Short: ImageFX mode settings toggle Author: paabo@bancom.net Uploader: paabo bancom net Type: gfx/edit Architecture: generic PROGRAMS USING THE FILES ImageFX 2.+ MAIN APPLICATION instantly switch between 'remembered' mode settings configurations. for operations that go back and forth between two or three settings configurations INSTALLATION copy 'default.keys' file to location of 'standard. keys' or your pre-existing 'default.keys'. (First save your current 'default.keys' if it exists, by renaming it, if you do not want it overwritten, or modify your own 'default. keys' (read below). DESCRIPTION ImageFX is designed so that when you alter the drawing modes settings, these settings affect all the drawing tools. This becomes frustrating for drawing operations that go back and forth systematically between two or three different drawing settings. For example a very effective way of painting in ImageFX is to use the airbrush tool, and cycle between NORMAL at 100% BLEND, and SMUDGE at 50% BLEND. You draw a solid line, and then smear-smudge it. Then you do it again, and again, just like when you paint with pastels--paint-smudge, paint-smudge. This attempts to make the cycling between three drawing modes as easy as hitting the keyboard keys q, w, e. And establishing those settings as easy as hitting Q, W, or E, after an initial establishment of settings. How do we do it? Small scripts are attached to the q, Q, w , W, e, E keys which learn the settings (Q, W, E) and instantly fetch the remembered settings (q,w,e) When ImageFX is booted, it looks for the file 'default'keys' to provide the functions attached to keyboard keys. It only goes to 'standard.keys' if no 'default.keys' file exists. The 'default.keys' is designed to allow users to configure their own keyboard. The 'default.keys' provided here with the added functionality is essentially the 'standard.keys' file, but adding functionality to the unused keys q , Q (=shift q), w, W, e, E. You need not use this configuration. You can cut and past the part involving the Q, q, W, w, E, e keys to your own default.keys file. You can even change the keys used (as long as your key choices are not used elsewhere in the keys file. I chose q, Q, W, w,W, e,E because they are handy. You can even add more keys if you want more settings at your fingertips. Just follow the formula followed in this example. Note after saving any new 'default.keys' file, you have to reboot ImageFX for the file to have effect. USAGE: Usage is straightforward. You establish drawing settings, then hit shift-q, shift-w, or shift-e (Q, W, E), which will save the settings to IMAGEFX:SettingsQ.ifx, or IMAGEFX:SettingsW.ifx, or IMAGEFX:SettingsE.ifx , respectively. If these already exist from previous work, you will be asked whether to overwrite them. You may want to preserve settings from previous work and not overwrite, in which case just use them. Once the drawing settings have been established, you 'fetch' the appropriate settings via the non-shift keys q, w, or e. Thus if Q established NORMAL BLEND 100 etc, and W established SMUDGE BLEND 50%, then the paint-smudge-paint-smudge operation is as easy as hitting q - w - q - w etc. Note the settings are those written by the HEADER in the macro-learn operation. Thus everything recorded by the HEADER command is included in the remembering and fetching. This includes pen size, airbrush settings, etc. Have a look at the script SettingsQ.ifx after establishing it, to see what parameters are 'remembered'. This means for example that you can also establish a small airbrush size for painting, and a larger one for smudging. (or blurring, or whatever) You will note that the script attached to the keys q w e also includes 'Airbrushsettings Realtime'. This is because I like to see what I do instantly (the 'real time' checkbox is 'on'). Without this additional command, airbrushsettings will return to realtime=off in every settings change.