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General Category => Map Making Support => Topic started by: RCinSTP on August 03, 2017, 09:11:46 AM

Title: map colors look good in BaseCamp but colors change when installed on GPS
Post by: RCinSTP on August 03, 2017, 09:11:46 AM
I have a basic map which looks good in BaseCamp.  The land is yellow #FFFF8B and the lakes/water color is  #0030FF.  According to TypViewer, both of those colors are "Garmin" colors.  When I open the map on a Garmin Montana 600, the land is green and the water is purple.  Any advice on how to fix this is greatly appreciated.
Title: Re: map colors look good in BaseCamp but colors change when installed on GPS
Post by: Boyd on August 03, 2017, 09:52:05 AM
I also have a montana 600 and the answer to this is very simple. Color rendition on that screen is just horrible. If you are making maps to use only on this GPS, you should use very saturated colors. Will look ugly in basecamp but better on the Montana. Otherwise, "it is what it is". Garmin's goal was apparently readability more than color accuracy.

But it's an even bigger problem with detailed low contrast material, like a satellite image. These look like mud on the Montana 600. There is no reason to use "Garmin colors", those are irrelevant on newer models. Those colors are intended for old devices like the 60csx that only supported 8-bit (256) colors.

It's unfortunate, but there's no "one size fits all" with map colors with Garmin's different units and desktop software. Choose whatever is most important and make it look good on that screen. If you want to make it really complicated, you can create different .typ files for different GPS'es and Basecamp.
Title: Re: map colors look good in BaseCamp but colors change when installed on GPS
Post by: RCinSTP on August 03, 2017, 10:10:16 AM
I attached a screen shot from BaseCamp, the colors are fairly saturated, especially the blue and the red border line.  I will re-make the map using different color in the .typ file.  I will try a brighter yellow. 
I should mention, I have two maps on my GPS and both of these maps have the same yellow land and blue water colors in BaseCamp, the colors do not change for one of the maps on the GPS.  The colors only change for the map that I just created.

So, it seems like the colors should be ok because they only change on one of the two maps.
Title: Re: map colors look good in BaseCamp but colors change when installed on GPS
Post by: Boyd on August 03, 2017, 11:44:37 AM
That has not been my experience, but I rarely use that device anymore. If you want to really understand the issue, find some color charts on the internet, such as the type used to adjust video gear. You can then send them to the Montana, look at them in the photo viewer. and compare to the same image on your computer screen. I did this when I got the Montana (long time ago now) which led me to the conclusion that the screen is horrible for color accuracy.