You should save your gel image in TIFF format. Don't use artists' tools like Photoshop to convert images or change the number of grey levels - pick a suitable scientific image analysis package if you must do this, or you may lose a lot of information in the process. This allows Macs to share the Unix disk and the gel images can be transferred by Dragging and Dropping them. The imimport script will automatically recognise files transferred in this way and do the necessary translations as they are imported. Details of how to do this can be obtained from the Support Team , but it isn't anywhere near as good a solution as either CAP or Ethershare.
Image uses projects to separate gels of different types.
Each project has its own set of defaults, which are inherited by each gel imported into it, so you should use different projects for gels of different types, otherwise you will have to manually set the correct values for each gel. Another reason for having projects is that the supplied imtransfer script will copy results from an Image project into a similarly named FPC project, so you may also want to divide up your gels according to the fingerprinting project they belong to. The standard file is just a text file so you can create it with your favourite editor. These are only used by the old, amStep2 lanetracker. Pathfinder, the default, supported lanetracker, doesn't use them at all.