SuperPaint 3.5



Author: Rick Baggott

Date: February, 1994

Keywords: Aldus review paint draw program graphics software application

Text:
SuperPaint v3.5 is a multilayered paint and draw program by the Aldus
Corporation. The detail this company puts into their products extends
even to the packaging which doubles as its storage case. It's a good
thing too, because SuperPaint comes with lots of goodies in the box.
     Documentation ---
     The printed User's Manual is divided into five main parts. They
are: Introduction to SuperPaint, Tutorial, Guide to Tools & Menus,
Using SuperPaint, Tips & Techniques, and an ample Index. There is also
substantial help available from within the program, including balloon
help for System 7 users. Besides the printed manual, there is a
thirty-six page addendum featuring the new enhanced tools and features
of SuperPaint version 3.5 over version 3.0, a six page folding Quick
Reference Card, a System Requirements and Installation pamphlet, a
Services and Support pamphlet, a Product Feedback Card, a Registration
Card, and even a Change of Address Card for future use. Also included
with this package was an update sheet from Aldus technical support
concerning some fine points and help for Radius* owners. Also, after
sending in the registration card, Aldus will send you a free gift. (I
like these little surprises, don't you?)
     Technical support ---
     Relax.  Help is readily available. The Support pamphlet has a
section covering some common problems. If your original disks become
unusable, there's a phone number to call for help. If you run into
other problems, you can call for technical support during business
hours. They also have a fax number and an AppleLink address for online
help. If you prefer to write, the form has an outline with information
you fill in about your system and problems you're having.
     System requirements ---
     SuperPaint 3.5 will run on a wide range of Macs, all the way from
the Macintosh Plus up to the newest color Macs with System 7 for those
who want Publish & Subscribe capability, 32-bit clean compatibility and
TWAIN support. The minimum system requirement is System 6.0.5 and 2MB
of RAM on the Mac Plus, SE, Classic, Portable, or PowerBook 100 and a
hard disk. The minimum RAM under System 7 is 4MB. The recommended
system would be System 6.0.5 or later on the Macintosh SE/30, PowerBook
family (except PowerBook 100), Classic II, LC family, II family,
Performa family, or Quadra family; 4MB of RAM and hard drive. For
systems earlier than System 7, 32-bit QuickDraw is required for color
documents. The QuickTime extension is required to use QuickTime.
     Large, 32-bit documents will require more RAM for satisfactory
performance. Upon installation on my hard drive the memory allocation
had been set to 2500K. When running under MultiFinder, suggested memory
allocation for color SuperPaint documents is 2500K. More memory may be
needed for 16-bit and 32-bit documents, and SuperPaint's performance
can be improved by increasing the memory allocation. For
black-and-white documents, the suggested memory allocation is 1100K or
higher. The absolute minimum allocation to run the application is
1024K. 
     In order to let SuperPaint 3.5 really stretch it's wings and fly,
a color Mac with a 68040, lots of RAM (more than 4MB) and a fast hard
drive with ample space is desirable. Under System 7 the following
features are available: Balloon help, Apple Events, and Publish &
Subscribe. SuperPaint 3.5 is compatible with TrueType fonts, Virtual
Memory, and 32-bit addressing.
     Installation ---
     The Installer, on four 800K disks, prompts you and makes the
installation of SuperPaint on your hard drive as automatic and painless
as possible or permits Custom installation. To install all the files,
you'll need 7MB of disk space for color, or about 6MB for the
black-and-white configuration.
     If you choose the easy install feature, the entire installation
takes about 5 minutes. The installer creates a folder named ''Aldus
SuperPaint 3.5'' on the hard drive and places the program and all
ancillary files inside. 
     Five sub-folders and the application SuperPaint will be inside the
main folder after installation. These folders contain the
plug-in-modules, tools, filters, color palettes, textures, import
modules, templates, tutorial files, sample images, preference file,
last minute ''Read Me'' notes from Aldus and more. I like the fact that
SuperPaint places the preference file with the application and not in
my system folder. I really don't like programs that put files inside
the system folder, particularly without telling me, or without naming
them so I know what application they go with. Do you know whether or
not you need all those files in your system folder? I've got files with
creation or modification dates that go back to 1987! It drives me NUTS!
But, I digress.
     Test drive ---
     SuperPaint loads fairly rapidly. It took about 15 seconds on my
68020 machine. That seemed comparable to other programs I run that are
the size of SuperPaint. The application SuperPaint is a 1206K file. As
a test, I set the memory allocation to 1100K and was able to open two
compressed SuperPaint files (concurrently) with text and graphics
(black & white). Their sizes totaled 54K. According to the Finder, I
still had memory available. The larger file took 11 seconds to open,
the smaller took 7 seconds. Also, this is while running on an ''020''
machine using MultiFinder with another application and several DAs open
at the same time. I only had 56K left of unused RAM in a 4MB
configuration. 
     SuperPaint continued to operate without hanging, conflicting or
complaining about the memory squeeze I had it under. Of course, when
opening larger color files, much more memory would be needed, and you
wouldn't want to continuously operate your Mac under the tight memory
limits as I did in this test. Compared to some other programs I use
that can open files containing text and graphics, SuperPaint ran quite
fast.
     Scrolling was quick, smooth and in small increments. It can be
frustrating to use programs that scroll, or lurch in large chunks,
