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How to reduce captured image size without losing resolution?

New Here ,
Jun 17, 2009 Jun 17, 2009

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Hi all,

I've used RoboScreenCapture extensively in caputring web application screen shots for my webhelp pages. However, I'll be creating another manual soon that will require smaller sized versions of screen shots, both as a preference by my co-workers and to minimize space and topic length. Does anyone know of a good way to accomplish this and still maintain quality images?

I've tried editing and resizing, but the resolution becomes distored.

Thanks!

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LEGEND ,
Jun 17, 2009 Jun 17, 2009

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Hi there

Regardless of how you choose to resize you are going to lose a bit of clarity plain and simple. The trick is to minimize the loss. Some ways accomplish it better than others.

Some folks claim to achieve pretty decent results by pasting the image into Word and allowing Word to rescale it on the screen. Then they screen capture the image as it appears within Word on the screen.

Personally I use TechSmith's SnagIt and use it to rescale. The results are about the same as what I just listed with using Word. In addition to these approaches, RoboHelp HTML ships with a tool called the Graphics Resizer that may do a pretty good job. It's in the Toolbox tab or pod depending on your RoboHelp version.

Cheers... Rick

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Community Expert ,
Jun 17, 2009 Jun 17, 2009

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Just to add to Rick's information, try with both GIFs and JPGs. You will get different results when you reduce the size. Photoshop also does an excellent job if you have that.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

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New Here ,
Jun 17, 2009 Jun 17, 2009

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Thanks, Rick and Peter, for your quick replies.

I tried some of what you suggested (Word, resize tool, and gif/jpg), and although there is some improvement, the smaller sized image still affects the clarity of the text.

I've been researching different help page formats for my new manual, and I've noticed that Microsoft has help topics that show smaller sized screen shots with good clarity. Their full page images are 1.5'" by 4" and the text is still clear. I'm not sure how they're doing this, and I was hoping there was a way to duplicate it using RoboHelp and RoboScreenCapture.

Unfortunately, I don't have Adobe Photoshop - do you think the resizing effects are worth purchasing the software?

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LEGEND ,
Jun 17, 2009 Jun 17, 2009

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Hi there

Are you able to point us to one of these topics? Or perhaps post screen captures of them?

If you choose to post a screen capture, please do so using the camera icon and don't attach it. (if attached, we don't see it straight away and must wait for it to become approved)

Cheers... Rick

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Community Expert ,
Jun 17, 2009 Jun 17, 2009

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No! The clarity is better but Photoshop is big bucks for the incremental difference. You can trial it but I know I would not buy it just for this purpose.

Microsoft have a few resources at their disposal. I think they offer some resizer tool but as I recall it is no better than Word, which does do a good job.

Can you point us to an example of such an image?


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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Contributor ,
Jun 17, 2009 Jun 17, 2009

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Another way to get better clarity is to ensure you have the browser sized as small as possible before you capture it; just big enough to show the applicable screen. I know it's not always possible, but I thought I'd mention it in case it had been overlooked.

I also recommend Snagit as it does a really good job of screen capture and resizing, especially if you don't need to do much editing on the image. And is almost free compared to Photoshop.

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Community Beginner ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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If budget is a big problem, you could always try Paint.net.  It's a small, powerful and free application that can resize images in a variety of ways.

http://www.getpaint.net/

Note: If you're going to use it for commercial purposes you will need to get permission first.

However, I can also highly recommend SnagIt.  As graphics packages go, it's relatively cheap (about 50USD).  It has some nice, effective tools for cropping images, adding arrows and text boxes, plus some excellent capturing tools (being able to capture scrolling windows is a must for my work).  It also works very well with RoboHelp, as you can drag and drop images from one to the other.

http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp

It think it's worth pointing out, Adobe's PhotoShop is generally considered the best in the business.

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New Here ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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Hi...

Just wanted to check if you've tried the "scale" option within RoboScreen Capture? I found it's pretty good at resizing images... otherwise, Photoshop is the best for sure! If you are in the market for a RH upgrade, the Tech Communication Suite v2 contains Photoshop CS4

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New Here ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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Wow - I really appreciate all of your responses. Besides the use of SnagIt and Photoshop, I'm glad to hear that I've been taking advantage of most of the options available (resize, Word to RoboScreenCapture, and re-sizing my browser window before capturing a shot). I don't think it will be a problem getting SnagIt, and because my department is seriously considering upgrading to RH8 (from RH6), I now have a good reason to consider Tech Communication Suite v2 for the Photoshop advantage.

Rick and Peter, as I was looking for an example of a Microsoft screen shot, I realized that with all the printouts I've been accumulating in my research, that the example I was referring to was, in fact, a Word doc about Microsoft help options - sorry for the confusion on my part. No wonder there was better clarity! Word does a great job of re-sizing, but unfortunately when I paste a Word image into RoboHelp there's a significant loss of clarity. Looking forward to trying SnagIt or Photoshop.

Thanks again for all of your help!

