In this topic we will describe elementary navigation in Pixopedia 24: pull-down menu options, toolbar sections and their controls.

Pixopedia 24 GUI

First of all, we must see how Pixopedia 24 GUI is designed. Pixopedia 24 GUI is is devided in three sections:

• Main pull-down menu
  All significant functions in main pull-down menu are associated with some shortcut.
  
• Toolbar, which is devided in three sections:
  • Section with icons associated to main pull-down menu functions and action selection button.
  • Section with methods and parameters associated to selected action.
  • Section with buttons for applying actions on image, contour and mask, together with foreground/background color selection.
  
  
• Image manipulation area (IMA) occupies the largest part of GUI and is used to render loaded image.
  When passing with mouse cursor over this area, cursor shape changes.

When you start Pixopedia 24, action select button is set to first action in actions list:

1. Draw - performs drawing with various methods and parameters.
2. Adjust colors - RGB, HSV, LMH and other types of image color adjustment
3. Color manipulation - various color exchange methods, color reduction, casting and thresholding.
4. Image control - copy, move, cut, paste, rotate, resize actions on ROI and area marked with brush strokes.
   Image resize, canvas enlarge, image rotate, margins cut-off, clippboard actions, etc...
5. Image warping - performs various image warping techniques.
6. Pixels shifting - shifting two copy of the same image with various methods.
7. Simple 3x3 filters - various predefined and user defined filters with 3x3 kernel size.
8. Retouch - retouch methods that can be performed by free hand movement or by autobrush engine.
9. Fast IPL filters - fixed, scalable and morphological filters with scalable kernel size.
   These filters are performed using fast IPL library especially sutable for MMX processors.
10. Convolution 7x7 - predefined and user defined with 7x7 kernel size. These filters also use fast IPL library routines.
11. Color twisting - fast IPL color twisting matrix manipulation.
12. Histogram - histogram and color stretching methods.
13. Noise - pixel, lines and various Perlin noise methods.
14. Ornaments - Ornamental drawing techniques. Various symmetry and iterative methods.

Pull-Down Menu & Top Toolbar Section

File
menu item has a set of subitems with or without attached toolbar buttons:

New item is used to create a new image. After selecting this item by clicking on it, a pop-up panel is displayed. You can select the size of new image (in pixels) and the color to fill the background of newly created image. This action is same as pressing the toolbar button 1. Shortcut key for this action is: Ctrl+N

Open item is used to open existing image, i.e. to load existing image from disk to memory. After selecting this item, standard file-open dialog displays. This action is same as pressing toolbar button 2. Shortcut key: Ctrl+O

Save item is used to save image from Pixopedia 24 in some file on disk. After selecting this item, a warning dialog appears. Pressing OK button saves changes done on image to disk. Same action can be performed by clicking the button 3. Shortcut key: Ctrl+S

Save As item is used to save existing image under the new name. After selecting this item, standard file-save dialog appears. Same action can be performed by clicking the button 4. Shortcut key: Ctrl+A

Revert item is used to reload the image, loosing all changes done after last save. Warning dialog appears. Same action is attached to button 18. Shortcut key: Ctrl+R

Print item is used to start printing the image. Same action attached to button 5.
In beta version of Pixopedia 24, this action is not installed. Shortcut key: Ctrl+P

Preferences item is used to specify directory for user defined filters and directoy for HTML tutorial when downloaded to your hard disk. Also, you can specify versions of some file formats not available in file format parameters dialog. On this panel, you can also specify undo buffer depth and compression type.

Exit item is used to close running application.

