Re: Screen Capture without rasters?

[Tim Altom <taltom -at- IQUEST -dot- NET>]

>We are documenting an MS-Windows software package that has used some
>very (from our point of view) unfortunate screen colours. When I capture
>the screens (Windows 3.1 _not_ 95) for inclusion in MS-WfW (i.e. BMP, PCX
>or TIF), I get the most awful grid/rastering effect. Other than manually
>retouching every screen by hand, can anyone suggest a fitering/masking
>effect or software package that could be used to convert these colours
>to a usable grey scale? (the worst colour is a sort of disgusting purple
>that in grey or 16 colour dither looks like a nutmeg grater ... if ever
>there was a reason for having a documentation specialist involved in the
>interface development then this is IT ... how many GUI developers ever
>consider what the interface is going to look like on PAPER????).

Sounds like dithering is your problem. It's never a good idea to dither a
bitmapped graphic. You'll always get that awful grid effect when it's
resized. Instead, capture and/or save without dithering. On HiJaak Pro, for
example, that's selectable from the "options" button when you save the
graphic. But you have to know to do it, otherwise it'll keep trying to
dither automatically and giving you trash to work with. My suggestion would
also be to lose the colors, set your screen driver for mono, capture the
image, strip the colors (convert to B&W) and then save as a color snap,
rather than a dither. It works wonderfully for me.

Tim Altom
Vice President
Simply Written, Inc.
Technical Documentation and Training
Voice 317.899.5882
Fax 317.899.5987
WWW: http://www.iquest.net/simply/simplywritten/