The Comic Edit
Online Version - Index
The Comic Edit - Manual
Last Version Covered: 2.2

The manual is divided in two parts: Sections and Tutorials.

The sections explain how to use and understand the Comic Edit, teaching the basics to start using the application.

The tutorials go foward, explaining deeper about a specific part or component of the application, using screen-captured images whenever it's needed.

Last Update: 02/12/2008

Sections
  1. Introduction
  2. Keywords from Comic Edit
  3. Comic Book
    4.
    1. Creating
    2. Configuring
      3.
      1. Destiny Folder
      2. Page Model
      3. Adding Image
      4. Printing Properties
        5.
    3. Adding Images
    4. Saving
    5. Closing
    6. Loading
      7.
  4. Page
    5.
    1. Adding New Page
    2. Removing Page
    3. Configuring Page
      4.
      1. Page Name
      2. Border Color
      3. Background Color
      4. Border Style
      5. Image
      6. Dimension
      7. Unit
      8. DPI
      9. Margin
        10.
  5. Page Components
    6.
    1. Panel
    2. Balloon
    3. Image
    4. Text
    5. Polygon
      6.
  6. Workspace
    7.
    1. Selecting Component Tool
    2. Adding Components
    3. Selecting Components
    4. Resizing Components
    5. Editing Components
      6.
    6. Moving Components
      7.
    7. Delete Components
    8. Copy/Cut/Paste
    9. Undo/Redo
    10. Automatic Panel Layout
    11. Bound to Panel
    12. Page Resizing
    13. Grid
    14. Ruler
    15. Zoom
    16. Navigation
      17.
  7. Tools
    8.
    1. Image Generator
    2. HTML Generator
      3.
    3. Print drawing paper
    4. Macros
    5. Custom-made Balloons
      6.
  8. Printing Comic Book
    9.
  9. View Comic Book
    10.
    1. Selecting Page
    2. Reorder Pages
      3.
  10. Options
    11.
    1. Form Type
    2. Easy Mode
      3.

Tutorials
  1. Technical Information
  2. Creating, configuring, saving and opening your first Comic Book
  3. Building and designing your page
  4. Creating frames and balloons
  5. Anti-Aliasing

Contents


Introduction

This manual aims on explaining the main features of the Comic Edit. It's divided in sections in a way that helps finding your answer.

The Comic Edit aims on automatizing the most basic mechanical works of drawing a Comic Book. Thus, drawing panels, balloons and texts are done very quickly, putting the artist on his most desired function: drawing. It can also be done to edit images and photos, as it can be seen in the works page.

The Comic Books are done importing the images that you wish to use. If the art is drawn by hand, it must be digitalized before using your scanner. But you can also use digital photos and other images that you already have in disc.

We recommend, before reading the manual, acessing the page Technical Information, where most essential explanations are done. For those who are beginning, this page has several hints for use.


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Keywords from Comic Edit

As you read the manual, terms of different kinds are going to appear. Here, we list those keywords, to help understanding the language used in the Comic Edit.

Comic Book - It's the story, simple said.
Page - Each page that belongs to a Comic Book. AA page is usually made of panels, balloons and other page components.
Page Components - Each component that can be put on a page. The components can be moved freely around the page anytime, drawing the page.
Background - Each page has its own background, which can be a simple color [by default, white], or it can also be an image. This background fills in the entire page, including its margins.
Margins - The margins define the region of the page that can be drawn.
Panel - It's the place where the drawing appears, usually defined by a border. A Comic Book is compoused by a sucession of panels. Every component, except for another panel, can be put inside a panel, like balloons, for example.
Balloons- The Balloon is the main tool used by the artist to indicate what the characters drawn in the panel are speaking. A balloon is composed by: a polygon, which defines his shape and region; and by a text.
Polygon- Both the balloon and the panel are drawn in a shape of a polygon. The polygon can have a pre-defined shape, or can be custom-made, using a special editor.
Border - The border defines how the polygon is drawn.

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Comic Book

Using the Comic Edit makes it able to create and manage your comic book in a simple, quick and efficient way. It can have multiple pages, and its basic configurations can be customized by the user, to easen up the life of the artist.

