EASY ... With Textacy Lite you can now produce text graphics for your web pages with ease. You don't need to be an artist, you don't need to buy or learn a complex, powerful and expensive graphics package.
All you need to do is select the style, font, size etc and type in the text you want to create.
Textacy's preset styles will then take your choices and create a stunning text graphic with them.
It's that simple.

QUICK ... Even with an expensive graphics package you still have to invest time to learn the tool. But what if you don't have the time, or what if you're not an artist? Well with Textacy Lite you don't have to be!
Textacy automates the image processing tasks. You don't even need to know them. So you can produce quality graphics faster.

CONSISTENT ... You can create a set of titles or headings with the same style, this uniformity gives your output a slick well designed feel.
All that adds up to consistent, more professional looking web content for you.

INTUITIVE ... Textacy Lite's interface has been designed to be intuitive, as you roll you mouse cursor over the various elements of Textacy you will notice the text in the lower panel updates to give you helpful hints.

There are a number of simple tools you can use to set up the style you want, once you are happy with your settings you simply hit preview to see the results, then, if you like what you see you can save it.

HOW TO USE TEXTACY ... To create your text simply follow these easy steps.

First pick a style ...

select your style by stepping through the styles list with the list scrollers. For each style you will see an example shown in the preview pane.

Next select the font you want ...

Step through the font list with the list scrollers until you find a font you like.

Now change the font size...

Use the list scrollers beside the font size indicator to do this.

Adjust any other settings...

For some of the styles in Textacy lite, you have the added option of changing the main color used.To select the color you want, start by clicking and dragging the cursor over the color wheel.You will see the color band in the luminance bar change as you do this.When you have a color band you like in the luminance bar release the mouse button.Now drag inside the luminance bar until the current selection is at the shade you want.

For some of the styles in Textacy lite, you have the added option of changing the main color used. In some options the texture picture to use. If these tools are enabled click on them to get the control tray to slide out, and make your selections.

Enter your text...

Click the text tool to get the input tray to slide up then enter your word(s).

Finally preview your masterpiece...

Now you are ready to preview your masterpiece, click the preview tool to do this and wait for Textacy to process your request, when the building process is complete you will see a preview of your text. You can save the image at this point by pressing the disk button on the bottom left-hand side of the preview window.

REQUIREMENTS ... Textacy Lite requires a Pentium or equivalent PC with at least 16MB RAM, 4MB Video RAM and 5MB available space on a Hard Drive. Textacy Lite is designed to be used in 16 Bit color and the recommended screen resolution is 1024 X 768, however it will work on an 800 X 600 screen. If you attempt to run Textacy Lite at a resolution below 800 X 600 you will not be able to see all of the interface, as some of it will be offscreen.

Textacy Lite saves its output as 256 color PNG files, it will not save to the GIF format due to UNISYS licencing problems associated with the use of this format. Textacy Lite saves its output with a transparent background.
All of the text titles used in this help file were created using Textacy Lite!

The interface has been designed with simplicity in mind, whenever you see a hand cursor it means you can click on the tool to produce an action. The action that will occur is indicated in the status window. If a tool is disabled the hand cursor will not appear when you roll over it.

The Color Button is used to slide out the color selection tray, here you can adjust the shade to use in the style's effect.

The Texture Button slides out the texture selection tray, you can select a picture file from any disk to use as a tiled texture map for some of the style's.

The Text Button slides out the text input tray, enter the text you want in here.
To create a group of headings with the same style settings simply keep all the other settings as is and re-enter your text for each heading. Don't forget to do the preview each time as this is where the current settings are built into a temporary image ready for saving.

The Save Button brings up a save dialog box where you can enter the name for your new graphic and specify the location to save it to.

The Exit Button this is on the plug pressing it "unplugs" Textacy making it shutdown.

With Textacy Lite the combinations and possibilities are vast.
We encourage you to experiment with different fonts, some styles are more suited to a certain font, for example the top heading used for this help file was produced using the "chromaticon" style and the font "Bauhaus 98".
Here are some examples of other font/style variations that look cool.

