Viewing Notes

Paul Haeberli

Horiz Bar

Adjusting the Width of your Window

These documents were designed to be viewed in a window that is 564 pixels wide when the scroll bar is visible. If you want to make these pages look the way I designed them, adjust the width of your Web browser until the arrows below are fully visible and centered. If you want to use some other width that's fine too.

Width Bar

Here's what my screen typically looks like:

Width Bar

A note on Display Gamma

 It has recently come to my attention that documents displayed by Web browsers on IRIS workstations appear lighter than the same documents viewed on other workstations. This is because the IRIS has gamma look up tables that are loaded with values to correct a little for the non-linearity of the CRT display. This look up table contains a gamma curve of pow(in,1.0/1.7). This affects GL graphics and X graphics in the same way. So it's possible that people using SUNs, MACs, or PCs will see all these images somewhat darker than they should appear.

We basically have two different cultures with different world views. For IRIS users, pages authored on IRISes look fine, while pages authored on SUNs look too light. For SUN users, pages authored on SUNs look fine, while pages authored on IRISes look too dark. AAAAARRGH! This is such an INCONVENIENCE!

Gamma Test Pattern

Anyway, I'm not really sure what the solution is, but I thought I'd let you know. The test patterns above may give you some idea of how things are supposed to look. The pattern on the left has an area with exactly 50% brightness directly next to an area of horizontal stripes that alternate 100% brightness with 0% brightness. If things are "cool", these two areas will look about the same average brightness from a distance. The middle pattern is basically the same just a (one) tad dimmer. The pattern on the right shows a very dark disk surrounded by pure black. This disk should just barely be visible (you may have to turn the light off in your office though).

Don't Worry

If things don't look quite right, you can try to adjust your monitor brightness and contrast, or maybe figure out how to modify your system's gamma look up tables, or just kinda relax and try not to worry about the whole thing.