Re: G.C. updated?

[Tony Jackson]

Hi Thorsten, Our messages crossed, but... >You get the smallest file size for good black & white drawings if >you save as TIFF with CCITT 4 compression. Because that method is >designed for such files. The two types of compression offered in 'Save as' by GC8.6 were Packbits and LZW when I saved earlier. When I went to check just now I found an 'Options' button, and CCIT4 was there. Also, the panel was set at 'Big Endian (Motorola)', with an alternative of 'Little Endian (Intel). I've changed that, hopefully this is right, given that my computer is an Intel-driven one? This gave me a pdf (via Acrobat) of 11,338. Not quite as small as the 9,551 which I got earlier, but... More experimenting has shown the cause of the absent compression options. The file, as saved by GC8.6 (I think) had managed to get itself set to be opened by Preview, hence the reduced saving options. The Preview page looks more like GC8 than GC5! My latest pdf version is almost 2 KB larger, following saving with GC8 and dragging onto Acrobat... But hey... >The PNG format will give better results for other content due the >used zlib compression. So, when I have greyscale images to deal with, this may be better? In this connection I find it frustrating that it seems not to be possible to save pages which have photo-illustration in among text more economically - usually my pdf pages from such documents are greater than 1 MB. Sometimes Acrobat makes it much worse by smudging the text with lossy compression. I've never found a way to prevent this occasional vice, so I have to keep lossless copies of everything in case I need to go back and find a spoiled page. But as I wrote earlier, all of this is very secondary compared with the pixel editing! Best, T. -- Tony Jackson, Devon, UK.

[Tony Jackson]

Re: [gcmac] Re: G.C. updated? Hi Thorsten, as written: use CCITT 4 compression for black & white. That is the best method for such files. That is what I used for my most recent test. What is the problem with the pixel editing? At which zoom? I need the exact details to find anything or to check it. I quote from my note of this morning: Did you maybe enable the grid? That would cause jumping of the selection. No, no grid visible. For clarity, (again...): 1. When I try to select the top row of pixels of a bit of an image the marquee selects one row below where I have the cursor (at 200%, the zoom level I work at in 5.9). 2. If I try to select the bottom row of pixels they select correctly, but the top of the marquee appears to be located half way through the line of pixels [above the one] which I'm trying to include. 3. When I try to select the left-had (vertical) column of pixels I get two columns.  Select the right-hand column and I usually get the pixels I want, and the selection is shown correctly. 4. When I move the selected pixels one pixel to the left or right the resulting gap is less visible than in 5.9, although I have the 'handles' invisible in GC8 (following your earlier suggestion).  Not a big problem, though, if the selection were reliable. 5. I don't seem to have [previously] mentioned the new problem, with reshaping a marquee now insisting on jumping.  If I open a marquee but it 'misses' I then wish to drag it sideways.  As I drag (for example) the RH side of the marquee past the LH edge (seeking to select a single column of pixels), the LH edge, as it becomes the RH edge, jumps Rightwards, so that I now have two columns of pixels.  Same problem with horizontal rows of pixels.  [It is possible to make a one-pixel-wide marque, but only if you get it right first time]. All these effects are the same at 400%, excepting that no. 2 is less severe - the marquee edge is about 1/4 pixel higher than it should be. I think all of your issues are caused by your settings. Did you try to trash the prefs? I hesitate to do this in case I wind up with 5.9 useless too!  Can I trash the prefs only of 8.x? From another of my messages today: The only way to place a marquee precisely is to place it in empty space and then drag one of its corners to the place you wish to control.  An earlier problem of the cursor keys 'typing ahead' uncontrollably seems to have been reduced, but it is now much slower than 5.9, and it can only be undone one pixel at a time, as against all the nudges since the marquee was drawn, as in 5.9. None of these problems occurs in GC 5.9.  However, 5.9 is not so convenient to use, as it cannot be set as the default Application to open graphic files.  Even a file generated in GC 5.9 cannot be opened in 5.9 by double-clicking it.  I have to open GC 5.9, then select 'Open...' in the file menu and hunt for the file I wish to open. Also, there is an annoyance, as another person commented upon on the list - the Toolbox disappears if you click out onto a page in another application, then back into GC.  It took a while to realise that clicking on the desktop and back on the GC document gets it back.  A nuisance, again, but of little consequence compared with the maddening error in the cursor/marquee behaviour. Best, T. Tony Jackson, Devon, UK.

[thorstenlemke]

Hi Tony,the toolbox is a palette. Palettes are hidden by the MacOS if the application is not the frontmost. That is the normal MacOS behaviour.Thorsten On 30.04.2013, at 03:33, Tony Jackson <tony@you-me-and-us.com> wrote: Also, there is an annoyance, as another person commented upon on the list - the Toolbox disappears if you click out onto a page in another application, then back into GC.  It took a while to realise that clicking on the desktop and back on the GC document gets it back.  A nuisance, again, but of little consequence compared with the maddening error in the cursor/marquee behaviour.

[thorstenlemke]

Hi,do you make the selection from the top left?Maybe e-mail a short screen movie with the issue to my personal e-mail lemke@lemkesoft.deThorstenOn 30.04.2013, at 03:33, Tony Jackson <tony@you-me-and-us.com> wrote:  quote from my note of this morning:

[Tony Jackson]

Hi Thorsten, >the toolbox is a palette. Palettes are hidden by the MacOS if the >application is not the frontmost. That is the normal MacOS behaviour. Yes, but in GC 5.9 it doesn't reappear when you click on GC again, as it does in GC 8. Best, T. -- Tony Jackson, Devon, UK.

