VENUS Technical notes

The VENUS pictures are in JPEG format. For best visual results, follow these instructions:

UNIX stations
MACs
MS Windows

UNIX stations

If your pictures are fuzzy or the colour is wrong...

If you have 8-bit graphics (256 colours) these pictures may result fuzzy. In this case edit the .mailcap file in your home directory and replace/add the following line:
```
   image/jpeg;                    xv -perfect -8 %s 
```
If you have a 24-bit graphics station (millions of colours), you must tell xv how to handle it. For that, edit the .mailcap file in your home directory and replace/add the following line:
```
   image/jpeg;                    xv -visual truecolor %s 
```

Should your xv not support these parameters, you should upgrade it to version 3.00 or later.

If your pictures are too bright or too dark...

...then probably the gamma of your screen is not properly adjusted. On a Unix station there are 3 things you can do to cure this problem:

tune luminosity with the appropriate wheel on the screen (if it has one)
calibrate your gamma as follows:
- login as root
- type "gamcal" and you will see a window with several layers of grey from left to right.
- type "gamma 1.7" to set gamma value to 1.7, or higher values (max 20.0) until all levels of grey are well distinguished. For more info enter "man gamma".

reset the gamma value locally for the Mosaic browser. To do this, edit your .mailcap file and insert/replace the following lines:

      image/jpeg;    xv -visual truecolor -gamma n.m %s  (for 24-bit graphics)
      image/jpeg;    xv -perfect -8 -gamma n.m %s  (for 8-bit graphics)

where 0.0 < n.m <= 20.0 (the higher, the brighter)

If you want the pictures on paper...

...you need to save the picture as a PostScript file and print it later. To do this you click the right mouse over the picture, in the xv control box you select Postscript and you choose "OK", then format the picture to your printer paper (eg. A4, Landscape, Maxpect, Center etc.) and finally "OK" again.

MACs

If your pictures are fuzzy or the colour is wrong...

check that the Monitors Control Panel is set to at least 256 colours. If you can't go that high, you are better off viewing the pictures in black&white.

Windows

humm... dunnow. Not much to do with Billy, me. Try turning the knobs up and down. If it doesn't work take your PC back and buy something sensible next time.

Best viewed with Netscape 2.0
Some icons were mangled using

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Last update Feb 27, 1996.