[vox-tech] help with gimp -- contrast of image

[Peter Jay Salzman]

warning.  this email is WAY longer than it should be...


i scanned an image of some sheet music and saved it as a png.

the image printed as if it were washed out, like a photocopy machine
that needs toner (but my laser printer has plenty of toner).

you can see a copy at http://www.dirac.org/ipanema.png.  oddly enough,
when you view it from a browser, it looks absolutely fine.  when you
*print* from a browser, it looks better than when it prints from the
gimp, but still not great.  i'd like to go after great, if possible.


ok, so i loaded it into the gimp and increased the "filter | enhance |
sharpen".  also found "image | colors | contrast" and figured this would
be good to produce darker lines.

the resulting image indeed printed darker, but the quality worsened.
lines disappeared.  chord names became darker but illegible, if you can
believe it.  i don't know how to describe it other than some lines were
made darker and sharper, but some lines were totally washed out.  the
resulting image was overall darker, but less readable.


questions:

1. i'm ignorant of most graphics topics.  is png a good format for this?
   or should i be using jpeg for this?

2. is there other filters that people use for this kind of thing?  i
   have a feeling i used the wrong ones, and walking about the gimp is like
   walking around khazad-dum.  it's huge and very unfamiliar.  help?


pete


-- 
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you,
then you win. -- Gandhi, being prophetic about Linux.

Fingerprint: B9F1 6CF3 47C4 7CD8 D33E 70A9 A3B9 1945 67EA 951D