These utilities are very simple and they allow you to add text to a pre-existing image. They are designed to work in Mode 4, but memory providing, they will work in all Modes. They were originally written to be incorporated into Impact Software's superb package The Art Studio as, although it included options to bolderise and underline text, it lacked any nice selectable lettering typefaces to give a more professional look to a graphic screen without the user having to draw each letter pixel by pixel.
To begin each utility, press SPACE. You will then be able to type text to the screen as normally as you would type it to the keyboard. If you near the edge of the screen, however, press RETURN and a cross cursor will appear. You then move this cursor to each new location and can press SPACE to repeat the process. The bottom line of the screen keeps tabs on the location of the cursor at all times and also reports any errors in loading and saving.
To load a picture to the background, press L. To save the picture after being amended, press S. You will then need to type in a filename. Hit RETURN and the operation will be performed.
There are three utilities; they are separate and not interlinked, so if you want to write in one font and then another you need to save the picture you're working on, load the other font utility and then reload the picture. The filenames are "BUB" & "BUB2", "ELK" & "ELK2" and "BUB" & "BUB2", stored in the U(tilities) directory.
Please note that the ESCAPE key is only disabled during loading and saving; at other times it breaks into the program.
1st November 1999