This chapter explains chalk's user interface in detail. Each of the menus, toolbars, palettes, and dialogs will be discussed.
Some of chalk's menus are standard in TDE or KOffice, while others are particular to chalk. The menu contains commands for manipluating files. In the menu, you can find commands that do things with the current selection. With the commands from the menu, you can change the way you look at the image. The menu contains commands that change the entire image, like converting all layers to another color model or resizing or scaling the image. The menu is like the menu, but the commands only work on the current layer. The menu contains commands to create and manipulate selections. The menu contains all the filters you have installed. These work on the current layer. The menu contains entries for working with scripts. The menu is again common to KOffice and allows you to manipulate the toolbars, shortcuts and configuration of chalk. Finally, the menu gives you access to various (hopefully helpful) information, such as this handbook.
Creates a new document. This displays the New document dialog, standard across KOffice, in which you can choose to start with a blank document of a certain type, or to open a recently opened document.
Opens an existing document. Because this uses the usual TDE Open Document dialog to let you select a file, you can open files via various protocols (ftp, fish, etcetera).
Opens a recently opened document. Clicking this menu item will show a submenu with the ten most recently opened documents in which you can quickly open an image you have been working on lately.
Saves the document. If you haven't saved the document before, you will get the Save Document As dialog, otherwise the document will be saved under its current name.
Saves the document under a different name. The default TDE dialog is used, so saving remotely via ftp or ssh (fish) is perfectly possible.
Reloads the current document from disk. All changes since you last saved the document will be lost.
Opens an existing document. Unlike ->, this does not load the actual document, but only its contents: you receive a copy of the chosen file as a new document.
Saves the document under a different name. (For the moment, this is the same as ->.)
Sends the document via email. The default TDE mail compose window will be used.
Prints the document. You will see the usual TDE print dialog appear.
Shows a preview of what the printed document will look like.
Opens the Document Information dialog. This dialog can be used to add various information to the image, like title, subject, keywords, author information, and any other information you want to save with the image.
Closes the document.
Quits chalk.
Undoes the last action carried out. Actions (like painting a stroke, filling an area, etcetera) are stored on a “stack”. The last action you did will be undone, and the image is restored to the state before that. Immediately choosing again will undo the action that was carried out before the one just undone, etcetera.
Redoes the last action undone. As described at , a series of actions can be undone. With , an action undone is carried out again, and if more actions have been undone before that, you can redo these in turn.
Cuts the selection to the clipboard. The current selection is put on the TDE clipboard, and the selection is cleared.
Copies the selection to the clipboard.
Pastes the contents of the clipboard.
Pastes the contents of the clipboard as a new image.
Clears the selection.
Fills the selection with the current foreground color. The current foreground color is shown in the top left color square of the Colors palette.
Fills the selection with the current background color. The current background color is shown in the bottom right color square in the top left corner of the Colors palette.
Fills the selection with the current pattern. The current pattern is shown on the Brush Shapes toolbar, usually at the top right of the chalk window.
Contains options for working with color palettes.
Opens the Add Palette dialog. You can create a custom color palette here.
Opens the Edit Palette dialog. Choose a color palette to edit from this list. You will then be given the same dialog as with Add Palette, with the difference that you edit the chosen color palette instead of adding a new one.
Switches between normal view and full screen view. In full screen view, the title bar is hidden and the actual application window is resized to the entire screen.
Opens a new view for the current document. A new application window is opened so that you can have two different views of the same document, for example to work on different areas at the same time, or to look at an area at different zoom levels simultaneously. Changes you make to the document in one view are immediately visible in other views.
Closes all views.
Splits the current view. The drawing area will be split into two parts, which can be used just like two views in different windows.
Unsplits the view. The second view (the bottom or right one) will be closed and the first one will remain visible.
Changes the way the split view is displayed.
Changes the orientation of the splitter to vertical. The two split views will be positioned side by side.
Changes the orientation of the splitter to horizontal. The two split views will be positioned above each other.
