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From: pk6811s@acad.drake.edu
Subject: TALK: using gifscii
Message-ID: <1994May23.133127.1@acad.drake.edu>
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Organization: Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, USA
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Date: Mon, 23 May 1994 19:31:27 GMT

In article <...> julie.rhodes@asacomp.com (Julie Rhodes) writes:
> I got the recently uploaded UUE file of GIFSCII for MS-DOS.  I am
> happy to say I unencoded it and it works great.  I need some tips
> though on using it.  Such as, what type of original picture works
> best?  Black and white?  

Gifscii does recognize 2-color images and adjusts its algorithm to deal
with them.  Results will probably degrade with 'busier' or noiser images.
For the best results, run images through a program that
can do a 'histogram equalization'.  Now there's a feature that ought
to be included in Gifscii :-/  And if your conversion program does a really
good job of converting color images to gray-scale, try that first also.

>What should I tell it for number of lines
> across and down for best effect and avoidance of distortion or
> overcompressing?  What happens if I don't give it any values?  It
> appears to go ahead and substitute some default values but the result
> doesn't look that great.

Experiment, experiment, experiment :-)  Sorry, there's only so much 
a gif-to-ascii program can do on its own.  The program works by taking
a subset of pixels from the image and representing each of them with
part of an ascii character, which is pretty limiting.

Paul Kline
pk6811s@acad.drake.edu   - ignorance exceeded only by inquisitance -