making maneuvering very difficult. Help is accessible under the Apple
window, listing 169 alphabetically arranged topics.
     SuperPaint looks and drives like the comfortable Mac programs
you're already familiar with. But, don't think it's without the power
many of the higher priced graphic toolkit programs have.
     Three floating palettes open up when beginning SuperPaint. They
are: Tools, Line & Fill and Frequent Fills. A fourth,the Coordinates
window, can be opened from ''Views'' in the menu bar. You may move or
close one or more of these palettes at any time. The first two palettes
mentioned have a series of secondary ''pop-up'' palettes. There are
plenty of palette shortcuts, over forty keyboard shortcuts, and
eighteen hot-key shortcuts. Bezier editing alone allows seven different
actions. Do you get the idea you really need that six page folding
Quick Reference Card?
     There are plenty of tools, textures, patterns, fills, gradients,
special effects and plug-ins available on the main or secondary
palettes. As an example, on the Tools palette, when you click on the
Draw & Paint plug-ins, a secondary palette opens with eight choices.
This pop-up can be torn off the main palette and moved wherever you'd
like. When you do that, it won't close until you click the standard
close button. These plug-ins can be used in either the paint or draw
layer. The choices are: ''3-D Box'', ''AllGon'' (specific grouping of
symmetric polygons, including ''multigons'' and starbursts),
''Cycloid'' (generates a geometric shape based on rolling circles like
the old Spirographs you had as a kid), ''Flowers'' (produces different
sized and shaped patterns that look like flowers), ''Grid Tool'' (draws
out a grid with either linear or logarithmically calculated lines),
''Crop Mark'' (quickly creates crop marks for the graphics you design),
''QuickShadow'' (produces a symmetric shape with a drop shadow), and
''Spiral'' (produces a spiral with the current line attributes).
     The pop-up palette from the Brush Tools palette (in the paint
layer) has fourteen variations to select from. The following choices
include support for pressure-sensitive tablets: the Calligraphy Brush,
Texture Brush, Twister, Variable-size Eraser, Smudge tool, Spin tool,
Charcoal and Magic Marker. The Calligraphy Brush even takes advantage
of tilt sensitivity if your tablet supports it. You can simulate these
pressure-sensitive features from the keyboard or with mouse speed.
     New features ---
     One of the new features for SuperPaint 3.5 is ''TWAIN'' which lets
you bring image data, e.g. from scanners, directly into SuperPaint's
Draw layer as a ''SuperBits'' object. The resolution of the
''SuperBits'' object is that at which the image was scanned. The
''SuperBits'' feature lets you create and edit bitmapped objects,
combining the creativity and pixel-by-pixel control of the Paint layer
with the smooth precision and shapes orientation of the Draw layer.
Clip art and scanned images can be edited as ''SuperBits'' objects.
     Except in 1-bit documents, the Draw layer is always 32 bit. So, in
the Draw layer of 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit documents, you can use
nearly 16.8 million ''true'' colors. Did I mention that SuperPaint 3.5
lets you print up to 16.8 million colors to an ImageWriter II (or LQ)
with a color ribbon? Printing can be done on black-and-white and color
PostScript and non-PostScript printers. When a document is larger than
one page, SuperPaint will automatically tile the output.
     A number of improvements, besides the added features, have been
made to SuperPaint v3.5. For instance, there's improved compatibility
with TIFF and EPS files. Document file saving speed has increased,
especially with documents that contain numerous draw layer objects.
     ''Copy Brush'' paints a pixel-by-pixel duplicate of a selected
''reference'' image or area into the same or different document. You
paint the copy, stroke by stroke using whatever effect you've selected.
You can also elect to paint a ''Straight Copy'' of the reference image.
     ''Color Clarity'' is a command found in the Paint menu that lets
you control the purity and contrast of the colors in either the Paint
layer, or a selection of the Paint layer. After choosing the command, a
control window appears. The Purity slider affects the color saturation
while the Contrast slider controls the contrast between shades of the
same hue.
     ''QuickTime*'' is supported in SuperPaint 3.5, allowing the
placement of a single frame at a time into the Draw layer as a
''SuperBits'' object. 32-bit QuickDraw is required for using QuickTime
with systems earlier than 7.0. With a Photo-CD device and Apple Photo
Access installed, you can place images from a Photo-CD into a
SuperPaint document at a specified resolution.
     Aldus has included four sample textures from the Aldus ''Gallery
Effects Texture Art'' collection; they are: Stone, Brick, Marble and
Wall. Adding more is very simple, just drop them into the textures
folder inside the main ''Aldus SuperPaint 3.5'' folder. You can create
your own, or cut and paste from another program an interesting design,
then ''save as'' a ''Texture File'' in SuperPaint. Textures can be
bitmapped, object-oriented, SuperBits, or EPS images. The Textures
palette is dynamic, as it expands or contracts depending on how many
texture files you have.
     Compatibility ---
     To my amazement, SuperPaint ran without a hitch in the presence of
the numerous INIT's and CDEVs I have on my Mac. It seems to be a very
stable program. At no time did I experience a hang-up or frozen screen.
Once, I tried to open too many documents within the tight memory
constraint configuration, and SuperPaint politely displayed a message
about not being able to open the last document and advised me to close
a few first, then try again.
     In addition to SuperPaint's native file format, the following file
formats can be imported: PICT and TIFF (both from 1-24 bit), EPS,
MacPaint, StartupScreen, Apple Scanner, ThunderScan TIFF, earlier
SuperPaint files, QuickTime, images from TWAIN-compatible scanners and
additional Paint and Draw Texture files. You may choose to export

