atobm
bitmap editor and converter utilities for the X Window System
see also :
bmtoa
Synopsis
bitmap [
-options ... ] [ filename ] [
basename ]
bmtoa [
-chars ... ] [ filename ]
atobm [
-chars cc ] [ -name
variable ] [ -xhot number ] [
-yhot number ] [ filename ]
add an example, a script, a trick and tips
examples
no example yet ...
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description
The
bitmap program is a rudimentary tool for creating or
editing rectangular images made up of 1’s and
0’s. Bitmaps are used in X for defining clipping
regions, cursor shapes, icon shapes, and tile and stipple
patterns.
The
bmtoa and atobm filters convert bitmap
files (FILE FORMAT) to and from ASCII strings. They are most
commonly used to quickly print out bitmaps and to generate
versions for including in text.
bitmap widget
Bitmap widget is a stand-alone widget for editing raster images.
It is not designed to edit large images, although it may be used
in that purpose as well. It can be freely incorporated with other
applications and used as a standard editing tool. The following
are the resources provided by the bitmap widget.
Bitmap Widget
Header file
Bitmap.h
Class
bitmapWidgetClass
Class Name
Bitmap
Superclass
Bitmap
All the Simple Widget resources plus ...
Name
Class
Type
Default Value
foreground
Foreground
Pixel
XtDefaultForeground
highlight
Highlight
Pixel
XtDefaultForeground
framing
Framing
Pixel
XtDefaultForeground
gridTolerance
GridTolerance
Dimension
8
size
Size
String
32x32
dashed
Dashed
Boolean
True
grid
Grid
Boolean
True
stippled
Stippled
Boolean
True
proportional
Proportional
Boolean
True
axes
Axes
Boolean
False
squareWidth
SquareWidth
Dimension
16
squareHeight
SquareHeight
Dimension
16
margin
Margin
Dimension
16
xHot
XHot
Position
NotSet (-1)
yHot
YHot
Position
NotSet (-1)
button1Function
Button1Function
DrawingFunction
Set
button2Function
Button2Function
DrawingFunction
Invert
button3Function
Button3Function
DrawingFunction
Clear
button4Function
Button4Function
DrawingFunction
Invert
button5Function
Button5Function
DrawingFunction
Invert
filename
Filename
String
None ("")
basename
Basename
String
None ("")
colors
If you would like bitmap to be viewable in color, include the
following in the #ifdef COLOR section of the file you read with
xrdb:
*customization: -color
This will cause bitmap to pick up the colors in the app-defaults
color customization file:
/etc/X11/app-defaults/Bitmap-color
command line options
Bitmap supports the standard X Toolkit command line
arguments (see X(7)). The following additional arguments
are supported as well.
-size WIDTHxHEIGHT
Specifies size of the grid in squares.
-sw dimension
Specifies the width of squares in pixels.
-sh dimension
Specifies the height of squares in pixels.
-gt dimension
Grid tolerance. If the square dimensions fall below the specified
value, grid will be automatically turned off.
-grid, +grid
Turns on or off the grid lines.
-axes, +axes
Turns on or off the major axes.
-dashed, +dashed
Turns on or off dashing for the frame and grid lines.
-stippled, +stippled
Turns on or off stippling of highlighted squares.
-proportional, +proportional
Turns proportional mode on or off. If proportional mode is on,
square width is equal to square height. If proportional mode is
off, bitmap will use the smaller square dimension, if they
were initially different.
-dashes filename
Specifies the bitmap to be used as a stipple for dashing.
-stipple filename
Specifies the bitmap to be used as a stipple for highlighting.
-hl color
Specifies the color used for highlighting.
-fr color
Specifies the color used for the frame and grid lines.
filename
Specifies the bitmap to be initially loaded into the program. If
the file does not exist, bitmap will assume it is a new
file.
basename
Specifies the basename to be used in the C code output file. If
it is different than the basename in the working file,
bitmap will change it when saving the file.
Bmtoa accepts the following option:
-chars cc
This option specifies the pair of characters to use in the string
version of the bitmap. The first character is used for 0 bits and
the second character is used for 1 bits. The default is to use
dashes (-) for 0’s and sharp signs (#) for 1’s.
Atobm accepts the following options:
-chars cc
This option specifies the pair of characters to use when
converting string bitmaps into arrays of numbers. The first
character represents a 0 bit and the second character represents
a 1 bit. The default is to use dashes (-) for 0’s and sharp signs
(#) for 1’s.
-name variable
This option specifies the variable name to be used when writing
out the bitmap file. The default is to use the basename of the
filename command line argument or leave it blank if the
standard input is read.
-xhot number
This option specifies the X coordinate of the hotspot. Only
positive values are allowed. By default, no hotspot information
is included.
