Ide/Resource Editor/Graphics Tools and Colors

Using Tools and Colors

Setting Colors

• Setting the Draw and Edit Colors

To choose colors for the drawing and editing tools you can select one of the following four switches.

The Color Modes toolbar with selected "color" mode

The color of selection will be used for the drawing. It is possible to choose a new color for the active selection by a click in the Color Palette.

The color and the alt-color can be used in all drawing operations, the screen (or transparent) and inverse selections have different purposes depending on the image type.

Note. There are 16 color fields on the Color Palette, and all of them are available for drawing and editing in the Graphic Field.

• Setting the Background Color

To see how your image looks on the different background colors or to color the image fragments in "transparent" (to let the background color show through) use the screen color selection.

The "screen" mode should be used for Background color

To change the background color, be sure that the screen switch is selected, then you can choose the background color by clicking in the Color Palette. The background color on the Image Screen, any details of the image, which were colored in (transparent) background color, and the screen indicator of Color Modes toolbar, all will change to the new color.

Usage of the "screen" Colors for Bitmaps, Cursors and Icons

Image	Screen Colors
Bitmaps	Used to set the color of the surrounding area
Cursors and Icons	Used to specify transparent pixels and to set the color of the surrounding area

• Setting the Inverse (to Background) Color

Using the inverse color is a convenient way to mark the boundary of the image or to color the details, which should be always be in contrast to any background color.

The "inverse" mode should be used for Inverse color

Usage of the Inverse color for Bitmaps, Cursors and Icons

Image	Inverse Color
Bitmaps	Cannot be used
Cursors and Icons	Used to specify pixels that should get a color inverse of the actual background

Understanding Colors

• Colors for Bitmaps

The Visual Prolog Graphics Editor can create bitmaps with either 2 or 16 colors. A pixel in a bitmap can not have the inverse and screen colors.

• Colors for Cursors

Any pixel in a cursor can have one of four color control values:

Cursor	Color Effect
Black	Pixels will be black
White	Pixels will be white
Inverse	Pixels will be converted to the inverse of the original color
Screen	Pixels will be transparent, they will just keep their old color

To understand how this works, you should create a little cursor having four areas, with these four color control values. Then select the Resources | Tools | Test Cursor, and study how the cursor looks.

In this test cursor the left upper quoter of the cursor is painted with the "color" and the left bottom quarter is painted with the "inverse"

Place the cursor over the Grid and you will see effects of "inverse" color.

• Colors for Icons

Icons can either have 2 or 16 colors, and in addition to those, the pixels can also use the screen and colors.

Cursor Handling Tools

Setting Cursor Hot Spots

When working with a cursor, the menu command Resource | Set Cursor Hotspot activates a dialog box:

Defining the Hotspot for a cursor

As long as this dialog is open you can point to the pixel, which is to be the cursor Hotspot. This pixel in the cursor will determine the screen pixel which will be acted upon and which will be reported during a mouse action.

Testing a Cursor'

When working with a cursor, the Resource | Tools | Test Cursor menu item allows you to see what your newly designed cursor will look like.

Undo / Redo Buffer

The Graphics Editor supports Edit|Undo and Edit|Redo operations, just as the other editors do.