adding graphics to files

[Deirdre Reagan]

Thanks all.

I really appreciate your feedback -- you are confirming what I
suspected but don't have enough knowledge to back up!

Here's my situation:

I get the drawing package as a PDF file.

I don't have AutoCad or Katia or any of the other drawing progams, so
I can't access the original vector drawing.

I've been turning the PDF into a bitmap file and copying and pasting
it into my file.

I copy and paste because the lead technical writer is adamantly
against importing by reference.

He also told me that I have to stop using bitmap because bitmap
graphics won't work if we have to turn these documents into HTML
(STML? XML? Some sort of web-based product) documents.

So, based on what you all are telling me, bitmap is the best way to go (yeah!).

And bitmapped graphics are just fine for web-based documents?

Thanks so much guys!

>From the fun factory,

Deirdre





On 10/9/08, Art Campbell <art.campbell at gmail.com> wrote:
> Fred's on top of the graphic issues. Bottom line is JPG is the way
> wrong format and is adding some bloat.
>
> However, its not clear from the OP message whether you're copying the
> graphic file in, or importing by reference.
> Importing  by refrence is the preferred way to do it. Copying is not
> the way to go.
>
> If you are copying them in, that would be a good reason for the slowdown.
>
> Art.
>
>
> Art Campbell
>                          art.campbell at gmail.com
>  "... In my opinion, there's nothing in this world beats a '52
> Vincent and a redheaded grl." -- Richard Thompson
>                                                      No disclaimers apply.
>                                                               DoD 358
>
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 6:06 PM, Fred Ridder <docudoc at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Deirdre Reagan wrote:
> >> Anyhow, when I add jpgs to my Framemaker file (FM 8.0, Windows XP),
> >> Framemaker slows way down when I scroll over the page with the jpg.
> >>
> >> The jpgs are 300 dpi, which they need to be for good print resolution
> >> (they are black and white drawings).
> >>
> >> I import the file to an anchored frame, then resize the graphic to 80
> >> percent because it is usually too large for the anchored frame.
> >>
> >> I really don't know anything about graphics, so anything advice would
> >> be most appreciated.
> >
> > To cover only a couple of the most basic issues:
> >
> > First and foremost, JPEG is *not* an appropriate file format for line art
> > or anything containing text. JPEG was specifically designed for
> > *photographic* images, which tend to conceal many of the format's
> > shortcomings due to the continuous-tone nature of photographs.
> > JPEG's area-based image compression algorithm inherently produces
> > artifacts near abroupt color transitions, which is clearly seen as a
> > kind of gray smudginess alongside lines in drawings or as a kind of
> > cloud surrounding text. For line art you should be using a lossless file
> > format like EPS, WMF (or EMF), or PNG (or GIF or TIFF or even BMP).
> > The one file format you should *not* use is JPEG.
> >
> > Second, if you need to scale your graphics, you should use a vector
> > file format (EPS, WMF, EMF) rather than a raster file format (any of
> > the others mentioned). Vector images contain mathematical descriptions
> > of the geometric and text objects in the drawing, which means that
> > they can be rescaled over a wide range of sizes with no loss in quality.
> > Raster graphics contain a pixel-by-pixel rendering of the image, and
> > to rescale them you either have to change the pixel pitch or you have
> > to resample them to throw away pixels or make up new pixels that
> > don't exist.
> >
> > Third, if you do have raster images (screen shots, for example), the
> > best way to change their reproduced size in FrameMaker is not
> > to use the scaling command, but rather to change the dpi setting.
> > Doubling the dpi will reduce the dimensions to 50%; halving the
> > dpi will double the reproduced size of the image. If this approach
> > is not acceptable for some reason, the other alternative is to use
> > a tool like PaintShop Pro or Photoshop to resample the image, but
> > this *always* causes a loss in quality.
> >
> > I'll leave any other issues to others to address.
> >
> > -Fred Ridder
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> >
> > You are currently subscribed to Framers as art.campbell at gmail.com.
> >
> > 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/art.campbell%40gmail.com
> >
> > Send administrative questions to listadmin at frameusers.com. Visit
> > http://www.frameusers.com/ for more resources and info.
> >
>