Documentation for
Picnic -
Preview Release
Table of Contents
Preface
Picnic is a combined image processing and paint program. It enables you
to paint pictures as well as doing image processing operations on
the painted regions. This is a preview release. Lots of features
are missing, and there are (probably) lots of bugs. Use it at your
own risk.
Picnic supports datatypes loading, png-saving, unlimited Undo, magnified
edit etc. All operations are performed by add-ons. There are currently
three different types of add-ons:
- Primitives - The actual drawing operations (rectangel, ellipse, ...)
- Operators - Image processing operations (emboss, line-detect, sharpen, ...)
- Brushes - Painting brushes (normal, airbrush, crayon, ...)
Currently only some primitives and operators are implemented, no brushes.
Below you will find examples of what can be done with Picnic.

Original Image

Different operations performed on image.
All the source code for this program will be released as soon
as it is cleaned up a bit.
When you start Picnic, you will be presented with the tool window
(shown below). To open a picture, either drop a file onto the tool window,
or click for the popup menu in the big grey area of the tool window.

Tool window
Drawing
As soon as a picture is opened, or a new fresh painting is opened, you
can start drawing into it.
Drawing is done by selecting a primitive from the tool Window, and then
drawing in a paint window. While drawing, the affected area will be
negated.
Since this is a preview release, the operation window looks like shit,
but you will have to live with it for now. You can select a primitive
in the upper combo-box.
The primitives are described in the next section. To select the
operator that will be used on the painted region, use the lower combo-box.
The initial operator is "Paint", which is normal opaque painting. You
can select the painting color in the color-control view.
Zooming
In the lower left corner of the window you select the zoom of the
picture. Just click the widget to test it out.
Undo
Undo is possible for every operation. Just select Undo
from the Edit menu. Currently there is a fixed limit
on ten levels of undo, or five megabytes of undo memory, whichever
comes first. This will of course be configurable in the future.
Resize
A picture can be resized by selecting Resize from the
Edit menu. You will be presented with a resize window, which
enables you to select a new width and height.
I haven't got time to write documentations right now. You will just have
to test them out for yourself.
Lots of cool operators available. Waves and Fisheye are
ported from gimp. The rest have been programmed by Peder. Most operators
will have a config window in the future.
Be aware that some of the operators are not intended to be stand alone
operators. Displace, Filter and Offset are only
meant to be used by other operators. Through our (powerful) add-on
interface, operators can use other operators to perform operations.
For instance: The Emboss operator uses three operators to
create an embossed region (Grayscale, Negate and Offset).
Currently there is no support for brushes. Expect Airbrush, Crayon
and lots of other fancy brushes in the future.
Phew... Where should I start? Lots of GUI-stuff; more add-ons; brushes;
better gimp-support to make gimp-plugin-porting easier, +++
The source code will soon be released to enable others to create
add-ons.
Picnic is copyright © 1998 by Prodigal Software. All rights reserved.
Prodigal software are:
Feel free to contact us for any reason.
Permission is granted to download, uncompress, untar, install,
execute, move, rename, trash, and delete Picnic.
No warranty is made for this software - all usage is done at
ones own risk.
Postcard-ware
Picnic is postcard-ware. After the massive amounts of postcards received
for the Prodigal VRML Viewer, we try this success again :-).
Postcard-ware means that if you like
what you see, send a postal card
(an email would be way too easy) to
Peder Blekken
Selsbakk Øvre 5
N-7027 Trondheim
NORWAY
and/or
Lars Joergen Aas
Bjoernebyeveien 1
N-7026 Trondheim
NORWAY
with some greetings from your home town.
[Ugly documentation was mostly scribbled down by Peder]