Mr Modem: How to convert color photos to black and white
How can I change a color photo into a black-and-white picture?
Irfanview.com (www.irfanview.com) is a free program you can use to convert your color photo to black and white. Once installed, open Irfanview and display your image by clicking File > Open, navigate to your photo, click it, then click the Open button.
With your image displayed, click Image in the Menu bar, then click Convert to Grayscale. Note: Black-and-white images are distinct from grayscale images in that black-and-white images only have two colors, black and white. (Duh.) Grayscale images, however, have many shades of gray.
If you want true black and white, click Image in the Menu bar, then click Decrease Color Depth. In the window that appears, select Two Colors, then click the OK button to save your changes. If you are satisfied with your new picture, save it by clicking File > Save As. Be sure to give your black-and-white picture a new name or you will overwrite the original color file. Click OK to save the new photo.
When I get a message that says that I have a shared DLL file that’s missing, what does that mean?
DLL files are dynamic link library files. In a nutshell, a dynamic link library is a collection of small programs that can be called upon when needed by the executable program (.EXE) that is running. The DLL lets the executable communicate with a specific device such as a printer, or it may contain source code to perform particular functions.
An example would be if a program needs to access free space on your hard drive. It can call the DLL file that contains that function and the DLL will then tell the executable the amount of free space available.
A shared DLL file (using this example) would allow ANY program to access information about available free space, without having to include the source code multiple times in every program that might need that information.
The most common reason shared files are missing occurs when users uninstall programs. A prompt usually appears asking if you would like to remove shared files. The correct answer is “No.”
If a file is shared, as that word implies, it may be used and required by more than one program, so by removing it, it is then not available to another program, which results in the other program displaying a “CUMQUAT.DLL file not found” message.
Mr. Modem publishes “Ask Mr. Modem!” each week, featuring PC tips, tricks and plain-English answers to your questions by email. For more information, visit www.MrModem.com.
Mr. Modem’s sites of the week
50 Amazing Facts About the Moon
http://tinyurl.com/MrM-MoonFacts
Here you can learn about the moon’s orbit, how the moon interacts with the Earth, moon travel, moon geology, moon pies, Moon Mullins, moon myths and misconceptions. Did you know that moon dust is toxic to human beings? Or that a blue moon is actually 2.5 years?
Antarctic Heritage Trust
Check out tecently discovered photos taken during an Antarctic expedition between 1914 and 1917. If you look on the right side of the page, you will find a link that will whisk you away to a gallery of photos the AHT painstakingly restored. You can stop and view the slide show of images as you like, or use the right and left arrows to navigate quickly through them. Below the slide show player you will find images that link you to other slide show galleries.
FlightRadar24.com
This is a very cool flight tracker that shows current air traffic worldwide. FlightRadar24 uses in-air flight data from several sources combined with schedule and flight status information from airlines and airports to create an informative presentation.
This story was originally published April 13, 2015 at 3:15 PM with the headline "Mr Modem: How to convert color photos to black and white."