__________________________________________
| |_
| Index: | |
| ------ | |
| | |
| - What's new? | |
| - Introduction | |
| - Use | |
| - Some PRETTY IMPORTANT hints | |
| - Wanna print? | |
| - Final comments | |
| - History | |
| - Rights | |
|__________________________________________| |
|___________________________________________|

__________________
/ \
| What's new? : |\
\__________________/ |
\_________________/

New to v3.1
-Bug fix! The printing function printed the Contrast dialog. Oops... Luckily Jim Tackett reported this bug and now it's fixed.
-Changed the image of the printing, so that no one gets confused anymore about the settings.

New to v3
-Recoded everything, optimized code and redesigned completely. Now it looks better but it's smaller :D
-Added contrast button. Now you can change gradually the color of the characters and the background for contrast sensitivity and night vision training.
-Remade printing setting, now you can choose wether to print rulers or not and it reminds you to change the settings for it to work properly
-Remade the animals pictures because they used to overlap and dissappear. Now they work perfectly
-Added support for 1024x768 screen.
-Interface and rulers fade to dissappear when not used to avoid them from distracting you
-If you point a line, a red underline appears, if you click it, the characters on that line dissappear. Click again to make them reappear.
-Completely redesigned interface. It looks better and it's a far more solid.
-The settings of each section are sticky. That is, they don't switch back when you change section.
-The intro can be skipped now.

New to v2.5
-Renamed Kay Pictures to Pictures (more correct use)
-Added two more possibilities in the Pictures: Food and Animals (now Animals is
as default), there's a little combobox at the bottom from which you can choose the
mode you need.
-Fixed the clipping of the Symbols in the Pictures. Yay!

New to V2.1
-Removed the ruler of the printed version (Unnecesarily distracting, check the
"Wanna print?" section)
-Made the Tumbling Es square so no height guess is possible.
-There were no 'Z's (!!??). Added 'Z's.
-There were 'W's. Those are forbidden in a Snellen Chart (some rule). Erradicated
'W's. ('M's have the same trouble, but they were erradicated from the 2.0 on).
-Fixed a bit the Pictures (some of them got cutted by the right side, and still
happens regretably.. I don't know how to fix this, so if anybody has an idea...)

New to V2.0
This version has a lot of updates, I'll list them below:
- It's now possible to print
- Red underlines can be placed in any chosen row by just clicking on it
- 8 position tumbling Es were eliminated to be replaced by Cs (Landolt Cs)
- A new cool intro and loading screen
- A much better interface
- Fixed the low performance bug of the last version (?!)
- Totally reprogrammed for Flash MX!(faster, printable, less sized player download, etc.)
- Landolt Cs chart added
- Pictures chart added
- Renamed Randomly Oriented Es to Tumbling Es :)

___________________
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| Introduction: |\
\___________________/ |
\__________________/

A Snellen Card is something that gets old after some time if you have an
specific one. This starts to become a problem when you remember every
line without even looking at it. That happened to me more than once,
limitating and falsifying my advance, that's why I've created this random
letter Snellen chart.
This chart not only generates random snellen charts but also Landolt C's,
Tumbling 'E's and Pictures in different flavors.
Enough introduction, time for some handy details.

________________
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| Use: |\
\________________/ |
\_______________/

First, it's very probable that you need not much documentation because the
"program" is very WYSIWYG (dumbass-proof) and however you (closely for
sure) know how to use a Snellen card. This version anyway has got some
important changes in the interface so I'm anyway going to explain briefly
the use of this program and, later, give you some PRETTY IMPORTANT
and useful HINTS about this program. But let's go first for the use
instructions:

Use (both on-line and off-line):
Load (need Flash player for this, you can download it from Macromedia's site
or just try accessing the Snellen card, if you don't have the plug-in,
automatically it'll take you where you can download the Flash Player),

General to all tabs interface usage:

Randomize button: cycles the charts through infinite random combinations.

Pointing at any row: displays a red underline over the pointed character line.
Click to make that character line dissappear. Click again to make it reappear.

Print button: Displays the print dialog. There's a checkbox that allows you to
print or not the rulers to the left. After clicking OK, it shows a procedure to do
with the next window. Please follow it, although, unlike the previous version,
not doing so shouldn't make a complete disaster.

Contrast button: Displays the print dialog. Drag the tuners to adjust the blackness
or whiteness of the background and the characters. You'll preview it on the back,
but if you don't like the results, just cancel.

Sections tabs: Click on each to change the type of chart to display

Sections specific interface usage:

Snellen:

Rounded Font checkbox: it's checked by default but if you uncheck it, you see the Snellen
chart in a more square font, this is, Arial. If you check it again, it'll go back
to the Courier font.

Pictures:

Combobox at the top left: Change this between symbols, food and animals figure sets.

