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Subject:Re: Color screen captures From:"Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 7 May 1996 12:27:13 -0700
At 11:09 AM 5/7/96 -0400, Catherine McNair wrote:
>After working on a 21" monochrome monitor for years, I have just acquired a
>20" color monitor. Now I need to know the best way to handle color screen
>captures.
>I'm documenting a Windows software product, using Word for Windows 6.0. The
>manual will contain no color. We are using a Linotronic print process at
>2400 dpi.
>What I'm wondering is:
>1. What dialog box color scheme produces the best printed results?
>2. Should I convert the 256-color graphics to 16 color? To grayscale? To
>dithered monochrome?
To answer 1 and 2 together, I've found that hi-contrast 16-color
screen images work best, avoiding moire patterns in printed
material. To "live with" the same colors used for screen captures,
I generally use dark red w/ white letters for active borders and
dark blue with white letters for inactive borders. In Win 3.1,
making menu bars white with black letters and to highlight drop-
down menus, a dark, pure color (like dk cyan) with white letters
works well.
Anytime you 'mix' colors away from their pure 16-color base, you
run the risk of introducing moire patterns in your printed materials.
>3. I've been experimenting with 16-color BMP files so far, and it certainly
>makes the files more chunky than the monochrome BMPs did. Would you
>recommend a different file format? If so, which one?
>4. I have access to several graphics packages. Which do you prefer to use
>for working with color screen captures?
I'm not sure what you mean by "chunky"... I use plain ol' Paintbrush
to touch up screengrabs. It's best for constraining to 16 color.
Sue Gallagher
sgallagher -at- expersoft -dot- com
-- The _Guide_ is definitive.
Reality is frequently inaccurate.
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