The Comic Configurations indicates how the page will be drawn and printed, and information about the title, the author, the genre.

Creating

In the main menu, choose Comic -> New Comic Book. You will have access to the configuration screen of your new comic book.


Configuring

The Comic Configuration happens right after selecting New Comic Book, or selecting the option Comic Book -> Comic Properties.


The Comic Book configuration is very important to obtain an eficient edition and construction. One of the most examples of a Comic configuration is the default page configuration, where everytime you create a new page, it is created using the same dimentions, colors and orientation.

The Comic Book configuration is very simple. The Comic Book has the following fields to be configured:
Comic Name
Genre - Some genres already appear in the combo options, but you can type another one if you prefer to write your own genre.
Author
Year
Working Folder
Now, let's take a look in the working folder of the comic book.

Working Folder - This folder will be the place where the CComic Edit is going to save and load all the resources of your comic book. Every image you wish to place in the comic book should be here, and all the generated comic images and HTML will also be here. To change the working folder, click on the button labeled Choose. Another sugestion to organize is to create a new folder with the name of your comic book, since new folders will be created inside this new one.

The folder structure used in the Comic Edit is:
/./ - Root folder. This is where the .hq files are left. The .hq extension indicates the main file of the Comic Book, which contains information regarding comic configuration, pages, panels, balloons, text, and so on.
/./images - This is where you can leave your images which you are going to use in your comic. You can use images from other folders, but it is strongly recommended that you copy or transfer the files to this folder, because they will be reserved to the comic. If you move or rename image files which are not in the images folder, they will not be loaded in the Comic Edit.
/./pages - This is where the exported pages of your Comic Book will come as image files.
/./html - Comic Book pages exported in the HTML format.
/./temp - Temporary folder, used by the Comic Edit. Don't use this folder to save important files, because the Comic Edit cleans this folder periodically.

After the Comic Book is created, the working folder can no longer be modified by the Comic Edit. If you wish to change the working folder after the Comic is created, simply use a file manager and move the entire folder structure from the root folder, where the .hq file is located.

Now, let's take a look on the Default Page configuration:

Default Page - Every Comic Book needs the configuration of a default Comic Book, since the page can have diferent dimentions and properties, such as background color, background image, margins, units. These configurations can vary from one comic to another, so you probably won't be wanting to configure your page every time you insert a new one in the comic.

Exemple: if you want your Comic Book published in the comic strip format in the Internet, and you decide that the strip dimention will be something like 600 x 300. However, you decide to create another Comic Book, but this one will be printed and published in paper, so, you should resize it to the Paper Size [the default is the Letter Page], which is 21.6 x 27.9 cm.

Each time you insert a new page in the comic, it'll be an identical copy of the configuration done in the default page.

See more about Page Configuration.

Adding Images - Access this option to choose the images you wish to use in your Comic Book.

See more about Adding Images to the Comic Book.


Printing Properties - Here you are going to configure the default Printing Properties. Each time you wish to print your Comic Book, the Printing Properties will be set to the default configuration.

See more about Printing Properties.

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Adding Images to the Comic Book

Whenever you wish to insert an image in the comic page, or inside a panel, the Comic Edit will show the image list, present in the image folder of your Comic.

When you save your Comic, the images shown in the pages will not be saved along with the Comic informations. Instead, it'll be saved only the information about the name of the image. This will allow you to edit the image afterwards, for necessary adjustments or else, and, when you come back to the Comic Edit, the image shown in the page will automatically be loaded with the modifications made. See more in the section  Technical Informations.

The screen Add Images to Comic is acessible in the menu Tools -> Add Images to Comic.

The main function is to easen up the process of copying the files from any part of your computer to the correct image folder of your current Comic Book.

It is composed of four different windows. The left superior window is the Folder Selection window. The right superior window is the Image Preview window. The left inferior window is the image listing present in the current folder and the right inferior window is the image listing that are already part of your comic book.

Folder Selection - This window allows you to explore the folders in your computer. You only need to select the desired folder with the images you wish to use. As soon as the folder which contains an image is selected, you will see them in the window below, Images Available.

