The Quax Handbook

Claudiu Costin <claudiuc@kde.org>

Quax skin designer: Vlad Oancea


Revision 0.1.0
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with no Front-Cover Texts, and with no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the Appendix.

This handbook describes Quax, a neat desktop magnifying tool for web developers and graphic artists. It's also good for short sighted people.


Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Using Quax
Moving
Rotating
Zooming
Picking a color
3. Operations reference
Keyboard shortcuts
Mouse
Menus
Main Menu
Zoom Menu
Look Menu
Copy Color Menu
4. Credits and License
A. Installation
How to obtain Quax
Requirements
Compilation and installation
Compiling for Linux
Compiling for Windows
B. GNU Free Documentation License

Chapter 1. Introduction

Quax is a desktop zooming tool intended especially for web developers, but is very handy and friendly for newbies. There are few other tools for this task: XMag, KMag and KZoom. All of them are full featured applications and take some time to figure how to use them. On the other side, Quax is very easy to use and have an appealing user interface.

You can visit the Quax web site at http://www.ro.kde.org/quax/.


Quax interface

Quax view on the KDE desktop


Chapter 2. Using Quax

Quax can be used both by mouse and keyboard. While mouse may be an intuitive usage for regular users, the keyboard usage is a plus which speed up the work for professionals in web and graphics computer field. In the circular display area it zoom a rectangular region pointed by it's red arrow.

Moving

Quax can be freely moved on the desktop surface by simply dragging it. Press down the left mouse button mouse button and start moving the mouse. When you positioned it to part of screen desired, release the mouse button. For precise positioning you can use cursor keys to move it pixel by pixel to desired direction. If you keep Shift key pressed down while using cursor keys, the it is moved with 10 pixels steps.


Quax can be moved freely over desktop

Quax can be moved freely over desktop


Rotating

Because Quax zoom on bottom-left region, there are desktop places which cannot be reached in default appearance: top-left corner, top-right corner, bottom-right corner, top margin and right margin. This problem is resolved by changing the direction where Quax "look at" and is made by rotating it. The left rotation and right rotation can be performed in three ways. If you use mouse extensively and your mouse have wheel, then press down Ctrl key and move mouse wheel. Moving wheel forward will rotate Quax to counter-clockwise (to left). Move wheel backward and Quax will rotate clockwise (to right). If your mouse don't have wheel or is not activated for use, then you can still use the menus. Press right mouse button mouse button and Quax menu will show up. Then choose Look At->Rotate Right or Look At->Rotate Left menu items. The fastest way to rotate Quax is using keyboard. Press L for left rotation and R for right rotation.

Rotating Quax many times back and forward can be time consuming when it is used extensively. For that reason, there are keyboard shortcuts and menu items which will point Quax to desired direction: north-east, north-west, south-east, and south-west. See the Keyboard operations section.


Quax can be rotated left or right

Quax can be rotated left or right


Zooming

The main function of Quax is to enlarge regions of your desktop. You cam choose between 5 zoom levels. The zoom in and zoom out can be performed in three ways. If you use mouse extensively and your mouse have wheel, then move mouse wheel. Moving wheel forward will increase the zoom. Move wheel backward and Quax will decrease the zoom. If your mouse don't have wheel or is not activated for use, then you can still use the menus. Press right mouse button mouse button and Quax menu will show up. Then choose Zoom->Zoom In or Zoom->Zoom Out menu items. The fastest way to change zoom level is to use keyboard. Press - (minus) for zoom out and = (equal) for zoom in. Alternatively you may want to use _ (underscore) and + (plus).


Desktop regions can be zoomed in and out

Desktop regions can be zoomed in and out


Picking a color

Many times a web developer see a color which should in be used in HTML pages which he is working at. The colors are easily spotted when desktop area is enlarged as happen with Quax. There are some applications which can pick any color on desktop, but these operate at pixel level so will be very hard to pick right color when details on screen are high or there are many similar colors around desired color. You have three methods to pick a color: using Quax menu, using color tool tip and using keyboard shortcut.

Whenever you press right mouse button mouse button, the color picker function is activated. This way, right before Quax menu is shown, the color at mouse cursor position is picked. The Color menu item will associated icon as a square colored with color taken at mouse cursor. The Color submenu contain three items which display the current color in different representation: comma separate decimal numbers, HTML hexadecimal with lowercase letters and HTML hexadecimal with uppercase letters. When you select one of these items, the color text representation is copied to system clipboard.

The second method use the mouse and is more versatile. To activate it press down Ctrl and Shift modifier keys. Mouse cursor will change as "crosshair" and a tool tip will be shown near the cursor. The tool tip contain a square colored as current color under cursor and a color text as HTML hexadecimal representation. You can freely move the mouse to see other colors in Quax area. When your happy with color under mouse cursor, press the left mouse button mouse button. The cursor will change for short time as "resize" cursor and lowercase hexadecimal representation of color is copied to system clipboard.

When you use first method there's a chance that you may inadvertently move the mouse position because you press right mouse button mouse button. If you only need to get the HTML lowercase hexadecimal representation of color, then you may press Ctrl+C to copy the color under mouse cursor to system clipboard.


Picking a color from Quax area

Picking a color from Quax area


Chapter 3. Operations reference

Quax use many keyboard shortcuts to speed up user experience as much as possible. For casual users there's popup menu which show up when you right click on Quax surface.

