Fuzzy Graphics

Tim said >> (Frankly I don't use PNGs either, as they are an indexed color model...

- PNG does offer indexed (paletted) colour if you want/need it,
but it also offers straightforward 24bit RGB too.

I'd go along with the thumbs-down vote on jpgs, and an up with png, but I'm surprised no one mentioned SnagIt or any of the other screen snap applications. Although I also like PDFs for screen snaps...

SnagIt, at least, is optimized for taking snaps, and lets you easily and automatically capture a herd of screens with the same settings. Saves lots of time and fiddling.

Art

My thanks to everyone who has posted messages. We are trying out the different suggestions to see which works best for us. Keep the messages coming.

Tim,
I mentioned JPEGs the other day and everyone has jumped all over me for suggesting them. I have used JPEGs for years with very few problems. Hundreds of screen captures have been just fine. Yes, GIFs have worked just as well, if not better in some cases. I have also used PNGs in the past and the files tripled in size. I had to go back and save them all as GIFs reduce the overall size of the document. I freelance so I don't want graphics / screens sitting on a server requiring me to import them by reference.
Jack

Jack, I concur with others that JPEGs are a poor choice for screen shots. The compression algorithm can cause artifacts. Further, you should really be importing by reference anyway. (Frankly I don't use PNGs either, as they are an indexed color model. I use LZW-compressed TIFF.)

Jack, I think you are giving poor advice here. A properly created PNG is a very good (probably the best) graphics format for screenshots, due to its lossless compression.
(If file size is paramount, which would be unusual in 2008, there's a handy utility called PNGout which will usually managed to shave an extra 10 or 20% of PNG file size with no loss of quality www.advsys.net/ken/utils.htm )

JPEG is an awful format for screenshots because the lossy compression munges up straight edges (eg of text) and makes them look all fuzzy.

A good tip for getting crisp screen shots in Windows is to turn OFF windows anti-aliasing ("smooth edges of screen fonts" in Display Settings) before taking the shot. (This antialiasing looks better on screen but not when printed on paper or resized in a PDF).

Finally, the size of the graphics in a PDF are not really governed by your file format you use to bring the screenshot into FrameMaker. It is controlled by the Image Compression setting in *DISTILLER*. When Distiller makes to PDF, it takes the raw pixels from whatever graphics format you use, and packs them into the PDF, using whatever compression type you tell it. You can use lossless types (LZW Zip, flate - ie. like GIF or PNG, or lossless JPEG2000), or you can tell it to use JPEG compression.

In nearly every case, a PNG file will be larger than a GIF or JPEG image. If you're dealing with only a small document, PNGs are fine. But if you get into larger documents with perhaps a hundred or more screen captures, PNGs will increase the size of your document to an unmanageable size even as a PDF.
Jack

I use PNGs for screenshots and get good results. PNGs are lossless and small files. I second the advice to avoid JPEGs because of the halos around text. That P in JPEG stands for Photographic. ;-)

Cheers, Rebecca

Tracy,

The file size of your jpeg depends upon your screen resolution at the time you took the screen shot. If high, the file size will be high. If you import them into FrameMaker BY REFERENCE, then the size of the FrameMaker file is not affected. When you make the PDF, Frame will pull in the full high resolution image.

I disagree with Jack about making jpegs from screen shots. jpegs are best for natural images, such as pictures of faces, water falls, etc. GIF or bmp are best for screen shots, because screen shots have a lot of areas in which the color is the same from one pixel to the next and the number of colors over the entire screen shot is small.

I suggest opening your screen shot in Photoshop (if you have it), change the image mode to index, and save in the GIF format. This compresses the file size without altering the quality of the image. Saving a screen shot as jpeg can alter the quality of the image, notably creating halos around text.

As Jack said, once you import the image into FrameMaker, you can resize it there without affecting the quality of the image.

Note also that the quality of your images can be affected during the PDF creation process. These settings do not change the quality of your image files, just how they appear in the PDF.

Van

Yes, sometimes. I forgot to mention that often I open my JPEGs in Photoshop, reduce its image size (pixels) there, and then import. If it still splashes beyond the anchored frame's border, I simply hold down the mouse and drag the image across the anchored frame until I can see its upper right-hand corner. Then I click on the image to select it, hold down the shift key, and drag the image's handle in the corner to resize the overall image until it fits inside the anchored frame. Then I just move it around until its placement in the frame is correct.
Jack