More responsive desktop
Much effort has been put into increasing the
responsiveness of the desktop.This is most noticeable when using RISC OS
6.20 on the VirtualAcorn platform.
64K colours screen modes
A major new feature for RISC OS 6.14 is support for a 64K
colour screen mode. This will appear automatically in the desktop display
options when using the VIDC screen modes. 1024 x 768 x 64,000 colours is now
available for all machines using 2MB VRAM, which gives far superior colour
blending and picture reproduction. 64K colour screen modes are not available
when using Viewfinder graphics cards, as they do not support that mode.
Colour Picker
The Colour Picker used by Paint and Draw has had a
thorough overhaul to make it easier to use along with the introduction of
new models. These are the CIELab and the Palette models. All the colour
models now use a colour cube display method, along with sliders for the
chosen parameter to be controlled.
In all display models the Alpha channel level is also
displayed if the chosen sprite contains an Alpha channel. Alpha channels can
only be used with 16M colour sprites.
The Colour Picker has more detailed colour slices
New CIELab colour model
The CIELab colour model is based on the selection of
Lightness and colour opponent dimensions within the sRGB gamut. It is
designed to improve the reproduction of colours that are preceptually
uniform.
Palette colour model
The Palette colour model allows the selection of 3 preset
palettes.
"RISC OS" (256 colours),
"Web safe" (216 colours) and
"SVG 1.1" (138 colours).
Paint edits CMYK and YCCK JPEGs in CMYK without
going through RGB
The CMYK colour space is wider than RGB and hence the
ability to edit CMYK JPEGs without intermediate conversion to RGB for
editing is of great advantage to the printing industry where the correct
reproduction of a selected colour is required, without the introduction of
any losses to the colour gamut caused by the conversion to and from RGB/CMYK
colour space.
The support for CMYK and YCCK JPEGs has also been extended
to the filer thumbnails and also to CYMK sprites.
Paint can now apply both colour and a partial
transparency at the same time
A major new feature of Paint is the ability to select both
a colour and a transparency (alpha channel value) at the same time if the
Sprite is set to have a full alpha channel.
This enables Paint to create similar effects to the
Crystal tool used in Artworks.
New sprite type for 64K colour sprites
Paint 2.65 and above now supports a new Spritefile type:-
Type 10 64K colours
Applications which use the ImageFileRendering system in
RISC OS Six will automatically have access to the new Sprite types.
Paint can now add an alpha channel to any sprite
As well as the ability to create new Sprites with an Alpha
channel, an Alpha channel can also be added to existing Sprites. Paint can
now also set the alpha channel using the text tool.
Paint text tool improvements
Change the resolution of sprites in Paint
The resolution of a Sprite loaded into Paint can now be
changed on the fly between 45,90 and 180 dpi separately in both X an Y
dimensions using the Paint>Edit>Resolution menu setting. The colour depth
can also be reduced immediately by using the Paint>Colour>Colours menu
option. Thus sprites can be created in 16M colours and then changed down to
lower colour depths immediately without the need to export and convert via
ChangeFSI.
Variable transparency selection in Colour Picker
The Colour Picker now supports variable transparency when
painting.
Faster draw file rendering
Draw benefits from the other graphics system improvements
and will typically see an improvement of ?% when loading a Drawfile compared
to RISC OS 4.39.
Paper colour viewing option in Draw
A new addition to the features of Draw is the ability to
set the background paper colour. This is done via the Draw>File>Paper
Colour. N.B This is only a visual aid i.e to help draw White Text and does
not affect the saved file, nor printouts.
Controllable background blending of text in Draw
New reverse sub-path option in Draw
Additional configurable window tool colour options
16bit thumbnails in filer are now 64K colours
Faster thumbnailing
The cacheing and rendering of thumbnails has been speeded
up.
Improved layout control in filer viewers
Another much requested feature for RISC OS has been the
ability to set the folder layouts individually for each filer window, so
that when a particular Directory is opened it will be in the previously
saved state. e.g large icons, in size order. This can now be achieved for
any Directory window by the inclusion of a Save button on the Filer>Layout
window. This option is enabled by the "Permanance" option in the Boot>Filer
configuration tool.
Note however that this option is currently only available
for ADFS Filing System on real Acorn Computer or Virtual Acorn products. It
does not currently work with HostFS on VRPC, or other filing systems such as
SCSI, RAM, CDFS etc.
Configurable sliding menus
When opening filer menus from the Iconbar, Pinboard or
Filer windows there is now the option of setting
Updated Toolbox modules
New versions of all the Toolbox modules are included.
Window focus tools support
If a Filer Window is given input focus either by choosing
the "claim input focus automatically" option in the Boot>Filer>Interaction
Configure window, or by alt-clicking on a Filer Window, then a number of new
features become available. The most useful of these is the ability to
"search as you type." This functions in the same way as Filer search on PC
or Mac. i.e if a Filer Window has input focus (has a yellow highlight in the
title bar) then typing a letter (or two or three) will jump straight to the
first file containing the typed letters. This makes it far faster to get to
the chosen file than manually scrolling through a filer listing.
Keyboard Shortcuts
The Filer now has a number of keyboard shortcuts and
additions to the Function Key operators as follows:-
A new method for navigating menus by clicking is
now an option
Menus can be configured to open and close with mouse
clicks in addition to the methods you will be more familiar with. In
previous versions of RISC OS Filer menus open automatically when the mouse
pointer is moved off the right hand side of a menu option with an arrow on
it.
Improved colour matching in 32K and 256 colour
modes
The dithering and rendering has been improved in 32K and
256 colour screen modes.
Updated configure to manage all the the above
options
The Boot>Configure tools have been updated to provide
configuration for the new options listed above.
Speed optimizations in many other places
The continued optimisation of Select code has continued to
improve many functions as well as the responsiveness of the desktop, and
window handling.
Ten new Video Tutorials to show many of the new
features
Below is a list of the available video clips, along with a
short description of their content.
64
A new screen mode with 64 Thousand colours has been
created. This uses no more resources than 32 Thousand colours and so gives a
much better display at no extra cost to performance or resolution.
AlphaSprites
This demonstrates the use of the new Paint features that
allow quick and easy use of alpha painting within sprites. It is now
possible to paint with semi-transparent colours directly to the canvas.
Picker
This clip gives a summary of the features and uses of the
Colour Picker.
PickerImprovements
This clip describes some of the improvements in the latest
Colour Picker.
CIELa
This clip briefly demonstrates and talks about the new
CIELab model which has been added to the Colour Picker.
Palette
A new Palette Model has been added to Colour Picker which
allows selection of a colour from three defined palettes.
FilerLayouts
This video demonstrates the use of the different layout
options which are now available in the Filer to help you get the best from
it.
Configuring these options is also briefly discussed.
SlidingMenus
Menus slide into position, improving ease of navigation of
menu trees.
It's pretty too!
ClickSubmenus
Menus can be configured to open and close with mouse
clicks in addition to the methods you will be more familiar with.
UsingConfigure
This video demonstrates the use of Configure and give some
tips to help you get the most out of RISC OS.
Finally there is an updated User Guide to explain the new
features and many bug fixes.