

                           
                                         
                             
                                      
                                       (TM)
        FOR WINDOWS AND DOS         SHAREWARE EDITION

      Copyright 1993 ANDROMEDA SOFTWARE.  All rights reserved.

This is the shareware release of GRAFFIX 2.2, a major revision
that extends the screen-capture capabilities of GRAFFIX for DOS
to Microsoft Windows.  This release includes two separate and
distinct executable program files, DOS_GRFX.EXE for DOS appli-
cations, and WIN_GRFX.EXE for Windows applications.

The DOS program can be run alone for full-screen text and graphics
screen captures from within DOS applications running in DOS or
Windows, while the Windows program can be run alone for full-
screen or single-window captures from within Windows applications.
DOS_GRFX.EXE and WIN_GRFX.EXE can also run simultaneously on the
same computer for the ultimate flexibility in screen capture from
within both Windows and DOS applications running in Windows.
For simplicity, the explanations that follow focus first on the
Windows version of GRAFFIX, then on the DOS version.


GRAFFIX for Windows

GRAFFIX writes the contents of the clipboard to a graphics file.
In Windows, the entire screen can be captured to the clipboard at
any time by pressing the PrtSc key (Shift-PrtSc on 84-key key-
boards), or just the currently active window can be saved to the
clipboard by pressing Alt-PrtSc.  GRAFFIX does not need to be
running in order to do this.  GRAFFIX can then be opened to save
the clipboard to disk in either GIF or BMP format.  Simply choose
"BMP" or "GIF" from the main menu, and respond to the prompt for
a file name.  You can include a drive letter and directory
specification in the filename edit box, such as

d:\pictures\filename.bmp

or just a filename to save to the current drive and directory.

After the file is written to disk, you can close GRAFFIX or
minimize the GRAFFIX window to an icon.  When minimized, GRAFFIX
is still active in a "popup" mode, which means a dialog-box will
pop up onto the screen whenever a graphics bitmap is placed on
the clipboard.  The dialog box asks if you want to save the con-
tents of the clipboard to a graphics file, or cancel and continue
with the current application.  You can turn popup mode off by
clicking on the "popup" item in the Options menu, which will
remove the checkmark next to this menu item.

In popup mode, GRAFFIX will pop up when you press the PrtSC key
OR when another application places a bitmap on the clipboard
that is compatible with GRAFFIX.  The compatible formats are
DDB (Device-Dependent Bitmap) and DIB (Device-Independent Bitmap),
the two most commonly-used bitmap formats.  If you attempt to
save a clipboard bitmap whose format is not one of these two,
GRAFFIX will respond with a dialog box that says "No bitmap
exists on the clipboard."

The Windows Clipboard Viewer can be used to examine the contents
of the clipboard prior to invoking GRAFFIX, and Windows Paintbrush
can be used to convert BMP to PCX files.


Main Menu Item: BMP

This is the menu selection to save the contents of the clipboard
to an uncompressed Windows Bitmap File having the filename
extension BMP.  Palette-based 16 and 256 color modes are sup-
ported, as well as 24-bit true color.  BMP files can be converted
to compressed PCX files by the Windows Paintbrush utility.


Main Menu Item: GIF

This is the menu selection to save the contents of the clipboard
to a CompuServe Graphics Interchange Format file having the file-
name extension GIF.  This format utilizes LZW compression.
GIF does not support 24-bit color.


Main Menu Item: Options
Three options are available:

Clear clipboard.  Selecting this menu item empties the clipboard.

Popup mode.  This is the default mode of GRAFFIX.  When minimized
  to an icon, GRAFFIX will pop up onto the screen whenever the
  clipboard receives a new bitmap image.  Select this menu item
  to turn popup mode off or back on again.

DIB to DDB.  If the clipboard image is in DIB format, GRAFFIX
  creates DDB and palette data structures before saving the
  image to disk.  Enable this option to add these items to the
  clipboard when the file is created.  The Windows Clipboard
  Viewer can provide more accurate color rendition if these
  items are on the clipboard.


Help Menu

Online Help is available to explain the features of GRAFFIX.


GRAFFIX for DOS

The documentation for DOS_GRFX.EXE can be read by entering
dos_grfx at the command prompt and making the appropriate menu
selection.  The following text is a duplicate copy of the on-
line documentation:

GRAFFIX is a memory-resident utility that captures graphics and
text-mode screens directly to disk files.  It can be activated
from within a running DOS application, such as a video game, by
pressing the "hot key" combination Ctrl-Alt-Space.  Graphics
screens can be saved as either GIF or PCX files, and text screens
as ASCII files.  This version of GRAFFIX supports all EGA, VGA,
and SVGA gray-scale and color graphics modes (16- and 256-color),
640 x 480 24-bit color (VESA mode 112h), monochrome EGA and VGA
modes, and text modes up to 132 columns by 60 rows.  To minimize
memory requirements of this TSR, the old CGA and Hercules graphics
modes are not supported.  SVGA modes are supported for adapters
whose BIOS is VESA-compliant, which includes most SVGA adapters
on the market.


