Recommended graphic file format for single-sourcing from Frame to Robohelp?

[Virginia Morgan]

Thanks to all of you who responded for your input. It sounds like .jpg or .png will be the way to go - I will have to do more research and experimentation to determine which. I am only at the beginning of this process, but I appreciate pointing me in the right direction.

Thank you for the recommendation for the image converter, which will be incredibly useful for converting legacy documents I am sure. FWIW, there is no option to not include text, as the most important information in the graphics is the text from the screenshots: names of fields, etc. I don't think there's any way around that.

Any other experience/advice is appreciated. My recent graphic design experience has also led me to conclude that .jpgs work well for much more than photos, but the main reason we didn't use them in old versions of FrameMaker (6.0 and before) even with photos was that we got the "ugly gray box" which was annoying since you couldn't see your output until you produced a PDF. I'm assuming that "feature" is no longer the case? Like John, I would prefer to work with .jpgs if they produced the result I need. (Working in Windows XP, Frame10 currently.)

Thanks again,
Virginia

From: John Sgammato [mailto:jsgammato at IMPRIVATA.com]
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2012 9:48 PM
To: 'grant at hedgewizard.net'; Virginia Morgan
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: RE: Recommended graphic file format for single-sourcing from Frame to Robohelp?

With all due respect to my colleagues on this forum, IMO the line between JPG and other formats is no longer as neat as it once was. Many screenshots in Win 7 require gradients that JPG handles well. IMO anything that a photo can handle might not be so far removed as you might think from basic screen captures, We are no longer in the cartoony Win 3.x world.
And since AFAIK FrameMaker still imports eleventyhundred colors with every .PNG file, I do not see why a PNG with its headaches is superior to the no-longer-extant difficulties of the .JPG format.
Craving enlightenment...
john

From: framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com [mailto:framers-bounces at lists.frameusers.com] On Behalf Of Grant Hogarth
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2012 7:01 PM
To: Virginia Morgan
Cc: framers at lists.frameusers.com
Subject: Re: Recommended graphic file format for single-sourcing from Frame to Robohelp?

I always vote for PNG.  The files may not be the smallest, but I've never had anything in the past decade choke on them (not display/corrupt display (either unreadable or artifacts)/Fail (as in crash)).

JPEG is fine for Photos, and SVG for line graphics.  PS is fine if you've got the time to render it.
GIF is for icons.
BMP/WMF/EMF should be discontinued.

You may want to invest in a graphics converter.  The two best (IMO) are FastStone Image Viewer (or just Image Converter) and IrfanView.

Grant

On 1/13/2012 3:23 PM, Virginia Morgan wrote:
Hello Framers -

It has been several years since I have been part of this group, so I apologize if this topic has been covered extensively somewhere (if so,  please feel free to point me to it). I have recently resumed my Technical Writing career at a software development company that uses FrameMaker to create its documentation. All the legacy manuals were delivered with the products as hyperlinked PDF files (not really meant for printing due to length, although one could do so and they are formatted correctly for that).

The company recently purchased TCS3, and would like to single-source Frame files to online help using Robohelp. I have been trying to find out what would be the best graphic file format  to use for this multi-purpose moving forward. Some background: All legacy images, which are primarily screenshots with some flowcharts, were .tif files, RGB color, 96 dpi (again, intended for on-screen viewing). Using TCS3 moving forward, is there a better/clear recommendation for what graphic file format would produce the best results?

I have been searching the web for a few days and can't seem to find any information on this particular aspect of single-sourcing using the new TCS3. Does it not matter, i.e., does one just set up Robohelp templates to convert .tifs to .jpgs or similar?

All information is very much appreciated. Thank you, and I am happy to be back to this forum!

Virginia Morgan | Technical Writer
TAKE Solutions, Inc.
O 512.735.4316 | M 512.426.8323
virginia.morgan at takesolutions.com<mailto:virginia.morgan at takesolutions.com>

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