Off-line use:
Jjust unzip (if you're reading this, probably this step
has already been done) the file somewhere on your disk, go there and open
the html with your favourite Browser (with the "Work Disconnected" kind
button checked if it isn't already) and you're done!

_______________________________________
/ \
| Some PRETTY IMPORTANT hints |\
\______________________________________/ |
\_____________________________________/

I bet most of you won't read all these hints. I don't wanna bore you, so
here are their importance levels:

[1]: MUST read
{2}: Important
(3): Just a hint

[1] If you have Internet Explorer, use the Full Screen (F11 key) while using
it. If you don't, see if there are any Full Screen button somewhere, if
there isn't, consider having IE because it'll drive you mad to use it on
a smaller screen.

[1] If you have a 14" monitor, use it at 800x600 or 1024x768 for real size reference.
I've made it that way mostly because it was originally designed for
personal use (and left it because it's the most common monitor and
resolution). Also, I've been told that it's almost correct in 1024x768 on 800x600 mode
in a 16" monitor.

{2} Else, if you don't have a 14/16" monitor or you cannot use the 800x600
/ 1024x768 resolution, not everything is lost, there is a way to get
ahead: first, measure the big first letter (initially an E) in inches,
and, if you use to step at 20ft (*), multiply that number for 17.391 and
that will give you the distance you should stand at measured in feet.
If you use to stand at 10 ft (*) (mainly for lack of vast space which is
my case and, I imagine of many others) the multiplier to use would be
8.695 (see it's the half as 10 ft is the half of 20 ft). I've been
testing it, sizing it at distance as good as I could in two different
scales and everything seems to be in order.

(*): Of couse, the choice of the distance will be fixed to your
ultimate objective, if you choose to stand at 20 ft, your objec-
tive will be the 6th line, otherwise, if you choose to stand at
10 ft, your ultimate objective will be the 8th line and so on

{2} If you have a glass protector (those for radiation that darken the
screen), take it away while reading. Also the brightness and contrast of
the monitor will affect, but that depends too much on the monitor, see
what fits better to you but I recommend you to put the monitor on the
max contrast and a reasonable brightness.

(3) If you do this daily and take note of what you see to compare it when
you're nearer, I mean, you stand far, guess what the whole Snellen chart
says, taking note of that "prediction" for later comparation when you're
nearer to the screen (that's the way I do it), it's VERY useful to have
one of those toys called "Magic Slate" or like, you know, those ones
that you can draw and erase and draw again. It'll become a good partner
if you get accostummed to use one of them.

(3) Try to avoid looking at the screen after clicking the Randomize
button or you will be cheating ;)

(3) If you stand at 10 ft, your last objective will be the 8th line, that
may be a problem because that line is a bit beyond the reach of the
screen (at least in the common monitor/res.). There are two solutions
for this kind of problem: go back to the computer to scroll the bar down
or (what I found to better) move the scroll bar before you go far. To
calibrate it for everything to fit and still not look directly at the
screen (believe me it becomes a problem), you can use the first reading
at the top left, the one which says "70 ft - 21 m", scroll the bar until
this line disappears almost completely and that's it, the page is alig-
ned to cover from lines 1st to 8th (well, not much of the 1st, but you
can still distinguish what is it; however, if you can't see that letter,
you won't need to scroll the bar down as you won't see that "extended
rest" anyway)

_________________
/ \
| Wanna print? |\
\_________________/|
\_______________/

About the size it'll be printed, it should be ok for any paper which has
the width sized as an A4 paper which is the most common one. However,
to check sizes, measure the first letter, it should be of about 1,25" /
3,2cm.
The print options however aren't much, so if for ANY reason it doesn't
fit, you'll have to press the "Print Screen" key on your keyboard,
load it on any Image edition program, paste in a new image and print it
from there. And use that size (1,25" / 3,2cm. for the first letter for
reference to change the paper's print resolution to fit the real size it
should have.

______________________
/ \
| Final comments |\
\______________________/ |
\______________________/

Well, that's about it, I have nothing else to say by the moment, if you
have ANY ideas or comments, insults or money ;) please contact me. Also
about any other thing like this that could come in handy.

Many people did so and they made it by mail asking, so you see, you too
can become FAMOUS by throwing a good idea ;)

Seriously talking, if you do any cool suggestion that makes this program
to get better, I promise I'll put your name in this "Hall of Fame" :)

Oh and I just figured it'd make more sense to put the Hall of Fame ordered
backwards, like, the last first and the first last. Sorry to the first collaborators
but you have already had your time at the top ;)

Hall of Fame:
---- -- ----

My apologies to another contributors to the version 3.1, as the person who
provided me with the current image you get when printing, I lost the mails and
I just don't have any more contact form. I'm sorry. To those of you, you know
who you are and well... this is my attempt to mention you. Thank you.

Thanks to Jim Tackett, he reported the bug at the printing that printed the
Contrast window for error.