Edit
menu item has a set of subitems with or without attached toolbar buttons:

Undo item is used to delete the last performed operations on image. The number of actions available for this operation is specified in preferences control panel. Same action is attached to button 17. Shortcut key: Ctrl+Z

Copy image to clipboard item is used to copy current image (whole image) to clipboard. If you want to copy a part of image to clipboard, use one of
the image control actions. Shortcut key: Ctrl+C

Empty clipboard item simply clears the content
of clipboard. Shortcut key: Ctrl+E

Clear image item is used to clear image by filling it with background color. Shortcut key: Ctrl+D

Apply action on image item is used to apply desired action on complete image. Same operation is performed by clicking Image button in the third toolbar segment. Shortcut key: Ctrl+Ins

Apply action on contour item is used to apply desired action on previously defined contour. Same operation is performed by clicking Contour button in the third toolbar segment. Shortcut key: Shift+Ins

Apply action through mask item is used to apply desired action through mask if any. Mask exist if any action was applied with some stroke or shape. Same operation is performed by clicking Mask button in the third toolbar segment. Shortcut key: Ctrl+M

Settings
Brush specifications item displays brush setup form. Same action is attached to button 11. Shortcut key: F2.

Restrictions item displays restriction form. Same action is attached to button 12. Shortcut key: F3

Transparency & channels item displays transparency & channels of interest form. Same action is attached to button 13. Shortcut key: F4

Contour definition item display contour setup form. Action attached to button 14. Shortcut key: F5

Autobrush parameters item displays autobrush setup form. Action attached to button 15. Shortcut key: F6.

Shadow settings item displays shadow setup form. Action attached to button 16. Shortcut key: F7.

Background tiles item displays background tiles form. Action attached to button 20. Shortcut key: F8.

Current font item is used to change text font for future text rendering. Same action is attached to button 6 and to edit text form button Change font.

View
menu item has a set of subitems with or without attached toolbar buttons:

Scroll bars item when checked enables showing vertical and horizontal scroll bars, that appears when image is larger then IMA. Those scroll bars are used for panning the picture.

Horizontal ruler item is used to show horizontal ruler when checked.

Vertical ruler item is used to show vertical ruler when checked. Ruler stoppers do not have any use at present time.

Toolbar item is used to show/hide toolbar. This operation is used to obtain wider IMA when repeating same action without the need of toolbar controls (free hand drawing with the same method, etc..). Shortcut key: Ctrl+Y.

Toggle toolbar left/right item is used to position toolbar on the left or right side of IMA. Shortcut key: Ctrl+L.

Zoom In item zooms in current image by factor 2 each time this operation is selected. Same action is attached tol button 7. Shortcut key: F9.

Zoom Out item has a submenu where you can select the number of times the image will be zoomed out (decreased view). Speed panel button 8 is similar to this action, except it decreases the zooming percentage by dividing it with 2, each time pressed.

Reset to 1:1 item resets any previously zooming amount to original image size. Same action is attached to float zooming form to appropriate button. Shortcut key:F11.

Float zooming item displays float zooming form used to perform real-time floating zooming in or out. Same action is attached to button 9. Shortcut key: F12

Toggle center image positions image in center of IMA or into the left corner of IMA. Same action is attached to speed panel button 11. Shortcut key: Ctrl+I

Help
menu item at present time has two subitems:

About box with information on current version of program and registration information.

Tutorial box with possibility to download tutorial, access it on-line or on your local disc (if downloaded).

Bottom Toolbar Section

This toolbar section is used to perform foreground and background color selection and to apply some action on image, contour or mask by clicking desired button.

Reverting foreground and background color is performed by clicking the small R button near color selection rectangles. When clicked, foreground and background colors will be reversed.

Gradient settings form is called by clicking the small G button near color selection rectangles. For more information refere to gradient settings.

Current color display rectangle, which is white colored in the example on the left side, shows color of image pixel while moving the mouse pointer across. Also, current pixel RGB components are shown.

Image button is used to perform action on the whole image. This function also exists in main pull-down menu and can be also performed by shortcut key: Ctrl+Ins.

Contour button is used to perform action on the image contour. This function also exists in main pull-down menu and can be performed by shortcut key: Shift+Ins.

Mask button is used to perform action on the image through mask. This function also exists in main pull-down menu and can be performed by shortcut key: Ctrl+M.