Files Menu


Load Page ..

This command will load a new page from disk and uses the File Select menu from the Menu Extensions. (If you are unfamiliar with the menu extension commands please refer to the explanation in the back of this manual). If the page you were working on has been changed since the last save you will be warned that these changes will be lost. The entire page will be loaded as one object so you can immediately transform or move it. This will be ungrouped by pressing ESC, provided the object was not grouped before it was saved.

You can also load Adobe Illustrator files (which end normally in _ai). LINEdesign will automatically recognize when an Adobe Illustrator file or a LINEdesign file is loaded.

Merge Page ..

This is the same as Load page except that the old page is retained, and the new one added on top. The merged page will be selected as the current object.

Clear Page

This command will clear the page you are working on. If the page has been changed since the last save you will be warned that these changes will be lost.

Save Page

This command will save the current page but it will only be available if the page has already been saved using Named Save, or if it has previously been loaded and so has a filename.

This command will automatically overwrite the old file and no warning is given !

Named Save ..

This command will save the current page and prompt you to enter a name for the file. This command has to be used when the current page has yet to be named or if you need to save it with a different name, directory or device. If the file already has a name you will be presented with it the full name and device path ready for editing.

Save Selected Object ..

This command is similar to Named Save except that, instead of saving the entire page, only the currently selected objects are saved. This can be a useful command to build a collection of objects that can be used in a cut and paste option in combination with Merge Page and a ramdisk.

Load Bitmap ..

This command will load a bitmap. As we are not sure which kind of bitmap you want to load, we don't know the suffix and have therefore not configured File Select with an extension. You can insert The PAINTER screens, _pic screens (Pointer Environment's pictures) or standard QL 32k bitmaps. For the latter you will also have to choose which mode the bitmap is in (mode 4 or 8). The other file formats contain more information, and can be of any size and mode.

The bitmap will be inserted as a rectangle at the top left corner of the current screen, at such a size that the normal ratio of the screen is retained (well it will be for standard resolution, not necessarily for owners of a QXL or QVME card), independent of the size. Now the bitmap is ready to be transformed, scaled to the right size, repositioned, etc.

The size at which the bitmap is inserted is also dependant on the zoom-factor, in such a way that it will always look the same size in the editing-window, but actually is very small according to the page. This is to allow easier editing. Note that the bitmap will only be rendered fully when printing the page, or doing a full preview (both accessible through the Files-menu, see below). When working in Preview-mode, you will only see a gray rectangle, because bitmaps render TOO SLOW to be shown and edited in real-time. Bitmaps render slowly because we allow them to be transformed in any possible way.

Load Font ..

Before LINEdesign can actually use a font, it has to be loaded explicitly. When a font is needed for a loaded or merged drawing, this is done automatically if the font can be loaded. If however, you want to use a different font or change the font used you have to load it yourself. When this option is chosen from the menu you will be presented the list of known fonts. The fonts which are loaded are indicated. You can indicate the fonts which have to be loaded, or unload fonts by de-indicating them. Please note that some fonts can not be unloaded (because the are resident).

Print Page ..

This is probably the most important command in LINEdesign. This one allows you to create hardcopy of your precious pages. All you have to do is select the driver (which type of printer you have, and in which resolution you want to use it), and the device (usually ser1hr or par), and the number of copies you want. If no device is selected, the driver will generate output to it's default device (as can be configured in the driver).

Some systems have translation devices on their output ports. Unfortunately, these can cause major print errors. In this case you should disable the translate option (add d to the device name) !

On devices : we strongly recommend the use of the parallel printer port and not the serial port. Serial ports are extremely slow and the amount of data which has to be sent to a printer can be huge. Of course we try to send as little data as possible, but not too many printers can handle compressed data. You should also be aware that serial to parallel converters do NOT speed the transfer of data up. The serial port can handle a certain speed and not more. For instance try sending an A4 page of 300 dpi data on a 9600 baud serial port (standard). This A4 page would need about 966k of data and this would take at least 13 minutes without control bits or correction of control bits (and without handshaking). In short, it will take MORE than 13 minutes to send this data. Luckily, PROforma will normally send less than 966k.

To explain the differences on output which can arise when using certain device we must admit that LINEdesign and PROforma have an idealistic view on pixels which does not conform with most output devices (actually, I think only LCD screens work like this).

Preview Page

To get a general idea of what the page will look like when it's printed, without wasting paper, trees, or damaging the environment,... you can preview it on screen. This will display the current page, spread on the left part of the screen, with an indication of the margins (in green).

There are some things which make a preview look worse than the actual printout :

Quit Program

Terminate LINEdesign. If the page you are working on has been modified since the last save, then you can select whether you want to (i) save and quit, (ii) just quit, (iii) abort (don't quit).


PROGS, Professional & Graphical Software
last edited February 28, 1997