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[OCLUG-Tech] Elementary graphics question (not directly Linux technical)

  • Subject: [OCLUG-Tech] Elementary graphics question (not directly Linux technical)
  • From: Bruce Miller <bruce [ at ] brmiller [ dot ] ca>
  • Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2011 10:11:56 -0700 (PDT)
My questions to this list are not always directly "Linux technical." But I do 
always appreciate the patience and helpfulness of participants on this list.

The current challenge tells me that I have forgotten everything I ever knew 
about graphics, and that was very little to begin with. I am not sure even what 
terms to put into Google to begin looking. So, besides answering the direct 
question, I would also say a big thank you to any reference to a good 
introduction to graphics aimed at an absolute beginner.

Here is the task: my fiancee and I wish to use a musical score as the faint 
background underneath the text of our wedding invitations. If it is not misuse 
of a technical term, I would characterize our goal as using the image as a 
"watermark." The invitations themselves will be printed in colour on 
"invitation" stock (heavy paper / light card).

My fiancee, who is not Linux-literate, found a graphic of the score she wants to 
use. I believe that what she originally found was a .jpg, but she saved it in a 
.doc file. I have not succeeded in finding the original .jpg on the web, but 
have extracted the image and saved it in both  .jpg and .png formats.

Because this is a graphical image of a musical score, it is literally "line 
art," with 100% contrast between the black image and the white background. My 
task is first to lower the contrast (saturation?  - I wish I knew the 
terminology ;-(. ) to the faintness of a watermark. The second task is to apply 
the champagne (greenish gold) which we wish to use for the text itself.

My gut feeling is that these two tasks are trivial, but I have blanked out on 
where and how to learn to do them. Let's put it down to the stress of planning a 
wedding.

We will offer a "virtual piece of wedding cake" and many thanks to anyone with 
the patience to help us past this task.

With thanks in advance.

Bruce Miller
 --
Bruce Miller, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
bruce [ at ] brmiller [ dot ] ca; (613) 745-1151


In archaeology you uncover the unknown. In diplomacy you cover the known.
attributed to Thomas Pickering, retired US diplomat, born 1931