What is Composition?
It's a program for combining and manipulating bit image and vector files to produce high quality graphical page layouts. As well as the standard files you can also import Kodak PhotoCD images, Draw, ArtWorks, JPEG TIFF, Photoshop,PNG etc.

It is not a painting package (although with PCA described below, you can do many of the tasks normally performed by painting packages). It is for combining images to produce a final image. This is done using the powerful masking ability which Compo includes.

An example of mixing two JPEG images (Stonehenge & Gorilla)
with an ArtWorks file (The girl).
Transparencies and masks were used to create the effects.

Another example. This uses 2 PhotoCD images (Bramhall Hall and the horse) and 2 JPEGs (the sky and mountains)

Images can be moved at any stage - yes, even the bit mapped graphics. The images can be overlaid, merged & mixed. Effects can be applied allowing shadows, opacity, tints etc. The original images are retained, so even when you reload your saved file, you can move the images around and alter the masks. This is unlike most painting programs, where once you have saved your picture, the orginal information on the component graphics is lost.

A powerful masking tool allows for Blend, Tint, Shadow, Displacement & Curve masks.

A comprehensive Text tool enables you to create high quality text with true adaptive anti-aliasing and all of the above effects or you can tag the text to print at the resolution of the printer or typesetter. There are tools for lightening or darkening, altering the colour balance, rotating, aligning, creating your own filters... The list just goes on.

• Load many different graphic formats: TIFF, JPEG, sprite, Draw, ArtWorks, PhotoCD etc
• ArtWorks and Draw files can be in bitmap or vector layer
• Comprehensive Mask editing tools including new Path tool
• Vignette tool for Mask editor - uses any bitmap as a brush
• Object tool for Mask editor - import any Draw object to mask
• Load and save Photoshop 2.5 files
• Encapsulated Postscript save
• Alpha channel features allow PhotoDesk compatible masks and genlock features
• Compatible with Clares Virtual memory application, Virtualise

Version 1.10 onwards:

• StrongArm compatible
• PCA compliant (links with Ovation Pro)
• Load and Render TopModel files
• On canvas interactive scaling
• On canvas interactive rotation
• Auto masking of Draw, ArtWorks and TopModel files
• All vector data now retained with transformations returning to original vectors
  This provides best quality at all times.
• GIF save option
• New Print option
• Crop canvas to window - fast
• Improved redraw routines
• Adaptive anti aliasing option of text when using RISC OS 3.7

Version 1.15
Considerable development work has been done on Compo and in particular, on the PCA system since version 1.10. Much of this has come about as a result of the work we have done on the Xemplar NC integrated package NCWorks. The painting package, NCPaint, forms the basis for the new facilities introduced into Compo in version 1.15. A Risc PC version of NCPaint called PCAPaint, would have been provided with the Phoebe Risc PC 2 had it been produced. We have now made this available via the compo section of the iconbar.

The new updated PCA specification allows for simplified code for generating lists of availble applets. It also means that applets don't have to be loaded to be available. Applets can be loaded on demand, thus saving memory.

In addition to the painting applet provided with the PCAPaint demo, there are also applets for adding Draw objects to sprites, various fills, filters, conversion tools and adding text. These are based on the applets in NCPaint.

The changes can be summarised as :

• PCA2 tools supplied include: Painting, Drawing, Fills, SpecialFX, Multi line text, Cut/paste irregular areas, Multi step undo history etc.
• Compo as PCA tool. All of the facilities of Compo are available to edit any 32K colour or 16M colour sprite in any application that supports PCA. Compo can now edit 'in place'.
• Canvas can be in 32K (saves memory) or 16M colours. May be switched at any time.
• Rewritten mask editing tools including antialiased brushes, coordinate interpolation, paintable undo, new feathering and fill routines etc.
• New mask editing user interface.
• PCA on masks allows all of the above PCA tools (and any new ones) to edit the mask as well - allowing things like multi line text in masks, rotated drawfiles, cut/paste etc.
• New object export routines, allowing export of the canvas, a single sprite or an area of the canvas as a Sprite, JPEG, GIF, PNG etc.
• Much better mask handling, including automatic translation to and from Acorn style masks (on/off) and the option to export the mask as an alpha channel when OLE editing - allows the mask to be used by PhotoDesk etc.
• Masked PNG generation allows multiple objects to be composited and the result exported as a graduated masked PNG for internet graphics.
• Two new types of shadow, allowing variable transparency coloured shadows and other special effects.
• Option to export an emulation of the shadow as a masked PNG.
• Faster import of sprites that aren't 16M colours.
• Single pixel arrow key movement of the selection.

New in version 1.20:

• The main new feature in 1.20 is the Composcript scripting language. You can now control Compo from your own scripts and even add new icons withComposcript Scriptlets.
• Generate animations easily and do batch processing.
• You can even write procedures to be followed when the user clicks on a Compo object.

Why not investigate Composcript? You will be amazed at what you can do with it.If you have a Risc PC and you want to create stunning graphical layouts then Composition is the program that you need.

"The latest update to Composition provides an extrememly versatile and powerful piece of software with the potential for expansion and interconnectivity via its PCA implementation."
Acorn User

"...a very impressive program indeed.. Compo's speed of operation is also very impressive. It's almost reason enough to buy a RiscPC. Compo(sition) is an outstanding program.. Compo(sition) is Clares best product.. an extremely helpful tutorial.."
Acorn Publisher

"I like this program, in fact I like it a lot.. a professional package that rivals anything I have seen on other platforms. (The manual) ..is itself a thoroughly professional piece of work.. this is a highly recommended product."
RISC User

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