Monolab
by Craig Collister
Version: 0.1.0 Alpha
Compatibility: BeOS R3 for PPC
June 9, 1998

What is Monolab?
Monolab is (in theory) a simulation of the photography experience. Ok, ok... What I mean is that Monolab converts color images to grayscale ones by simulating the effects of a colored filter attached to a camera loaded with black and white film.

NOTE: Monolab will look best in a 32-bit color workspace.

What can it do?
Monolab converts color images to gray, lightening or darkening certain areas during the transformation based on the color of the filter dropped on it. For example, imagine a photo of a tomato on a green tablecloth. By using a red filter, the tomato would appear light and the tablecloth dark. Conversely, using a green filter would cause the tablecloth to appear light and the tomato to appear dark. Ideal images to try would be photos of people in front of colorful backgrounds (not supplied).

How do I use it?
Monolab can be launched in three ways: by double-clicking its icon, by draging a TIFF or Targa image to its icon, or from the command line. If you're interested in what's going on inside the program, try launching it from a terminal window and watch messages scroll by (occasionally of interest). The program can open any bitmapped format for which the Translation Kit has a translator installed. TIFF, Targa, and BMP are included with R3. As more become available, Monolab will (?) automatically support them.

Once in the program, a window titled "Controls" appears. In its "File" menu, choose "Open..." (or drag an image onto Monolab's icon). The new image will appear in its own window. To convert it to gray, click and hold the mouse over the color of filter you wish to use. An outline appears; drop it onto your image. After a brief pause, the image will reappear in grayscale!

You can have many images open at once. Click the close box on the "Controls" window or choose "Quit" from the "File" menu to quit the program. (Also, if you launced it from a terminal window, you could hit Control-C.)

What's missing?
A lot. This release, 0.1.0 alpha, is quite raw. Consider this version "proof of a concept" and look for an improved release in the coming weeks. Here's a list of high-priority stuff that will be added or changed in the program in the near future:
* Have a save command! For now take a screenshot. ;-)
* Undo.
* More filter choices.
* Make the document window the right size, with scroll bars.
* Spawn a new thread to do the work (leaving the system more responsive).
* Have a status bar indicating progress.

The last two seem like more effort than they're worth, simply because the program is fairly quick as it is. There is actually a lot of calculation involved, but the whole ordeal rarely takes more than a second or two on my machine (a 180MHz 603e). E-mail me with your opinion, or any other suggestions/comments at MrGorf@aol.com. I would appreciate hearing if it works or not at least.

Pseudolegality
This version of Monolab is offered as freeware BeWare. It is Copyright ©1998 by Craig Collister. I reserve the right to make future versions or "derivative works" based on this software. Distribute it FREEly - thou shalt not make money off this if I am not. ;-) Remember that this is "Alpha quality" software - use at your own risk! Et cetera... And enjoy!