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# Patate User Guide

An ASCII art editor for terminals inspired by [rexpaint](https://www.gridsagegames.com/rexpaint/index.html).
This guide is modified copy of REXPaint manual.

Use mouse and keyboard to control the interface, only the left mouse button is needed so it works with touchpads and touchscreens.

How it looks depends on your terminal, to get all the glyphs you need a font with the UNICODE 15 glyphs.

[Patate Home](gemini://gmi.noulin.net/patate/)

## Features

An overview of Patate's major features:



## Canvas

The black area to the right of the tool menus is the *canvas view* where all image editing occurs, and the image itself initially appears as a box outline that defaults to the size of the entire canvas view.

### Resizing

Resize the image as necessary `Ctrl-r`, ideally before starting to draw so that later changes are not affected by a change in image dimensions. Resizing can be done at any time, but the dimensions are always based from the top-left corner of an image, so make sure the portion of a larger image you wish to retain is based in the top-left corner before shrinking it.

### Shifting

To view different parts of a large image (or reposition a smaller one), use the arrow keys and `5` to return to the top left corner.

## Drawing

### Apply

The *apply menu* determines what is actually produced by the current draw mode when you left-click on the image.\
Glyphs (characters), foreground color, and background color are each drawn/edited separately, and can be individually toggled on and off via the menu buttons or `g`, `f`, and `b`. Thus if you activate "glyph" and deactivate "fore" and "back," when you draw only the current glyph will be applied, while the image's colors remain unchanged. Activating all modes will overwrite the glyph and both foreground and background colors when drawing. (Turning all apply modes off would draw... nothing, and be completely pointless!)

---
The glyph and colors to be applied are shown at the bottom of the tool box on the `Sample` line, and the current glyph is that highlighted/chosen among the characters in the font box. Change the glyph by left-clicking on a different one in the font box, and change the colors by choosing a color from the palette (`Sel Fg` mode choses a color for the foreground, `Sel Bg` mode for the background).

---

The index of the color in the palette or RGB values can be set, this mode is toggled with the `Palette` or `RGB` buttons (`F4`).
Drawing in palette mode allows changing the colors at anytime.

### Draw Modes




  Applies the effect to a single "cell" `space` on the image. Hold left mouse button and move the cursor to keep drawing. Alternate mode: auto-box drawing. While the current glyph is any of the single or double line characters , drawn lines and all adjacent lines of the same type (single/double) will be automatically reoriented to connect with one another. This is useful for creating boxes. Has no effect for other (non-line) glyphs, which will be drawn normally.

  Applies the effect to a line. Left-click at the line's start and release the button at its end, or press `Esc` before releasing the button to cancel the line.

  Applies the effect to a rectangular area. Left-click at one corner of the rectangle and release the button at the opposite corner, or press `Esc` before releasing the button to cancel the rectangle. Alternate mode: Fills the entire rectangle instead of drawing an outline.

  Like rect mode, but draws ovals. Alternate mode fills the oval. Ovals are centered on the point chosen.

  Applies the effect to all like cells attached to the one under the cursor. Alternate Mode: Fill search is performed in 8 directions rather than 4, allowing the fill to travel along diagonals through obstacles.

  Types text onto the image.

  Copies a rectangular area of the image into the clipboard for later pasting. Always copies all attributes (glyph and colors) of the regardless of current apply settings. Alternate mode:

  Cut mode erases everything in a certain area after storing it to the clipboard.

  Paste the clipboard contents to the image. While the copy/cut command stores all glyph and color information, only those attributes for which the apply mode is currently active will by pasted.\

### Undo

All image manipulation actions can be undone/redone (`z`/`y`).

### Glyphs

Select a glyph to draw with by clicking on it in the font window.

Press `[`/`]` to change glyph page.

## Palette

### Selection & Editing

Left-clicking on a palette color (including an "empty" space, which is actually black) will select it as the foreground color; when 'Sel Bg' mode is on, left-clicking selects it as the background color. Clicking on the same color again will allow you to edit it in the color picker (see below).