-yhot number
This option specifies the Y coordinate of the hotspot. Only
positive values are allowed. By default, no hotspot information
is included.
cut and paste
Bitmap supports two cut and paste mechanisms; the internal cut
and paste and the global X selection cut and paste. The internal
cut and paste is used when executing copy and move drawing
commands and also cut and copy commands from the edit menu. The
global X selection cut and paste is used whenever there is a
highlighted area of a bitmap image displayed anywhere on the
screen. To copy a part of image from another bitmap editor simply
highlight the desired area by using the Mark command or pressing
the shift key and dragging the area with the left mouse button.
When the selected area becomes highlighted, any other
applications (such as xterm, etc.) that use primary selection
will discard their selection values and unhighlight the
appropriate information. Now, use the Paste command for the Edit
menu or control mouse button to copy the selected part of image
into another (or the same) bitmap application. If you attempt to
do this without a visible highlighted image area, the bitmap will
fall back to the internal cut and paste buffer and paste whatever
was there stored at the moment.
drawing commands
Here is the list of drawing commands accessible through the
buttons at the left side of the application’s window. Some
commands can be aborted by pressing A inside the bitmap window,
allowing the user to select different guiding points where
applicable.
Clear
This command clears all bits in the bitmap image. The grid
squares will be set to the background color. Pressing C inside
the bitmap window has the same effect.
Set
This command sets all bits in the bitmap image. The grid squares
will be set to the foreground color. Pressing S inside the bitmap
window has the same effect.
Invert
This command inverts all bits in the bitmap image. The grid
squares will be inverted appropriately. Pressing I inside the
bitmap window has the same effect.
Mark
This command is used to mark an area of the grid by dragging out
a rectangular shape in the highlighting color. Once the area is
marked, it can be operated on by a number of commands (see Up,
Down, Left, Right, Rotate, Flip, Cut, etc.) Only one marked
area can be present at any time. If you attempt to mark another
area, the old mark will vanish. The same effect can be achieved
by pressing Shift-MouseButton1 and dragging out a
rectangle in the grid window. Pressing Shift-MouseButton2
will mark the entire grid area.
Unmark
This command will cause the marked area to vanish. The same
effect can be achieved by pressing Shift-MouseButton3.
Copy
This command is used to copy an area of the grid from one
location to another. If there is no marked grid area displayed,
Copy behaves just like Mark described above. Once
there is a marked grid area displayed in the highlighting color,
this command has two alternative behaviors. If you click a mouse
button inside the marked area, you will be able to drag the
rectangle that represents the marked area to the desired
location. After you release the mouse button, the area will be
copied. If you click outside the marked area, Copy will
assume that you wish to mark a different region of the bitmap
image, thus it will behave like Mark again.
Move
This command is used to move an area of the grid from one
location to another. Its behavior resembles the behavior of
Copy command, except that the marked area will be moved
instead of copied.
Flip Horizontally
This command will flip the bitmap image with respect to the
horizontal axes. If a marked area of the grid is highlighted, it
will operate only inside the marked area. Pressing H inside the
bitmap window has the same effect.
Up
This command moves the bitmap image one pixel up. If a marked
area of the grid is highlighted, it will operate only inside the
marked area. Pressing UpArrow inside the bitmap window has the
same effect.
Flip Vertically
This command will flip the bitmap image with respect to the
vertical axes. If a marked area of the grid is highlighted, it
will operate only inside the marked area. Pressing V inside the
bitmap window has the same effect.
Left
This command moves the bitmap image one pixel to the left. If a
marked area of the grid is highlighted, it will operate only
inside the marked area. Pressing LeftArrow inside the bitmap
window has the same effect.
Fold
This command will fold the bitmap image so that the opposite
corners become adjacent. This is useful when creating bitmap
images for tiling. Pressing F inside the bitmap window has the
same effect.
Right
This command moves the bitmap image one pixel to the right. If a
marked area of the grid is highlighted, it will operate only
inside the marked area. Pressing RightArrow inside the bitmap
window has the same effect.
Rotate Left
This command rotates the bitmap image 90 degrees to the left
(counter clockwise.) If a marked area of the grid is highlighted,
it will operate only inside the marked area. Pressing L inside
the bitmap window has the same effect.
Down
This command moves the bitmap image one pixel down. If a marked
area of the grid is highlighted, it will operate only inside the
marked area. Pressing DownArrow inside the bitmap window has the
same effect.
Rotate Right
This command rotates the bitmap image 90 degrees to the right
(clockwise.) If a marked area of the grid is highlighted, it will
operate only inside the marked area. Pressing R inside the bitmap
window has the same effect.
