FITS to GIF/TIFF/etc.

[Doug Mink]

Trieu Truong wrote:
> I'm a newbie to FITS and was hoping someone might be kind enough to
> tell me if there is PC software that will allow me to manipulate FITS
> files and convert them to GIF/JPEG/TIFF/etc. files so that I can put
> the pics up on the Web.

I display FITS images in my viewer of choice (usually SAOimage because I
maintain it, but sometimes SkyCat, SAOtng, or ds9), adjust the contrast
(darker, smoother backgrounds compress better and make smaller GIF
images),
use xwd to dump the image to a disk file and either xv or the PBMPLUS
xwd2pnm and ppmtogif programs to make GIF files for WWW use.  I have
found the the PBMPLUS pnmscale program reduces image dimensions more
cleanly than XV does.  My latest results are at

http://tdc-www.harvard.edu/software/wcstools/imwcs/imua2.html

-Doug Mink
 Telescope Data Center
 Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
 Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA