Re: HOW

[Todd Clements <mole6e23(at)hotmail.com>]

davidf@dfanning.com (David Fanning) wrote:
> > I have 5.4 and am using 5.3 because of this gif problem. For the time 
> > being
> > I don't need to use this trick but don't mind knowing more
>[snip...]
> I think even with my meager computer skills I could
> figure out how to move a file from the IDL 5.3 distribution
> over to the IDL 5.4 distribution. But I still think it
> is easier to switch to JPEG files. And, as an added bonus,
> the colors will be better and device-independent when you
> publish them on the web. :-)

Or, even better, switch to .png graphics. Unlike JPEGs, which will lose 
information every time you open and save them, .png graphics, which IDL 
supports in 5.4 (I don't know when they started support...) are like 
GIFs, but without the copyright issues that forced RSI/Kodak to remove 
gif support from IDL 5.4. And as for publishing them on the web, they 
aren't as wide-spread as JPEG files, but the major browsers version 3.0 
and over support them, which is >95% of your audience (and yes, I know 
that some out there will say "what about that <5%, they deserve to be 
recognized", but at some point, you have to go to the better standard 
and hope people catch up).

Another interesting idea that I use is to write some scripts that will 
use ghostscript to automatically convert a .ps file into, say, a PDF 
which you can post on the web. This way you can still get vectorized 
graphics (for simple plots), and you can produce it "directly" from IDL.

Todd