Choosing the colours used to present the echograms
Several different colour scales are predefined and available for the presentation of echograms. You can easily choose which colours to use. The presentation colours have no effect on the operational performance of the EK80 system. The Colour Setup dialog box controls the presentation colours used by the EK80 system. This includes the palette ("skin"), the number of colours in use, and the colour scale when no Time Variable Gain (TVG) setting has been selected for the presentation.
Context
Which colour scale to use is mainly a personal preference based on ambient light conditions, the nature of the echoes and your own experience.
Keep in mind that in the basic scale with 12 colours, each discrete colour represents a 3 dB range of echo signal strength. This implies that the next colour is selected every time the echo strength is doubled.
Tip
By default you have 64 or 12 colours available to present the echoes, and a selection of palettes. The colour scale can be retrieved any time by selecting Colour Scale on the top bar. The chosen colours are shown on the bottom bar at the bottom of the display presentation.
If you choose to use many colours, the resolution of the display presentation is greatly improved. It is then easier to distinguish the difference between the various echoes of different size and/or target strength.
Tip
Image
You can adjust the echo level range by means of the Colour Scale settings. These are opened from the Colour Scale information pane. You can find the same settings in the Information Pane Options dialog box. This dialog box is opened from the Active menu.
The following colour scales are available:
12 Colours Sonar Colours Smooth ES
Image Image Image
Grayscale Bipolar BI500 Colours
Image Image Image
The Smooth Echosounder scale is based on the standard 12-colour scale. Additional colours have been added between them to make smoother colour transitions. The Bipolar scale is mainly intended for ADCP views.
Procedure
1 Open the Display menu.
2 Select Colour Setup.
Image
3 Select the number of colours you want to use.
Note
If you want to apply one of the predefined colour scales, you must select 64 colours.
4 Select the colour scale you want to use.
5 At the bottom of the dialog box, select Apply to preview your choice(s).
6 Select OK to save the selected setting and close the dialog box.