# Basic Concepts

This section describes the basic tools and techniques you need to use e-Picture. Topics include creating and opening e-Picture documents and templates, using views, and working with the toolbox and Color panel.

# Setting the opening screen

By default, e-Picture opens displaying the New Document dialog box. If you find that you usually want to begin working in an existing document rather than creating new documents, you can elect to have your Home folder appear when you start the program.

#### To change the opening display:

Choose File > Preferences > General & Startup and choose an option:

- Create New Document displays the New Document window.
- Open Load File Panel opens your home folder.

# Creating documents

The New Document dialog box lets you create a new document using a template, create a new document using your own specifications, create, edit or delete a template, or open an existing document.

e-Picture templates are preset to the most common web banner and button sizes. You can also create and save custom templates. Templates control the height, width, and background color of a document.

e-Picture can have multiple documents open at one time. Each document can have several open views. For more about views, see Using views.

Note: All e-picture documents use the standard web resolution of 72 dpi.

#### To create a document using a template:

1. If necessary, choose File > New Document to display the New Document dialog box.
2. Enter a name for the document.
3. Choose the template from the Template menu.
4. Click Create.

#### To create a document using your own dimensions:

1. If necessary, choose File > New Document to display the New Document dialog box.
2. Enter a name for the document.
3. Enter the width and height in pixels.
4. Choose a background color:

- Click Transparent to open a document with no background. Transparency is indicated by a gray and white checkerboard pattern.
- Click White to create a document with a white background.
- Click Custom and then double-click the color swatch to display the Color panel. Drag the sliders or double-click a swatch to choose a color. For more information, see Using the Color panel.

5. Click Create.

Note: To change the color of the background of an existing document, choose Image > Canvas Properties, double-click the color swatch in the dialog box to display the Color panel, then select a new color and click OK

#### To create a template:

1. If necessary, choose File > New Document to display the New Document dialog box.
2. Click New Template.
3. Enter a name for the template.
4. Enter the dimensions for the template.
5. Choose a background color:

- Click Transparent to open a document with no background. Transparency is indicated by a gray and white checkerboard pattern.
- Click White to create a document with a white background.
- Click Custom and double-click the color swatch to display the Color panel. Drag the sliders or double-click a swatch to choose a color. For more information, see Using the Color panel.

1. Click Create. The template name appears in the Template menu.

#### To edit a template:

1. Choose the template from the Template menu.
2. Click Edit Template.
3. Change the dimensions, background color, or both.
4. Click Modify.

#### To delete a template:

Choose the template from the Template menu and click Delete Template.

# Opening and closing documents

You can open existing e-Picture documents in several ways:

- Click Open in the New Document dialog box, then select the document you want to open.
- Drag and drop the document icon onto the e-Picture application icon.
- Drag and drop the document icon into an open e-Picture window.
- Choose File > Open and select the document you want to open.

e-Picture also allows you to import documents in other file formats. See Importing documents.

#### To switch between open documents:

Click in the document window or choose Window > Documents and choose the document from the list.

#### To close a document:

Choose File > Close. All open views of the document are closed.

Note: Clicking the close box closes the individual view of a document. You must use the Close command to close all open views. For more information on views, see Using views.

# Importing documents

e-Picture imports images in many of the standard graphics and animation formats. You can animate imported graphics or incorporate imported animations into your documents. You can also import a sequence of images and automatically generate an animation based on the sequence.

Format | Extension
--- | ---
PNG | .png
GIF | .gif
Animated GIF | .gif
JPEG | .jpg
TIFF | .tif
Targa | .tga
Lightwave | .lwo

Import File Formats

#### To import a file, do one of the following:

- Drag and drop the file into an e-Picture document window
- Choose File > Import > Image, select the file, and then click Open.

#### To import a sequence:

1. Choose File > Import > Sequence.
2. Select the sequence of images and click Open. The images are opened as a set of frames, sorted alphabetically.

# Looking at the e-Picture work area

The e-Picture work area includes the command menus, the canvas area, and several panels that let you create and edit objects, layers, and animations in your e-Picture documents:

- The Toolbox displays the tools you use to draw and edit objects and text.
- The document window displays the opening view of the document.
- The Layers panel displays the document layers.
- The Animation panel lets you create and edit animated GIF files.
- The Tool Inspector displays the options for the selected tool.
- The Objects panel displays the objects in the selected layer.

# Editing documents

In e-Picture, a document refers to all the open views of an image. You use the Image menu to make changes that appear in every view of a document. Image menu commands control the viewing mode, canvas size, background color, cropping, and number of layers in a document.

