Application Suite: Paint

Importing foreign format files

Paint normally works with RISC OS format sprite files. As we have already seen it can export sprites to foreign formats, but it can also load a variety of other files by making use of the RISC OS 6 Image File Renderer.

To load a foreign format file you should either drag it to the Paint icon on the icon bar, in which case a new sprite file window will open containing the image, or drag it into any open sprite file window, when it will be added to any images already present in that file. It is possible to make Paint load files by double-clicking on them and how this can be achieved, together with the full list of files that can be loaded, will be shown later in the section on Choices.

When these files are loaded into Paint they are actually converted to sprites. They do not retain their original format. Each image will have the same number of colours as the original and a mask if appropriate. If the image has 256 colours or less it will also be given a palette.

Vector format images

Most of the files that can be imported into Paint are bitmap images, similar to the RISC OS sprite files produced by Paint. However, there are two file types which are vector format, namely Draw and ArtWorks files. These are both 'native' RISC OS file formats, but they are 'foreign' to Paint. When files of this type are imported because they do not contain any type of palette data they are always converted to 16 million colour sprites, even if the original file was just a series of black lines on a white background.

You should understand that once they have been imported into Paint there is normally no way of converting Draw and ArtWorks files back into a format that will allow them to be re-loaded into their originating program for editing. Although both of these programs can import sprite files the resulting image will simply be a single bitmap which cannot be edited or modified within the originating program.

This documentation is copyright 3QD Developments Ltd 2013 and may not be reproduced or published in any form without the copyright holder's permission. RISC OS is subject to continuous development and improvement as such all information is provided by 3QD Developments Ltd in good faith and is believed to be correct at the time of publication E&OE. 3QD Developments Ltd cannot accept any liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any information provided as part of the RISC OS Documentation.

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