Point
This command will change the grid squares underneath the mouse
pointer if a mouse button is being pressed down. If you drag the
mouse button continuously, the line may not be continuous,
depending on the speed of your system and frequency of mouse
motion events.
Curve
This command will change the grid squares underneath the mouse
pointer if a mouse button is being pressed down. If you drag the
mouse button continuously, it will make sure that the line is
continuous. If your system is slow or bitmap receives very
few mouse motion events, it might behave quite strangely.
Line
This command will change the gird squares in a line between two
squares. Once you press a mouse button in the grid window,
bitmap will highlight the line from the square where the
mouse button was initially pressed to the square where the mouse
pointer is located. By releasing the mouse button you will cause
the change to take effect, and the highlighted line will
disappear.
Rectangle
This command will change the gird squares in a rectangle between
two squares. Once you press a mouse button in the grid window,
bitmap will highlight the rectangle from the square where
the mouse button was initially pressed to the square where the
mouse pointer is located. By releasing the mouse button you will
cause the change to take effect, and the highlighted rectangle
will disappear.
Filled Rectangle
This command is identical to Rectangle, except at the end
the rectangle will be filled rather than outlined.
Circle
This command will change the gird squares in a circle between two
squares. Once you press a mouse button in the grid window,
bitmap will highlight the circle from the square where the
mouse button was initially pressed to the square where the mouse
pointer is located. By releasing the mouse button you will cause
the change to take effect, and the highlighted circle will
disappear.
Filled Circle
This command is identical to Circle, except at the end the
circle will be filled rather than outlined.
Flood Fill
This command will flood fill the connected area underneath the
mouse pointer when you click on the desired square. Diagonally
adjacent squares are not considered to be connected.
Set Hot Spot
This command designates one square in the grid as the hot spot if
this bitmap image is to be used for defining a cursor. Pressing a
mouse button in the desired square will cause a diamond shape to
be displayed.
Clear Hot Spot
This command removes any designated hot spot from the bitmap
image.
Undo
This command will undo the last executed command. It has depth
one, that is, pressing Undo after Undo will undo
itself.
editing
To edit a bitmap image simply click on one of the buttons with
drawing commands (Point, Curve, Line, Rectangle, etc.) and
move the pointer into the bitmap grid window. Press one of the
buttons on your mouse and the appropriate action will take place.
You can either set, clear or invert the gird squares. Setting a
grid square corresponds to setting a bit in the bitmap image to
1. Clearing a grid square corresponds to setting a bit in the
bitmap image to 0. Inverting a grid square corresponds to
changing a bit in the bitmap image from 0 to 1 or 1 to 0,
depending what its previous state was. The default behavior of
mouse buttons is as specified below.
MouseButton1
Set
MouseButton2
Invert
MouseButton3
Clear
MouseButton4
Clear
MouseButton5
Clear
This default behavior can be changed by setting the button
function resources. An example is provided below.
bitmap*button1Function: Set
bitmap*button2Function: Clear
bitmap*button3Function: Invert
etc.
The button function applies to all drawing commands, including
copying, moving and pasting, flood filling and setting the hot
spot.
edit menu
The Edit menu commands can be accessed by pressing the Edit
button and selecting the appropriate menu entry, or by pressing
Meta key with another key. These commands deal with editing
facilities such as grid, axes, zooming, cut and paste, etc.
Image
This command will display the image being edited and its inverse
in its actual size in a separate window. The window can be moved
away to continue with editing. Pressing the left mouse button in
the image window will cause it to disappear from the screen.
Grid
This command controls the grid in the editing area. If the grid
spacing is below the value specified by gridTolerance resource (8
by default), the grid will be automatically turned off. It can be
enforced by explicitly activating this command.
Dashed
This command controls the stipple for drawing the grid lines. The
stipple specified by dashes resource can be turned on or off by
activating this command.
Axes
This command controls the highlighting of the main axes of the
image being edited. The actual lines are not part of the image.
They are provided to aid user when constructing symmetrical
images, or whenever having the main axes highlighted helps your
editing.
Stippled
This command controls the stippling of the highlighted areas of
the bitmap image. The stipple specified by stipple resource can
be turned on or off by activating this command.
Proportional
This command controls the proportional mode. If the proportional
mode is on, width and height of all image squares are forced to
be equal, regardless of the proportions of the bitmap window.
Zoom
This command controls the zoom mode. If there is a marked area of
the image already displayed, bitmap will automatically zoom into
it. Otherwise, user will have to highlight an area to be edited
in the zoom mode and bitmap will automatically switch into it.
One can use all the editing commands and other utilities in the
zoom mode. When you zoom out, undo command will undo the whole
zoom session.
Cut
This commands cuts the contents of the highlighted image area
into the internal cut and paste buffer.
