Why are my screenshots too small in PDF output?

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Michael Cohen
Propeller Head
Posts: 36
Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 6:35 am

Why are my screenshots too small in PDF output?

Post by Michael Cohen »

Very peculiar behavior I'm seeing. All of my screenshots, all of them, are perfect in my HTML output but in my PDF output they're all reduced to tiny size (NOT thumbnail size, just really small). When I open them up in Flare's image/capture editor, the Print Size in File Properties > Format is too small. However, when I open them up in Photoshop, the image dimensions are the correct dimensions. In HTML5 output, they are the correct size.

Example:

One screenshot (part of a screen) is 394 x 198 pixels. The print size displayed in the File Properties in Capture is 1.13 in. x 0.66 in. I play around with scale and Print DPI but it doesn't help. It always appears in the PDF output as the smaller size.

In the CSS for print, I set a max width so that larger images won't run off the page. This has always worked perfectly. I checked all other target settings and they're the same as I've always used (that worked perfectly in the past).

Any clues? I've done tons of projects in Flare 11, including 800 page manuals with hundreds of images and this has never happened before. What am I missing?

Thanks.
techwriter31
Propellus Maximus
Posts: 551
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2008 10:50 am

Re: Why are my screenshots too small in PDF output?

Post by techwriter31 »

First guess: Click File > Options. On the General tab of the Options dialog, is the "Automatically resize low DPI images" checkbox checked? This can cause images to be automatically resized and this is checked by default when you install Flare. (We always run into this issue when installing Flare to a new PC or build machine.)

Another thing to check is the PDF target file. On the PDF Options tab in the target, is the "Downsample images above:" checkbox checked?
Kellie
Michael Cohen
Propeller Head
Posts: 36
Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 6:35 am

Re: Why are my screenshots too small in PDF output?

Post by Michael Cohen »

The target option for downsampling images is not selected. I did turn off Automatically resize low DPI images in File > Options (I didn't even know it was there!) but it fixed only one image. There's a second image in the same topic that is the same size but that didn't change.
techwriter31
Propellus Maximus
Posts: 551
Joined: Wed Mar 05, 2008 10:50 am

Re: Why are my screenshots too small in PDF output?

Post by techwriter31 »

Hmmm. A few more questions/ideas:
1) I'm assuming the images that were not properly sized are below the max-width specified in the print medium of your .css file?
2) For the image that was not correctly resized, if you right-click the image within the topic, click Image Properties and select the Print Size tab, are there any width or height settings configured?
3) I don't use Capture, but did notice that on the Advanced tab of the PDF target, there is an "Autosize Capture objects to fit text" checkbox. Is this checked by chance?
Kellie
Michael Cohen
Propeller Head
Posts: 36
Joined: Fri May 06, 2011 6:35 am

Re: Why are my screenshots too small in PDF output?

Post by Michael Cohen »

D'oh.

I figured it out - the screenshots that are too small have a resolution that's too big. Once I reduce the resolution of each image, they look fine in the PDF.
Let that be a lesson to me.

Thanks!
sds
Propeller Head
Posts: 48
Joined: Tue Jun 26, 2018 11:29 am
Location: Tucson

Re: Why are my screenshots too small in PDF output?

Post by sds »

I hope this reaches you. Coming from 6 years in the future...

I'm having this same problems. Any JPEG images that I have in my project come out fine in the print output. But all of the PNG images turn out tiny. I've spent days thinking CSS and/or thumbnail was the problem, but that was a red herring. I feel like I'm getting close with posts like yours.

Where did you reduce the resolution of each image? Is that something you can do in Flare?
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