7. Graphics issues

7.1 Why do Swallowed apps and icons keep disappearing from the Wharf?

You're probably running at 8 bits per pixel, or 256 colors. If you run out of colors, some applications can't run, or don't appear correctly. Either run at a higher color depth, or reduce colors elsewhere. There is an excellent set of low color icons (21 colors total) at http://the-labs.com/AfterStep/Icons/.

7.2 Why are the Netscape buttons deformed? Why does Netscape get its own colormap?

Again, this is probably an issue with 8bpp, either reduce colors elsewhere, or sacrifice resolution for color depth (run at a lower resolution with more colors).

7.3 How do I create an icon with a transparent pixel?

The Gimp ( http://www.gimp.org/) supports transparency in images, you could easily modify an existing pixmap to be transparent, or make a new image.

You could also edit a .xpm file with a normal text editor, and make part of it transparent (hint, the color for transparency is "none").

7.4 Why are PNGs and JPEGs darker when they get loaded into AfterStep?

Try setting your $SCREEN_GAMMA to something like 2.2 (export SCREEN_GAMMA=2.2) from the shell you start AS (or put it in your .xinitrc) and stop X, then start it again.

7.5 Why doesn't some program work in 16bpp?

Several (although decreasingly many) 8bpp programs don't work on displays without a PseudoColor visual available. Several PC X servers don't support PseudoColor visuals on displays running in TrueColor mode. You should buy an SGI. Or run two simultaneous X servers, if you're on Linux. Note for SGI users willing to play with their bpp : One has to tweak the arguments to X in /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers. The following worked for Tim Buller (buller@math.ukans.edu)

:0 secure /usr/bin/X11/X -bs -c -nobitscale -visid 0x34

  visual:    visual id:    0x34
    class:    TrueColor
    depth:    24 planes
    available colormap entries:    256 per subfield
    red, green, blue masks:    0xff, 0xff00, 0xff0000
    significant bits in color specification:    8 bits

7.6 How do I change the background in AfterStep?

Using asetroot, the AfterStep desktop background management module. asetroot sets images to the background, but can also modify them before doing so. It is compliant with "transparent" terminals, such as aterm or Eterm, and with AfterStep transparency effects.

The simplest way to set a new background, is to place the image in the backgrounds/ directory of an AfterStep configuration directory (~/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/, usually), and update the startmenu. The new image should be selectable from the startmenu under start->Desktop->Pictures. You can select it, and asetroot will tile it as the background.

7.7 How can I make the background centered, instead of tiled?

Because asetroot can modify an image, or display it different ways, centering a background is a simple task.

Edit your "asetroot" configuration file, and put:

---

MyBackground "back0"
    Use 0 "~/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/non-configurable/0_background"
    Pad 4 black
    Align 4
~MyBackground

*asetrootDeskBack  0  "back0"

---

7.8 Why do some applications not have icons?

Application icons are set in the "database" configuration file. Since the developers don't use every application ever made, obviously they can't provide settings for icons for all of them. What is provided are settings for commonly used programs. Add your own for your applications by looking at the provided examples.

7.9 What is this transparent terminal I keep seeing?

Probably aterm if you're looking at AfterStep screenshots, or Eterm. Both aterm and Eterm emulate transparency by aligning the background pixmap correctly in their own backgrounds.Thus making it seem like the desktop background is showing through.

aterm can be downloaded at http://members.xoom.com/sashav/aterm/ or ftp://ftp.afterstep.org/apps/aterm/, Eterm can be downloaded wherever you can find Enlightenment. aterm is preferred, as it was developed with AfterStep in mind, and uses considerably less resources than Eterm.

7.10 How come some pixmaps look messed up when I set them as the aterm background?

The image you're setting to the background probably isn't indexed, Benjamin Tovar (al707198@academ01.ccm.itesm.mx) informs me:

advise to index the colors of the xpm. Unless you are an eagle, you wont notice much 
difference if you index the images (with the Index: Optimal Palette, in Gimp for example)
for instance with 64 levels.  With this, the time from when you call xiterm and appears
reduces very much, and allows the use of "complex" images in xiterm.

If the image is not that complex, also you can try to index with very few levels and 
obtain an "optimal" speed.