QL Art

[bwinkel67]

I actually went through that section and found only two: BMP2PIC.exe (a Windows app) and wunpic.exe (a command-line app)

[bwinkel67]

Btw, question about this picture below (it's the page picture on the Facebook group "Sinclair QL For Everyone."

I think this is Archive in mode 4. Notice the little menu on the left titled "QL Archive" with red and white letters. The dotted border looks yellow...even next to the white page. I've enlarged it and it still looks yellow. It's made up of thin dashed lines so no room for dithering. What is going on here? How'd they squeeze out a 5th color (black, white, red, green, & yellow)?

[Pr0f]

Is it a red/green stipple, or some naughty 'retouching' of the original...

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

in Archive you can create custom screens, with different layouts, by using the SEDIT command in Archive or Xchange.

The layout shown uses this type of custom screen creation, instead of the default database field display.

I must admit to not of used Archive in a long time, as DBAS adds database extension to S*Basic and can look like SQL. The Acrivive style programmes can be re-written in S*Basic and compiled with a compiler.

[bwinkel67]

I wasn't asking about the layout or features of Archive. I'm pointing out that there is yellow in the image and it can't be dithered (i.e. a stipple pattern) since it's one pixel in width. Just curious what is going on with the colors in that picture?

Edit: could they maybe be green dashes that, when surrounded by red, appear yellow? Though then why do the dashes at the top appear yellow since the are bordered on one side by red and the other by black?

[dilwyn]

I'm not sure about standard Psion Archive or Xchange, but I do know that if you run the "runtime Archive" (ArchDev or ArchRtm) in high colour modes, using INK 6 can make yellow.

Later versions of Archive include much of the enhancements in Archdev/Archrtm, so the colour handling may be in there too, not sure.

Sort of logical, since yellow is effectively red and green. I've known some programs made to run in mode 4 OR the red and green bits together to make white, which is OK in mode 4 since colour 6 is same as colour 7. But programs which do that show yellow in high colour modes.

Here's a couple of example screens from ArchDev (available at http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/psions/archrtm.zip )

archdev2.jpg

archdev1.jpg

[Martin_Head]

It looks like mdv1_ is in the commands at the bottom, but there is no cartridge in the mdv1_ slot.

The screen display looks like some kind of a demo is running. Could this actually be the PC Four Archive running. As I think that had the TSL language built in, like Xchange.

[dilwyn]

We are assuming the picture is actually from the QL, and not a recording or being supplied to the monitor from another source.

There are software techniques which allow the impression of other colours such as Dithvide, and software which allows switching between mode 4 and mode 8 on the same display. But more likely, that picture is from another source which shows more than 4 colours (Archive running on another system).

EDIT: Sorry Martin, replies overlapped.

[Andrew]

The image shows the Gazet_dbf database running (the example database that was supplied with Archive). But none of my different versions of Archive have that screen layout for Gazet_dbf - they all miss the yellow rectangle and text, and the layout of the fields is different.
I seem to remember that there was a Sinclair QL Demo that showed that screen, but i can't find it ...

[Andrew]

MISTERY SOLVED!

The border is not yellow - it is an animated dashed red and green border! So when you take a photo of a CRT image it will look yellow
The image is from QL DEMO program, attached below.
The program has the following info embedded :
v 7QL Demonstration 1.00 Sinclair Research Ltd.
Hardware by Jon Eproms by Eric