Muddy graphics

I

Ian

Using Word 97.

I'm writing a document that contains many screenshots. The screenshots
were obtained with "Print Screen", then saving the images to .bmp files.

When I display the .bmp files (using Paint or Irvanview), they look very
crisp, virtually indistinguishable from the original. But when I insert
the images into the Word document (Insert>Picture>From File), they are
quite muddy and blurred.

I've also tried opening the files in Irvanview, copying the images to
the clipboard, then pasting the clipboard (using Edit Paste and all the
Edit Paste Special options) into the Word document, with the same muddy
results.

What am I missing?
 
G

Graham Mayor

You are probably missing the degradation inherent in bitmapped images
attributable to scaling the images to fit within the margins of the Word
document.

If you are creating documents with many screen shots, you may find it
advantageous to try SnagIt to capture only the parts of the screen that you
need. SnagIt is relatively inexpensive for such a useful graphics tool, and
it comes as a fully working trial version so you can establish its worth for
the job in hand.

You can see many examples of its use on the Word pages of my web site, as it
was used to create all the illustrations and annotations.

You should also be able to use it to crop the existing images and view the
results of scaling them to fit the document.

It was even used in conjunction with Easy GIF Animator to create the
animated GIF used at http://www.gmayor.com/word_vba_examples.htm


--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
 
T

Terry Farrell

Download the free IrfanView graphics editor and install it.

Now use Alt+Prt Scn to copy the page to the clipboard. Open IrfanView and
use Ctrl+V to paste the capture. Crop if required, resize it to what you
need in the document and then use SaveAs and choose JPEG (*.jpg) format.

In Word, use Insert Picture, From File and select the *.jpg to insert it
into Word. This will give you a perfect picture.

However, in IrfanView, you can change the colour depth, even convert to a
greyscale image or reduce the quality (increase the compression) of the jpeg
if your document size is a consideration.
 
I

Ian

From: Graham Mayor <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 Time: 12:44:29

You are probably missing the degradation inherent in bitmapped images
attributable to scaling the images to fit within the margins of the Word
document.

If you are creating documents with many screen shots, you may find it
advantageous to try SnagIt to capture only the parts of the screen that you
need. SnagIt is relatively inexpensive for such a useful graphics tool, and
it comes as a fully working trial version so you can establish its worth for
the job in hand.

You can see many examples of its use on the Word pages of my web site, as it
was used to create all the illustrations and annotations.

You should also be able to use it to crop the existing images and view the
results of scaling them to fit the document.

It was even used in conjunction with Easy GIF Animator to create the
animated GIF used at http://www.gmayor.com/word_vba_examples.htm

Graham, I tried SnagIt, but the images came out even muddier!

I have just unearthed some similar Word documents that I wrote about 5
years ago, and the screen shots therein are crystal sharp, just like on
your website. The screenshots were obtained on exactly the same
hardware, and the only difference in the software is the updated Windows
XP. As far as I can recall, I followed exactly the same procedure then
as I do now; that is, producing a .bmp from Print Screen (cropping if
necessary with Paint), then inserting the .bmp into the Word document.

I have even tried copying the screen to the clipboard with different
screen resolutions, all the way from 800x600 up to 1280x1024, but there
were no discernible differences when inserting the images into the Word
document.

I have also tried saving the .bmps as .,jpgs, using IrfanView. The jpgs
were marginally better quality.

I must be doing something different -- I'm completely mystified.
 
G

Graham Mayor

If all images were blurred I would look to the graphics driver (Word places
surprisingly large demands on the graphics driver), but you say that older
documents display correctly?
When you insert the graphics from file (pasting has historically frequently
caused blured images in Word) and you check the size, is that size 100%?
What's the DPI resolution of the images in your graphics application? It
should be 96 dpi (and not 72!) - See http://blog.kirupa.com/?p=142

--
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
 

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