Keyboard shortcuts

(Cursor keys)

Quax move pixel by pixel in cursor key direction

(Shift+Cursor keys)

Quax move with 10 pixels step in cursor key direction

Zoom->Zoom In (=), Zoom->Zoom In (+)

Increase zoom level

Zoom->Zoom Out (-), Zoom->Zoom Out (_)

Decrease zoom level

Look At->Rotate Right (R)

Rotate Quax to right

Look At->Rotate Left (L)

Rotate Quax to left

Look At->North-West (U)

Rotate Quax to zoom at North-West

Look At->South-West (J)

Rotate Quax to zoom at South-West

Look At->North-East (I)

Rotate Quax to zoom at North-East

Look At->South-East (K)

Rotate Quax to zoom at South-East

Copy Color->color (Ctrl+C)

Copy the color at the mouse (pointer) current position

Help (H)

Open the help window

Quit (Q)

Quit Quax

Mouse

Many operations can be made with mouse. Some of them, only with the mouse.

Zoom

Simply rotating mouse wheel will change zoom level in or out. Move the wheel forward and zoom level increase. Move the wheel back and zoom level will decrease.

Rotate

If you keep pressed down Ctrl key and rotate the wheel, then Quax will rotate as well. Move the wheel forward and Quax will rotate counter-clockwise. Move the wheel back and Quax will rotate clockwise.

Move

To move it click with the left mouse button mouse button on the Quax surface and then drag. When you get it where you want, release the mouse button.

Operations menu

right mouse button click on the Quax surface and while keeping mouse button pressed down, select a menu item and then release the mouse button. Observe the shortcut combinations on the right side of item menu name.

Color Tool Tip

To pick up the color for magnified pixels, keep Ctrl and Shift buttons pressed down. Mouse cursor will change to "cross hair" cursor shape. A tool tip will popup at the mouse cursor which display a colored square and hexadecimal web representation for color. The tool tip follow the mouse cursor when you move it as long you keep Ctrl and Shift down and pointer is inside Quax. If you press the left mouse button mouse button, the current color is copied into clipboard using HTML hexadecimal format with lowercase letters. For a short time (click duration) mouse will change to "size all" cursor shape.

Menus

Main Menu

Zoom

Open the Zoom submenu where you can directly choose zoom levels or increase/decrease the current zoom level.

Look At

Open the Look At submenu where you can choose direction where Quax look at to zoom.

Copy Color

Open the Color submenu where you can choose what text color will be copied to system clipboard.

Help (H)

Show the Quax documentation.

About Quax

Display an message box with information about Quax version, license, and authors.

About Qt

Display an message box with information about Qt version, and license.

Quit (Q)

Quit Quax application.


Quax main menu

Quax main menu


Zoom Menu

Zoom->1:2

Set zoom level to 1:2.

Zoom->1:3

Set zoom level to 1:3.

Zoom->1:4

Set zoom level to 1:4.

Zoom->1:5

Set zoom level to 1:5.

Zoom->Zoom In (+)

Increase zoom level

Zoom->Zoom Out (-)

Decrease zoom level


Quax zoom menu

Quax zoom menu


Look Menu

Look At->North-West (U)

Rotate Quax to zoom at North-West

Look At->South-West (J)

Rotate Quax to zoom at South-West

Look At->North-East (I)

Rotate Quax to zoom at North-East

Look At->South-East (K)

Rotate Quax to zoom at South-East

Look At->Rotate Right (R)

Rotate Quax to right

Look At->Rotate Left (L)

Rotate Quax to left


Quax look menu

Quax look menu


Copy Color Menu

Here you have three menu items. When you select one of them, the text shown on menu item label is copied to system clipboard. That way you can pick the color under mouse cursor and make the text representing color available to other applications, usually HTML editors.


Quax Copy Color menu

Quax Copy Color menu


Chapter 4. Credits and License

Quax

Program copyright 2003 Claudiu Costin <claudiuc@kde.org>

Documentation copyright 2003 Claudiu Costin <claudiuc@kde.org>

Special thanks for Vlad Oancea <xtrim@fx.ro> who made the Quax skin.

Special thanks for my wife, Iuliana Costin, who allowed me to spend countless hours to work on Linux and KDE.

Icons are borrowed from KDE Project.

This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

This application is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

Appendix A. Installation

How to obtain Quax

Quax web site is hosted on SourceForge servers and can be reached at: http://www.ro.kde.org/quax/

Source code and binaries distributions can be downloaded from: http://www.ro.kde.org/quax/download.html

Requirements

Because Quax is a 100% Qt application. It can be compiled on any platform where Qt was ported. At the moment it is supported out-of-the-box with scripts and conditional compiling to the following platforms:

  • Linux with Qt 3.x GPL or better

  • Windows with QT 2.3 for Non-Commercial-Use

For Linux you need to have GNU C++ compiler and associated tools. To regenerate the user documentation you need to have meinproc from KDE 3.1. To regenerate the reference documentation from source code you need to have Doxygen.

To compile Quax under Windows you need Microsoft? Visual Studio? 6.0 and Qt 2.3 for Windows for Non-Commercial-Use.

Compilation and installation

Compiling for Linux

Compile and install with the usual:

% ./configure
% make
% make install

Last command must be run as root user.

Compiling for Windows

Open a DOS window running command.com under Windows 95/98/ME or cmd.exe under Windows NT/2000/XP.

Run the DOS batch scripts:

C:\> cd \quax-1.0-1\
C:\> compile-win32.bat

Appendix B. GNU Free Documentation License

          GNU Free Documentation License
             Version 1.1, March 2000

 Copyright (C) 2000  Free Software Foundation, Inc.
     59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA
 Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
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This License is a kind of "copyleft", which means that derivative
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We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free
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