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Loss of Pixelation Issues with Rescaling

This is a problem I have been struggling with for quite some time....how does one reduce the (negative) impact of pixelation loss when reducing the size of screen captures via Snag It?

I have no problem with this issue when rescaling smaller source images such as pop-ups, but when doing the same with much larger examples with lots of line-by-line detail, reducing these images to fit a Framemaker document is always a disaster (e.g. text in original screencaps becomes blurry or unreadable).

A work-around I have used is blowing up my screen resolution to a larger level when taking screencaps with Snag It, and this helps to some extent, but the fundamental problem is still there.

Can anyone suggest another solution to maintain my original image's crispness when reducing it in size?

By cvarney1968a at 2007-07-09 10:33 | | | cvarney1968a's blog | login or register to post comments | printer friendly version

Loss of Pixelation Issues with Rescaling

If you are using FrameMaker 7.0 or greater, you should use FrameMaker to resize your graphics. FrameMaker 7.0 uses Scalable Vector Graphic technology.

Julie Bruce

By JuleeBruce at 2007-07-20 11:08 | login or register to post comments

Scalable Vector Graphic

Scalable Vector Graphic support does not come into play here becuase the issue is screenshots, which are raster images rather than vector graphics.

The proper way to resize raster images in FrameMaker is to adjust the dpi setting, since this does not reduce the number of pixels. Any method of resizing a raster image that changes the number of pixels will inevitably degrade the quality of the image.

By Fred Ridder at 2007-08-06 08:15 | login or register to post comments

Pixelation Problem with Snag-It

I've found that typically, when you have problems with scaling, the reason is that the original image has low resolution to begin with. Since you mention you are already boosting your screen res, you'd think that would take care of it.

Once you have the image open in Snag-It's editor, check the resolution within Snag-It. I often find that Snag-It seems to think my captures have lower resolution than they actually do. If it's showing 72 or 96dpi, try kicking this up directly within Snag-It to, say 200 or so BEFORE you scale.

Experiment with different resolutions in Snag-It and see if that helps. Because this seems to work for me, I don't even bother changing my screen res anymore as it now seems to be a waste of time.

I've used all kinds of image editing software and I find Snag-it does this better than most. If I forget to do it (boost the resolution before scaling) the resized images look terrible. I've pretty much fallen into the habit of boosting the res in Snag-it as my first step after the editor opens. Even when I save the re-scaled image at higher res, Snag-It seems to be very efficient when it comes to minimizing file size of higher res images.

Hope this works for you!

MN
Technical Writer MN

By Technical Writer MN at 2007-07-13 12:00 | login or register to post comments

Resolution OK, size isn't

I tried your suggestion of resolution set to 200. I didn't change the scale, and I saved the screenshot image as a PNG. When I inserted into Word, it was sized at 100% but looked like it was 48% and the text was very clear. I get better sizing results when I set the resolution to 140 - 140 resolution at 100% looks like 69% in Word. I am very pleased with these results. I tried doing the same thing and saving to GIF, but the graphic became quite hideous.

What file format are you saving your screenshots in? And have you tried using them in HTML or HTML Help?

By VetMari at 2007-07-24 14:18 | login or register to post comments

File Formats for Screenshots

VetMari:
Sorry it took so long for me to get back hear and see what's been going on at TechWrl and get you a response.

I almost always save my screenshots as JPGs as I find that works best for me. Much of my work is for web-based applications and software like Photoshop provide a number of quality settings you can use on JPGs (say you took the shot in SnagIT but later wanted to juice it up a bit with Photoshop).

I think PNGs are best for managing file size, but I just like the results I get with JPGs and so I use it almost exclusively. And yes, I use them in HTML Help and WebHelp (and Word) and individual HTML files all the time with very good results. The only downside with Word is that the file size can get rather large when there are many screenshots.

Technical Writer MN

By Technical Writer MN at 2008-01-04 13:12 | login or register to post comments