It occurs to me that the background for a 640x480 desktop may not be 640x480 at all, because of the Apple menu at the top of the screen. That is likely to be the case if your 'banding' is in the form of horizontal stripes, rather than banding in areas that should have been color gradients. Does anyone know whether the Apple menu is displayed 'atop' the background or if the background is instead scaled so that there's room for the Apple menu?
On Wed, 24 Dec 2003, Greg Koelpien wrote: > Yes, I thought using a GIF, which can only have a maximum of 256 > colors, would bypass the problem of dithering, but the same banding > occurs. I suppose I can try saving it as a web-safe GIF, and not a > regular GIF, but that would seriously deteriorate the quality as > well... > > greg > > On Dec 24, 2003, at 12:30 AM, Roger Johnstone wrote: > > > > > On Wednesday, December 24, 2003, at 06:21 PM, Greg Koelpien wrote: > > > >> I am perplexed by an issue with Mac OS 8.1's "Desktop Picture" > >> control panel on my modded Color Classic. The problem is that I can > >> have a perfectly smooth image scaled at 640x480 that looks great in > >> Photoshop. However, when I set it as the background image, it looks a > >> lot worse, and there's this weird banding effect. I've tried high > >> quality JPG, 256-color GIF, PICT files, and it still looks bad. The > >> screen resolution of 640x480 with thousands of colors should render > >> these perfectly. These same images look fine when opened in Photoshop > >> 4 on the same machine. Any explanation as to why these images don't > >> look their best as background images but fine in PS? > >> > >> Greg Koelpien > > > > I used to have the exact same problem with an iMac running 8.1! It too > > was running in 16-bit colour mode. I came to the conclusion that the > > Destop Picture control panel just reduced the colours in the picture > > from 24-bit to 16-bit with no attempt at dithering, which caused the > > banding. When viewing the picture in other programs, they did a decent > > job of reducing the colours and the pictures looked fine. > > > > It's been a few years, so I can't remember exactly how I solved the > > problem. Later I got the video RAM upgrade which let me use 24-bit > > colour, so maybe I didn't solve it! Something to try (if you haven't > > already), is to open the picture in Photoshop and reduce the colours > > to 16-bits. Then save the picture as a TIFF or PICT. If you save in > > JPEG format it will convert it back to 24-bit colour since JPEG only > > supports 8-bit grey and 24-bit colour, although it shouldn't "undo" > > the dithering. > > > > -- > > Roger Johnstone, Invercargill, New Zealand > > > > PS/2 Mouse Adapter for vintage Apple II or Mac > > order at http://vintageware.orcon.net.nz > > > > > > -- > > Compact Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/>. > > > > Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> > > > > Compact Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/compact.shtml> > > --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; > > Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/ > > compact.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > >> The Think Different Store > > http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > -- Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away. -- Philip K. Dick -- Compact Macs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/>. Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Compact Macs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/compact.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive:<http://www.mail-archive.com/compact.macs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
