ArtWorks Rendering Switcher 3.12 (03-May-12)

Name:     ArtWorks Rendering Switcher
Purpose:  Change the number of anti-aliasing levels for rendering ArtWorks files
Author:   Martin Wrthner
Requires: RISC OS 3.5 or higher
Status:   FreeWare (see [5] below)
WWW:      http://www.mw-software.com/

Normally, ArtWorks files are rendered using 16 levels of anti-aliasing. For
most applications, in particular for on-screen viewing, this is quite adequate.
However, for high-quality bitmap output, this is less than optimal. This little
utility allows you to switch between 16, 64 and 128 levels of anti-aliasing.

Please note that using 64 or 128 levels of anti-aliasing as opposed to 16 slows
down the rendering of ArtWorks files by about 10% - this is the price for the
higher quality and this is also the reason why the standard number of
anti-aliasing levels is still 16. The difference between 16 and 64 is quite
noticeable when you magnify the output, but at normal screen resolution, it is
difficult to see.

128 levels is the maximum number that is possible without major changes in
GDraw. However, it would not make sense to have more than that anyway because
the theoretical maximum of anti-aliasing levels that can be displayed, even in
a 16 million colour mode, is only 256. However, due to the way anti-aliasing
works - there is only a one pixel thin border of anti-aliasing around each
object - even the difference between 128 and 256 levels is almost non-existent.
Even other applications that claim to offer more levels never display these on
screen but only use them when outputting to formats that support even more than
16 million colours.

In practice, 64 levels might even be better in some cases than 128 because the
64 levels anti-aliasing is symmetric (3 bits, i.e., 8-way supersampling in both
directions), while 128 levels are assymmetric (4 bits horizontally, and 3 bits
vertically). On the other hand, the 128 level anti-aliasing is able to render
thin vertical structures more accurately. Again, the difference is probably
negligible.


1) Using AWSwitch
=================
The AWSwitch utility sits on the icon bar and allows you to change the number
of anti-aliasing levels used for rendering ArtWorks files by clicking on the
icon using the Select button. The Adjust mouse button switches in the opposite
direction. At any time, the icon shows the number of anti-aliasing levels
currently used. This is either 16, 64 or 128. If the icon shows two question
marks, then the ArtWorks rendering modules are not currently loaded.

When you change the number of anti-aliasing levels, the corresponding set of
modules is loaded from disc and the screen is redrawn to force all windows with
ArtWorks graphics to be rendered using the new number of anti-aliasing levels.


2) Error messages
=================
If AWSwitch displays the error "Currently loaded version of GDraw is more
recent than latest version known to AWSwitch. Cannot switch levels" or
"Currently loaded version of DitherExtend is more recent than latest version
known to AWSwitch. Cannot switch levels", then some other program has loaded
more recent versions of these modules and AWSwitch can no longer load any of
its own modules because it can cause problems to downgrade a loaded module (the
application that has loaded the more recent version of the module may well
expect some newer features of that module).

In that case, the only solution is to locate an upgraded version of AWSwitch
that knows about the more recent version of the modules.


3) Contacting me
================
Martin Wuerthner
Benzinoring 19
67657 Kaiserslautern
Germany

Phone: +49-631-3608205

e-mail: martin@mw-software.com
WWW:    http://www.mw-software.com/


4) History
==========
Version 3.12 (03-May-12)
- includes GDraw 3.12 and DitherExtend 0.63 (as shipped with ArtWorks 2.XI)

Version 3.11 (14-Apr-09)
- includes GDraw 3.11 and DitherExtend 0.62 (as shipped with ArtWorks 2.9)

Version 3.10 (09-Aug-07)
- includes GDraw 3.10 (as included in ArtWorks 2.75)
- this version of AWSwitch is the minimum version that should be used in
  conjunction with ArtWorks 2.75 (in particular on the A9Home)

Version 3.00 (18-May-05)
- includes GDraw 3.09 (as included in ArtWorks 2.41)

Version 2.00 (18-Oct-04)
- includes GDraw 3.08 (as included in ArtWorks 2.30)

5) Copyright
============
The ArtWorks Rendering Switch utility, related documentation and files are
 Copyright 2012 by Computer Concepts and Martin Wrthner. All rights reserved.
This application may be copied freely provided that
(a) all the files of this application are distributed together without
    modification - in particular, this means that the special versions of
    the rendering modules (GDraw and DitherExtend) in !AWSwitch.RMStore may
    NOT be distributed separately
(b) this application is not sold for profit without my explicit written
    permission
(c) this program or the modules that make up this program shall not be used in
    or by any other program
