RE: Updated: Screen capture app for Unix

Subject: RE: Updated: Screen capture app for Unix
From: "Sean Brierley" <sbri -at- haestad -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2002 12:55:52 -0500


Sorry, I missed the original post:

Actually, at time of capture, the resolution of the capture is
irrelevant, isn't it? A screen capture captures a number of pixels and
colors. But it does not really capture a resolution. Sure, the Windows
OS assigns an arbitrary 96 ppi as "resolution" to the graphic, but that
"resolution" is based on your choice of font size and not on any
hardware, software, or other real measure of your actual resolution.
And, certainly, Microsoft Word or FrameMaker will use that "resolution"
value to size the graphic for positioning on page. But, you don't have
to use it. For example, in FrameMaker, you can set your own resolution
value for FrameMaker to use for the graphic. Or, you can open the
graphic in an image editor and set a value for the resolution.

Finally, why on earth do you need > 300 ppi for a screen capture? Are
you blowing this image up to poster size and really need more pixels?

For example, a 150 lpi offset press would really only need 211-300 ppi
resolution (and, really, for a screen capture you can get away with even
150 ppi, really, try it). A 600 dpi workgroup color or laser printer
certainly can get by with 120ppi, or even less. If this is to be viewed
on-screen, you are not going to need more than 120 ppi, either.

So, where were we? <g>

Cheers,

Sean

P.S. Hey, does the Mac OS also assign an arbitrary resolution, like
Windows does? Anyone know? If so, what is it?

-----------------------------------------
Sean Brierley
Software Documentation Specialist
Haestad Methods
http://www.haestad.com
203-805-0572 (voice)
203-597-1488 (fax)



-----Original Message-----
From: Richard G. Combs [mailto:richard -dot- combs -at- voyanttech -dot- com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 12:33 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Updated: Screen capture app for Unix



Erika Yanovich wrote:

> Can anyone recommend a moderately priced app for capturing Unix
screens?
We need > 300-dpi captures, not provided by most sharware and Unix
utilities.

Well, you can't get a 300-dpi capture unless you have a 300-dpi screen.
If
you have one of those, let us know what it is and how much it cost. ;-)

More likely, your screen displays between 72 and 100 dpi, so that's what
you'll capture with whatever tool you use. You can't capture more dots
than
there are.

You'll probably want to resize the screen shot to fit your manual page,
so
the dpi will go up proportionately (assuming you don't resample, a bad
idea). For instance, if your screen displays 90 dpi and you resize the
screen shot to 1/3 its original size, it will be 90 x 3, or 270 dpi.

What's the destination of the screen shots? If you're bringing them into
FrameMaker, you can just specify the dpi you want on import, and FM will
resize the image accordingly. Or you can do this in just about any
graphics
program.


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