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You are quite correct. PNG or its predecessor, GIF, are the most
appropriate graphic fie formats to use for screen shots in most
circumstances.
JPEG, on the other hand, was specifically designed for use on
photographic images and is inherently ill-suited for line art, screen
shots, or anything that includes text. JPEG assumes relatively few
abrupt transitions between areas of different colors, because these
are relatively uncommon in photographs. When it processes such
abrupt transitions (think of the outlines of text characters or the
borders of GUI elements in a screen shot) JPEG inherently produces
artifacts that were not present in the original. The most common
example of the artifact is the "smudginess" that surrounds a word
of black text against a light background in a JPEG image. In a
photograph, this kind of artifact is largely concealed by the texture
of the background surface behind the contrasting object, but when
you're dealing with a drawn image (e.g. line art or screen shot) the
artifacts are very obvious and reduce readability.
Fred Ridder
>From: "Dan Goldstein" <DGoldstein -at- riverainmedical -dot- com>
>To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
>Subject: RE: FrameMaker Graphics
>Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 08:18:09 -0400
>
>IMLE, PNG works better for screen captures, and JPG works better for
>photos. YMMV, and other FLAs.
>
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