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.
Sean Brierley wrote, in part: "Realize the limitations: you cannot easily
resize a bitmap . . . ."
Yes and no. A lot depends on the image format, the software you're working
with, the output format... If the original post had asked, "How do I retain
text readability when resizing screen captures?" I'd be asking about those
three things. There are ways to approach that issue without going into
vector graphics.
Generic advice to anybody resizing bitmaps:
* If you're resizing in Paint, don't; it does a terrible job. Photoshop
does pretty well if you're in RGB mode (not indexed color, which has a
limited color palette; anti-aliasing goes out the window), and presumably
other image editors like PSP would be similar. If you resize in Photoshop
in RGB mode, the resulting screen capture will be a little blurry but
readable.
* If the bitmap image is getting distorted in a PDF file, check the
Distiller settings (search the archives).
* But better yet, don't resize. Crop the screen capture instead and show
just the relevant portion at 100%. That way you get perfect clarity and the
added bonus that you can direct your reader's attention right to whatever
it is you're discussing at the moment. IMO, full-screen captures aren't
useful for much besides "This is what the Widget Details screen looks
like."
*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.