			  GP2PAINT - Grand Prix 2 BMP Paint Program
	  Copyright (c) 1996 Michael Andrasi ( 101330.472@compuserve.com )

					    V1.40 02nd Dec 1996

Introduction
------------

GP2Paint allows you to edit the GP2 cars. The Graphics must be stored in
BMP Format. To convert the bitmaps in the GP2 jam format you need the JAM converter
from Trevor Kellaway.

Features
--------

  - Mask bitmap to prevent drawing outside of the car.
  - Rotate, flip or mirror the whole car, the mask is valid on any direction.
  - Cut, copy and paste over clipboard.
  - 10 Undo levels for every file.
  - Font with 3D effects.
  - Transparent color. 

Installation
------------
This distribution should include the following files:

	GP2PAINT.TXT	This file.
	GP2PAINT.EXE	The paint program.
        GP2PAL.BMP      A bitmap with all colors of the GP2 cars( not necessary ).
        GP2.PAL         A palette file for use with PSP( not necessary ).

Copy GP2PAINT.EXE to any directory on your hard disk e.g C:\GP2\CARS.

Quick Start
-----------
Here is a quick tutorial on how to start painting.

Start GP2PAINT.EXE. On the right side you'll see a docked toolbar with the
painting tools. Open a BMP file with the OPEN FILE button or with FILE|OPEN.

GP2PAINT recognize a valid GP2 car and prevent drawing out of the car, any other bitmap 
file can be edit without the cars. The palette will always be the palette of the GPS cars. 

Any drawing function can be used with left or right mouse button, therefore you see two
panels with the selected colors, the left/top one is the foreground color.
The transparent color can be picked with the left mouse button holding down the shift key.
The foreground color is marked in the palette window with a lightblue frame, 
the background color with a pink one and the transparent color with a lightgreen one.

It is possible to declare a transparent color for any decal so the underlaying artwork will 
show through this transparent color. If you're not knowing the correct transparent color 
paste the decal and pick up the color which you want not to see with shift key and left 
mouse button, then select Undo or click the Undo Button and place the decal again, 
the selected color will not be painted.

The Clear button or EDIT|CLEAR menu fills all parts of the car with the selected foreground
color, this function is not available on bitmaps which are not cars. 

When you click the text button a dialogbox will appear, you can now select a font and
change the 3D style of the label. The background color of the preview label will be 
transparent when you apply the label on the car. If you choose lightgray font with any
border the font itself will going transparent. With the colorgrid on the dialog you can change 
the colours of the border/highlight and shadow of the text. The foreground colour affects
the border colour which is the same as the highlight colour because they never used together.
The background colour change the shadow of the text. Please note that the colours are
mapped into the gp2 palette. You can paste the label into the window from which you called 
the font dialog with the Paste Into Image Button, with the Paste As New Image button you can 
create a new child window with the selected label. The labels that you used are stored in
a history list for later use( thanks to Al Gordon who has brought this ideas to me ).

Use the OPTIONS|PREFERENCES menu to view and change the informations which will be saved 
when the program terminates.

  None              - The program starts in default position.
  Desktop           - The position of the main window will be stored.
  Desktop and Files - Additional informations of the opened files will be stored.

If you select other than None the program use the information for the next start. 

Important
---------
GP2Paint requires Microsoft Windows 3.1 or greater and a 256 color mode display driver, 
the program runs not on high color mode !!

History
-------
V1.0     14th Nov 1996	        Initial version.

V1.1     15th Nov 1996          fixed rotate/undo bug
                                fixed wrong colors
                                added panel with position of selection

V1.2     18th Nov 1996          fixed all paste/pastefont bugs
				fixed all undo bugs
                                fixed bugs with maximized children
                                fixed bug when you leave mdi child with right mouse button
                                ( please note : do not release the right mouse button
                                  outside the mainwindow, if you have already done, go
				  back to child or main window and release again )
				
				added functions :
                                paste decal as new image, rotate/flip and save it
                                when paste as new selection you can see the whole
				decal while dragging
				optional grid when zoomed over 300%
                                ( can be set in preferences )
				select the whole image with EDIT|SELECT ALL

V1.3     23th Nov 1996          fixed some minor bugs
                                speed increased on most drawing functions
                                select border/shadow colours of font 
                                paste font as new image

V1.31    24th Nov 1996          the colour column in the left/top border of the car
                                file was not saved, if you have any file without this
                                colours open it in gp2paint and save it, the colours
                                are then restored but only when the car has the
                                original rotate direction. 
         
V1.40	 02nd Dec 1996          Final 16-bit revision, fixed all known bugs. 

E-mail / Further Info
---------------------
Please send any suggestions, comments, or bug reports to the author Michael Andrasi at:

CompuServe:    [101330,472]
Internet:      101330.472@compuserve.com


Thanks to Trevor Kellaway, whitout his fantastic jam converter GP2Paint will not
possible, you can find the converter and many other goodies on his web page.  

	http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/tkellaway/

It should also be available on Compuserve in GO SPRTSIMS, Lib #14 (Racing
Circuits) as GP2JAM.ZIP.

This is *not* an Microprose product. 

This program may be freely copied and distributed, as long as it is not
modified in any way, no fee is charged and this file is always included.
This program is provided "as is" with no warranties expressed or implied.
The author will not be held responsible for any losses incurred, either
directly or indirectly by the use of this program.




