Stencil
by Kell Gatherer

Stencil is an application which turns a Draw path object inside out. Effectively it creates a negative image by placing a bounding box around the outside, so that what was filled is now transparent and vice versa. The resultant file can be used for all kinds of special effects which are not available in Draw itself.

Running the application installs it on the icon bar. A Draw file may now be dragged onto the Stencil icon and a Save box will appear: drag this to a Filer window or directly into Draw. The program works by converting the individual paths in the original into one long path, then creating a box around it: the 'even-odd' winding rule fills the area around the original paths instead of inside them. Only path objects will be treated in this way; all other objects, e.g. text or sprite, are ignored. Any grouping in the original is also ignored, since the new file is just one path anyway. The path style of the first character will be applied to all characters. Dragging the new file using Adjust leaves off the bounding box, so the program may also be used to connect several objects into one long path.

Stencil is most effective with text that has been converted from a font using DrawFont (on the Volume 4 Special Disc) or RISC OS 3 Draw: any patterns placed behind the resultant "stencil" will show through. Inside the !Stencil directory folder (hold down Shift and double-click) is a Draw file of examples called "Examples".

 RISC User 1993
