NixieClk.txt	27-Feb-2011

The nixie clock digits came from an animated GIF on the Internet. They
were separated into ten BMP files using my See program and Snarf. (I
tried to use various Windows utilities, such as Gimp, but couldn't figure
out how to make them do the job - if indeed they could.)

The digits were cropped out of the ten BMP files using the DOS version of
Graphic Workshop (GWS 7.0d).

I tried to convert these images to LBM files, and use DPaint to combine
them onto one screen, but the LBM files only displayed as white
rectangles. The problem occurred for two different versions of DPaint
(DeluxePaint II Enhanced v2.0 and v2.3). Because of this, the cropped BMP
files were combined onto one image using Windows XP Paint and saved as a
24-bit BMP file.

This BMP file was then converted to a 256-color GIF using Photoshop,
instead of Windows Paint, because Paint usually does a very poor job of
converting colors. (Photoshop's auto levels and auto contrast appeared to
have no effect.)

This GIF then was converted back to a 256-color BMP using GWS.

Finally, this BMP was converted into XPL constant arrays using
the customized program BMP2XPL.XPL.

Eventually I discovered that resizing the LBM to 320x240 (using GWS) made
the image display under DPaint. Now I had a tool I was very familiar
with, and it came in handy for making adjustments.

DPaint was used to remove the background halftones around the tube. I had
tried to use Photoshop's magic wand to remove the background. It worked
perfectly on the left side of the tube, but it wanted to take too much
off on the right side. Also, Photoshop used a color other than black for
the background. I couldn't figure out what its palette was. Didn't know
exactly what it was doing. Couldn't trust it. Was delighted to finally
get DPaint to work.

The output from BMP2XPL "NixieClk.inc" requires some small edits to fix
the brackets at the end of the constant arrays.

UPX was used to shrink NixieClk.exe down to 61%. All those graphic images
shrink nicely.

-Loren
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