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From: jonah@amos.ucsd.edu (Jonah Stich)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: 3200 graphics
Message-ID: <12268@sdcc6.ucsd.edu>
Date: 13 Aug 90 15:59:07 GMT
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In article <1990Aug13.085955.11424@utstat.uucp> philip@utstat.uucp (Philip McDunnough) writes:
>In article <438@fawlty.towers.oz> johnmac@fawlty.towers.oz (John MacLean) writes:
>>OK, I did some real tests with GIFs and 3200 graphics.
>>As I said before GIFs are limited to 256 colors, so 3200 is not that
>>great an advantage over 16 palettes (with optimization).
> 
>John, you have been talking about these graphics' translators for some time
>now for the GS. Do they exist? That is, where can they be obtained?>

From what I understand, these converters will be part of the Graphic Exchange
from Roger Wagner Publishing. Roger seems to be more interested in Hyper
Studio than anything else, and last I heard John was having a hard time getting
this released. Maybe if we all bugged Roger.... :)

>>Some scanlines in GIFs will have > 16 colors in them - so you still have
>>to do some palette optimizations to get good results.
>>The quality of this optimization is what makes a good picture.
>>This can take a LONG time [stuff deleted]
>
>How long can it take? Are we talking minutes or hours(days!)?

Well, the F.U.C.K IFF converter supposedly takes 15 hours for 1 3200 color
picture! I think John's gotten that down to about an hour!

>While I'm at it how it is possible to have a freehand drawing program
>which will know when you've reached the 16 color limit in a particular
>line?

I assume that you're talking about the rash of 3200 color paint programs about
to hit the market. The way the paint programs work and the converters work
is comopletely different. For the converters, they're going from a large
number of colors, down to 16 per line. This 'quantizing' is what takes SO
long. In the paint programs, however, you start with only 16 colors per line,
and it's up to you to make good use of them. I've found that making good use of
all 3200 avaliable colors takes more artistic ability than I have. Then again,
that might be why I'm a programmer and not an artist. :) I know that, at least
in Paint 3200, one of the biggest aims will be easy selection of color. I've
already got a lot of useful tools to this end, and am workinig on a lot more!
>
>Philip McDunnough
Jonah Stich