Mask Import Utility

Using the Import Bitmap feature found under the Mask group of the File menu you can import a BMP graphic file and convert it into a Word Splash Pro Mask.

Not all bitmap graphic files will work very well as masks. Bitmaps with high contrast variances will work best. Black and white bitmaps with very little gray level detail will work very well. Bitmaps with a lot of details and/or very little difference in brightness may not work well to shape a mask, but may be used to color the background.

If you have clip art that is in a format other than the BMP format you will need to first export the clip art from another program as a BMP file. You will then be able to import it into Word Splash Pro as a mask.

The BMP to mask conversion utility gives you some tools that help you tweak how the final mask will look when imported. The original BMP file will be displayed on the left side of the screen. The new mask will be displayed on the right side of the screen. White areas in the above example are where words will be placed and the gray areas are masked out.

Word Splash Pro defaults to treating dark areas in the BMP image as the areas where words will be placed and the light areas as masked out areas. You can use the Inverse option to switch this logic so that light areas of the mask will be for words and dark areas will be masked out.

The Colors setting allows you to choose how you would like to use the colors in the bitmap. If None is set then no colors will be imported. If Font is set then the colors will be imported and assigned to the mask font attributes. If Box is set then the colors will be imported and assigned to the background attribute of the mask.

Scale will allow you to choose a size for the mask. The display area on the right is an 80x80 grid. The final mask size can be represented as the area that is taken up. You can select from Large, Medium, Small and Mini and Word Splash Pro will calculate a mask size that can be created from the bitmap in that size. Because the mask size is calculated to create the best quality mask from the original image size you do not have a lot of control of the final size.

The Trim Edges features can be used to trim excess space from the sides of your mask. The width and height values displayed is the actual size of your mask. you may then change the Left, Top, Right and Bottom values to trim the mask.

The Transparency options allow you to tweak how Word Splash Pro will interpret the bitmap file based on the colors in the bitmap. The bitmap will be interpreted as various levels of the colors Red, Green and Blue. Higher numbers mean that this color is more important to the mask and lower values means this color is less important to the mask. You may need to play with these numbers to get the final mask that you desire from your bitmap image.

When you have the mask you want simply press the green check mark button to create the mask for your current puzzle. You can then use the standard mask tools to modify and save your mask. Use the red X button to cancel without creating a mask.