                        ANSI Color Mixing
                   by The Red Flame (08/05/94)

     The topic of mixing colors in ANSI viewers seems to be a
little vague; no one really knows the exact color mixing scheme
to yield the right colors.  Some people have speculated that the
shades , , and  are a one-fourth, one-half, and three-fourths
mix.  On an older display with a 8x16 font, this may have been
true, but on the VGA, where a 9x16 font is used, it is not.
     With a 9x16 font, there will be a line between each
character.   clearly shows two lines in between the three
shaded regions.  Because of these lines, the average mix is
altered slightly from the traditional values.
     Included in this archive are two GIF's.  The first is a
direct capture of the screen, done with Screen Thief.  The second
is a blended version of the original.  Aldus Photostyler 2.0 in
24-bit mode was used to blend the picture together in order to
determine the exact colors that result.
     The results were the following, each number the same for
each color component:

         54
         110
         167
         255

     255 is the highest value, 0 is the lowest.  Dividing these
numbers yields the following:

         0.212
         0.4314
         0.655
         1

     Calculating a round fraction gives the concluding results:

         2/9 mix (also could use 1/5)
         4/9 mix (also could use 11/25 <grin>)
         2/3 mix
         no mix

     While the difference between 2/9 and 1/4 is rather small,
consider the larger difference in 3/4 (0.75) and 2/3 (0.667) and
perhaps you can see where I'm coming from.  In addition, in VGA
where the color components have a range of 0-63, a difference may
not be achievable; however, in TrueColor mode (which I endorse),
a difference is almost certain, and one can say with confidence
that one's color mixture is fundamentally precise.

     --The Red Flame [Lapse/CLi]