20011016: map backgrounds in MCIDAS

>From: "Anderson, Alan C." <address@hidden>
>Organization: St. Cloud State
>Keywords: 200110162057.f9GKvD129433 background color printing

Hi Alan-

(Tom's out this week, so I'll reply).

>It feels strange writing your email address again.  We have a new email
>system, and that
>coupled with a fairly smooth running MCIDAS lab means I don't even have
>you in my address 
>book yet.

That's good though!

>My problem may not be really related to MCIDAS anymore, but I would like
>your comments.
>
>I have a student who has saved a number of MCIDAS images,  (radar and
>lightning) and these
>images now exist in GIF format.   She wants to print some of them, and
>of course the black
>background does not provide the right appearance.   She would like a
>white background.
>I have looked at the MCIDAS docs. and 
>also the email archive (map background color) and find that I can change
>the backgroud usng 
>either  GU  or perhaps  CMAP= ?   where ? is the no. of the color I
>want.  The email exchange 
>was between Don and Tony Rockwood back in Oct. of 96.   I assume that
>this would still work
>for new images produced in MCIDAS.

Running GU MAKE 0 WHITE will turn the background to white if there is
only graphics in the frame.  You might need to change the colors of
the graphics so they'll look better.

>But since these files have already been created and saved in GIF,  I
>suspect that the only 
>solution is to look at my printer instructions to see if there is some
>sort of inversion that 
>can be done  (e.g. all black becomes white ...)

Some printers will allow you to invert colors.  If your printer supports
that, it should be in the configuration for the printer manager.  An
alternative would be to bring it into something like PhotoShop and
mess around with the image in there.

>Can you confirm or comment on what to look for in my printer
>documentation?
>
>Hope you are all doing well.  I had an exchange with Anne a week or so
>about our LDM, 
>but otherwise am just trying to keep up with classes.    

Glad to hear things are running smoothly.

Don Murray