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View Full Version : Colour Loss in MGI 4.



ElizabethD
12-13-2006, 02:16 AM
I have used the old MGI PhotoSuite 4 Platinum, for several years and like it very much.
Just lately, if I make an animation, all the red colours turn to brown and sometimes the entire pictures lose colour.
Any ideas why this might be happening please?
Lizzie

locustfurnace
12-15-2006, 08:21 PM
I've never used the software but I will take a guess.
When you create the animation which format are you saving it to?
I am going to guess you might be saving the animation to a GIF?

If you are, then you should check on which color palette you are using when saving. You might be saving to a 256 color palette or less which can cause the results mentioned.

ElizabethD
12-16-2006, 11:51 PM
Hmm. I have my computer set to 32 bit. Within MGI I'm not sure how to find out about the colour palette there however.
Lizzie

locustfurnace
12-17-2006, 09:15 AM
Setting your computer to 32bit, as you stated, is only in relation to the graphics display. This is pertaining to the colors your graphics card and monitor can handle.
It has no bearings on how many colors a GIF is saved to.

Since you did not state if you are using GIF format when saving your animations. I can only assume thats the format you are using.

When you go to save an animation sequence, check for any area that states "Options". You should be able to save the gif with a different color palette.

Ofcourse, this may not apply to you if you are saving to a different format.

ElizabethD
12-17-2006, 10:25 AM
Thank you so much for your help!
I do save animations as gifs.
I just tested one and looked at the options.
I have had it set to 256 with Optimized palette checked.
Picture quality 10.
I have the following options only...
Black and white
16 colours
256 colours
Grayscale.
Anything you see I should change?
I've used this for many years and made tons of animations. Only started to lose colour lately though.
Thanks
Lizzie

locustfurnace
12-17-2006, 07:34 PM
Have you checked with another monitor to see if the colors are truely incorrect on the gif vs your monitor/graphics card going bad?

Since switching from a CRT monitor to an LCD monitor in the past few years. One of the drawbacks I noticed was that the new LCD monitors I purchased did not display as vivid colors as my older CRT monitor could do. This is a reason why I will soon be purchasing once again, new LCD monitors.
Even when I do photo editing on my new iMac, with its 20" LCD screen, the colors are different than the colors on my Slackware box's monitors.

Did you happen to get a new monitor by chance?


Not to side track you or anything, but since you are making gifs, for whatever reason. Have you checked out using the animation format called MNG (http://www.libpng.org/pub/mng/)?


MNG (pronounced "ming"), is short for Multiple-image Network Graphics,

MNG includes a number of interesting features:

Object or sprite-based approach to animation, with commands to move, copy and paste images (rather than replicate them as in GIF)
Nested loops for complex animations
Way better compression than GIF animations
Support for transparent JPEG images
Non-patented compression, either completely lossless (PNG) or lossy (JPEG)



Since you state you have been doing this for years, you probably are not doing anything different that you have done before. I would try saving without an optimized palette, see if it changes anything.
Otherwise, I would try to view your work on someone else's monitor, to see if the same results are showing.