Imported graphics question

[Scott Raney]

On Sat, 07 Sep 2002 Bob Arnold <rfarnold at bu.edu> wrote:

> I created a B&W splash screen image with a gradient background. I saved this
> image in Photoshop as an 8 bit grayscale jpg. With these settings, I can
> view this image in PS, or Quicktime Viewer on my Mac with the color depth
> set down at least as far as 256 colors, with no apparent banding in the
> gradient. When I import it as a control into my RR stack, however, the
> gradient will degrade at any monitor setting below the maximum (32 bit).
> What is RR doing to the picture on import? Converting the grayscale image
> into a color image?

Yes, and then dithering down to a standard colormap, at least on 8 bit
systems.  It should work the same as any other app on a 16-bit system,
which is to say pretty crappy because you've only got 5 bits (32
levels) of grayscale to work with on those.

> Is there any way to avoid this and maintain
> compatibility with the properties of the original image for better viewing
> under a variety of monitor settings?

IMHO requiring 32 bit depth is the correct solution to this problem,
assuming you really need that image.  There is no solution at all on
16-bit depth, but you might try setting the colormap property if the
app must run on 8-bit systems.  That'll seriously mess up the look of
the rest of your app and any other applications running at the time,
however.
  Regards,
    Scott

> Thanks
> 
> Bob Arnold
> 

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