[Tony Jackson]

Re: [gcmac] Re: G.C. updated? Hi Thorsten, do you make the selection from the top left? I make the selection from whatever direction I can, depending on what I seek to achieve. Here is a selection of the possibilities: 1.  Suppose I wish to 'collect' a row of pixels at the top of an element in an image. I set the cursor at the point where I wish the selection to begin and drag to the right and upwards, or to the left and upwards.  In neither case does the selection start at the point I have begun to drag the cursor, but instead it starts one pixel lower.  In GC 8.6. In GC 5.9 the marquee draws out just where I put the cursor. 2.  If I wish to collect a row of pixels at the bottom of an element in an image: I place the cursor level with the point from which I wish to draw out the marquee and drag downwards and to the right or left.  Marquee develops just as it should, from exactly where I put the cursor, in GC 5 or GC 8. 3.  If I wish to collect a column of pixels on the LH side of an image I find that dragging upwards it usually starts where I've placed the cursor, dragging downwards it collects from a point one pixel to the right of the cursor. 4.  If I wish to collect a column of pixels to the right of part of an image it seems to start correctly, whether I drag upwards or downwards. All the above effects occur at 400%, as well as at 200%. 5.  Still at 400%, if I use the pencil tool to set a single pixel in an area of white space, and then start a marquee at the bottom right point of the pixel and drag to the right and down, it expands correctly, with its origin where I began dragging, and its area expanding pixel-by-pixel.  Still holding down the clicker, if I now drag back to the left, the marquee contracts as I drag, until the point is reached where I cross the point at which I started.  The line which has been the left-hand side of the marquee becomes the right-hand side, and jumps one pixel to the right. Conversely, if I draw out a marquee leftwards and downwards from the bottom left of the pixel it starts one pixel to the right of my start point, but the marquee jump to the left if I drag back leftwards. 6.  If I draw out a marquee upwards and to the left from the upper left corner of the new pixel it starts one pixel to the right and one pixel below my starting point.  If I drag back down and right, past the start point, the marquee jumps both laterall and vertically, so that the marquee is now starting from the point at which I began dragging (but of course it is not enclosing the pixels I wished to 'collect'). Same if I drag up and to the right. 7.  In GC 5.9 the marquee always starts at the point from which I drag, and when I drag back past the start point it becomes briefly invisible as, for example, I drag sideways past the start point, becoming visible again as the dragged corner or side goes one pixel beyond the beginning point. 8.  A new discovery, however:  in GC 8,6 if I release the mouse after making a marque I can then pick up the corner with which I've been enlarging/creating it and it now behaves in the same way as it does in GC 5.9.  It goes invisible as I drag past its origin, and reappears without jumping upwards or sideways as I continue one or more pixels beyond. 9.  Another fresh observation:  in GC 5.9 the marquee appears, as I draw it, in a fine dashed line.  When I stop dragging and release the mouse it becomes a coarser dashed line.  When I drag a side of an existing marquee the dragged side becomes fine-dashed; when I drag a corner the two adjacent sides become fine-dashed.  In both cases the sides revert to coarse-dashed when I release.  In GC 8 the marquee is drawn as a coarse-dashed line, and this remains if one alters it subsequently. The problems of getting a marquee to start where one wishes are probably exacerbated by the coarseness of the line one must work with. On the plus side, the GC 8 marquee moves better when moved with the cursor keys.  It used to move unpredictably, and it didn't stop until some while after I released the cursor.  This now works as it should! All of the above has just been tested this morning at 400%.  I normally work at 200%. Maybe e-mail a short screen movie with the issue to my personal e-mail lemke@lemkesoft.de I've no idea how to do this, and I don't know what I could show which I've not described.  Still, if you suggest how I might do this, and you really think it would be helpful I'll give it a try.  Heavens, I've already written almost forty emails on this topic and spent countless hours on it.  I guess I can find a few more if I must! Best, T. -- Tony Jackson, Devon, UK.

[thorstenlemke]

Hello,the 5.9.x is really old. So, it is maybe not fully compatible with 10.6.8 or later.Thorsten On 30.04.2013, at 09:18, Tony Jackson <tony@you-me-and-us.com> wrote:   Hi Thorsten, >the toolbox is a palette. Palettes are hidden by the MacOS if the >application is not the frontmost. That is the normal MacOS behaviour. Yes, but in GC 5.9 it doesn't reappear when you click on GC again, as it does in GC 8. Best, T. -- Tony Jackson, Devon, UK.

[Tony Jackson]

Hi Thorsten, >the 5.9.x is really old. So, it is maybe not fully compatible with >10.6.8 or later. I've long known that - in fact that is why I bought version 7/8, because you warned us that it was not suitable for use with 10.6. However given the fact that GC 8 almost doesn't work at all for the use I make of it I had no choice but to discover how to continue to use GC 5.9. Best, T. -- Tony Jackson, Devon, UK.

[thorstenlemke]

Hi Tony,I rechecked all with the latest BETA and found no issues.Please recheck.Thorsten On 30.04.2013, at 11:03, Tony Jackson <tony@you-me-and-us.com> wrote: Hi Thorsten,do you make the selection from the top left?I make the selection from whatever direction I can, depending on what I seek to achieve.Here is a selection of the possibilities: