RE: Screenshot Parameters

[Paul Newbold <paul -dot- newbold -at- lightworkdesign -dot- com>]

I do single sourcing from Frame/WWP and outout to PDF for B/W print and HTML
for web.  I've been wrestling with the best formats for our mixture of
photorealistic images (we do CAD rendering software) and windows dialog
screen grabs. So I ran a few tests and the only really bad images were
photorealistic saved as GIF or 256 colour PNG, and essentially the choice
for the rest came down to image size (the smaller the better for the
web/HTMLHelp outputted versions

nb: sizes in kb, resolution set at 112 dpi, and I used Paintshop Pro

                  Photo  Quality   Win Dialog  Quality  Mixed photo/dialogue
Quality	
PNG 256 col	       13     poor         6        good           14
acceptable
PNG 16 mill col    77     v v good    28        good           73
v good
JPG 75% compress   11     v good      19        good           26
good
GIF 256            41     poor        29        good           43
acceptable

Obviously the quality judgements are a little subjective but all the same my
defaults (for speed and expediancy as much as absolute max image quality)
are now jpeg for photos and PNG 256 for grabbed windows dialogs. I'd be
interested to know what other peoples set their defaults to.

Cheers
Paul Newbold
LightWork Design
Sheffield, UK.


-----Original Message-----
From: Brierley, Sean [mailto:Sean -dot- Brierley -at- Jenzabar -dot- Net]
Sent: 28 October 2001 19:27
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Screenshot Parameters, using SnagIt


Hi Cerdric:

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Cedric Simard [SMTP:cedricns -at- hotmail -dot- com]
> Sent:	Sunday, October 28, 2001 2:00 PM
> To:	TECHWR-L
> Subject:	Screenshot Parameters, using SnagIt
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Talking about screenshots, what are the best formats to use for:
> - printed documentation?
> 
EPS for CMYK output (bear in mind, you are starting with an RGB image).
Otherwise, who cares. Try PNG, I find it supports 24-bit color, which opens
up a bunch of image-editing options, and it compresses smaller than TIFF and
BMP.

> - online documentation?
> 
Anything but JPEG. Bear in mind, GIF only supports 8-bit color--but that's
all I use anyway because 24-bit color adds size that is typically not
needed.

> Can anyone give me advice for setting SnagIt parameters for my
> screenshots?
> My problem is:
> - For getting some graphics really clean, I need to set the resolution to 
> 300dpi.
> 
I doubt 300dpi is necessary. Most monitors display about 100ppi resolution
and most printers have a linescreen around 150lpi. 300dpi might be necessary
for some high-end imagesetters, if that's where you are going.

> - But when I use this resolution for small screenshots, they are too tiny
> to 
> be used in my final document.
> - If I do not use the same resolutions for all my graphics, their printed 
> outputs have quite different qualities.
> 
At 100% zoom, only 72ppi images display crisply in PDF, at 200% zoom, only
144ppi images display crisply in PDF. Is this a concern? Otherwise, use a
resolution that is evenly divisible into the output of your printing device,
I use 120ppi and 150ppi for a 600dpi laser printer.

> What do I have to do to get all my graphics having the same output
> quality, 
> and being also good for both printed and online documentation?
> 
You cannot control the display resolution of your cusomers' video devices. I
recommend you shoot for making sure the printed stuff is okay and not sweat
the details for on-screen display. If you are down around 100dpi, screen
display should be legible and crisp enough. As you say, 300ppi is too small.

> Thanking you in advance.
> 
I set SnagIT to resample my color to 8-bit optimized and my resolution to
120ppi at the time of capture.

HTH,

Sean

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