Re: Screen capture for online viewing: WMF solution

[Beth Kane <Kane -at- VENTANA -dot- COM>]

I was having a similar problem with a graphic that I wanted to appear in my
online Help system. Whenever I reduced the large image, I drastically lost
image quality.
I just received this advice from a very knowledgable fellow tech writer. I
haven't had a chance to try it yet, but you might want to give it a try:

"The problem, I think, is with trying to resize a bitmap. A bitmap, of
course, comprises mapped pixels on a screen. Since bitmaps are referenced
pixel by pixel, trying to resize one forces the application to compensate
more than it really can. You might have better luck using a WIndows metafile
(WMF) graphic instead. WMF files are part raster (bitmap) and part vector
(referenced by dimensions), so they resize with less impact on image
quality. They're also legal in WinHelp. Keep in mind, however, thet you will
always encounter limitations when resizing screen captures. At some point,
the image always degrades.

"So, use PSP to capture the image, resize it, and export it as a WMF
graphic.
That should allow you to resize with less loss of image quality."

Beth Kane
kane -at- ventana -dot- com

<original message:>
> We can't seem to get below about an
> 85% reduction before losing all detail. ...
> Can any offer tips or tricks as to how to capture, manipulate and reduce
> screen captures as small as possible for viewing online?


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