Of course that's just the tip of the iceberg, we leave it to you to discover more variations...


Here are some samples of the 25 styles Textacy Lite has available...

Plastichrome.

Plastichrome attempts to give the appearance of shiny plastic cling wrap like material.

Backlight.

This style attempts to recreate the look of polished chrome plate with back lighting.

Chrome Dome.

This is supposed to be chrome piping wrapped in a clear plasic material, or something of a similar vein.

Chrome Plate.

This style emulates a thickly bevelled plate of chrome like material.

Chromoze.

This one despite it's name is more reminiscent of carved ice or some other cold hard material.

Classic chisel.

This is a heavily bevelled style, Textacy Lite allows you to change the shade used in this style.

Contours.

This style produces ridges a bit like a topographical map. You can specify the shade to use in this style.

Bold chisel.


A bit like the classic chisel only this one uses black as the shadow color, producing a much heavier releif.
You can choose the shade to use for this style.

Graded Gold.

Golden hues grading diagonally with a inverse grade for the border.

Gold Plate.

This style resembles lightly bevelled gold plating.

Gold Plate Thick.

This is a more heavily bevelled version of the above

Golden Glory.

A more golden version of Plastichrome.

Rounded.

This style produces a smoothly rounded gradient from light in the center to dark at the edges of the letters.
You can select the shade to use with this style.

Thick Bronze.


The look of heavily bevelled bronze plate.

Classic Bronze.

A lighter bevel on this bronze plating.

Whackadelia.

This one is whacky and kinda cool looking, you can select the shade to use in the effect.

Chromatica.

Shiny brassy effect akin to chromed metal. You can select the shade for this effect.

Chromaticon.

A richer version of chromatica, you can select the shade to use in this effect.

Metallica.

A hard sort of metallic like finish. You can alter the shade for the effect.

Textured.

A textured effect combined with the classic chisel. You can select both the shade and the texture to use for this effect.

Psychodelia.

A psychodelic spectrum of colors swirl over a kinda glassy surface, can you dig it man?


Gold Variation.

A nice gold bar or nugget look.


Rainbow.

Spectral colors in a glassy finish.


Pastel Shades.

Soft pastels are always fashionable with one clique or another...


Pastel Light Chisel.

A lightly chisel look.

Textacy Lite costs only $5(US) to register.

The evaluation copy of Textacy Lite is fully functional, however you are not allowed to use the saved graphics created with it. To remind you of this fact, the program tatoos the finished artwork with a message.

When you register Textacy Lite this "feature" is disabled to allow you to usefully save your work, also your name will appear in the about dialog box in place of the words "Unregistered Evaluation Copy"

You can register your copy of Textacy Lite by clicking the "Register Me" link on the about box of Textacy Lite which starts up the local registration program.

Textacy Lite is the first release of a range of text creation utilities. The Textacy family products have the following proposed feature sets.

Textacy Standard
A fuller range of controls than Lite, the interface will be different, using a full screen.
Added controls will include the ability to :

Select the kind of form to mould the text to; ie. bevel, amount of bevel, etc.
Create multicolor gradients for effects.
Create and save your own named styles.
Perform batch processing on a list of text entries. (So you can make a whole bunch of titles with the same style at once)
More export formats such as 16Bit color PNG's with alpha channels and JPG.
More predefined styles.

Proposed price for Textacy Standard - $10(US)

Textacy Plus
The same features as Standard plus :

the ability to perform point to point editing of font outlines and to create your own freeform polygonal shapes.
Bezier curve editing of these freeform shapes.
The ability to break apart and repostion each letter in a text string.
The ability to warp and shape your text with both rubber sheet and envelope warping.

Proposed price for Textacy Plus - $15(US)

The creation and availability of these two proposed products will be dependant upon the success of the Textacy Lite product, so if you would like to see them become a reality please support us by registering your copy of Textacy Lite.

If you have any comments regarding Textacy Lite or any of IntAct InterActive's product range you should direct them in the first instance to MFerris@IntActInterActive.com