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Community Expert ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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Are you saving that image from Word and then using it in RH? Wrong.

Use a screen capture tool to recapture what is in Word.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

Help others by clicking Correct Answer if the question is answered. Found the answer elsewhere? Share it here. "Upvote" is for useful posts.

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New Here ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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No. I resize my window to as small as possible, use RoboScreenCapture to get the shot (excellent clarity), then paste it into Word, resize even smaller (good clarity), and then use RSC to re-capture the shot in Word, paste it into RH, and the image (text) becomes blurry (bad clarity).

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LEGEND ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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As Peter says, resizing in Word is a bad idea. I use the in-built Resize tool for most images and it works really well.


Read the RoboColum(n) for mutterings on RoboHelp, Technical Communication Suite and technical communication.

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Community Expert ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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I did not say resizing in Word is bad, quite the reverse, it is one of the best ways of resizing. It is resizing it in RH afterwards that is bad, if you use the handles of the image rather than the resize tool.

Where I said "using it in RH", I meant "resizing"


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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New Here ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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Ok, I really appreciate all of the advice. It seems that SnagIt and Photoshop (Tech Com) may be worthwhile looking into.

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New Here ,
Jun 18, 2009 Jun 18, 2009

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Roger that, Peter. I have to admit that I was a little confused by Colum's response, so thanks for the clarification.

I agree that doing a screen capture from a resized image in Word does make a difference. However, I'm hoping that I can test out SnagIt and possibly ugrade to the Tech Comm. Suite v2 for all the advantages of RH8, Captivate, and Photoshop. But it may be out of our budget.

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Community Beginner ,
Jul 05, 2009 Jul 05, 2009

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Hi,

I am new to robohelp 7 and photoshop cs3, so I will admit that I just don't know much at all! Here's my latest problem: I need to take screen shots and reduce them to fit in robohelp. If I just use the windows screen print and then copy it into photoshop and try to reduce it, the text is fuzzy. From reading the answers to the original question posted here, photoshop is supposed to be good for reducing screen shots. So I guess I'm doing something wrong. Is it because I'm using the windows screen print to capture the shot? Or am I not doing something in photoshop? If anyone can point me to an article on the web for step-by-step directions, I would be grateful. I also have gotten photoshop books from the library, but they seem more geared towards editing photos. I also have access to adobe illustrator, if that product would be better. We have 3 licenses for snag-it, but of course, there's not one on my computer. I can see if I can borrow someone's computer with snag-it if I should use that product for the screen shot capture. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks,

Julie

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Valorous Hero ,
Jul 05, 2009 Jul 05, 2009

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Hi Julie

I'd be shocked if Photoshop produced a crystal clear image. The thing to understand here is that any computer screen is divided into a grid. Each segment of the grid is called a Picture Element or Pixel. The size of a Pixel cannot be changed. So if you take an image of a screen and shrink it, you must expect some reduction in clarity. (or fuzziness/blurriness of text)

I'll have to leave it to my colleague Peter to explain perhaps how to achieve a decent result using Photoshop. I use SnagIt and am happy with its results. However, I stick with version 8 for a couple of reasons.

  1. I find it's easier to use than 9 is with it's new "ribbon" interface. Blech! (Thanks Microsoft!)
  2. I find the resizing seems better in 8 than in 9. I'm aware TechSmith changed the algorithm they used. Unfortunately it's hard to describe to a softare engineer that this image looks a bit clearer than that and advise why. It's a bit on the ethereal side.

Cheers... Rick

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Community Expert ,
Jul 06, 2009 Jul 06, 2009

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First of all try working with GIF images.

When you save in Photoshop, set the quality to the highest, the wheel spins to 10, you can manually enter 12.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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Guest
Jul 06, 2009 Jul 06, 2009

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Hi,

A good way is to import a gif image into Visio where you can re-size with minimal resolution loss. I know this is not in RH but I've found this the most effective way...

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New Here ,
Jul 07, 2009 Jul 07, 2009

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Hi there,

I'll be getting Visio soon, so I'll definitely have to give this a try - thanks for the heads-up!

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Guest
Jul 07, 2009 Jul 07, 2009

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No problem,

To use this method, simply import the image into visio, then select that image within visio and resize.

Then use File | Save As to save the file as gif or whatever format is required.

Hint: When you do the "Save As" you need to select the image on the visio page first then use the menu option.

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New Here ,
Jul 07, 2009 Jul 07, 2009

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Roger that - can't wait to give it a try. Thanks!

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Community Expert ,
Jul 07, 2009 Jul 07, 2009

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I would have thought Visio uses the same algorithm as Word or the Microsoft Resizer tool that you can download. The RH built in resizer tool in the tool box does a good job too. Don't confuse that with clicking an image and resizing it.


See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

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New Here ,
Jul 07, 2009 Jul 07, 2009

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Hi Peter,

You're probably right about the algorithm and, I agree, the resizer tool works pretty well. Since I'll be getting Visio regardless, I'm looking forward to trying it out.

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