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Subject:Re: Format of Screenshots in FrameMaker From:"Eric J. Ray" <ejray -at- RAYCOMM -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 27 Aug 1998 12:41:59 -0600
At 01:54 PM 8/27/98 -0400, Suzette Seveny wrote:
>So ... I'd like to throw this question back to the experts, and add on a
>further thought: If size was not the issue, what would be the best for
>resolution/quality/whatever? Maybe if people could rank their preferences?
There are really three issues for archival use
bitmap-type images.
(I'm drawing a distinction here
between, say, Web use, in which case you use GIF
or JPG as appropriate, and the image format of choice--the
one you start with when you're making new images.)
--cross-platform capability (which lets out pict and bmp)
--lossless compression (which lets out jpg)
--full-color depth (which lets out GIF, with a 256 color limit).
Thus, you're really left with only TIF of the well-known and
commonly used formats. TIF is arguably cross-platform,
although there are a couple of hoops to jump through at
times. It supports millions of colors and lossless compression,
so your image won't be automatically degraded in quality
by virtual of merely saving it. (Yes, you can control
jpg compression, but some jpg compression always involves
some image quality loss, and you can't turn the compression all
the way off.)
If you're only dealing with 256 color images--say, most screen
shots--then GIF would be an even better format because
the files are smaller and the cross-platform capability is
more robust.
PNG format offers some good possibilities, but isn't
yet widely supported enough to make a move in that
direction.
Arlen Walker has posted number of good notes about maintaining,
keeping, and using images--it'd be worth an archive search
to find them.
Eric
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* Eric J. Ray, ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com, http://www.raycomm.com/
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