Aztec glyph for "house" HINTS ON HOW TO EXPLORE THE FAMSI COLLECTIONS

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Single Term Search
  1. Enter in the field labeled Search for  a name of a site, a particular architectural feature, an artifact, an iconographical feature, a calendar round date, or a term that characterizes the images or publications you are looking for.
  1. Once you have entered a term, click the Search  button. Our program will search every field  for instances of the term you entered and display the results of your search. If there are no items that match your request, the message No results found  will appear.


Viewing Search Results
  1. After executing a query, the first images (or publications) in your series of search results will appear on the screen. The images are displayed in increasing numerical order. The publications are displayed in descending chronological order, with the most recent publications first. In the upper section of the screen, you will find a statement of the current position in the result set. For example:

    If your search found 60 images (or titles), the heading will indicate, Result 1 - 10 of 60.

  1. To view the next set of images (or publications), click Next.  To move backward through the search results, click Previous.  The checkbox select this match/image allows you to select just the images (or publications) needed. You can then click the Review Selections to view the selected results in more detail or for printing.
  1. Each image in the Search Archive is available in two or three sizes. The first one you see is the thumbnail (the smallest image). To view the next resolution size, click on the image.
  1. At any point while viewing the search results, you may return to the Search Form and edit your query. When you click the Edit query  button you will return to the Search Form and your last query will appear in the search box. You may either edit  your current query or clear  it and then enter new query information and execute the new query by clicking the search button.


Multiple Term Searches

To search for images (or publications) by using more than one term, use the following Operators:

Operator Function Search Example
and
with

Finds items that contain at least one of each of the terms.

Stephens and Catherwood  finds all items concerning both Stephens  and Catherwood.

or

Finds items that mention any one (or some combination of) the terms specified.

art or architecture  finds all items that concern either art or architecture, or both.

and not
but not
without

Finds items that mention the first term and not  the following term.

linguistics but not hieroglyphs  finds all items concerning linguistics  but leaves out the items that also mention hieroglyphs.

root*
*root

Finds items that concern terms starting or ending with a specified root word.

arch* finds arch, architecture, architectural, arches, architect, etc.

word1 word2 Finds items that concern
word1, word2 or
word2, word1.

celestial bird  finds results concerning Celestial Bird or Bird, Celestial.

george kubler  finds results concerning George Kubler or Kubler, George.

  1. Several of these operators may be combined to execute very specific or very general searches. For example:

    Searching for structure or building or edifice or temple  will find publications (or images) concerning one or more of these words. This very general search (using or ) will yield a large number of results.

    Searching for structure and not building and not edifice and not temple  (using and not ) is a very specific search and will produce far fewer results.

  1. Parentheses can be used to group terms and operators. Using parentheses (to enclose lists of terms) simplifies your search and saves you from having to enter operators repeatedly. For example:

    structure and not building and not edifice and not temple   can be entered as structure and not (building or edifice or temple). The and not  operator outside the parentheses applies to everything contained inside the parentheses.

    Searching for ceramics and (pottery or pots or vessels or vases)  will find publications or images that mention ceramics  and one or more of the other containers listed within the parentheses.

  1. Always combine the and not, but not, and without  operators with a positive term to avoid unbounded negations. For example:

    A search for not sweatbaths  asks for all images or titles that do not concern sweatbaths. Since there are many such entries, this query is an unbounded negation and will be rejected by the search engine.



Printing Search Results
  1. If the full image fits on your screen, you can select to print directly from your browser. To do this, click on "file" from the top menu bar, then click on "print".
  1. If the image is too large to fit on the screen, it is best to download the image to your hard drive and print it using either a graphics program or a word processing program. To download an image to your hard drive, right click on the image, select "save as" or "save picture as" from the pop-up menu, name the file, and save it to your desired location.


FAQs on Image Quality

The images have very low resolution. I can’t make out enough detail.

The high-resolution images take a long time to download.

Even these largest images are still too low in resolution. There is not enough detail visible to read the glyphs or identify the iconography on some of the most complex drawings.

When I load the high-resolution images into my graphics program the image quality is poor.

