paintbrush menu

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This menu is for editing images by painting them with selected colors. You can use this feature to retouch images, or remove unwanted image data. The procedure works as follows:

  1. You select an image by clicking on one of the fields at the top of the menu, and entering an image name. The system will report the image's size.
  2. You click on LOAD IMAGE to make the system load the image into memory. The system will also display the image on the screen. You can control the size of the display by entering a value in the Display width menu field.
  3. You select a color for your paint. You can do this by entering a color in the Paint color menu field, or you can select a color from the image by clicking on the SELECT COLOR FROM IMAGE menu field, and then indicating a spot in the image that has the color you want.
  4. You select the style of paintbrush you want to use by clicking on the Brush type menu field.
  5. You click on PAINT. When you move the cursor within your image, you will see the paintbrush. Initially, it is inactive, and it has no effect on the image. You can turn it on by clicking on button 1. When it is turned on, it changes image pixels to the current color. You may find it necessary to move the cursor around slowly, especially if you are painting on a color image, because it may have trouble keeping up with your motions. Clicking on button 1 again turns the brush off. Clicking on button 2 or 3 will stop the painting activity altogether.

Note that you can undo the effects of your painting by using the Eraser brush type. The Eraser restores image pixels to their original colors.

Another special brush type is the Blender, which lets you blend colors together, blurring the image. This can be useful if you are retouching an image. You can control the degree of blurring by setting the Blend radius field. A smaller blend radius produces a more restricted blurring.

When you are satisfied with your image, you can save it in one of three ways:

  1. You can click on SAVE NEW VERSION to create a new version of the image file. You can get the old version back by deleting the most recent version.
  2. You can click on OVERWRITE IMAGE to write the modified image data back into the original image file. This saves disk space, but the original image is irretrievable.
  3. You can enter a new name for the modified image in the New name menu field, and click on SAVE UNDER NEW NAME. The system will create a new image file with the new name, and load the modified image data into it. Your original image will still be available.