[mgp-users 01082] Included eps-files have wrong colors in 1.09 (1.08 is okay)

[Hans Fangohr <H.FANGOHR@soton.ac.uk>]

Dear all, dear Yoshifumi Nishida and Cristoph Dalitz,

I have a problem with including eps-files into mgp, which was raised
already 4 months ago (see attached mail below), but I didn't find a
solution to this problem in the mailing lists.

I hope, I have more detailed diagnostic data than what was available
in the mailing list (except if I oversaw the relevant mail), hopefully
helping to cure this.

Let me summarise the symptoms first:

I have a little mgp-file

%%--------cut here----------------------------------------------------
%include "default1_08.mgp"
%page

Funny business with eps-files using mgp version 1.09a (20010927)

this appears black with a white borderline (and is close to being unreadable)

%newimage -zoom 400 "eqn.eps"

whereas this is readable
%newimage -colors -1 -zoom 400 "eqn.eps"

but the eps-box is visible: the background in the eps box differs very
slightly from the background of the slide.

Using mgp version 1.08a (20010524), both equations look great: white font on black
background, no eps-box visible. Just perfect.

%%--------cut here----------------------------------------------------

This .mgp file includes a single-color eps file called "epn.eps". You could
include any one-color eps file instead of "eqn.eps", or create eqn.eps
using latex like this:

%%--------cut here----------------------------------------------------
\documentclass[fleqn]{article}
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\begin{document}
\thispagestyle{empty}
\mathindent0cm
\parindent0cm
$$ J = \: < \psi_i \: | \ldots |\: \psi_{i+1} > $$
\end{document}
%%--------cut here----------------------------------------------------

and convert this to eqn.eps with the following commands:

latex eqn.tex
dvips -q -E eqn.dvi -o eqn.eps

(Much better it is to use Christoph Dalitz` excellent latex2eps.sh script
from the %filter command --> see Christoph's MGP Tips and Tricks web
page).



Okay, I have now described in much detail how my file looks like. The
symptom is already described in the mgp-file above:

The command
%newimage -zoom 400 "eqn.eps"
results in the equation being unreadable: somehow the white font
becomes black but with a thin white frame (where ideally, it would
just be white)

Christoph suggested a workaround:
%newimage -colors -1 -zoom 400 "eqn.eps"
which improves the situation: the font is white, but the
eps-(bounding)-box is visible because it is filled with a gray color
(it is just about slightly lighter than black, which is the background
color for the slide).

Should anyone be interested and can't reproduce this, I can easily
send out screenshots, just ask.


Here is the new diagnostic data: The problem occurs using mgp 1.09
(output of mgp -v is mgp version 1.09a (20010927)).

The file displays fine using mgp 1.08 (mgp version 1.08a (20010524)).

I am running XFree86 version: 4.2.0 (on SuSE 8.0), and the situation
is exactly the same with XFree86 version: 4.1.0 (on SuSE 7.3).

So as far as I can see, there must have been some change that broke
displaying eps-files (neatly) from version 1.08 to 1.09.


I will have to use 1.08 for my next talk in a couple of days, but it
would be great if we could resolve this issue for the future. Let me
know how I can help in providing more information.


Other than that, I am still (and again) very pleased by Magicpoint -
it's not perfect, but it is (for my purposes) the best tool for
on-line presentations available. Many thanks to Youshifumi, and all
other contributing to it!

Best,

Hans

CD> Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 22:03:16 +0200
CD> From: Christoph Dalitz <christoph.dalitz@hs-niederrhein.de>
CD> To: nishida@csl.sony.co.jp
CD> Cc: mgp-users@mew.org
CD> Subject: [mgp-users 00956] Re: fore no longer works with EPS-images
CD>
CD> On Thu, 13 Jun 2002 12:32:46 -0700 (PDT)
CD> nishida@csl.sony.co.jp wrote:
CD> >
CD> > From: Christoph Dalitz <christoph.dalitz@hs-niederrhein.de>
CD> > Subject: [mgp-users 00954] Re: fore no longer works with EPS-images
CD> > Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 16:38:18 +0200
CD> > Message-ID: <>
CD> >
CD> > >> > Mgp converts eps image to pnm with gs. (You can change this with -X option)
CD> > >> > The forground color is set in image_setcolor() in draw.c.
CD> > >> >
CD> > >> I have tried various gs devices and even downgraded gs to an old version
CD> > >> with no improvement.
CD> >
CD> > Hmm. strange to me. Are you using the same image as you used before?
CD> > If the image contains multiple colors, mgp doesn't change the foreground color
CD> > of the image.
CD> > This function works fine on my enviroment. (both current and old version)
CD> >
CD> It is the same image which I had originally generated with latex+dvips.
CD> The image is single color.
CD>
CD> As the color is not added by ghostscript (neither on the new, nor on the
CD> old systems), it cannot be the fault of gs.
CD> There might be a difference in the XLib function that displays the
CD> PGM "rawbit" image: my old systems use XFree 3.x and the new system XFree 4.x.
CD>
CD> Meanwhile I have testet the workaround
CD> %newimage -zoom 350 -colors -1 "eqn.eps"
CD>                     ^^^^^^^^^^
CD> and found that it works both in the old and new environment.
CD> I can live with this solution.
CD>
CD> OTOH there have been a number of problems reported on this list with the
CD> display of EPS images on brand new Linux systems. Thus a closer investigation
CD> might be of interest.