PSbrush



Colophon

Document:	!PSbrush.help/ewr
Version:	1.00 (Thu, May 16, 2002)
Description:	Help file for PSbrush application version 0.30
Author:		 Chris Terran/Lee Montgomerie/Vermilion Sands 2002
Format:		EasiWriter/HTML/text
Email:		chris@photodesk.iconbar.com
Web:		http://www.photodesk.iconbar.com

About PSbrush

PSbrush is a small application which converts Photoshop (and Paint Shop 
Pro) brush files for use in Photodesk.  There are thousands of 
Photoshop brushes freely available on the net  try a search on Google 
 and this application gives Photodesk users easy access to them.

Program requirements

PSbrush should run on RISC OS 3.10 or higher. No additional resources 
are required.

About brushes

Photoshop and Photodesk brushes have many similarities. There are two 
basic types: computed and sampled brushes. Computed brushes are 
elliptical in shape with variable rotation and shading levels; they are 
very easy to set up in Photodesk and not really worth transferring, so 
PSbrush ignores them.

Sampled brushes are arbitrarily sized 256-level greyscale images, with 
the level of grey controlling the amount of the colour or effect 
applied: black is 100%, and pure white is effectively transparent. Each 
has an associated spacing value, which controls the distance between 
successive applications when applying the brush continuously.

On PCs, Photoshops brushes are stored with a file extension of .abr. 
If you have Photoshop you can find some inside the 
Photoshop/Goodies/Brushes directory. Each .abr file can contain many 
brushes. Note that Paint Shop Pro brushes, although they have an 
extension of .jbr, are identical to .abr files.

Photodesks brushes are stored as (slightly non-standard) sprite files. 
However, they will load perfectly well into Paint and are usable by any 
other application which can use sprites.

Photoshop uses a simple compression method to reduce the size of brush 
files, so note that the same file may be much bigger when converted to 
Photodesk format. In addition, each Photodesk brush has  somewhat 
redundantly  a full palette, adding aproximately 2k overhead to each 
one.

Using the program

Double click on PSbrush in a Filer directory display, and a window will 
open; the program does not have an iconbar icon.

Drag an .abr or .jbr file to this window (note that any filetype and/or 
extension are ignored), and if it verifies as a version 1 Photoshop 
brush file some information about the file will be displayed in the 
lower pane. A sample file for you to try out is provided in the 
archive, containing some brushes created by Lee, including ... well, 
convert it and find out!

Set up the options as required (see below for details). The default 
settings will usually be sufficient.

If you have Photodesk and its been seen by the Filer, the save path 
will already be set up to put the file into either your sprays or 
brushes directory; click on the appropriate buttons to switch between 
them. Clicking on Open will display the appropriate directory.

Edit the files leaf name if required. Click on OK to convert the file 
and save it. 

You can also drag the sprite icon to a directory, or drop it onto Paint 
if you just want to examine the brushes. Each sprite is given a name 
based on the filename (useful for merging brushes into a single file).

Clicking on Help will open this file, and Web site will attempt to open 
the the programs home site.

To stop the program, just close the window.

Program options

Turn

If this option is selected, all the brushes in the file will have their 
turn option set for Photodesk. Note that Photoshop brushes have no 
turning information stored with the brush.

Spacing

Clicking on the Preserve button will use the Photoshop brush spacing 
values during conversion, so far as is possible. Photoshop brushes can 
have arbitrary spacings, while Photodesk uses a percentage of the 
brushs width, which can only go up to 100%.

If Preserve is not selected, you can enter a spacing value to use by 
clicking on the up and down arrows (0-100%). This value applies to all 
the brushes in the file.

Saving

If Photodesk has been seen by the Filer, youll be able to directly 
save the converted file into the sprays or brushes directories; choose 
which one you want and click on OK.

Program limitations

Only version 1 brush files can be converted, which covers most files 
youll find on the net. You do occasionally come across version 2 
files, but those will have to wait for the next version.

There is a certain amount of error checking on the file, but the 
consequences of loading anything other than an .abr file are 
unpredictable.

Computed brushes are ignored.

Notes and acknowledgements

The RISC OS application PSbrush is free to download for personal use 
from the Vermilion Sands Photodesk Resources web site 
(http://www.photodesk.iconbar.com), but you use it at your own risk.

PSbrush and all associated files are copyright:  Chris Terran / 
Vermilion Sands 2002. PSbrush may not be distributed or made available 
in any form unless express permission in writing is given by the 
copyright holder.

Send any comments and bug reports to chris@photodesk.iconbar.com

Please respect any copyright notices and usage notes on brushes you 
convert.

All trademarks acknowledged.

Photodesk is a (rather wonderful) product of Photodesk Ltd. 
(http://www.photodesk.ltd.uk)

EasiWriter is a product of Icon Technology Ltd. 
(http://www.iconsupport.demon.co.uk)

Photoshop is a product of Adobe Systems Inc. (http://www.adobe.com)

Paint Shop Pro is a product of Jasc Software, Inc. (http://www.jasc.com)

Thanks to the Iconbar for hosting the Vermilion Sands Photodesk 
Resources web site
(http://www.photodesk.iconbar.com), where any updates to PSbrush will 
appear.

Thanks to the sterling work of the RISC OS community and its 
supporters, especially the writers of PD / shareware / freeware 
software.


Program history

Version 0.30 (16 May 2002)
First release version
Finished Wimp conversion

Version 0.20 (11 May 2002)
Converted to BASIC from NeuLisp

Version 0.10 (March 2002)
Original NeuLisp version