Copy
This command copies the contents of the highlighted image area
into the internal cut and paste buffer.
Paste
This command will check if there are any other bitmap
applications with a highlighted image area, or if there is
something in the internal cut and paste buffer and copy it to the
image. To place the copied image, click in the editing window and
drag the outlined image to the position where you want to place
i, and then release the button.
file menu
The File menu commands can be accessed by pressing the File
button and selecting the appropriate menu entry, or by pressing
Ctrl key with another key. These commands deal with files and
global bitmap parameters, such as size, basename, filename etc.
New
This command will clear the editing area and prompt for the name
of the new file to be edited. It will not load in the new file.
Load
This command is used to load a new bitmap file into the bitmap
editor. If the current image has not been saved, user will be
asked whether to save or ignore the changes. The editor can edit
only one file at a time. If you need interactive editing, run a
number of editors and use cut and paste mechanism as described
below.
Insert
This command is used to insert a bitmap file into the image being
currently edited. After being prompted for the filename, click
inside the grid window and drag the outlined rectangle to the
location where you want to insert the new file.
Save
This command will save the bitmap image. It will not prompt for
the filename unless it is said to be <none>. If you leave
the filename undesignated or -, the output will be piped to
stdout.
Save As
This command will save the bitmap image after prompting for a new
filename. It should be used if you want to change the filename.
Resize
This command is used to resize the editing area to the new number
of pixels. The size should be entered in the WIDTHxHEIGHT format.
The information in the image being edited will not be lost unless
the new size is smaller that the current image size. The editor
was not designed to edit huge files.
Rescale
This command is used to rescale the editing area to the new width
and height. The size should be entered in the WIDTHxHEIGHT
format. It will not do antialiasing and information will be lost
if you rescale to the smaller sizes. Feel free to add you own
algorithms for better rescaling.
Filename
This command is used to change the filename without changing the
basename nor saving the file. If you specify - for a filename,
the output will be piped to stdout.
Basename
This command is used to change the basename, if a different one
from the specified filename is desired.
Quit
This command will terminate the bitmap application. If the file
was not saved, user will be prompted and asked whether to save
the image or not. This command is preferred over killing the
process.
usage
Bitmap displays grid in which each square represents a
single bit in the picture being edited. Actual size of the bitmap
image, as it would appear normally and inverted, can be obtained
by pressing Meta-I key. You are free to move the image
popup out of the way to continue editing. Pressing the left mouse
button in the popup window or Meta-I again will remove the
real size bitmap image.
If the bitmap is to be used for defining a cursor, one of the
squares in the images may be designated as the hot spot. This
determines where the cursor is actually pointing. For cursors
with sharp tips (such as arrows or fingers), this is usually at
the end of the tip; for symmetric cursors (such as crosses or
bullseyes), this is usually at the center.
Bitmaps are stored as small C code fragments suitable for
including in applications. They provide an array of bits as well
as symbolic constants giving the width, height, and hot spot (if
specified) that may be used in creating cursors, icons, and
tiles.
widgets
Below is the widget structure of the bitmap application.
Indentation indicates hierarchical structure. The widget class
name is given first, followed by the widget instance name. All
widgets except the bitmap widget are from the standard Athena
widget set.
Bitmap bitmap
TransientShell image
Box box
Label normalImage
Label invertedImage
TransientShell input
Dialog dialog
Command okay
Command cancel
TransientShell error
Dialog dialog
Command abort
Command retry
TransientShell qsave
Dialog dialog
Command yes
Command no
Command cancel
Paned parent
Form formy
MenuButton fileButton
SimpleMenu fileMenu
SmeBSB new
SmeBSB load
SmeBSB insert
SmeBSB save
SmeBSB saveAs
SmeBSB resize
SmeBSB rescale
SmeBSB filename
SmeBSB basename
SmeLine line
SmeBSB quit
MenuButton editButton
SimpleMenu editMenu
SmeBSB image
SmeBSB grid
SmeBSB dashed
SmeBSB axes
SmeBSB stippled
SmeBSB proportional
SmeBSB zoom
SmeLine line
SmeBSB cut
SmeBSB copy
SmeBSB paste
Label status
Pane pane
Bitmap bitmap
Form form
Command clear
Command set
Command invert
Toggle mark
Command unmark
Toggle copy
Toggle move
Command flipHoriz
Command up
Command flipVert
Command left
Command fold
Command right
Command rotateLeft
Command down
Command rotateRight
Toggle point
Toggle curve
Toggle line
Toggle rectangle
Toggle filledRectangle
Toggle circle
Toggle filledCircle
Toggle floodFill
Toggle setHotSpot
Command clearHotSpot
Command undo
author
Davor Matic,
MIT X Consortium