** 2 page review / 1261 words ** ArtWorx v2.0 ** ARTWLOGO.GIF top right? ** Mark Wherry previews ASH's vector based art package... ** AW_TIGER.GIF here ** I remember being told in art lessons not to use a ruler for drawing and I quickly figured out I couldn't draw to save my life. However, using tools even I can produce worthwhile results and vector art packages like ArtWorx are amongst the best tools available. Bitmap versus vector There are two types of graphics packages available: Those that work with bitmap based imaging and those that work with vector based imaging. With bitmap graphic formats like IMG, GIF, JPEG, TIF and so on, the graphics are stored by recording which colour each pixel is within that graphic. The alternative is to use a vector-based system where the graphics are created by describing objects. For example, if we wanted to draw a filled red square at the co-ordinates 100x100, that is how the package would record it. In this way, the graphic becomes system independent and the graphic will always be drawn and output at the best possible resolution on any particular system. The big advantage vector based art offers is that every object remains independent and can be moved and resized at any time without any loss of quality. The downside is it that recording details down to the pixel level isn't really practical. More product The Atari platform has always been well served with vector graphic packages with commercial offerings such as EasyDraw and DA's Vector and excellent shareware alternatives such as Kandinsky [Ed: There's a full version of Kandinsky on the renegade CD-ROM]. ArtWorx presents a modern enhanced GEM interface with a polished ST-Guide hypertext written by G”tz Hoffart (in German) who also looks after the documentation for Texel and other apps. ArtWorx runs happily on a 1Mb ST, in mono resolution, right up to my Apple G3 machine running MagiC Mac in TrueColor resolutions. Each document contains toolbars to select drawing tools and common controls, such as clipboard, printing and disk functions. All the dialogs are non-modal which means they can be left open on the desktop and deployed using the Apply button. For anyone with enough desktop space to leave dialogs open this method of working is much faster than opening and closing dialogs after each operation using the normal OK and Cancel buttons. Sadly there's no BubbleGEM help but there is a single line help prompt in the document window which changes as the mouse passes over the toolbox icons. It's a lot better than remembering what each icon does and you can refer to the hypertext for more detailed explanations. ArtWorx is certainly a showcase package for the OLGA protocol. It provides all the basic features I've covered in the Inside GEM mini-series along with a full inplace drawing client architecture. This means the graphics ArtWorx displays can be embedded in other applications and deserves an article in it's own right, so that's exactly what we'll do in a follow-up article. Features ArtWorx is a mature and stable program boasting an impressive feature set and it seems a shame there still isn't an English release, although as you can see from the screenshots TransAction have got an English version up and running. Loading up the supplied example files, I couldn't help but be impressed - the tiger and Porsche images are stunning! All the drawing tools you'd expect to find to construct lines, rectangles, circles, ellipses, curves, text and so on are present and intuitive to use. There are also some useful tools for drawing triangles, parallelograms and polygons. The polygon tool displays a popup menu to select the number of sides and the polygon can then be drawn at the required size. Converting text to B‚zier curves works notably better than Kandinsky and it is necessary to do this if you want to alter the text. Plenty of transformation options are provided for altering objects and these have been neatly implemented in a single dialog. A list of functions is provided and choosing one reveals any user-input panels, which offers the user fine control over the operation being carried out. As you'd expect there's a configurable grid with snap to grid abilities along with a feature to snap individual objects onto the grid, even when inactive if desired, which can be useful. From this release ArtWorx supports layering. Up to 32 layers per page can be assigned and controlled from a non-modal dialog which includes all the usual options you'd expect to manage the construction of multi-layered drawings. Modules ArtWorx is a modular program which offers a plug-in architecture enabling third parties to add features to the package. There are modules providing extra functions, including some of the file format support routines, and some more advanced modules which feature their own entry in the Modules drop down menu. ** AW_LABEL.GIF here ** There's a label creation module (which incidentally may be of relevance to the label printing discussion in recent Suggestive Remarks columns) which displays an options dialog then creates a new ArtWorx document the size of a single label. Once the design is finalised they can be output using the Print button in the label module dialog. ** AW_GRAD.GIF here ** The most exciting module is a custom colour run and gradient fill creator. The module is a separate commercial product, programmed by Manfred Lippert, who is also credited as co-conceiving ArtWorx and author of the jinnee desktop. The "light" version bundled with ArtWorx is still capable of creating gradient fills between two colours. The are various user-definable options along with the ability to load and save preset gradient schemes - three examples are included. Pseudo DTP! ** AW_DTP.GIF here ** ArtWorx has the capability to import text from an ASCII file into a text frame, formatted in any font available to the program. Although ArtWorx wasn't designed for DTP and doesn't offer features to run text around images it's still feasible to design simple multi-page documents entirely within ArtWorx. Conclusions ArtWorx should appeal to anyone creating illustrations and with its OLGA, GEMScript and plug-in support it's at the cutting of GEM development. I really like ArtWorx, v2.0 is the eighth revision since the original release and it's rock steady - I haven't even experienced any glitches let alone a crash. Although ArtWorx isn't in the same league as Adobe's Illustrator or Macromedia's Freehand it also doesn't carry their hefty price tag. If System Solutions can get an English release into the marketplace at anywhere near the German retail price it really will be a bargain. mark@ataricomputing.com ** Boxout ** Import and export formats ArtWorx can cope with an impressive array of file formats, which is always useful when dealing with other packages and platforms. Import from: CVG Calamus vector graphic (1.09n And SL) CWG ArtWorx-vector format GEM GEM metafile (as used by Kandinsky) WMF Windows metafiles (including EMF) AI? Adobe Illustrator EPS IMG GEM-Image raster graphics TIF TIFF format (via bundled external module) PNG Portable Network Graphic, rumoured GIF format successor ASC ASCII text PS Postscript (via external commercial module available separately) Export to: CVG, AI?, CWG, GEM, EMF, EPS, pure EPS format (which can include raster graphics), CWG, GEM, AI?, ASC, PNG, TIF (via bundled external module). ** /boxout ** ** Product Boxout ** ArtWorx v2.0 Author: Christian Witt Publisher: ASH http://members.aol.com/ashinfo/ UK Distributor System Solutions Tel: +44 (0)181 693 3355 Fax: +44 (0)181 693 6936 info-software@system_solutions.co.uk www.system-solutions.co.uk/cafe/ Cost: 99,- DM (around œ36) Pros Excellent online hypertext, wide range of file formats supported, capable of professional quality results Cons BubbleGEM support would be nice 90% ** /boxout ** ** AW_MENUS.GIF (Definitely use!) **