Images available in the current folder - This window will list all the images pressent in the selected folder. If you find an image you wish to use in the Comic, click on the check box besides the name of the image. This check means that it will be copied or moved to the image folder in your Comic when you choose the desired operation [Copy Selected or Move Selected]. The operation does not happen imediatelly. It happens only when you press the Ok button in the screen.

Images available in Comic Book- This window will list all the images that are already in your Comic Book, and can be used when you create a panel, page background or as a simple image. The images checked for copy or move will be with different colors [Blue for copy or Red for move]. You can delete an image already in the Comic Book. In case of images that are about to be copied or moved, they will be simply put out of the list and no operation in disc will be done with them.  But if you select an image that is already present in the image folder, and then you click in delete [and confirm the operation], it will be physically deleted from the disc.

Show Preview - This window will show a preview of the image currently clicked or selected by the user. This is valid both for the Images in the current folder and the Images in the Comic Book. When you double-click this window, a new window will open with the image opened in its original size, or resized if it is bigger than the screen size. Uncheck the Show Preview option if you don't want to use this tool, because it is time consuming when you're selecting big images.

To confirm the operation of copy or move images, click the Ok button. If you wish to abort the operantion, simply click the Cancel button.

The images added using this screen will be availble to be used in the Comic Book, as page background, panels or simple images.

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Saving Current Comic Book in Disc

To save your current Comic Book in disc, choose this option through the menu Comic Book -> Save Comic. If this is your first time you are saving the current Comic, you'll be asked a file name. This name is simply the name that is going to be saved with the format <name>.hq, which contains all the Comic Information. This file is saved in the root folder of the Comic Book, and is where the user should go when he wants to load the Comic in another occasion.

In case you wish to save the Comic Book with another file name, choose the option through the menu Comic Book -> Save Comic As. This is very useful when you wish to keep different versions of the same Comic.

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Closing Current Comic

To close your current Comic Book, choose this option through the menu Comic Book -> Close Comic. If changes were made in your Comic and it was not saved already, a warning will be sent, asking for confirmation from the user to save or loose the last changes made.

When closing a Comic Book, your working space will be empty and only a few functions will be available, like New Comic, Open Comic and Drawing Paper.

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Loading an existing Comic Book

To recover a Comic saved in disc, choose this option through the menu Comic Book -> Open Comic.

There are two ways to open a Comic already saved:
- Recoverring from a list of recent saved Comics: If you already saved at least one Comic in disc, a recent list of Comics will be shown and you'll be able to recover one of them, without having to select the saved folder of each one. If you press the button Cancel in this screen, you'll be taken to the standard screen of Open Comic Book.
- Selecting the working folder of the Comic: If you still haven't saved a Comic, or if you want to load a comic not listed in the recent files, you can use the standard screen of Open Comic Book. It is very simple to use. Navigate, using the left window, the working folder of your Comic Book. All the files saved with the .hq format will be listed in the left window. You only need to select the one you want and click on the Ok button.

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Page

The page is the main source of reading a comic. A Comic can have lots of pages, and each page works totally independent one from the other, and can have panels, balloons, images, texts, or simply put, everything to make the artist able to comunicate with the reader.

Being totally independent, a page can have any dimention [Width and Height]. This dimention can be defined by choosing the Measure Unit that the user wish, which can be pixel, centimeter or inches. By default, pixel works better in Digital medias, and centimeter and inches are better used when the final product is printed.

The page is built in the Comic Edit by using the work space. Learn more about working space.

The Page functions can be found through the Page menu.

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Adding New Page

When you create a new Comic, a page is created automatically. To add new pages, select the option Page -> New Page. The page is inserted in the position right after the current page. This means that, if your comic has ten pages, and the current page is page 3, the new page will be page 4. This renumeration happens automatically.

If the Comic Edit is working in the Easy Mode, as soon as you create the new page, the Layout Selection Screen will appear.

The new page will be created based on the configurations of the default page. So, if you have a page model to be used in your comic, it is best to setup before, when you're creating your comic, to avoid having to reconfigure each page separatelly.

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Removing Page

If you wish to remove a page from the comic, select it and then choose Page -> Remove Page from the main menu. When you confirm the operation, the page will be no longer available. disponível.

