I hope this kind of thing is allowed here. If not remove it and send me a PM about it.

Sometimes I am in a drawing state of mind and sometimes not. When I'm not I like to write simple programs/games. My wife has started to draw again after she looked at some of my attempts. She saw me using a grid to help get the proportions correct on a drawing I was working on at the time. I started to explain to her how I imported the picture I wanted to reproduce by drawing into my favorite art program, when she stopped me and said forget it. She isn't as computer literate as I am. She also has little experience with any graphics programs. So I decided to write a program that would allow her to load up a picture she had downloaded, place a grid over it and save it without much trouble. This is what I came up with. Its called grid maker. Its a pretty simple program. I have tested it on windows XP. I assume thats the version of windows most people are using. It should work on other windows versions, but I have no way of testing this.

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the load pic buttons imports a picture you have on your computer.
The + and - keys on your keyboard increase and decrease the size of the grid
left clicking the mouse on the grid of swatches will change the grid color accordingly.
the save image button allows you to export the picture complete with grid overlay to your computer.

just download the following and unzip it. I would place it in the same directory where you have most of the
pictures you will be using. I created it to work with jpeg's since the drawing challenge reference pictures all seem to be that file type.

any questions ask away

WILLIAC

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It sure looks like a nice program to me, and I really wanted to download it to try it. It seems that when I unpack the zip file he has an error. Does anyone else have this problem?

This looks like a very cool bit of software Will. How nice of you to share this resource with the rest of us!

The programme downloaded and unzipped with no apparent problem for me. The only thing that does not seem to be working is the the plus and minus to change the size of the grid.

I'll keep trying... but thought I should let you know about this.

Even as it is it is really brilliant - thank you!



... a few minutes later...

I used the plus and minus on the numeric pad and it worked just fine!! Really brilliant - perfect for my needs actually!!... thank you again!

Yes... I can't unzip it too

Cool!

For the Mac folks out there, "Graphic Converter", bundled with OS X, will do this.

looks a great program but it wont extract it says zip file structure invalid

[attachmentid=3885]

I rezipped it using a different method. But the original link still works for me?
Ill try to find a different file host later on today.

WILLIAC

WOW, williac....
Your programm is something out of this world

THANK YOU thank you THANK YOU

Looks like the grid maker that I sometimes use in Paintshop Pro. It's a great idea.

it doesnt work for me either...which is too bad i was looking forward to using it.....both dont work....they say its invaid

Williac - super job on the gridmaker................I usually don't use grids but just in case, I'll be able to use this one.

One problem - I can't change the grid size + or -

Sure hope you can get it fixed..................that would be super duper!

painter48: The plus and minus are the ones on the keypad on the right side of my keyboard. You may have to hit your numlock key first.

To everyone that hasn't been able to download it I have another Idea.

Grid maker

I couldn't upload the exe due to the way my file host works.

What I did was to change the file extension from .exe to .txt. After you've downloaded grid_maker.txt you will need to rename it grid_maker.exe It will ask you if your sure. It's ok. Then enjoy!

IF this doesn't work email me at williac0374@yahoo.com. I will email it to people that want it.

WILLIAC

This is excellent - I just wanted to "BUMP" it up to the top.

still didnt work for me....im so bummed lol

laurie sissons:
I sent it to you via the email address in your profile.

WILLIAC

Looks great but I can't alter the size of the grid either.
Unfortunately I only have a laptop and so don't have numerical key pad on the right.

Any suggestions?

Many Thanks
Andrea

Ok I added the ability to change the grid size using the up/down arrow keys as well.

Here is a download link. I've never used this file host before so here goes nothing!!

http://z28.zupload.com/download.php?file=g...;filepath=53397

that takes you to zuploads page. At the top there is a link titled download file. click on that to download it.

If anyone has a better suggestion for web host, or for additional features in the program, let me know.

also Im still taking email requests. So if for whatever reason the above link doesn't work for you email me. I will be happy to email you the latest version of grid maker.

williac0374@yahoo.com

thanks WILLIAC

Wow you made my day, I figured out how to use it even...Thanks for makin life simple....

Thanks Williac. It works perfectly with the arrow keys. You are soooo clever
I'll have to learn how to use grids now

Andrea

This is great. I couldn't get the others to work but this is amazing. Thank you so much. Until now I was wearing out rulers and pencils.