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1. The problem is not with pdf, it is that when you capture
screens, they are normally 72-96 dpi. This is low and pdf does not
smooth the images the way Word does--so what you have is what you get.
2. The solutions vary, but the solution I found to actually work
for me is to use Capture Professional and set the capture preferences to
225 dpi and save the image at 225 dpi. Thanks to Lisa Kemp for that tip.
Nice product!
3. Many people suggesting using Distiller instead of the PDFwriter.
I tried all of these suggestions, and they didn't work for me--my screen
shots were just sorry. Here are the suggestions:
"One of the best option is to use a layout program such as PageMaker and
print out to PS file, then use Distiller to create a PDF file."
"I never use the PDFWriter to create my PDFs. I would use a good PS
driver (like Linotronic 630) and distill the files with no graphic
downsampling. (See the Job Options in Distiller.) Have you checked the
print quality? Often the on-screen display is far worse than the actual
print quality. "
4. Other suggestions/comments were related to the graphic format:
"I don't use bitmaps. I use WMFs. They scale better because they're sort
of part vector and part raster, and this also eliminates some of the
resolution problems inherent in bitmaps."
"We convert all our bitmaps to Tiffs with Type P LZP Compression using
Hijjack Pro. The problem with postscript renditions of bitmaps is that
they are still bitmaps. They get bookended by postscript code, but the
graphic is still a bitmap, and they still only have a resolution of 72
dpi compared to the text that will have a resolution to 600-1200 dpi,
depending on what printer driver you use to create the ps file.
In more complicated jobs, most prepress shops try to find postscript
files that contain other postscript files. This situation is different
from yours, but it is a very large problem area for shops printing from
DTP source files."
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So there you have it! Hope it helps!
