Startup dialog
When you launch AbstractCurves, you will see the startup dialog with 3 icons. By clicking them, you can select creating new image or opening an image file, or skipping the dialog. Choose the item you wish with a click or press Alt+N to create a new image, Alt+O to open an image file or Alt+S to skip the dialog.
There is the 'Remember my choice' checkbox at the bottom of the dialog. If you enable it, the program will remember what you have chosen this time. When you launch the application next time, the startup dialog will not appear. The program will start according to your choice (New image, Open image or Skip the dialog). If necessary, you can enable the 'Show startup dialog' checkbox in Preferences.
If you skip the dialog, the program will start with no document open, and you will have to select either 'New image' or 'Open image file' by pressing the corresponding buttons or using your keyboard.
Creating new image
If you choose New image, a new dialog will appear, prompting you to select the size of a new image in pixels and the background color. After you press Ok the application will start with a new document created and the default preset applied. Also, you can create a new image by clicking the first icon depicting a sheet of paper in the upper horizontal toolbar of the main window, or pressing Ctrl+N on your keyboard.
The 'New image' dialog contains a set of built-in templates of canvases. You can choose any of them in the 'Templates' popup list or select the width and height of a new image manually. To do this, enter the necessary values in the spin boxes fields, or use the Up and Down arrows of the spin boxes. Also, you can change the width and height of a new image by using the corresponding sliders. To activate the sliders press arrows located on the right of the spin buttons.
There is the canvas orientation switch on the right of the Width and Height spin boxes. By using it, you can choose one of the two modes - the Portrait mode (the height of an image is larger than its width) and the Landscape mode (the width of an image is larger than its height). To select a desired mode click on the corresponding icon.
The Screen resolution button located under the Width and Height spin boxes, allows you to define the screen size of your system. After you press it, the size of a new image will be the same as your current system screen size. This feature can be helpful when creating desktop wallpapers.
At the bottom of the dialog there is information about a current canvas color in RGB color space in decimal and hexadecimal formats. You can select a canvas color by pressing either the color preview field or the arrow located on the right of it. When you click on the color field, the 'Select color' dialog will appear in the middle of the main window. If you click on the arrow, a new small dialog will appear under the color field. You can select there a palette and color you need. The small dialog differs from the large dialog by having no options for editing and saving. It is for quick choosing a color you need from existing palettes (see Generator and Rendering Settings -> Palettes).
The Transparency checkbox allows you generate images with transparent background. This can be useful when creating logos, icons, avatars, etc. Simply enable the checkbox if you wish to create an image with alpha channel.
Opening images
If you choose the Open an image file mode, a new dialog will appear, prompting you to select an image file you want to work with. AbstractCurves supports popular image file formats such as .bmp, .jpg, .jpeg, .png. Simply choose the file you wish to load and press the 'Open' button. After that you will see the loaded image fitted to the preview area (Fit to Viewport mode), with the default preset applied. At the first launch this preset will be defined by default settings. At the following launches the default preset will be defined by registry settings (if 'Ok' had been clicked) or by default settings (if 'Ok' had not been clicked). You can also open a file, using the relevant icon at the left of the upper horizontal toolbar. The icon looks like an open folder. Or you can do the same, by pressing Ctrl+O on your keyboard.