ref: 72ea71f4d629f81f7c5eb34d31cf4b873162d06b
parent: 13590f759547f4ef544b251f2966b4ed2d82038c
author: sirjofri <sirjofri@sirjofri.de>
date: Fri Sep 6 14:35:58 EDT 2024
adds first manual details
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/manual.ms
@@ -1,0 +1,84 @@
+.TL
+Blie — Blended Layers Image Editor
+.AB
+Blie [bli:] is an advanced image editor that allows editing images with multiple layers, similar to modern tools like Adobe™ Photoshop™.
+However, blie tries to be as simple as possible.
+.AE
+.NH
+Introduction
+.LP
+The layout (or architecture) of blie is very modular and on-the-disk.
+On-the-disk means, that blie doesn't define its own file format, but a full structured folder.
+Users have the option to compress the file in any format they like, or mount it directly from a compressed archive file.
+Blie just needs full access to this folder (create, read, write, delete).
+.PP
+The modularity of blie comes from its architecture, especially how it handles layers.
+Blie itself only does some marginal handling of layers, but each layer has its own type.
+Each layer type is directly associated with a \fIlayer editor\fR, which gets all the input and manages the tools and data for that layer.
+Therefore, each layer editor works differently.
+.PP
+It is possible to extend the functionality of blie not only by changing its general behavior, but also by adding new layer editors, for example to support new file types.
+.
+.NH
+Common functionality
+.NH 2
+Ask dialogs
+.LP
+This feature displays a list of name-value pairs and allows for editing the values.
+To edit a value, just click on it.
+.PP
+After editing the values, use the \f(CWEnter\fR key to accept the changes, or \f(CWq\fR or \f(CWESC\fR to cancel the dialog.
+.
+.NH
+Editors
+.NH 2
+p9img — Plan 9 images
+.LP
+P9img supports standard plan 9 images using the RGBA32 format.
+.NH 3
+Layer window
+.LP
+The layer window shows three buttons:
+.IP \fBC\fR
+Display final (composited) image, draw on all channels.
+.IP \fBS\fR
+Display the layer image only (solo), draw on all channels.
+.IP \fBM\fR
+Display the mask only, draw on the alpha channel.
+.NH 3
+Tools
+.LP
+The tools window displays two rows of tools.
+The first row shows the various brushes that are currently available.
+The second row shows a color palette.
+.PP
+Left clicking on a field selects the color.
+Right clicking on a color palette field opens the color selection dialog, which can be used to pick a color.
+.PP
+Left clicking on a brush field selects the brush.
+Right clicking on a brush is supposed to open the brush editor.
+At the moment, brushes aren't implemented, so the first brush (top left) is a circle brush to provide a minimum set of functionality.
+.
+.NH 2
+Filter — pipe through filter script
+.LP
+Filter layers can be used to run custom scripts.
+The scripts read the image from standard input and write them back to standard output.
+.NH 3
+Layer window
+.LP
+The layer window shows four buttons:
+.IP \fBE\fR
+Edit the script.
+Right clicking it plumbs the script file to an editor, left clicking it reruns the script.
+.IP \fBP\fR
+Edit the script parameters.
+Script parameters are exposed as environment variables.
+This opens an ``ask'' dialog.
+.IP \fBA\fR
+Add a new script parameter.
+This asks for two entries: name and value.
+When using a parameter name that already exists, this will be overriden by this new parameter.
+.IP \fBD\fR
+Delete a script parameter.
+This asks for the name of the parameter to delete.
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/mkfile
@@ -1,0 +1,6 @@
+FILES=`{ls *.ms | sed 's/ms$/pdf/g'}+
+all:V: $FILES
+
+%.pdf: %.ms
+ troff -ms $prereq | lp -dstdout | ps2pdf > $target