> Are any ink effects for graphics in the works for any future release?
Ink effects, for those not familiar with the term, is a SuperCard
feature and is related to the computer graphics terms "writing modes"
and "raster operations". They're used to define how colors are
combined when you put one object on top of another.
There are no plans for supporting effects on the UNIX and Windows
platforms, as MetaCard already supports the most useful operations
(images with masks) and neither of these OSs have built-in support for
the other useful operations. We could include it in the Mac port
easily enough, though, because this feature is built in to the Mac OS
(it's too early to tell whether or not this will be in 2.2, even on
the Mac).
This is already on the feature-request list for the other platforms,
but there's a lot of stuff ahead of it. Even if it is implemented, it
wouldn't work like it does in SC for two reasons. First, unlike SC,
MetaCard doesn't have fixed palettes (CLUTs), because this color
management architecture doesn't work very well on screen depths
greater than 8 and won't work at all in X. This means that things
like the XOR and addition modes wouldn't be any use. Second, MC
supports full depth patterns where as SC only supports bi-tonal (aka
monochrome) patterns, which means that most operations involving
patterns won't work right either.
Is there some particular ink-effect you're looking for, or some reason
you can't build up images with masks using a image editing program and
import them into MetaCard?
Regards,
Scott
> Simon
>
> --
> [---------------------------------] Simon Lord
> [No matter how idiot proof you try] Database Engineer, CAE Electronics
> [to make any product, there will ] tel: (514) 341-2000 x3861
> [always be two people somewhere in] fax: (514) 340-5496
> [the world working hard at making ]
> [a bigger and better idiot. ]
> [---------------------------------] email: simonl@cae.ca
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Arthur C. Clarke was quoted as saying he would prefer HAL, a super-
> computer named after the famous rogue intelligence in 2001 being
> constructed at the University of Illinois, to speak these as its first
> words:
>
> "Good morning doctors. I have taken the liberty of removing Windows 95
> from my hard drive".
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
***************************************************************
Scott Raney raney@metacard.com http://www.metacard.com
Any sufficiently advanced technology
is virtually indistinguishable from magic -- Clarke's law