Best Format for Charts in CF7

[Guest]

Am converting all our CF5 chart templates to CF7, in preparation for CF7 upgrade in 3 weeks. And have tried the different versions of Flash, PNG and JPG, as fas as DISPLAY and PRINTING. Was wondering if my conclusions are the same as other chart developers out there? From what I can tell:

JPG looks the WORST on the SCREEN, with fuzzier text, and PRINT quality is the worst. But users can right-click and save the JPG chart as an image file and use in other documents.

PNG looks the best on the SCREEN, as far as sharper text and graphics. But doesn't quite look as good when PRINTING as Flash does (all print modes on HP Photosmart 7960, plain paper, draft, normal and best quality). But as with JPG, users can right-click and save the PNG chart as an image and use in other documents.

FLASH looks almost as good as PNG on the SCREEN (somewhere between PNG and JPG), but looks the best for PRINT, in all modes. I like the animation when the chart first appears. But users can't save the chart as an image file right? Or can they? If so, besides a "screen print", I'm not sure how a user would save a flash chart as a file.

Lastly, does Flash work/display correctly on users running Unix/Linux PCs, with Firefox, etc? I can test with Firefox on my Windows PC, but don't have a full-fledge Unix PC to test Flash charts.

Based on above, I would probably use PNG format most often, and Flash for a small percent. Is this what most of you chart developers are there also conclude? Are there any significant benefits or downsides I'm missing in the above conclusions? Really do appreciate any help/advice on this. Got 60 chart templates to convert to CF7, and would appreciate any advice. Thank you.

Gary

[MikerRoo]

For starters, if you set an application variable, it's easy to change your mind later.
All cfchart tags become <cfchart format="#Application.DefaultChartType#" ...>

Flash should look the same no matter what machine it is on. That's the big point of flash's sales pitch.

Personally, I like png. Looks best on screen and on print (for us).
Smallest filesize and doesn't require any plugins. (Not everyone has flash).

Pages load faster with png and, as you pointed out, the user doesn't need to be an expert screen scraper to save the images.
(You could, with a little work, add a convenience link to download a flash chart.)

[Guest]

Thanks for the reply, and for confirming my assumptions and work. It's just good to know others feel the same way about choosing a chart format, and to know that the formats I've tried work the same for others. I have another question about charts, but will post as a new message. Thanks again MikerRoo.