GraphistPaint II is a paint program of a different color. Able to import a variety of file formats and armed with some interesting special effects, GraphistPaint II might, despite a cumbersome painting environment, find its niche combining and retouching graphic documents. Built with image processing in mind, GraphistPaint looks for Data Translation's QuickCapture video digitizing card when launched. If found, the Digitize command in the File menu is activated, letting you grab video images and open them directly in GraphistPaint.
A “stencil” beneath the document layer is the major feature that sets GraphistPaint II apart. The stencil can he used as a guide, letting you display construction lines that will not appear in the finished work. Or, since selections can be transferred to and from the document, the stencil can serve as a library area, holding working shapes and brushes. But most importantly, the stencil can hold an entire image. One use would be to keep a copy of the working document for quick restoration should your editing go awry, like the Snapshot feature in MacPaint 2.0. Another use would be to combine separate images.
GraphistPaint can read Paint, PICT, TIFF, and IRIS files. The manual claims PixelPaint files can be opened with 5-megabyte Macs, but that option remained dimmed on my machine. Aba suggests trimming the System file to free up memory. Some export options were also not implemented in this version, (Support of raster image tile format, or RIFF, mentioned on the package could not be licensed.) Images may be opened normally, superimposed on the working document, or imported into the stencil layer. By toggling it forward, you can edit an image in the stencil. Since stencils exist only in memory, they'll be lost when the document is closed. However, they may be saved as standard files, and since documents and stencils share coordinates, reopened works in progress will remain aligned.
Images in the stencil can be incorporated into the document — seemingly from within. The Incrustation feature lets you paint the stencil (with the brushes, paint bucket, filled shapes, and text) into the working document. Incrustation also works by color. One option limits it to only targeted pixels; another selects which pixels from the stencil will incrust the document.
Unique among color paint applications, GraphistPaint II supports 16 “ink” modes, which determine the final ellect when two or more graphic elements overlap. The eight logical modes (Copy, Or, Xor, Bic, and their four inverses) should be familiar to most Mac users. The eight arithmetic modes (additive, subtractive, on lighter, on darker, blend, white transparent, and additive or subtractive cyclic) are new. These modes operate on the numerical values of the color pixels to calculate the new colors. The results of these calculations will be limited by the status of the current palette. If the resulting color is not in the palette, the nearest available shade will be substituted.
Six paintbrushes form the core of GraphistPaint’s retouching tools. The round and square brushes paint with the current pattern in sizes from 1 to 125 pixels. (Brush sizing is global — it also affects the line tool, spray can, and the borders of shapes.) The paintbrush holds a collection of ten (nine preset, one user-defined) brushes. The antialiasing brush works in color to smooth jaggses and may be adjusted for size (1 to 16 pixels) and transparency (the degree of blending). The polybrush (a user-defined filled polygon) and pixel brush (which paints with the last image placed in the stencil) complete the array. Colors may also be smoothed with the diffusing action of the water drop.
Unfortunately, the full impact of these features is undermined by details that are less well thought out. For example, three selection tools (rectangle, lasso, and polygon) would seem to have all bases covered. But none of them can be adjusted to cinch down onto an object when you release the mouse button, limiting your ability to select with precision. As a consequence, it can be difficult to apply visual effects (like smooth or blur) to specific locations. Further, areas defined with the lasso and polygon are nonetheless selected with an accompanying rectangle when transferred to the Clipboard or when dynamic effects (distort, flip, rotate, and spherize) are applied.
GraphistPaint II also has a nonstandard implementation of pasting. Any image transferred through the Clipboard is pasted at the top-left corner of the stencil and automatically selected as a pixel brush. (Odd-shaped selections are pasted with a surrounding white bounding rectangle that will mar the document when the selection is applied to the document with the pixel brush. Aba suggests using the White Transparent mode as a remedy.) The advantages are quick duplication and the ability to paint with the pasted image. However, these are outweighed by the potential damage to unsaved stencils.
Using GraphistPaint's palette is also less than intuitive. For example, to create a filled shape with a contrasting border, you must drag across the palette: the first color for the border, the last for the fill. If the desired fill color is to the left of the border color on the palette, the combination cannot be produced. Dragging the palette only works in one direction.
Colors for gradients are selected in the same way, making palette organization even more important. GraphistPaint II has several options for building color gradations and shading effects, but to access them you must set parameters in one menu (Shadings dialog box, Edit menu) and turn them on in another (Shade on the Effects menu).
GraphistPaint II is not terribly forgiving, Even with a substantial allocation of RAM, undo capabilities are limited. Some functions cannot be undone at all. Others, like rotations or distortions, can be undone if you click to check the results of the action. Worst of all, if you hold down the Option key and copy an area, move the duplicated area and delete it while it’s still selected, it leaves a rectangular hole in the document — this action also can't be undone.
These considerations mean GraphistPaint II won't be your first choice if you need to create an image. Though this version will not suit everyone or, for that matter, every job, GraphistPaint II's strong importation capabilities and the stencil's power to combine pictures are useful features.
Martinez, Carlos. (April 1989). GraphistPaint II. MacUser. (pgs. 45-46).
Eric Wenger
Applications
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GraphistPaint_II.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Basilisk II
