[comp.windows.x] How does one make a GIF file?

trammell@engin.umich.edu (James Trammell) (01/14/91)

Hello. I am posting to this newsgroup because I don't know where else to
post.  My problem is this:

I have some photographs that I want to scan so that I can create GIF files
to load on my screen.  

At my school, there is a color scanner and a b/w scanner. 
Both are connected to Macintosh IIx's.  I will be scanning the pics on a Mac,
but I will be loading the pictures on
to the screens of UNIX workstations like the Sun SPARCstation 1+ and DEC 5000.

With the color scanner, I scanned an image using Adobe Photoshop software.
There is an option to save the scan as a GIF file, but it is whited out.
There are other options, but they are unfamiliar.  There is also a TIFF option.

With the b/w scanner, I scanned using MacImage software.  Also, this program
has no GIF save option, only some unfamiliar ones and TIFF.  


When I look around ftp sites for pictures, it seems that EVERYTHING is in 
GIF format!  SO WHAT DOES ONE HAVE TO DO TO MAKE GIF FILES?!  It seems so
elusive.  I've been told that I may have to scan in one format, then convert
to another, then convert to a third, etc.  but there must be an easier way.

Thanks.



                              James Trammell
                              trammell@caen.engin.umich.edu

bobo@pecan15.cray.com (Bob Kierski) (01/14/91)

In article <1991Jan14.001809.29746@engin.umich.edu>, trammell@engin.umich.edu (James Trammell) writes:
|> 
|> Hello. I am posting to this newsgroup because I don't know where else to
|> post.  My problem is this:
|> 
|> I have some photographs that I want to scan so that I can create GIF files
|> to load on my screen.  
|> 
|> At my school, there is a color scanner and a b/w scanner. 
|> Both are connected to Macintosh IIx's.  I will be scanning the pics on a Mac,
|> but I will be loading the pictures on
|> to the screens of UNIX workstations like the Sun SPARCstation 1+ and DEC 5000.
|> 
|> With the color scanner, I scanned an image using Adobe Photoshop software.
|> There is an option to save the scan as a GIF file, but it is whited out.
|> There are other options, but they are unfamiliar.  There is also a TIFF option.
|> 

There is usually a PICT and PICT resource save option.  I don't have Adobe
Photoshop so I can't be sure.  You can save the picture as a PICT file, then
use some other tool to convert to GIF.  A good PD tool for doing this is
Giffer, and Gifconverter.  You can get both from stanford.

--


Have a day,