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Mark Levinson asked about whether or not to standardize the size of
screen shots. The short (and noncommital) answer is, to paraphrase
someone famous whose name I can't recall (William StrunK?): "Make it
as large as necessary, but no larger." This doesn't help, so here are
some details:
1. Crop the image to show only the necessary context (i.e., whatever
the reader/viewer needs to see to understand the image). For example,
if you need to show a dropdown menu, show only the menu and its
immediate surrounds (which help to locate it), not the entire screen.
Conversely, if you need to show a highlighted toolbar icon at the top
left of the screen, and an image being manipulated with that tool at
the bottom right, show the entire screen.
2. This being said, use a readable font (i.e., typeface plus size),
and if possible, use this font size consistently. Part of the
necessary visual context is the onscreen textual information that
labels parts of the image, and being visually consistent in font will
both look more professional and be more effective for the
reader/viewer.
More details? Please drop me a line.
--Geoff Hart #8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
