RE: How Much Editing of Graphics Do You Do?

[Syed Ahmed <SAhmed -at- DKSYSTEMS -dot- com>]

Bruce Byfield asks:
<<Without mentioning my own attitudes for now, I was wondering: how much 
do other people on the list edit graphics? Do you crop them? Clean up 
moires? Remove writing in the background that's incomplete? Touch up 
photos? Adjust contrast and brightness? Change their sizes to emphasize 
their importance or improve page breaks? Is editing of graphics part of 
your production routine, or do you just insert them and forget about them?>>

Bruce,

We spend quite a bit of energy on our screenshots, and IS absolutely a part
of our production routine.  We fully edit all the graphics that go into our
documentation.  We don't have a graphics person here, so the tech writers
perform this task as well.  By full editing, I mean that we do all the
things you mentioned in your post, with the addition of printing the pages
with images separately to check the quality of each image, and (when
necessary) inserting tags and/or callouts to highlight certain parts of the
graphic.

Our documentation approach here is that, aside from providing guidance and
help, we also see our documentation as additional marketing material that
reflects on our company's image. The mindset is that our documentation,
while presenting the "most" accurate content, should also be aesthetically
pleasing.  Poor use of graphics can make a very informative doc seem
ill-prepared, or half-baked.  If you take time to set up and use styles,
tables and other formatting goodies, then the graphics should get the equal
amount of attention.  

Syed




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