Working with Images

[Charles Beck]

Hi Pete,

I would strongly concur and reiterate what others have said about NOT
using JPG for screen captures. It is considered a "lossy" format and
introduces all kinds of artifacts into the image. 

GIF is a good choice if you have a limited color palette, that is, fewer
than 256 colors. It produces the smallest file size, so if that is
really an issue, this might be your best bet. 

PNG is my favorite format, though. It uses a color palette and produces
a file size similar to JPGs (that is, reasonably small), but is not
lossy like JPG. PNGs tend to be very clean and efficient files.  

BMPs are pigs, producing quite large files, though they handle color
well and produce very clean images. But, as someone else has pointed
out, they are also Windows proprietary (if that is an issue). 

Others have dealt well with the resolution issue, so I'll not add any
noise there. 

My vote would be with the PNG format. 

HTH,
Chuck Beck

Sr. Technical Writer | Infor | Office: 614.523.7302 |
Charles.Beck at infor.com 



-----Original Message-----
Subject: Working with Images

FM8 - XP (importing into anchored frames)

I am using Snagit (default image resolution 96dpi, and saving as .jpg)
to capture screenshots for a end user manual which assumes the user
needs visual walkthrough of using a desktop application and a pocket pc.

There are 2 outputs intended:

1.       PDF leveraging all the indexing and cross-referencing

2.       A printed manual

An issue is the volume of screenshots ~ 200 in a ~ 150 page document.

Image files saved as .jpg,  average file size = 44K 

So far the total image in the books is 8MB (gag)

So a question is what format, JPG, BMP, PNG, GIF saves the cleanest
picture?

During import I choose 150 DPI, am I insane?

I am not sure what resolution is required.  Would less than 96 be
acceptable?

TIA

Pete Rourke
Chandler, AZ