Alchemy

Menu Bar

The Alchemy menu bar provides access to basic functions such as printing, entering fullscreen mode, and accessing the Alchemy help. More advanced features such as automatic saving and 'switching' to another application can also be accessed from the menu bar.

Lets go through the menu bar one item at a time. Keep in mind that the menu bar looks different on each operating system, but the basic functionality is very much the same.

  • File

    MenuFile006 

    • New
      Clear the canvas.

    • Export
      Export the canvas as a PNG, JPG, or single page PDF file.

    • Page Setup
      Define the page settings for printing.

    • Print
      Print the canvas.

    • Exit
      Exit Alchemy (Windows only).

  • Edit

    MenuEdit008 

    • Copy
      Copy the canvas to the clipboard as a bitmap.

    • Flip Horizontal
      Flip the canvas horizontally.

    • Flip Vertical
      Flip the canvas vertically.

  • View

    MenuBarView007 

    • Fullscreen
      Enter fullscreen mode. To exit fullscreen mode, hit the ESCAPE key.

    • Transparent Fullscreen
      Toggle transparent fullscreen mode. If selected, when entering fullscreen mode the Alchemy canvas window will disappear and you can draw directly on top of the desktop. Please note that this view does not show a live image of the desktop, so it is not possible to draw on top of moving video etc... 

    • Load Background Image...
       Load a background image to draw on top of.
    • Unload Background Image...
       Unload the background image.

  • Session

    MenuSession006 

    The session menu controls how a Alchemy 'session' is recorded. When using the session menu a multi-page PDF file is created, with pages saved either manually or at timed intervals. The file is saved to the session directory with an automatically date-stamped filename.

    • Save Page
      Manually save a page to the session PDF file.

    • Save Page & Clear
      Manually save a page to the session PDF file, then clear the canvas.

    • Auto Record
      Start/stop timed recording.

    • Record Interval

      MenuSessionRecord006

      Set a timed interval to automatically save pages into the session PDF file.

    • Auto Clear Canvas
      Automatically erase the canvas when 'Auto record' is turned on.

    • Load Session PDF...
      Load an previous Alchemy session to draw on top of. Please note that PDF files not created in Alchemy, in particular those containing text, can cause errors. It is also not possible to load the existing Alchemy session onto itself. Once a session has been loaded, the four menu items below will also become available.

    • Next Page
      Go to the next page of the loaded session PDF.

    • Previous Page
      Go to the previous page of the loaded session PDF.

    • Unload Session PDF
      Unload the session PDF - removing it from the canvas.

    • Link to Current Session
      When this option selected, using the save settings of the current session (Save/Save & Clear/Auto Record) will automatically advance the the loaded session PDF to the next page. This is useful for adding to a each page of a previous session one by one to create a new PDF session file.

    • Restart Session
      Begin a new session. Creates a new session file when saved next.

  • Switch

    MenuSwitch008 

    The switch menu allows you to quickly open the current Alchemy canvas in another user-defined application. The idea is to be able to quickly continue working in a more 'conventional' software application without losing the creative 'flow'.

    • Switch Vector
      Open the current Alchemy canvas as a vector graphic in an external application.

    • Switch Bitmap
      Open the current Alchemy canvas as a bitmap graphic in an external application.

    • Set Vector Application...
      Choose an external application to open the Alchemy canvas in vector format.

    • Set Vector Format
      Choose a format for the Vector Switch, either SVG or PDF

    • Set Bitmap Application...
      Choose an external application to open the Alchemy canvas in bitmap format.

  • Settings 

    MenuSettings006

    • Smoothing
      Turn smoothing on/off. With smoothing off, lines will have hard edges, i.e. no anti-aliasing. Depending on the system this can result in better performance.

    • Line Smoothing
      Turn line smoothing on/off. Line smoothing is the process of curving lines to make them look smoother. With line smoothing off you may notice kinks or hard angles in the line when drawing with fast movements. This is usually more noticeable when drawing with a mouse, rather than a pen tablet. Turning line smoothing off can result in better performance.

    • Keyboard Shortcuts...
      Launch the keyboard shortcuts window and customise the various Alchemy keyboard shortcuts. 

    • Options (Windows/Linux)
      Launch the Preferences/Options window to change the interface and module loading settings.

  • Help

    MenuHelp006 

    • Alchemy Help
      Open the Alchemy help

    • Alchemy Website
      Open the Alchemy website in the default browser.

    • Alchemy Forum
      Open the Alchemy forum in the default browser.

    • About Alchemy
      Open the 'about' window (Windows only).