Comparescan User Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Double-click on individual error messages in the Comparescan Window to view the errors in Signalscan Waves. See Chapter 3, “Comparescan Tutorial,” for instructions on how to do this.

Can I print a report of my errors?

Yes. See -r 1 and -r 2 in Table 2-1 on page 11, and see “report” on page 91 for instructions on how to create and display error reports.

Can I run the tool in batch mode?

Yes. Use the -batch command-line option to start Comparescan in batch mode. See “Starting Comparescan” on page 11, “Specifying Input Files” on page 12, and “Generating a Comparescan Error Database” on page 18 for more information on running Comparescan in batch mode.

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

How do I run the program without the user interface?

Use the -batch command-line option. See “Starting Comparescan” on page 11, “Specifying Input Files” on page 12, and “Generating a Comparescan Error Database” on page 18 for information on running Comparescan in batch mode. If you do not use the Comparescan GUI to view the error database and open Signalscan Waves, then you should generate compare error reports in text form. See -r 1 and -r 2 in Table 2-1 on page 11, and see “report” on page 91 for instructions on creating and using error report files.

Why can’t Comparescan allocate colors?

When Comparescan starts, it displays the error message ...cannot allocate colormap entry.... What does that mean? Can I still run the program?

The cannot allocate colormap warning is printed when Comparescan cannot allocate all of the colors that it needs. This is usually caused by some other application using all of the colors from the X server. Possible culprits are Netscape™, FrameMaker™, and other color-intensive applications. Comparescan still runs normally, in spite of the colormap warning.

Comparescan User Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I change the colors in the GUI?

Use the .Xdefaults file. See “Using X Resources” on page 15 for information on how to change the colors in the .Xdefaults file.

Why can’t I read the text in the GUI?

You probably have a colormap problem caused by too many graphic applications using the colormap in an unsocial way. Netscape™ and FrameMaker™ are possible culprits.

You can force Comparescan to operate in a Black and White mode by adding the following lines to your .Xdefaults file:

DAI Comparescan*foregroundcolor : black

DAI Comparescan*backgroundcolor : white

If you do not want to use Black and White mode, you need to force the other graphics programs to use smaller portions of the colormap.

Netscape has a resource named maxImageColors, which controls the number of color cells that Netscape allocates from the default colormap at startup. The default value for this resource is 256 on an 8-bit system; this means that Netscape takes all of the available color cells, leaving none for your other applications.

The solution to this problem is to supply a lower value for the maxImageColors resource in your .Xdefaults file, as follows:

Netscape*maxImageColors: 100

If you do not want to change your .Xdefaults values, you can start Netscape with the -ncols command-line option, as follows:

netscape -ncols 100

To see all of the command-line options available for Netscape, type netscape -h.

I just changed my .Xdefaults file. Why has nothing happened?

After you change your .Xdefaults file, you need to perform the following two operations so that your changes take effect immediately:

1. Inform the X server about the changes:

xrdb ~/.Xdefaults