### Changing canvas properties

In the e-Picture window, the edges of the drawing area, or canvas, are shown by the intersection of two limits. You can drag the limits to increase or decrease the canvas size. (Drawing is not limited to the inside of the canvas area. For more information, see Drawing outside the canvas.) The canvas has a color (or is transparent) depending on the option you selected when you created the document. You can change the color of the canvas background at any time.

#### To change the canvas size by dragging:

1. If necessary, unlock the limits in the view by choosing View > Lock Limits.
2. Select the arrow tool and drag one of the canvas limits.

#### To change the canvas size to specific dimensions:

1. Choose Image > Canvas Properties.
2. Enter the dimensions in the Width and Height boxes.
3. Click a square in the placement box to indicate where to position the existing image in the new canvas. Added canvas appears in the same color as the background.

#### To change the background color:

1. Choose Image > Canvas Properties.
2. Double-click the color swatch in the dialog box to display the Color panel.
3. Select a new color and click OK.

### Cropping an image

Cropping an image deletes the areas outside of the selected area. You can crop the image to a specific object or to an area.

#### To crop an image to the size of an object:

1. Use the arrow tool to select an object.
2. Choose Image > Crop to Selection > Vectorial.

#### To crop an image to a selected area:

1. Use the freehand or a marquee selection tool to select the area you want keep.
2. Choose Image > Crop to Selection > Bitmap.

### Flattening and merging images

There will be times when you will want to combine one or more layers in a document, for example, you might need to decrease your file size in order to preserve memory.

Merging an image combines all the layers, but the objects retains their individual properties. In a merged image, for example, you can still change the opacity or composite method of each object. Flattening an image combines all the layers into a single bitmap object. The layers no longer have individual properties and cannot be edited. For more information on layers, see About layers.

Warning: Do not flatten images until you are sure you are finished editing them.

#### To merge an image:

Choose Image > Merge Image.

#### To flatten an image:

Choose Image > Flatten Image.

### Setting view modes

All of the views for a document use the same view mode. See Using views for information on setting individual view options such as magnification and color mode.

By default, documents open in Full View mode and the first click in a view activates the document and takes the appropriate action (for example, starts drawing a shape).You can customize these settings to a different view mode or to make the first click simply activate the view.

#### To set the default opening view mode:

1. Choose File > Preferences >General & Startup.
2. Choose a view mode from the New Document View Mode menu.

#### To determine the effect of the first click in a view:

1. Choose File > Preferences >General & Startup.
2. Choose an option:

- Activates Document Window makes the view active at first click.
- Draws in Document activates the window and takes the appropriate actions, for example, begins drawing, with the first click.

#### To switch the mode for all views:

Choose Image > View Mode and then choose one of the following:

- Full View displays the stroke and fill for all objects.
- Stroke Preview displays the line of the stroke.
- Shape Preview displays an outline of the stroke at the specified width.

# Using views

Each e-Picture document can have up to eight open views. Multiple views are useful when you want to display an image in different magnifications or using different color modes. When opened, a document appears in Full View view mode, but you can set a different default view mode. To change the default view mode or the current view mode for all open views, see Setting view modes.

#### To open additional views:

Choose View > New View. A new window opens with the name of the document followed by the view number, for example, My Document: 1.

#### To switch between views:

Click the view window or choose Window > Document. Choose the document from the list of open documents and then choose the view from the list of open views.

#### To close a view:

Click the close box or choose View > Close View.

Note: To close all open views in a document, choose File > Close.

#### To set the Overscan option for a view:

Click the Overscan box in the lower right corner of the document window. For more information on using overscan, see Drawing outside the canvas.

### Locking and unlocking limits

The limits define the edge of the drawing canvas. You can choose to display or hide the limits in each view. You can also choose to allow them to be dragged (in order to change the canvas size) or to lock them to prevent resizing in a specific view.

Note: When you change the canvas size in one view, it is changed for all views. Locking the limits means that you cannot change the canvas size by dragging in that specific view.

#### To display or hide the limits:

Choose View > Limits.

#### To lock or unlock the anchors:

Choose View > Lock Limits.

### Choosing a color mode

By default, images appear in RGB color mode. Each view can show the image using a different color mode. This lets you preview your image as it will appear in different browsers or see how it looks when displayed in web-safe colors.

#### To change the color mode for a view:

Choose View > Color Mode and choose an option.

Palette | Description
--- | ---
RGB | Displays the image using RGB 32-bit color
Web-safe | Displays the image using the web-safe palette
Windows | Displays the image using the Windows System palette
MacOS | Displays the image using the MacOS palette
BeOS | Displays the images using the BeOS system palette
Dithering | Mixes the available colors to simulate missing colors.

Color mode options

# Magnifying and reducing views

The zoom controls and the zoom tool let you magnify or decrease the display in any view.

