It is possible to convert .fits files to .png, .jpg, etc: `` convert -normalize a.fits a.png `` To get things to come out nicely, you have to do the scaling essentially by hand in python/idl/iraf. DS9 is only useful for finding out what scaling you want to use; past that it's pretty much not useable. To make colors look nice in the GIMP, use solid background layers with your image as the alpha mask. Then put your image in with itself as an alpha mask so you can easily control the whiteness (saturation) of the color you've selected. I'll be blogging about this more as I prep my next entry for the NRAO photo contest.