General Usage

Before using the plugins you have to start your preferred image editing application and open an image. Please note that the HyperTyle plugin presently only works with images in RGB, Grayscale, Multichannel, RGB 48 bit and Grayscale 16bit mode. If you use a 256 indexed color or CMYK image, you have to convert it to RGB (or one of the other supported modes) before applying the HyperTyle plugin.

Select the menu that leads to the plugin filters (usually it is "Filter", "Effects" or "Image -> Plug-ins") and choose "HyperTyle" from the " The Plugin Site" sub menu to execute it.

The Preview

At the left side of the dialog box there is a preview box that shows you how the final effect will look like. If only a part of the image is displayed in the preview, the image can be moved by keeping the left mouse button pressed and moving the mouse. While it is moved, the original image is shown and after you release the left mouse button the preview is recalculated.

Below The Preview

The preview can be switched off if you deactivate the Preview check box. In this case the preview isn't calculated and the original image is always displayed. This feature helps saving time if you want to adjust several sliders at once.

The Show Grid check box displays a grid in the preview if it is activated. This grid indicates the borders of the currently used texture. As the (seamless) texture is repeated over the preview image, it isn't possible in most cases to see its borders without this option.

While the preview is calculated the area to the left of the zoom buttons displays a progress bar. After the calculation finished, the progress bar vanishes and some data is shown. The first value indicates the time in milliseconds that was needed to calculate the preview image and the second value is an approximation of the time in seconds that will be needed to calculate the final result.

The preview is only absolutely accurate at a zoom rate of 100%. At lower zoom rates the preview will only look similar to the final result. To change the zoom rate of the preview, you can use the + and - buttons at the bottom of the preview. The text between the two buttons shows the current zoom rate. If you hold the Shift key while pressing one of these buttons, the zoom factor will be set to the 100% or the image will be fit into the preview. To quickly switch to 100% zoom you can also click the 100% button. Click the Fit button to display the whole image in the preview.

The Button Area

You can find several important buttons at the right bottom of the plugin dialog. The ? button displays the html manual.

The Open Preset button displays a file dialog for selecting a preset file which was already included with HyperTyle or saved by yourself. A preset files contains the values of all HyperTyle controls, e.g. the slider values or combo box settings, plus the path of the used texture file. So preset files give you the possibility to save certain effects that you produced in HyperTyle and to reuse them later.

When you open a preset file HyperTyle searches for the needed texture at the path given by the preset file, in the same folder as the preset file and in the Texture sub folder inside the HyperTyle folder. It also tries to find the texture by using the path from the preset file as a relative path within the Texture sub folder.

If an error message appears which says that the texture file could not be found, HyperTyle nevertheless applies the settings from the preset files, but uses the currently opened texture. So the preset effect won't look exactly like it is intended to. If you want to have the exact effect reproduced, please use the Open Texture button to locate the texture which was mentioned in the error message and resave the preset file with the Save Preset button.

The Save Preset button displays a file dialog for saving the current effect settings to a preset file. The texture which was used to create this effect is not saved with the preset file. If you want to send your preset to someone else, you usually have to include that texture file with the preset file. If the texture is installed as a part of HyperTyle, you don't have to include the texture.

Pressing the OK button will do the final calculation and apply the effect to the image. Cancel lets you exit the plugin without applying an effect.

The Tab Buttons

At the top of the right half of the plugin dialog will find several tab buttons for switching between various tab sheets with different sets of controls. For more information on the controls of these tab sheets have a look at appropriate sections of this manual.

Sliders

One of the main type of controls are sliders. Sliders can be used to select a certain value within a specific value range. To do that you can drag the slider knob with the mouse (or keyboard), enter a numerical value in the white text box right of the slider bar, click somewhere on the slider bar for large value steps or use the two arrow buttons for small value steps.

The Preview Cross

The "Paint - Radial" and the three Edge main effects let you place a preview cross by placing the mouse over the preview box and clicking on the right mouse button. In the case of the "Paint - Radial" main effect the preview cross will influence the direction of the painting effect. For the Edge main effects placing the preview cross lets you move the center of the edge effect. So if you want the edge effect to appear at the top left corner, simply right click there.

To reset the preview cross to its default position in the center of the image, hold down the CTL key and right click anywhere on the preview.

Reset & Random Buttons

The Reset button is placed at the top of three of the tab sheets below the tab buttons. It can be used to reset all controls (except those of the Main effects) to their default values.

The Random button can be used to generate random slider settings. It is only present in the Surface and Adjust tab sheets. When using the Random button on the Surface tab sheet only the sliders of the activated effects of the Surface tab sheet are assigned random values. When using the Random button on the Adjust tab sheet only the sliders of the Adjust tab sheets are randomized.