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Subject:Re: Screen Capture without rasters? From:Keith Soltys <ksoltys -at- IO -dot- ORG> Date:Thu, 4 Jan 1996 09:51:54 -0500
In article <199601041136 -dot- GAA13834 -at- io -dot- org>, you wrote:
>We are documenting an MS-Windows software package that has used some
>very (from our point of view) unfortunate screen colours. When I capture
>the screens (Windows 3.1 _not_ 95) for inclusion in MS-WfW (i.e. BMP, PCX
>or TIF), I get the most awful grid/rastering effect. Other than manually
>retouching every screen by hand, can anyone suggest a fitering/masking
>effect or software package that could be used to convert these colours
>to a usable grey scale? (the worst colour is a sort of disgusting purple
>that in grey or 16 colour dither looks like a nutmeg grater ... if ever
>there was a reason for having a documentation specialist involved in the
>interface development then this is IT ... how many GUI developers ever
>consider what the interface is going to look like on PAPER????).
>t.i.a.
>Simon North.
I've run into similar problems many times, especially when documenting
UNIX-based software. I run the software on a PC using eXceed under
Windows 95. First, the beautiful pastel colours coded by the programmers
often change to something else under an X-windows emulator, second, they
print in varying shades of dark grey. I end up doing a lot of manual
palette editing using PaintShop Pro.
It's relatively easy to change the colours on an individual image, though
it takes some experimentation to find a colour that will reproduce properly
on paper (I find a lemon yellow prints well, though it's ugly as sin on
screen!) But I've yet to find a way of doing a batch conversion--if anyone
knows a way of doing batch colour conversions in GIF images, I'd really
appreciate hearing from you.
Regards,
Keith
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Keith Soltys -- ksoltys -at- io -dot- org -- http://www.io.org/~ksoltys/
Technical Writer, Technical Development, Dow Jones Telerate Canada Inc.
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Certainly the game is rigged. Don't let that stop you;
if you don't bet, you can't win. --Robert A. Heinlein