#### To magnify or decrease the display, do one of the following:

- To cycle through the preset magnifications, click the zoom display control in the bottom of the window.
- To increase the magnification to the next preset magnification, click the + zoom control, choose View > Zoom In, or press Alt+(plus sign).
- To decrease the magnification to the next preset magnification, click the - zoom control, choose View > Zoom Out, or press Alt-(minus sign).
- To go directly to a specific preset percentage of magnification, choose from the zoom menu in the bottom left of the document window or choose View > Zoom and choose an option from the menu.
- To increase the magnification in a specific area, click the zoom tool in the toolbox then click the location you want to magnify.
- To make the entire image visible in the window, double-click the hand tool or choose View > Zoom Fit to Window.

#### To scroll in a magnified view:

Select the hand tool and drag in the window or use the scroll bars.

# Arranging open windows

Each view of a document appears in a separate window. You can easily arrange the display of open windows.

#### To arrange multiple windows, do one of the following:

- Choose Window > Stack to arrange the windows stacked and cascading from the top left to the bottom right of the screen.
- Choose Window > Tile to display windows edge to edge.
- Choose Window > Tile Vertical to display windows one next to the other.

# Working with panels

E-Picture provides several panels to keep frequently-used options readily available. You can move, close, and rearrange these panels to provide the best placement for your work style. Once you position the panels, they retain their new positions the next time you open e-Picture.

#### To display or hide a panel:

Choose the panel name from the Windows menu.

#### To move a panel:

Drag the panel by its title bar.

#### To collapse a panel vertically

Double-click the title bar. Double-click again to open the panel.

#### To collapse a panel horizontally:

Click the left-pointing triangle at the right edge of the title bar (this triangle appears when the palette is docked). The panel title bar appears at the edge of the screen with the name visible. To open the panel, click the right-pointing triangle. For the Layers panel, two clicks are necessary to restore the panel to full size.

# Using the toolbox

The icons in the toolbox represent the tools you use in e-Picture. Click to select a tool. Once a tool is selected, the Tool Inspector changes to display the options for that tool. After you've drawn an object, clicking the object in the Objects panel selects it and changes the Tool Inspector to edit mode. For more information, see Moving and aligning objects and Editing objects with the Tool Inspect or.

#### To move the toolbox:

Drag the toolbox title bar.

#### To hide the toolbox:

Choose Windows > Toolbox.

# Using the Color panel

When you're drawing or editing objects, you choose colors from the Tool Inspector. When you're choosing background colors or selecting colors for a gradient, you use the Color panel.

Note: The top diagonal of the color box in the Color panel displays the current color; the bottom diagonal displays the nearest web-safe color.

The Color panel uses the same color models found in the Tool Inspector, with the addition of a Web tab. You use the Web panel to limit the color selection to web-safe colors. For information on the other color models, see Drawing with a solid color.

There are multiple sets of color swatches in the bottom of the color panel. To move between the swatch sets, click the up and down arrows. To add your own color swatch, mix the color and move to an empty color swatch set (the boxes will be gray). Drag the color from the large color box at the bottom left of the Color panel to the empty swatch box.

You can separate the color models into individual panels by dragging their tabs outside the panel boundaries. The next time you start e-Picture, all the color models are again contained in a single panel.

# Adjusting monitor gamma

The preference for gamma adjustment lets you calibrate the color balance of your monitor. These settings help eliminate color casts in your monitor so that the images you create look the same on other monitors and systems.

#### To adjust the gamma:

1. Make sure your monitor has been on for at least 30 minutes to stabilize the color.
2. Turn off any desktop patterns and change your desktop to a neutral gray so it doesn't interfere with your color perception.
3. Choose File > Preferences > Monitor Gamma Adjustment.
4. Drag the sliders or type in values to adjust the red, green, and blue color channels. To adjust the colors individually, deselect the Link Channels option.
5. Click OK. The new gamma settings take effect the next time your start e-Picture.

# Using plug-in modules

Plug-in modules are small helper applications that add features to a program. Some plug-ins, such as the filters, come with e-Picture. Other plug-ins, created by third-party developers, can be added to the e-Picture plug-in library. To add a plug-in, drag it into the Add-ons folder.

# Setting preferences

A number of program settings are stored in the e-Picture preference file, located in the /boot/home/configure/settings/Beatware/e-Picture folder. These settings include general display options, startup options, and Gamma adjustment. All options are controlled from within e-Picture.

#### To open a preferences dialog box:

1. Choose File > Preferences and choose the desired preferences from the menu.
2. Select the options you want to change and click OK. In this documentation, individual preference settings are discussed in their relevant sections.

# Quitting e-Picture

When you quit e-Picture, you are prompted to save any unsaved documents.

#### To quit e-Picture, do one of the following:

- If you are working in a document, choose File> Quit.
- If only the New Document dialog box is open, click Cancel.