Q. The images have very low resolution. I can’t make out enough detail.

A. The web images have been reduced in size so that they download in a reasonable time. The thumbnails, the image you see along with the text information when you search the database, have the lowest resolution, only 240 pixels on the longest side. They download quickly and present just enough detail to allow you to decide if you want to look at this image more closely. Clicking on the thumbnail downloads a higher resolution image with higher resolution. Originally, these images were 640 pixels on the largest side, but took quite a bit longer to download. So many people complained about the resolution of these larger images, that we have changed them to the highest resolution image obtained from the Photo CD images.

Q. The high-resolution images take a long time to download.

A. Of course they do. To provide a high-resolution image, the image file must contain a great deal more information. For instance, a thumbnail might be 21K in size while the high-resolution image could be 682K in size or 32 times larger.

Q. Even these largest images are still too low in resolution. There is not enough detail visible to read the glyphs or identify the iconography on some of the most complex drawings.

A. We recognize that some of the largest drawings need yet higher resolution images to be read accurately. We are working on a method to provide these images. The download times, however, will be very long.

Q. When I load the high-resolution images into my graphics program the image quality is poor.

A. When you see a very large image fit to the screen, the graphics program has to throw out a lot of image data to make it fit. This effectively lowers the apparent resolution. Enlarge the image to 100%; you will no longer be able to see the whole image at one time, but the quality will be at its best.



FAQs on Printing Issues

When I try to print the high-resolution images I only get a portion of the image.

I don’t have a graphics editor. Do I need to buy one?

I have tried to print from Microsoft Paint, but can’t seem to get the entire image to print.

I have Photoshop and still can not get it to print the entire image and what I do get is of poor quality.

Q. When I try to print the high-resolution images I only get a portion of the image.

A. If you are trying to print from your browser, you will notice that the high-resolution images are too large to fit on the screen. Neither Netscape nor Internet Explorer can handle printing an image bigger than the screen. Thus, you will have to save the downloaded image as a file, then print it from your graphics editor (PhotoShop, Image-In, FotoFinish). To do this, right click on the image, pick "save as" or "save picture as" from the pop-up menu, name the file, and save it to your hard drive. Next, start your graphics editing program and print the drawing from that program. Even using a good graphics editor will require setting some parameters to print the image on one page and to the size you want. In general you may have to set an image size, a print resolution, and possibly a few other items.

Q. I don’t have a graphics editor. Do I need to buy one?

A. High level graphics editors like PhotoShop, Image-In, and FotoFinish allow a great deal of flexibility in manipulating images. You can crop, sharpen, rotate, and merge images. These are among many of the useful tools all such programs provide. However, they are quite expensive. If all you want to do is print the image, you can use a high level word processor like Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect. Both have methods for inserting images onto a page. To resize the image, hold down the shift key (this forces the height and width to keep the same proportions) and drag one corner. The only disadvantage is the inability to manipulate the image quality that is possible when using a graphics editor. Another option is to download a shareware graphics program. One suggestion is PhotoLine 6.04, which is available from www.zdnet.com; it allows a 30 day trial period and has a purchase price of $69.

Q. I have tried to print from Microsoft Paint, but can’t seem to get the entire image to print.

A. Paint suffers from the same problem as Internet Explorer and Netscape. It just can not handle large graphics files.

Q. I have Photoshop and still can not get it to print the entire image and what I do get is of poor quality.

A. There are some parameters you have to set up before you can print correctly with Photoshop. On the top menu bar click on "Image." In the pop-down menu click on "Image Size…" In the dialog box make sure the "Constrain Proportion" and "Resample Image" boxes are both checked. In the selection box next to "Resample Image" select "Bicubic." Notice there are two areas above, one labeled "Pixel Dimensions" and the other labeled "Print Size." The height and width under "Print Size" will be quite a bit larger than a sheet of paper. Change the print size width or height to the size you would like, and notice that the other dimension changes automatically to maintain the correct proportion. Also notice that the pixel dimensions have changed to be dramatically smaller. Finally, change the resolution to your printer’s resolution (for instance HP 5p and 6p printers have 600 dpi resolution.) Notice how the pixel dimensions have now become very large. When you click on "OK" Photoshop will resize the image, and resample the image data to create a new image file. (There is a strict numerical relationship between pixel dimensions, print size, and resolution, and resampling is the process by which Photoshop tries to maintain image quality while resizing the image. Read the Photoshop manual for information on this process.) Save this new file to disk with a new name if you want to preserve the original file as you downloaded it. The new file can now be printed.

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