RE: Is Photoshop a good tool for screenshots?(long)

[Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- jci -dot- com]

>However, if you generate JPEGs
>without compression, screen captures, text, and other similar elements
>will look excellent.

JPEG v GIF is an eternal debate for which there *is* no "one size fits all"
answer.

1) If your image contains a lot of high-contrast borders (such as lines on
a graph) then GIF is probably a better choice.

2) If your image is photogrpahic (lots of variations on a shade, such as
the green leaves in a tree) then JPEG is probably a better choice.

3) If the image is vector, rather than raster (drawn by commands and
equations, not by coloring individual pixels) then EPS is a better choice.

4) If neither file size nor platform-independence is an issue, TIFF will
probably beat all of them (in theory is should be a dead heat between it
and uncompressed JPEG, but we're talking real world here).

There is no such thing as a single best image format. JPEG's compression
algorithm tends to leave nasty artifacts near any high-contrast borders
which has the effect of making text look muddy, among other things.
Compression isn't required, but if it isn't used, then there's not all that
much difference between JPEG and TIFF. If file size is an issue then you
can't, in all practicality, turn off JPEG's compression.

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen -dot- P -dot- Walker -at- JCI -dot- Com
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In God we trust; all others must provide data.
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Opinions expressed are mine and mine alone.
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