The K Desktop Environment

2.3. Stirring the paste

We wanted to be creative, didn't we? KView provides some filter functions to manipulate images. They are (conveniently) placed in the Filter menu. Firstly, we will change the so-called "gamma factor". This value affects mostly the mid-tones in the picture, leaving the brightest and darkest parts more or less untouched. Choose Filter->Intensity->Gamma correct from the menu bar. A dialog box appears. Change the value to 0.4 and hit the OK button. The picture is somehwat darker now:

Gamma correction

After the gamma correction

For a little psychedelic touch we use the brightness function. Selecting Brightness again brings up a dialog. This time you can enter the new brightness expressed in percent relative to the original value (so 100 percent means "initial value"). Enter a value of 300.0300> and watch what happens:

Brighter than ever

KDE brighter than ever before

Finally, we blur the image a little with Filter->Smooth. Apply this filter two or three times (or more often if you can't stop!). The smoothing filter reduces the contrast between neighboring pixels:

Smoother than ever

KDE - smooth as silk