!HackSpr, v1.00 (09-Jun-92)
===========================

Introduction
------------

Have you ever grabbed a part of the screen, printed it out and wondered why
the white has appeared grey? The reason is due to the way colour works on
the Archimedes.

Every logical colour is defined in terms of a red, green and blue component,
each component having a range of 0 to 255 (ie 8 bits). Because the current
video hardware is limited to 4096 colours, this actually means that each
component really only has a range of 0 to 15, but this value is shifted left
4 bits to maximise the range of colours.

What this really means is that when new video hardware appears, it will
result in finer changes in colours appearing, rather than newer saturated
colours.

To ensure that this IS the case, for each component of colour, the upper
nibble should be copied into the lower nibble. Unfortunately, there are
certain areas of the colour system that ignore this, which results in whites
(red = &FF, green = &FF, blue = &FF) coming out grey (red = &F0, green =
&F0, blue = &F0).

Whilst it is entirely possible to change the palette of a sprite using
!Paint to correct this once it has been discovered, it is an arduous task.

Things are made worse if you've actually put the sprite into an Impression
document since you then have to save it out as a Draw file, extract the
sprite, correct the palette, then put it back into the Impression document
and adjust the scaling and positioning all over again.

Enter !HackSpr ...
------------------

What this natty little application does is scan the sprite file, Draw file,
directory or application that you drop onto its window for anything that
contains a sprite or sprite file. It then checks to see if the sprite(s)
have a 16 colour palette. If they do, the palette is checked and adjusted if
necessary so that the upper nibbles are replicated in the lower nibbles.

Whilst this is going on, !HackSpr opens a window and dumps a load of
information in it just to reassure you.

Note that ONLY 16 colour sprites are dealt with ... mainly because I'm lazy
:-)

Conclusions and usual restrictions
----------------------------------

You may copy/distribute this application as much as you like so long as it
is not copied or distributed for profit, or as part of a commercial product.

The only exception is that you CAN use the source if you so wish.

Use of the application and source is entirely at your own risk.

If you have any bug reports, suggestions or changes to the source code,
write to:

 Philip Colmer
 55 St Pauls Drive
 Chatteris
 Cambridgeshire
 PE16 6DG

 pcolmer@acorn.co.uk