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Configuring Page

To configure the current page, select the option Page -> Page Properties. The page has the following properties, which can be configured:

Page Name - The page name is viewed whenever you naviigate through the comic pages. The default name is always "Page %N". The "%N" is a macro, and means the page number. So, the first page will be called "Page 1".

Border Color - This is the border color of the pagee.

Color - This is the background color of the page..

Border Style - This indicates how the border of the pagee will be drawn. The styles are:
    Solid
    Dash
    Dot
    Dash Dot
    Dash Dotdot
    No Border
If you do not wish to use borders, choose "No Border".

Border Size - Means the border size of the border to bee used. This option works only for the solid border. For the others, except for "No Border", the border size will always be 1.

Image- If you selected a image for the page, it will appear as the page background. If you do not wish to use a background image, choose "Clear" in the section "Image".

Dimentions- The page dimention is simply Width x Height, and indicates the size that it will have. This size is represented in the work space.

    Width - The page width.

    Height - The page height.

    Measure Unit- This indicates the measure units to be used in the properties that uses dimentions [Width, Height and Margins]. The measure units are:
          Pixels - Represents each point [pixel] that appears in the screen. This is the best option if your comic is going to be viewed online, because there is no need to simulate a printing size.
          Centimeters - The configured dimentions will have the real size in centimeters. Example: A page configured with 10 centimeters of width and 20 of height, when printed, will have this exact size.
          Inches -  The configured dimentions will have the real size in inches.

    DPI - If you're using real measure units, the DPI parameter will reflect the size of the component in the screen. Every component drawn in the work space needs to e converted in pixels. DPI means "Dots per Inche". So, a component with the dimention of 10 inches, using a DPI of 30 will have 300 pixels of size [10 x 30]. The DPI is used only in the operations of converting image and editing in the workspace. When printing, the Printer DPI will be used, this way, the printed page will have the informed size.

   Para as Unidades de Medida que representam medidas reais, o DPI indica como será o cálculo para que a representação da página apareça na tela. Qualquer desenho que apareça na tela do computador ou que é impressa sempre utiliza a unidade de pixels para cálculo. DPI significa "Pontos por Polegada". Logo, um componente com uma dimensão configurado como 10 polegas, utilizando um DPI de valor 30, terá 300 pixels de tamanho [10 x 30]. O DPI é utilizado apenas nas operações de conversão de imagem e de edição na área de trabalho. Ao imprimir, o DPI da impressora será utilizado para que a página tenha as dimensões indicadas.

    Margin - Any page component to be inserted on the page can only ocupy the space defined by the margins.

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Page Components

Page component is every object that can be present in a comic page [exemple: Balloon and Panel].

Each component has its own particularity, but some properties are common to all of them. These properties are:
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Panel

The panel is the component that helps to organize the page drawings in a layout defined by the artist. By itself, it is usually an image, framed up by a border [for example, a rectangle]. When you consider all the panels in the page is when the story really goes on.

The panel is the only component that can contain others components inside it. The advantage of adding others components in the panel [like the balloon, for example] is that any operations done in the panel will reflect in the components inside it, like moving, deleting or copying. A balloon inside a panel is limited by the panel region. All the other components, except another panel, can be contained inside a panel.

It is composed of a image and a polygonwhich defines the region where the image is shown. It can use border and the image can be transparent. In this case, the transparent region will be filled up by the fill color property of the panel.

The specific properties of the panel are:
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Balloon

The Balloon is the component that has the job to stablish a comunication with the reader, may it be the lines of the persons of the comic, also to narrate a scene.

A balloon is made of a polygon that defines its format, a text and an optional arrow, to indicate who is talking.

The balloon properties are:
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Image

The Image component shows a simple image in the page. It works very likely the panel, however, it is not drawn inside a polygon.
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Text

This component allows you to write a text directly in the page. It works very likely the balloon, except the fact that the text is written without a polygon. However, it's very useful to write transparent text directly on the page, mixing up with the images and making subtitles.

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Polygon

The Comic Edit has a variety of polygons to be used in the balloon and panel drawing:
 See more about Polygon and the shapes in details in the section Creating Frames and Balloons.