Thanks to Chris Duffield, he was the one who suggested this black/white
button idea. That later became the contrast button you see, which later
made me remake the whole thing.

Thanks to Christine Smith, she suggested (asked if it was possible, actually)
a feature that makes character lines dissappear for easier use and less confusion.
Part of this release's push belongs to her.

Thanks to Zvi Zoblin, he gave me the food and animals fonts to use on the
Pictures.

Thanks to Ryan Roberts, he gave me the suggestion of the printability and
corrected me some of the errors of the 2.0 version.

Thanks to Rajiv Bhushan for one, the Arial/Sans Serif idea, and two, the
Tumbling E's chart.

Thanks to Harry Incs, the one who gave me the idea of the "different
resolution/monitor problem" solution and the one who inspired me to write
a longer version of this document (to be honest, to add this all after the
Introduction :)

-----

Also a call to anybody who has the knowledge: I've read somewhere that
there are some devices that "teach" you how to control the muscles of your
eyes. I'm pretty sure that such a thing would be a VERY BIG help to all of
us. If you do know how those machines work, I mean I'm sure they show you
something and tell you to do certain things and voila, you've learned to
control your eye muscles. THAT is something that could be very possibly
recreated in a computer program that I'm sure I could do. If anyone has
the knowledge about how that works, tell me and I'll do a program that
does the same thing except that this would be for free.

____________________
/ \
| History |\
\____________________/||
\___________________/

So the "Final Comments" weren't final really, huh? :)
Well, I know that, but the History of the Program is the most boring part,
together with the "Rights" thing, so I've left them for the real end ;)

11-07-05: A mail from Jim Tacket reporting the bug of the printing arrived
The first bug in the history of this program gets fixed on this release.

15-03-05: A few mails from different people and questions and very specially
one from Chris Duffield has been holding me to this release. A total remake..
The biggest change so far, I think..

11-12-03: Inspired by Alex Eulenberg, I reconverted the txt file to html
so that you can browse it easier as well as change the text size
and such stuff.

26-11-03: A new surge of enthusiasm inspired by Zvi Zoblin. Corrected all
of the errors of the beta and remade the screen now with a kewl
logo. Added food and animals in the Pictures and fixed the
so disturbing clipping from the symbols at the Pictures.

??-10-03: Made 70% of the update to the new version with tons of bugs to
correct.. things that I didn't get why happened.. that and the
lack of time discouraged me a little on taking it to final.

22-04-03: Another mail by Ryan Roberts correct some of my errors of the
2.0 version. I corrected these errors and here it is updated to
a 2.1 version as minimal things were changed. Sorry for the
big delay but I've just got into Algebra studies right on that
moment and couldn't get it fixed before, plus some more trouble
that messed things up more than I expected (it didn't want to
obey my commands :) ) but victory came and here it is updated.

18-03-03: Inspired by a mail from Ryan Roberts, the Ultimate Random
Snellen Chart Generator v2.0 is done. Recoded the whole thing
for Flash MX, added a print button, underlines, Landolt Cs and
Pictures.

06-02-03: Finally the "Ultimate Snellen Chart" is made. I've called it
that way because it has at least to my knowledge all the charts
possible all in one in a 30kb file, that is less than a .gif
image with a chart :)

02-02-03: The E chart, at last working, was going to be sent separate as
the Arial Snellen chart... but, I noticed this was starting to
get messy as everything was in different places, different
files, with very like READMEs but having a different meaning
because they were all different programs.. a total mess.
I've started that same day to develop a version that mixed all
the characteristics I've been adding.

26-01-03: Again, Bhushan gives me another idea: the one of the randomly
oriented E's chart. I start to develop it having a painfully
bad luck with it's progress

23-01-03: Rajiv Bhushan gives me the idea of an Arial version of the
chart. Version updated, this one was going to be added as
another chart. The only copies of this version was for Rajiv
Bhushan and for I-See.org's Webmaster for upload.

04-12-02: Harry Incs gives me the solution for the monitor resolution
problem with monitors of other sizes than 14". Updated the text
with a cute (IMHO) ASCII file with a lot more information than
before.

22-11-02: The very same Random Snellen chart was sent to I-See.org's
Webmaster, Alex Eulenberg for everyone's use. This version
had a very crappy txt within :)

Before: I've created the first Random Snellen chart for my own
that personal use.

_______________
/ \
| Rights |\
\_______________/ |
\______________/

This software used to be Whateverware but due to it's popularity I decided
I wanted it to become Spreadware. Yes, the idea is that you, enthusiast
user, help me spread this thing all over the World. Please always include
this file so we can keep it entire through all the way. Tell your friends, your
familiars, your optometrist, the sites you know, upload it to download sites,
tell your aunt, your granny, the dog, everyone.
Your efforts will be much appreciated by both me and anyone who can get
something good out of this little project of mine. Thank you.