USING GRAFFIX for DOS

Super-VGA modes are supported for video cards that have the
VESA BIOS extension.  GRAFFIX looks for this extension when you
make it resident, and prints a message on the screen indicating
whether or not the VESA BIOS extension was found.  Some SVGA
cards, such as the Video Seven WIN.VGA, require that you run
a utility program that installs the VESA BIOS extension in RAM
before an application can make calls to the BIOS extension.

In the case of the Video Seven card, this utility is named
V7VESA.COM.  Putting V7VESA on a separate line in your AUTO-
EXEC.BAT file will automatically load this driver every time
you turn on your computer.

In the absence of the VESA BIOS extension on SVGA cards, GRAFFIX
supports the standard VGA modes, but will terminate and return to
the application when it encounters a mode it does not recognize.

When GRAFFIX is activated in graphics mode, a prompt for a file
name appears at the top of the screen.  The cursor is invisible
in graphics modes, but you can enter a file name as you would
in text mode, and backspace to delete characters you may want
to change.  If no file name is entered before you press RETURN,
GRAFFIX defaults to the file name SCREEN.GIF or SCREEN.PCX,
depending on the format selected, and writes the file to the
current drive and directory.  You may enter the file name with
a drive and directory prefix, such as d:\dir\filename, where d
represents any drive letter and dir any directory or subdirectory
name.  The prompt will accept more than one directory in the pre-
fix, such as d:\dir\subdir\filename, for a total of up to 23
characters.

No file name prompt appears in 640 x 480 24-bit mode, as some
adapter cards do not support text output in this mode.  Instead,
the filename defaults to 24BITxxx.PCX in the current directory,
where xxx represents the number in the sequence of files saved.
The GIF format does not support 24-bit color.

The time GRAFFIX takes to capture a graphics screen and save it
to disk depends on the speed of your computer, the file format
chosen, and the graphics mode.  A GIF file takes longer to create
than a PCX file, because the compression algorithm is more com-
plex, resulting in a file that is more compact.  The higher the
resolution of the graphics mode, the longer it will take to cre-
ate the file, because of the greater number of pixels that must
be encoded.

When the screen capture is completed, GRAFFIX will signal you
with a beep.  During a SVGA screen capture, GRAFFIX will generate
a series of ascending tones; each tone indicates that the video
card has switched to a new page of memory.  This is to reassure
you that the program is indeed processing data, and not hung up
in an endless loop.


RUNNING DOS_GRFX.EXE AND WIN_GRFX.EXE

Since DOS_GRFX.EXE is a TSR, it must be launched from the DOS
prompt BEFORE opening Microsoft Windows.  It cannot be properly
installed in memory from a DOS "shell" activated by clicking
a DOS icon in Windows, nor can it be run from the Windows "Run
File" menu.  However, once DOS_GRFX.EXE has been installed as
a memory-resident program, it can be activated from within a
DOS program that was launched from DOS, from Windows, or from a
DOS shell in Windows.  GRAFFIX for DOS is activated by pressing
the "hot-key" combination Ctrl-Alt-Space.  This is the way to
save a full-screen graphic image that is not framed by a window.

WIN_GRFX.EXE is run the same way as any other Windows program,
either from the "Run File" menu or by clicking on its icon, hav-
ing first installed it in a program group window.  The Windows
documentation explains how to add a DOS or Windows program to a
group.  In popup mode, WIN_GRFX.EXE will only pop up in Windows,
not in DOS or in DOS programs running in Windows.


GRAFFIX for Windows and DOS, Version 2.1, Shareware Edition
Copyright 1993 ANDROMEDA SOFTWARE.   All rights reserved.

To order the Professional Edition of GRAFFIX, send $39 to:

ANDROMEDA SOFTWARE
25 North Prospect St.
Washington NJ 07882

NJ residents please include sales tax.

Comments, questions, or suggestions about GRAFFIX can
be addressed to Steven A. Brown, the author of GRAFFIX,
on CompuServe at [73140,3340].


               DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY

THIS SOFTWARE AND MANUAL ARE SOLD "AS IS" AND WITHOUT
WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE OF MERCHANTABILITY OR ANY
OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.  BECAUSE
OF THE VARIOUS HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENTS INTO
WHICH THIS PROGRAM MAY BE PUT, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED.  GOOD DATA PROCESSING
PROCEDURE DICTATES THAT ANY PROGRAM BE THOROUGHLY TESTED
WITH NON-CRITICAL DATA BEFORE RELYING ON IT.  THE USER
MUST ASSUME THE ENTIRE RISK OF USING THE PROGRAM.  ANY
LIABILITY OF THE SELLER WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO
PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE PRICE.

