Working with Images

[John Sgammato]

When you capture a 96dpi image at higher resolution, you will never see detail that isn't there (of course) but you can do more with the image because your OWN image of the image is capable of showing greater resolution. You can look at it as if your high-res image capture dices the existing image into smaller pieces. As an extreme example, consider an original image of alternating 1-inch black and white elements along a line at 10 dpi. 
Capture that image at 100 dpi and you really have 10 times as many 0.1-inch elements to work with, all faithful in location, dimension, and color to the original. If you need to rotate or stretch or manipulate the image in any way, or if any of your processes cause the image to lose resolution, the new hi-res image will be more forgiving. Likewise if you print the image, the printer is limited by its own resolution - the higher-resolution image can help to compensate.
 
This is easy to test for your self: in Illustrator (or similar) generate a black square and inside it a white circle or diamond. Repeat at smaller intervals until you get bored. Save as .ai, then export to .tiff twice. For the first select 96dpi and call it lo-res.tiff, and for the second export at 400dpi and call it hi-res.tiff.
Then import them side-by side into FM and see how they look. The lo-res image will show jaggy edges that you don't see in the hi-res.
 
Again, it won't magically reveal what isn't there, but it does make the image more forgiving, and maybe it printed better (that is, maybe the eye picks up details on paper that it doesn't see on the screen).
 
I don't understand all the mechanics involved; this is just my best attempt at explaining what I can see and what I use every day thanks to the visible improvements. 
 
john

________________________________

From: Diane Gaskill [mailto:dgcaller at earthlink.net]
Sent: Sat 2/2/2008 4:55 AM
To: John Sgammato; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Working with Images



John,

How can SnagIt capture an image at a higher resolution than what the screen
is set to?  A 20" screen at 1280 x 1024, for example, is 96 DPI.  How do you
get 200 DPI out of that?

Diane

-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com]On Behalf Of John Sgammato
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2008 8:49 PM
To: Alan Litchfield; framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Working with Images


...
> During import I choose 150 DPI, am I insane?

By choosing 150dpi you are reducing the print size of the image. In
other words you are scaling the picture to make it smaller by
increasing the resolution. ...

Note that with SnagIt you can opt to capture the image at other resolutions,
so you need not change anything in FM. I capture images as 200dpi TIFFs, and
then import them at 200dpi in my books. I go to print, PDF, and online help
from a single set of screenshots.

john
_______________________________________________


You are currently subscribed to Framers as dgcaller at earthlink.net.

Send list messages to framers at lists.frameusers.com.

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
framers-unsubscribe at lists.frameusers.com
or visit
http://lists.frameusers.com/mailman/options/framers/dgcaller%40earthlink.net

Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit
http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.