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> Does anyone have a good method for capturing a screen, reducing it
> in size (say 10-20%) and using it as an object or "picture" in the
> document?
I have been working with screen shots quite extensively for hard copy
and on-line help and have found the same problems when reducing a screen
shot. I have had some success using Paint Shop Pro.
1. Work with bmp formatted images.
2. Resample the image rather than Resize.
3. Use the Sharpen utility to clear some of the fuzzy effect that
resampling creates. The sharpen utility is found under Image | Normal
Filters.
Dominick A. DeFlorio - Technical Writer
ddeflorio -at- dataware -dot- com
Dataware Technologies, Inc. http://www.dataware.com
5 Computer Drive South
518-437-4066
Albany, NY 12205
----------
From: David Wernick
To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
Subject: Re: Screen shots
Date: Friday, February 21, 1997 1:56AM
Laurie Clark wrote:
> Does anyone have a good method for capturing a screen, reducing it
> in size (say 10-20%) and using it as an object or "picture" in the
> document?
>
> All of my attempts (e.g. CorelDraw, CorelPaint, PaintShop,
> etc. with or without anti-aliasing) yield either choppy barely readable
> text or blurry text that makes me think I need glasses).
The problem is that the lines forming the text characters in a bitmap
are
usually only one or two pixels thick. When you reduce the size, the
lines
are thinned unevenly to zero or one pixel. The lines become jagged or
parts
of the characters disappear. You can observe this easily if you zoom the
view of a bitmap, before and after reduction.
There are several possible solutions:
* If the software you are documenting permits, use a large, bold,
sans-serif
font in the original screen you are capturing.
* Instead of reducing the size of the screen capture, reduce the size of
window you are documenting before you capture it.
* Often, only a small portion of the screen is significant to the point
you
are documenting. If this is the case, leave the screen capture at its
original scale but crop it to display only the significant portion.
* If the screen capture contains only a small amount of text, erase the
text
in Corel Photo-Paint, import the bitmap minus text to CorelDraw, and
reinsert the text in the appropriate size.
David Wernick
WritePoint (formerly TIRZA)
Developers of:
* User's Guides * Technical Manuals * Online Documents *
* Custom MS Word Macros * Authoring Tools *
Web http://www.writepoint.com
Tel 972-3-9362170 Fax 972-3-9363645
Email david -at- writepoint -dot- com
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