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Workspace

The Workspace is where you can effectivetally do the layout work, create balloons and panels, edit, move and resize components, using the drag-and-drop resource with the mouse.

Basically, to edit your page in the workspace, select the desired page [First Page, Previous Page, Next Page, Last Page or Go to Page...] and then it will be viewed. You are now ready to edit it!

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Creating Components

Locate the tool bar. You'll see an edit arrow and the page components listed in the sequence: Panel, Balloon, Text and Image, plus the Apply Layout tool. Select the desired tool and you are ready to create and add in the page. Select the Edit Arrow if you want only to edit the page components. Select the Apply Layout to build the page panels in the desired layout.

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Adding Components

After you select a page component, bring the mouse arrow to the exact place where you want to add in the page. Click with the mouse and keep it pressed. Then, drag the mouse, building a rectangle-area around the page. This region shows the space the component will occupy in the page. Release the mouse button when you are ready and, finally, the component will be created in the page.

You can also create the component by double-clicking in the corresponding tool in the Tool Bar.

The name of the component will be given using the following standard: the component type [Balloon, Panel, Text or Image] and the corresponding number to the component count of these components of the same type, already created on the screen.

Exemple: Balloon 1. This name is very useful if you want to use the Property Window to edit components.

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Selecting Components

Select the arrow tool in the Tool Bar. Locate the component you wish to edit in the page, and click in it. It can happen to exist a component in the page that it's not visible, or it can be with a very reduced size; or it can be away from the page region; or it can be at the back of another component.

In those cases where you cannot select the component by clicking the mouse on it, use the Property Window: in the top area of the Property Window, click in the combo-box and you'll see a drop-down box with all the components in the page. Select the desired one by the name description: you can edit its properties in this same window. You'll see a list of properties divided by property name and property value.

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Resizing Components

After you select a component, check its borders. You should note some small rectangles in each one of the borders of the rectangle that envolves the component. Resize the component, clicking in one border and holding down the mouse button. Release the button when it reaches the desired size.

You can also resize the component using the fields Width and Height.
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Editing Components

You can edit the properties of the components, basically, in two different ways:
 Click with the right-button of the desired component and select "Properties", or simply, double-click it. Each component will have its own specific screen, divided in tabs, even tough the first tab will be the same for everyone. At the right, there is a preview of the configuration of the component. After you edit a value, this preview will be refreshed, allowing for a better control.

 The Property Window is specifically designed to edit the component property while you still remain in the Workspace. If you aren't seeing this window, press the button F11.

Select the component in the list, in the superior part of the winow. Its properties and values will appear listed. The column at the left is the field-name. The column at the right is the field-value. Naigate through the fields and change the values. After the modification, the component will be refreshed in the screen.

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Moving Components

There are two ways to move the components through the page. One is through its Width and Height dimentions [X and Y dimentions]. Another is through the order they appear in the screen: when more than one component ocupy the same region in the page, one of them will appear in front of the other.

To move through the X and Y dimention, select the desired component using the edit arrow tool, click and hold the mouse button and drag it. Release the button when you're ready. You can also use the Property Window.

To modify the page components order in the page, click with the right-button in the component, and select the options:
Usually, the balloons occupy the first planes of the page, and the panels occupy the last planes.

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Deleting Components

Choose the desired component and click with the right button above it. Select the option "Delete". You can also press the button "Delete" and the selected component will be removed from the page.

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Copy/Cut/Paste

Like millions of people all around the world use and abuse of the resource of "Copy and Paste", he is also present in the Comic Edit!

Select a component and click "Control+C" or use the menu "Edit -> Copy" to copy; or, click "Control+X" or use the menu "Edit -> Cut" to Cut. Select the page you wish to Paste [you can even close the current Comic Book and paste in another Comic], and press "Control+V" or the menu "Edit -> Paste".

Note that,if you paste the component in the same page you copied, the new component will be in the top of it, because it'll share the same dimentions [X, Y, Width and Height].

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Undo/Redo

If you did some undesired operation, undo it using the menu "Edit -> Undo" [Control+Z]. If you want to redo the operation, use the menu "Edit -> Redo" [Control+Z].

