been fixed at œ79.00, but you
can order your copy now at the introductory price of just œ65.00,
guaranteeing that you are one of the first to receive this highly sought
after package. A number of overseas distributors have been set up to handle
overseas orders. Contact Floppyshop for further details.
Contact:- Floppyshop, PO Box 273, Aberdeen, Scotland, U.K. AB9 8SJ.
Tel:\Fax: 01224 586208, International +44 (0)1224 586208
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