TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Re: Managing diagrams & screen shots for paper/online
Subject:Re: Managing diagrams & screen shots for paper/online From:Mark Ace <ace -at- EUROPA -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 29 Nov 1995 13:01:00 PST
Bob Barlow wrote:
>Here's a description of our situation and needs:
>- we get screen shots in .bmp (Windows bitmap) format, in colour.
>- we need to scale the screen shots down to much smaller sizes and change them
> to grayscale.
>- we need to label some screen shots, but would like to use a vector-based
> application for this (Illustrator?) so we can easily change the labels. This
> means importing a bitmap graphic, then laying vector labels on top.
>- the resulting graphic must be imported into FrameMaker.
>- the resulting graphic must also be changed to .gif so we can use it with
> HTML online docs.
Here are a couple of ideas and suggestions:
We've used SuperPaint on the Mac for laying callouts and labels on
bitmapped screen shots. SuperPaint has a bitmapped paint layer and a
vector-based draw layer. You can then save the whole thing as a PICT, which
FrameMaker should be able to handle just fine.
You might leave the scaling to FrameMaker. That is, work at 100% for the
capture, conversions, and labelling, import into Frame and then scale. I'm
not sure, but doesn't Frame have an export to HTML package? That
translation might handle the PICT to GIF conversion.
The BMP screen images you get can be converted to grayscale easily in
PhotoShop. But why not just shoot the screen as a grayscale image to begin
with?
Those are some immediate ideas. I'll send along more if I think of any. Or
feel free to call.
--Mark
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
Mark Ace
Ace Communications, Inc.
(503) 235-2966; fax: 235-3109 http://www.europa.com/~ace
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*