Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!paul.rutgers.edu!njin!limonce From: limonce@pilot.njin.net (Tom Limoncelli) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: GIF viewing again and again Keywords: GIF, graphics, IFF, conversion Message-ID: Date: 7 Sep 90 03:40:12 GMT References: <5338@harrier.ukc.ac.uk> <1990Aug23.045556.17590@uokmax.uucp> <12896@netcom.UUCP> Organization: Drew University/NJIN Lines: 54 In article <12896@netcom.UUCP> barry@netcom.UUCP (Kenn Barry) writes: > You can get > PixMate for fifty bucks, and it is a full image processing package, > with color separations just one minor feature. FBM, which is free, > doesn't list color separation as a feature in the docs, but will do > them (I've done 'em with FBM). For that matter, color separation is so > simple that I could crank out a program to do it in an evening, and > graphics programming on the Amiga is just a casual hobby for me. You just blew it. What do you think color separation is? Splitting a 24-bit image into it's red, green, and blue components? No. It's splitting it into it's yellow, magenta, and cyan components. The basic RGB->CYM formula is really easy. One look at the color wheel from your 5th grade art class. You can "invent" the simple formula yourself. Right? Ever look at the results of the "simple" formula? Looks like crap. Oh, it's good for "a night of hacking;" but not for professional work. So, you make adjustments and it looks fine, right? Try a different printer. Damn. It looks like crap again. More adjustments. Buy a different brand of ink. Damn. Looks like crap again. You need to keep in mind different constants depending on what brand of inks, brand of printer, printing method, etc. Researching different inks is not something that an evening of hacking can do. State of the art color separation RIGHT NOW is only available on mainframes. (send me email for footnotes) Don't even look at Mac's. Look at Amigas if you want professional quality at PC prices. Disclaimer 1: I don't own TAD or ImageLink but I have seen both being used (demoed and professionally). Also, I have eaten in diners with both Perry (TAD) and Eric (ImageLink) sometimes simultaniously. Disclaimer 2: I used the PBM Utilities for certain things. For example, they're here on this Sun 4 where I have plenty of CPU time to burn and virtual memory to handle images of any size I want. PBM is particularly good for re-packing GIFs because it reads in any GIF but writes it out using only certain directives (i.e. none of the new directives that VirtGIF or GIFmachine use) My opinionated statements are not about the above products, but about color separation. -Tom limonce@pilot.njin.net tlimonce@drew.edu Tom Limoncelli tlimonce@drew.Bitnet