Illustrations in electronic publications and paper editions?

[Geoff Hart <ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca>]

Solena Le Moigne wonders: <<The global idea of SGML (in my case) and 
XML thingies is to produce both electronic publications and paper 
editions from the same collection of files>>

That's certainly one purpose of SGML, but more fundamentally, the goal 
of SGML is to help you label components based on their _function_ so 
you can tailor the output by choosing only functions that apply to the 
current context.

In your example (see below), the function is "illustration", but 
because you have two media (print and online), it might be more 
productive to consider creating two categories: "print graphic" and 
"online graphic". Since the "ideal" graphic format is so different for 
two such different media, that's probably a more robust approach than 
trying to make one graphic meet both needs.

<<The norm we use here requires .jpeg at 300 dpi and .cgm files for the 
illustrations. When we generate a HTML output from our files, the 
.jpegs blow the whole thing up. We have normal text, and then the 
corner of a HUGE PICTURE way too big to display on the screen.>>

If the intended display size is the same in both media, then the 
solution is simple: Retain a copy of the original image (PhotoShop? 
Illustrator?) as your backup in case you need to make modifications, 
then save a rescaled version at the desired final target size.

This is an excellent general approach for any graphics system, by the 
way; why make each member of a large audience wait while their software 
rescales and redraws the picture if you can do it once (before 
publishing) and spare them the hassle? Of course, if the goal is for 
them to be able to rescale the graphic and zoom in, then you need to 
choose a vector graphic format that lets them do so. But that's a 
different need than what you seem to be suggesting.

<<"Of course, I thought, my monitor resolution is at 81 dpi. There is 
no way that the 2106x826 pixels .jpeg image of a big truck at 300 dpi 
would fit on it." I then thought I'd have to change the image output 
resolution so that the image would fit on the allocated space on the 
screen, just like I do for website galleries. Oh, wait a minute, if I 
change the resolution, the pictures in the paper edition won't look 
good anymore. Uh-oh.>>

As noted above, this suggests that your best solution is to create 
three image files: the original (used to generate the other two and 
preserved as a backup), a print-optimized version, and a 
screen-optimized version. Among other things, the image size will 
differ greatly; a 300 dpi JPEG that works well in print will occupy 
roughly* 16 times as much space as a 72 dpi JPEG. You may even want a 
fourth option (a scaleable version) for some kinds of image.

* That's a gross oversimplification, of course. If the horizontal 
resolution increases 400% and the vertical resolution increases 
likewise, then the result (4x4=16) seems correct but isn't. Whether you 
really get that 16-fold increase in file size depends on how much you 
compress the JPEG and how effective the compression algorithm is for 
each individual graphic's color palette.

<<Can it be done that the same image is used both in the electronic 
publication and the paper edition?>>

Yes and no. If you want a "one image fits all situations but fits none 
of them ideally", then you need some kind of scaleable graphic format. 
If you're hung up on JPEG, it's worth noting that a 300 dpi image may 
be twice the resolution you need; as a rule of thumb, you can get 
decent results by using an image resolution only twice the output 
resolution (typically a 75 lpi screen in print) if you're using the 
image at 100%.

Saving the document in Flash format might work, since Flash does a 
decent job of resizing the graphic. But a JPEG (for photos) or PNG (for 
bitmapped art) is probably your best bet overall for bitmaps, since 
both scale reasonably well (JPEG scales better because it contains more 
data if you save it as a high-resolution file).

--Geoff Hart   ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)


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