Did you ever like to play with those rubber stamp sets as a kid?  You could print your own newsletter
(primitive Desk Top Publishing!), make pictures of all kinds, and get ink all over your hands.
   
GEOS programmer David B. Ferguson has taken the rubber stamp concept and applied it to the
computer with a program called geoStamp.  The program works successfully only within geoPaint, and
allows you to capture or create a small image, and then quickly and easily repeat it anywhere on the
page.
   
This type of thing can be done within the drawing window by use of the edit feature, outlining an image
and then copying.  To transfer it to an area of the page outside the window, it must be saved as a photo
scrap, and pasted in the desired new location.
   
Just how does geoStamp improve on this ability?  First, geoStamp is really a set of programs:
geoStamp itself, which works as a desk accessory; Stamp Collect, also a DA which allows you to grab
an existing image from geoPaint, and Stamp Edit, which is used to create new stamps or change existing
ones.  
   
The program creates data files called stamp albums, each of which can hold up to 30 images.  When
any of the geoStamp programs are opened, you are prompted to open or create an album.  This allows
building up files of related images.  There are several stamp sets available on Q-Link, and several are
included with the program, including cartoon characters.
   
I have found one of geoStamp's most useful features is in creating borders.  There are many fancy small
borders, and I have tediously made them into large borders by copying and pasting photo scraps. 
Getting the little curlicues or whatever to line up when blindly pasting a photo scrap is a mind boggling
and sometimes virtually impossible task.
   
When using geoStamp, the image to be stamped is visible as you move it around the screen.  This
allows overlapping parts to be lined up perfectly.

RUBBER RINGMASTER

Long ago I had a set of circus animal rubber stamps.  The instructions that came with it suggested a
way to print out pictures of animals standing side by side.  You could stamp one elephant picture on a
piece of scrap paper and cut it out.  Then you could stamp another one on your "good" paper, overlay
the cutout, and stamp a second one, slightly offset from the first.  The second one would appear to be
behind the first, since the parts of the image that went onto the mask would not appear on the finished
art.
   
Using the "cookie cutter" option of geoStamp, I was able to recreate this technique on the computer. 
The cookie cutter feature actually reverses any area touched by a pixel in the stamp image (good for
making neat white on black pictures too).  To make my line of elephants, I had to create two identical
stamps, one of them reversed.  Then I used the cookie cutter option to eliminate all pixels in the offset
image area, switched to the black on white image, and stamped it in the exact spot.  This required
changing images without moving the mouse, something I found was quite easy to do.
   
Many of the controls in geoStamp are via keyboard, since the pointer is busy placing the picture.  The
codes can be viewed any time by pressing H for Help.  The numerals 1 and 2 move forward and
backward between pictures.  This allowed me to hold the mouse pointer still while changing pictures for
my elephant parade.  The current stamp is displayed in the lower right in all geoStamp modules.
   
To be honest, I have not found a lot of uses for geoStamp, but it's a fun program (I believe even
productivity programs should be fun most of the time).  You could use it to create interesting tile pattern
effects, including reverse images.  If you were creating artwork with many repetitive images, it would be
easier in most cases to use geoStamp than the standard cut and paste method.
   
I asked Dave to comment on other possible uses for geoStamp:  "One of the things I really wanted to
use it for was doing building design, kind of like the part of CAD where you can place figures anywhere
you want. I am currently working on a set of home design stamps, but it is a slow process."
   
GeoStamp has some limitations which I hope David will overcome in a future upgrade.  I would like to
see the ability to have larger stamps...the stamp size is slightly smaller than a Print Shop image.  The
elephant stamp is actually made of four separate stamps, one for each quarter of the picture.
   
However, I'm glad this program exists...it's fun to play with, and you don't get ink on your hands!

(Dave did later create a variation that created bigger stamp images.)
      
(Originally published in The Interface, newsletter of the Fresno Commodore User Group)