SuperPaint documents to the following formats: PICT and TIFF (both from
1-24 bit), EPS, MacPaint, StartupScreen and Texture files.
     Summary ---
     With SuperPaint 3.5 and your Mac, you can turn bitmapped paintings
into high-resolution draw images that take full advantage of your
printer's capabilities. You can use any paint or draw tool with any
fill, and can even enhance scanned photographs.
     SuperPaint 3.5 has the power and simplicity to let anyone, not
just skilled artists, produce attractive results. It's easy and
intuitive enough to be used as a doodle pad for children, yet retains
the power to be used by desktop publishers and graphic artists.
     I used SuperPaint version 1.0 quite a lot, and had some experience
using version 2.0. It was no problem to pick up this new version 3.5
and start exploring it's new capabilities and features. I was limited
only by my imagination and available time in exploring all the new
goodies and power. This one's a definite ''keeper''.
     Considering the wide range of Macs and system setups that
SuperPaint will operate in, and considering all the ''graphics
horsepower'' for the money that SuperPaint offers, I rate this program
a ''best buy''.
     Pricing ---
     The suggested retail price for SuperPaint 3.5 remains the same as
version 3.0, which is $199. Current catalog prices are running about
$99 (and some are including coupons for free pizza!) Registered users
may update from version 3.0 for $25, or from version 1.0 or 2.0 for
$45; prices include Federal Express shipping. 
     Aldus has 5-user Lab Packs for nonprofit academic institutions
available for $225. Single user education versions are $99. Schools can
upgrade or update from version 3.0 for $40 for the Lab Pack. They can
upgrade from version 1.0 or 2.0 for $72.
     SuperPaint is published by:     
               The Aldus Corporation
               5120 Shoreham Place
               San Diego, CA 92122  
               Consumer division (619) 558-6000.

Copyright © february, 1994 by Rick Baggott