home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
- More About Colors
-
-
- ******************* THE MONO COLOR CHART ********************
-
- You might like to create 16-color presentations from a
- laptop computer, or a monochrome or 'paper white' monitor,
- or you might want to use UNIVERSAL MODE, with a Hercules or
- CGA system, which cannot access the 16 colors. For these
- situations, I have provided a chart of the 16 colors (made in
- Universal Mode), so you can pick colors knowledgeably,
- instead of guessing among shades of gray. The filename of
- this chart is COLORS and to use it simply type MSHOW COLORS
- at the DOS prompt.
-
-
- ***************** MORE ABOUT UNIVERSAL MODE *****************
-
- UNIVERSAL MODE is 640 x 200, 16-color graphics, also
- known as EGA-LO. Of course it runs on all standard EGA and
- VGA systems, but it also runs on Hercules and CGA. Universal
- mode is actually higher resolution than VGA-LO, yet is the
- same resolution as the two-color CGA-HI. And that's the
- trick. In Hercules and CGA, it uses only two colors. So,
- the idea is to make a presentation which looks good either
- way, in color or mono.
-
- And, at times, making a color presentation that also
- looks good in black and white can be quite challenging... but
- it's worth it if you want to reach the largest possible
- audience, yet maintain the highest possible graphics standard
- at the same time. Here's what you have to watch out for:
-
- * All colors other than black are automatically converted to
- white.
-
- * Therefore, if you have overlapping picture elements which
- are obviously different colors, on the mono systems there
- will be no differentiation.
-
- * You must be particularly careful of overlapping fills. For
- instance, if you create a large red ellipse filled with a
- polka-dot pattern, then make a yellow circle with a solid
- fill inside it, on EGA and VGA, this will look fine. But in
- monochrome, the circle will not fill with color. It will
- contain the same pattern as the red ellipse around it.
-
- * A Universal Mode presentation running on Hercules will be
- compressed somewhat, because it uses the center 640 x 200
- pixels of a 720 x 348 screen.
-
- * Large fonts are of slightly different proportions when
- displayed on Hercules systems.
-
- * Circles and Ellipses appear in slightly different
- proportions on CGA and Hercules systems. And this, can mess
- up FILLS.
-
- * In most cases, the easiest drawings to create in
- Universal Mode are line drawings against a black background,
- with very little or no shading, shadowing, etc.
-
- * If creating in Universal for an audience of mixed
- computers, you ought to test your presentation on several
- different computers (Herc-equipped, CGA-equipped, and
- VGA-equipped) before releasing it to the public.
-
- ********************* PRINTING TO PAPER *********************
-
- Making a paper copy is a bit like viewing a Universal
- Mode picture on a monochrome monitor. All colors which are
- not black are printed - actually as black - and black is
- white.
-
- ******************* CHANGED COLOR PALETTE *******************
-
- If you have hooked any .PCX files, or made manual
- changes to the color palette (CHANGE COLOR PALETTE in the
- DOOR option on the control panel), and if you are using a
- monochrome or laptop system, you really ought to get a look
- at your pictures on a color monitor, since the changed color
- palette might look mighty strange indeed, if you have been
- guessing colors while looking at gray scales.
-
- _____________________________________________________________
- end of chapter
-
-
-
-
-