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Automatic Panel Layout

You can fill your page with panels automatically, aligned and dimentioned ready to edit. This tool helps to edit and finish the page in a way much more fast than if you would build it by yourself.

As it is much more common the artist draw the entire page, you can:
 To access the page layout screen:
Page configuration:
 When you press Ok, the page will already be with the preview applied in the page.

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Bound to Panel

To bound one component to a panel in the workspace, click with the right button above the component [it can be any component, except the panel], and select the option "Bound to Panel".

The window "Bound to Panel" will appear, with a preview representing each panel that exists in the screen. Choose the desired panel and the component will be part of the Panel.

When moving and removing a panel, all of your bound components will move or be removed altogether. If a balloon appears inside a panel, the balloon will be cut off if its region surpass the limits of the panel area.

To unbound a component, click with the right-button above it and select "Unbound from Panel".

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Page Resizing

The resizing page tool can be accessed through the menu Page -> Resize Page.

Allows to resize the page dimentions, constraining the proportions of all the components contained inside it.

The screen options are the following:
 The usage of these options are very simple. You only have to inform what will be the new Width or Height of the page, configuring through the dimentions or the percent. If the option "Constrain Proportion" is checked, then, after modifying the Width or Height values, the other dimention will be recalculated automatically, constraining the proportion Width x Height.

The Width and Height values can be defined accordly the Measure Unit desired.

The resizing in the Comic Edit is done with each component, including the fonts. So, if a page edited with the dimention of 200 x 300 pixels is resized by 200%, it'll be transformed 400 x 600, a text with the size of 8 will have a size of 16. This way, your page won't be prejudiced by the resizing, if your inserted  images support the resizing.

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Grid

The workspace supports the use of grids to easen up the alignment of the components during the editing.

Call the Grid Configuration screen using the menu Edit -> Grid Properties. In this screen, you can define the grid value [in pixels], and if the grid will appear and be used. The grid size defines the spacement between one grid point to the next. When editing, resizing and moving the components, they will all be aligned next to these points.

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Ruler

The Workspace can use rulers to easen up the alignment of the components in the page during editing.

The ruler appears on the horizontal and on the vertical, at the top and left side of the Workspace where the page is being edited.

The measure units used on the ruler depends on the measure units of the selected page.

Setup the visibility of the ruler through the menu Edit -> Ruler.

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Zoom

The zoom is used to increase or decrease the viewing size of the page in the Workspace. When zooming, no change is made in the dimentions of the page, they'll remain the same.

The glass with the "+" icon will zoom up the image, whilst the glass with the "-" icon will zoom down. You can also choose the zoom level in the selection box, near the glasses, and the user can select the zoom level desired.

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Navigation

To navigate between the pages of your comic, use the buttons in the navigation bar. If you're not viewing this bar, open the menu "View", and check if the Navigation Bar is selected. Click in this option to check and the bar will be visible.

The buttons in the navigation bar are as the following:
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Tools

The Comic Edit has a series of tools that aim on helping the artist, along the process of layout work and the publishing of the Comic, printed or in the Web format [HTML].

The tools are presented here.

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Image Generator

This tool will help to transform the edited pages in the Comic Edit in image files of open format, that can be viewed by every people that does not use the software. Use this option to send and distribute your ready-made pages.

Access through the menu Tools - Image Generator. The screen will appear, presenting the following options:
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HTML  Generator

The same way you can generate image files, you can also convert your comic in HTML format and publish it on the Web!

Access through the menu Tools -> HTML Generator from the main menu. The screen will appear, with many tabs, each one with a different use:
 You don't have to include all of the above tags. Include only the ones you are going to use.

Included with the Comic Edit, you'll find some HTML files that can be used as a custom layout.

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Print Drawing Paper

The pro-drawing artists use a special drawing paper before actually doing the work. These papers has ruler markers and margin delimeters, helping the artist to draw figures, scenarios and panels. Now, with the Comic Edit, this Drawing Paper is within your range!

Go to the Print Drawing Paper using the menu Tools -> Drawing Paper. The options in this screen are:
 You can also configure the printer, clicking in the button "Configure".