Zooms in on the view. The view will be more detailed, but a smaller area will be visible at the same time.
Zooms out of the view. A larger area will be visible at the same time, but it will be less detailed.
Zooms the view to actual pixel level. (1:1 scale)
Zooms the view to the actual image size.
Zooms the view so that the image fills the available workspace.
Toggles display of the rulers on and off.
Toggles display of the grid lines on and off.
Contains various options to set the distance between grid lines. The available spacing options are , , , , , and .
Toggles display of the perspective grid on and off.
Clears the perspective grid. (All grid lines that were created, are deleted.)
Allows you to toggle the
display of the various palettes on and off. The
default view of chalk shows all palettes, and the items are listed as Hide
palette
therefore. When a certain palette is hidden,
the corresponding menu item changes to Show
palette
.
Hides all palettes.
Hides the Overview palette.
Hides the HSV palette.
Hides the RGB palette.
Hides the Gray palette.
Hides the Palettes palette.
Hides the Layers palette.
Hides the Scripts Manager.
Hides the Histogram palette.
Hides the Watercolors palette.
Hides the palette of the selected Tool.
Toggles indication of the wetness of watercolor paint on and off.
Opens the Image Properties dialog, in which you can change the image name, size, profile and description.
Resizes the image to the size of the currently active layer.
Opens the Substrate dialog.
Rotates the image.
Opens the Rotate Image dialog.
Rotates the image 90 degrees clockwise.
Rotates the image 90 degrees counterclockwise (270 degrees clockwise).
Rotates the image 180 degrees.
Opens the Convert All Layers dialog. This allows you to convert the image to a different color space. Apart from the color space, the profile and rendering intent can be specified as well.
Opens the Separate Image dialog. You can separate the image into layers for each individual colorspace component there.
Opens the Image Size dialog . You can resize or scale the image using various algorithms here.
Opens the Shear Image dialog. You can shear the image in X or Y directions, or both.
Creates a new layer.
Opens the New Layer dialog. This will create a new empty layer. You can set the name, opacity, composite mode and layer type.
Creates a new layer for a given KOffice object type.
Creates a new layer for an embedded Karbon14 object.
Creates a new layer for an embedded KWord document.
Creates a new layer for an embedded Kivio object.
Creates a new layer for an embedded KPresenter object.
Creates a new layer for an embedded chalk object.
Creates a new layer for an embedded Kugar Designer object.
Creates a new layer for an embedded KChart object.
Creates a new layer for an embedded KFormula object.
Creates a new layer for an embedded Kugar object.
Creates a new layer for an embedded KPlato object.
Creates a new layer for an embedded KSpread document.
Opens the New Adjustment Layerdialog.
Opens the Import Image dialog. You can browse and select an image file, which will be inserted in a new layer.
Cuts the current selection and inserts it as a new layer.
Copies the current selection and inserts it as a new layer.
Removes the current layer and its contents.
Duplicates the current layer.
Toggles the visibility of the current layer in the image editing window.
Contains actions for working with layer masks.
Moves the current layer one level upward.
Moves the current layer one level downward.
Moves the current layer to the top.
Moves the current layer to the bottom.
Opens the Export Layer dialog. The current layer will be saved to the chosen file.
Flips the current layer horizontally.
Flips the current layer vertically.
Opens the Layer Properties dialog. You can change the name, colorspace, opacity, composite mode and position of the current layer here.
Merges the current layer with the one below it.
Merges all visible layers.
Rotates the current layer.
Opens the Rotate Layer dialog.
Rotates the current layer 90 degrees clockwise.
Rotates the current layer 90 degrees counterclockwise (270 degrees clockwise).
Rotates the current layer by 180 degrees.
Opens the Histogram dialog, in which you can see histograms for the current layer.
Opens the Convert Current Layer dialog. You can set various options with respect to the colorspace and rendering intent.
Opens the Layer Size dialog. You can choose the new dimensions and the resize filter to use.
Contains commands to add effects to the current layer.