### Color Picker

The color picker is fairly straightforward—its features and layout are taken from Photoshop for those familiar with it. Left-click on a color to select it (you can also hold `LMB` and move the cursor to watch the new color and its values change), and press the `OK` button to select it.


## Browsing

Switch between *paint mode* and *browse mode* by clicking on the buttons at the top of the menu area or with `tab`. Browse mode allows you to view all the images created by Patate in current directory.


### Viewing & Editing

Click on the image list to view an image and click again to edit the image. Copy (`Ctrl-c`) works in the browser then paste in the editor.

### Exporting

Use the Export button (or `Ctrl-e`) to save the current image as a `.txt` file in current directory. There are toggles to export colors and effects.

## Settings

The settings panel appears when pressing the `Settings` button or `F12`.

- Save state toggle: when enabled, Patate saves its state after each event. Opening Patate again restores the last state.
- There is a button to restore default palette.
- The view position can be set for all frames.

The settings panel show current image width, height, current frame index and frame count.

## Commands

`F1` shows the help screen, on top of the help panel there is a text field for filtering the help text.

### Font

| key                          | function \[subfunction\]                                     |
| ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `LMB`                        | select glyph                                                 |
| `Home`/`PgUp`                | shift selection                                              |
| `[`/`]`                      | previous/next glyph page                                     |

### Palette

| key            | function \[subfunction\]                        |
| -------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| `LMB` \[x2\]   | set \[edit\] foreground/background color        |
| `F2`           | set foreground/background color selection mode  |
| `F4`           | set palette or RGB color when drawing in canvas |

### Drawing

| key             | function \[subfunction\]                       |
| --------------- | ---------------------------------------------- |
| `c` \[x2\]      | **c**ell \[auto-walls\]                        |
| `l`             | **l**ine                                       |
| `r` \[x2\]      | **r**ectangle \[filled\]                       |
| `o` \[x2\]      | **o**val \[filled\]                            |
| `i` \[x2\]      | f**i**ll \[8-direction\]                       |
| `t`             | **t**ext                                       |
| `Ctrl-c` \[x2\] | copy \[cut\]                                   |
| `Ctrl-v`        | paste                                          |
| `Del`           | delete cell                                    |
| `Esc`           | stop/cancel                                    |

### Text Tool

| key              | function \[subfunction\]                                                 |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| `Esc`            | deselect text tool                                                       |

### Apply

| key                        | function \[subfunction\]                                |
| -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| `g`                        | toggle **g**lyph                                        |
| `f`                        | toggle **f**oreground color                             |
| `b`                        | toggle **b**ackground color                             |
| `B`                        | toggle **B**old effect                                  |
| `U`                        | toggle **U**nderline effect                             |
| `R`                        | toggle **R**everse effect (swap fg/bg colors)           |
| `F`                        | toggle **F**aint effect                                 |
| `I`                        | toggle **I**talic effect                                |
| `K`                        | toggle blin**k** effect                                 |
| `C`                        | toggle **C**rossed effect                               |

### Canvas

| key                       | function \[subfunction\]                                                                  |
| ------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| arrows                    | shift canvas                                                                              |
| `5`                       | reset image location                                                                      |
| `z`                       | undo                                                                                      |
| `y`                       | redo                                                                                      |
| `F3`                      | toggle **g**rid                                                                           |

### Image

| key       | function \[subfunction\]                                                         |
| --------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `Ctrl-n`  | **n**ew (in current path)                                                        |
| `Ctrl-r`  | **r**esize                                                                       |
| `Ctrl-s`  | **s**ave                                                                         |
| `Ctrl-e`  | **e**xport txt                                                                   |
| `a`       | add a frame                                                                      |
| `F5`/`F6` | previous/next frame                                                              |
| `F7`      | delete current frame                                                             |

### General

| key             | function \[subfunction\] |
| --------------- | ------------------------ |
| `Tab`           | toggle paint/browse      |
| `F1`            | help                     |
| `F8`            | toggle fps               |
| `F9`            | play/stop animation      |
| `q`/`ESC`/`F10` | quit                     |
| `F11`           | fullscreen               |
| `F12`           | settings                 |
| `Ctrl+p`        | screenshot               |