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Macros

The macro function allows to enter variated informations in the page name of a comic book. This way, when viewing or saving pages in disc, the macro will be replaced by its corresponding information. One good example is the default page name, which is "Page %N".

So, when the second page is viewed onscreen, its name will appear as "Page 2". If you modify the page order, including new ones or erasing old ones, if it is now the third page of the comic, it'll appear as "Page 3". Simply put, the Comic Edit is changing every "%N" in the name by its corresponding page number.

The macro is also used when generating disc image or html pages.

Whenever you are in a configuration screen and pass your cursor over a field that accept macros, a hint will display what macros you'll be able to use.

Here, it is listed all the macros used in the Comic Edit:
Macro Examples: in the Image Generator screen, where the part "Image Name" appears, enter with the "%H" part %N". If your Comic Book has 4 pages, and it's called "Rage Power chapter 2", each image converted in JPEG will be saved in disc with the following name:
Rage Power chapter 2 part 1.jpg
Rage Power chapter 2 part 2.jpg
Rage Power chapter 2 part 3.jpg
Rage Power chapter 2 part 4.jpg

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Custom-Made Balloons

The common balloons are built using ready-made polygons. However, taking in account the imagination of the artist knows no limits, we can use a powerful tool that build your own custom balloon!

To reach the Custom Balloon Editor, go to the balloon configuration screen, select "Custom-Made Balloon" in the "Balloon Shape" option. Then, click in the button "Edit Polygon".

The "Custom Balloon Editor" allows you to create the shape of the balloon by using the mouse. The Custom-Made Balloon can be resized at will in the workspace because it will always be recalculated, avoiding the pixelation effect. This happens because the balloon drawing is built using vectors that always recalculate its drawing before being putting onscreen.

The Custom Balloon screen is composed by the following components:
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Printing Comic Book

To print your Comic Book, go to the printing screen through the menu Comic Book -> Print Comic.

The options are:
 Please note that, if you're not printing all the pages from the comic, and you have choosen "Two pages per paper" in the printing configuration, the pages that will come together can be diferent from the ones you wish. In this case, choose to print all the pages from the Comic Book with the preview option checked. Then, while on the preview screen, click the "Printing Properties" button, and then, choose here the range you wish to print.

On this screen, we also have the Printing Options button, where we can edit the default values if you want a different configuration.

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Printing Settings

The Comic will be printed according to a previous printing setting. The configuration is accessed through the menu Comic Book -> Comic Properties -> Printing Properties.

The printing properties are:
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View Comic Book

To view the Comic Book away from the working space, use the menu Comic Book -> View Comic.

The View Comic Book uses a page index, located at the left of the screen. Each page comes with a thumbnail, to allow a quick select page. Also, it is possible to reorder the pages, draging them and releasing with the mouse, apart from using multiple selections of the pages.

In this screen, the tools Delete page, Print, HTML Generator, Image Generator, can use this multiple selection.

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Selecting Page

In the View Comic, be sure that the page thumbnails list is enabled and visible [if it isn't, select the option Window -> Page Thumbs].

Clicking with the mouse in a page in the thumbs list will select it. To select multiple pages, hold down the Shift key [to select from the current page until the next selected page] or the Control [to select each page, one by one], and click again on the page.
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Reorder Pages

In the View Comic, be sure that the page thumbnails list is enabled and visible [if it isn't, select the option Window -> Page Thumbs].

Find the page you wish to reorder, click it with the mouse, drag and drop over the desired page. This operation can also be done selecting multiple pages.

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Options

Setup the Comic Edit options using the menu Tools -> Options.
Form Type

Choose the appearance of the Comic Edit windows and forms. Two forms are available: the original Comic Edit form, based on the Comics; and the original Windows forms.

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Easy Mode

Using the easy mode, the Comic Edit usage becomes easier for the user. Uncheck this option if you already have a good understanding of the interface.

The only operation that changes at the present moment is: when adding a new page to the Comic, imediatelly after, the Page Layout Selection screen appears. Thus, for basic users, it is easier to organize and setup the pages using ready-made layout.

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