Opens the Drop Shadow dialog. This dialog can be used to add a drop shadow beneath the current layer.
Opens the Shear Layer dialog. You can select the X and Y angles to shear by.
Selects the entire current layer.
Unselects everything.
Reselects the previous unselected areas.
Inverts the selection. (Everything that is selected will be unselected and vice versa.)
Feathers the selection. (Adds a soft border around it.)
Hides the selection. The selection is still active, but it is not made visible anymore.
Grows the selection.
Shrinks the selection.
Borders the selection.
Opens the Color Range dialog.
See the Filters chapter for more information on filters.
Repeats the last filter action.
Contains various options for changing the colors in your image.
Automatically changes the image to obtain as much contrast as possible.
Opens the Brightness/Contrast dialog. You can set the brightness and contrast ratio of your image here.
Desaturates the image. This will effectively convert the current image to grayscale, but all subsequent painting is done with usual colors.
Inverts the image or selection. (Black becomes white, blue becomes yellow, etcetera.)
Opens the Color Adjustment dialog. You can adjust the colorspace components of the current image there (for example, in an RGB image, you can change the contribution of red, green, and blue to the total image).
Contains various filters for “artistic” actions.
Opens the Oilpaint dialog to add an oilpaint effect to the selection or image.
Opens the Pixelize dialog to pixelize the image. (A block of pixels is changed so that they all become the same, averaged color.)
Opens the Raindrops dialog to add a raindrops effect to the selection or image.
Dries wet paint.
Contains various blur filters.
Performs a slight blur on the image or selection.
Contains filters that change the image colors.
Opens the Color Transfer dialog to give the image a new look.
Adjusts the colors of each pixel by removing color channels that are less abundant.
Adjusts the colors of each pixel by removing color channels that are abundant.
Contains edge detecting filters.
Performs edge detection with the bottom sides of image parts as references.
Performs edge detection with the left sides of image parts as references.
Performs edge detection with the right sides of image parts as references.
Opens the Sobel dialog.
Performs edge detection with the top sides of image parts as references.
Contains image enhancing filters.
Opens the Image Restoration dialog.
Opens the Custom Convolution dialog.
Sharpens the image or selection by aggravating color borders.
Sharpens the image or selection.
Applies an unsharp mask to the image or selection.
Reduces noise in the image or selection.
Contains emboss filters.
Embosses the image or selection on the two main directions.
Opens the Emboss dialog.
Embosses the image or selection.
Embosses the image or selection on the horizontal axis only.
Embosses the image or selection using the Laplace technique.
Embosses the image or selection on the vertical axis only.
Contains map filters.
Opens the Bumpmap dialog.
Opens the Round Corners dialog to round off the corners of the image or selection.
Shrinks the image or selection and then tiles it.
Contains miscellaneous filters.
Opens the Lens Correction dialog to correct for lens anomalies.
Opens the Random Noise dialog to add random noise to the image.
Opens the Random Pick dialog to distort the image.
Opens the Wave dialog to distort the image
Opens the Filters Gallery dialog. This shows previews of the various filters and allows for easy comparison.
Contains options to display or hide the various toolbars.
Displays or hides the File toolbar.
Displays or hides the Edit toolbar.
Displays or hides the Navigation toolbar.
Displays or hides the chalk toolbar.
Displays or hides the Brushes and Stuff toolbar.
Opens the Configure Shortcuts dialog. This dialog is common to most TDE applications and allows you to configure shortcuts for all actions chalk has to offer.
Opens the Configure Toolbars dialog. This dialog is common to most TDE applications and allows you to configure chalk's toolbars.
Opens the Preferences dialog. You can configure chalk here to match your personal preferences.
Invokes the TDE Help system starting at the chalk help pages. (this document).
Changes the mouse cursor to a combination arrow and question mark. Clicking on items within chalk will open a help window (if one exists for the particular item) explaining the item's function.
Opens the Bug report dialog where you can report a bug or request a “wishlist” feature.
This will display version and author information.
This displays the TDE version and other basic information.
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