Reduce Number of Color Definitions?

[Art Campbell]

Richard's correction is right on. I was writing quickly and got the source
and destination catawumpus somewhere between my frontal lobes and
keyboard...

Art

Art Campbell
         art.campbell at gmail.com
 "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52 Vincent and a
redheaded girl." -- Richard Thompson
                                                     No disclaimers apply.
                                                              DoD 358


On Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 1:23 PM, Combs, Richard
<richard.combs at polycom.com>wrote:

> Fred Ridder wrote:
>
> > Jack DeLand wrote:
> > > I have inherited some docs that have a huge number (dozens) of color
> > > definitions, all in RGB values. I want to edit these down to about
> 10
> > > entries that I actually need. Is there a fast and easy way to do
> this?
> >
> > If these are colors with names something like "RGB256,256,256", they
> > are likely to be artifacts from inserting graphics (I think it was
> only one
> > particular file format and had something to do with the color depth,
> but
> > that doesn't really matter in this context), and the easiest way to
> get
> > rid of them is to use the MIF filters to "wash" the document. Use Save
> As
> > to save the file in MIF format, then open the MIF file and use Save As
> to
> > re-save it in .fm format. Or if you have a lot of files to clean, you
> might
> > want to download and install the demo version of Mif2Go and use the
> > "Wash Via MIF" command that the tool adds to FrameMaker's File menu.
>
> The source of these is 256-color (8-bit) PNGs. FM adds each of the
> colors defined in such a PNG's color palette to its color definitions
> list.
>
> As I was writing this, Art responded. No, full-color (24-bit) PNGs
> _can't_ cause this problem -- they don't _contain_ a list of color
> definitions. In 24-bit graphics, each pixel can have any RGB value (8
> bits each for R, G, and B equals 24 bits), so there is no limited
> universe of pre-defined colors.
>
> _Only_ the 256-color (8-bit) PNGs cause the problem. With only 8 bits
> per pixel, these graphics can't use just any combination of R, G, and B
> -- they're limited to a palette of 256 defined colors. It's these
> RGB-value specifications that you see in FM.
>
> Art is correct that you have to remove the offending graphics to
> eliminate the problem, but you need to do the _reverse_ of what he said.
> Change your 8-bit PNGs to 24-bit. (There's surprisingly little increase
> in size, in my experience.)
>
> Once the 8-bit graphics are gone, Fred's suggestion of a MIF wash should
> remove the RGB color definitions.
>
> HTH!
> Richard
>
>
> Richard G. Combs
> Senior Technical Writer
> Polycom, Inc.
> richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
> 303-223-5111
> ------
> rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
> 303-777-0436
> ------
>
>
>
>
>
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