Why blurry images.

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LenaLo 66
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Why blurry images.

Post by LenaLo 66 »

I have read this question on the old forum, but there was never any good answer, so once again:
Why do the pictures deteriorating when you view them in the browser after building Nethelp?
SteveS
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Re: Why blurry images.

Post by SteveS »

Hi Lenalo,

Welcome to the forums. :D

The basic answer is resolution. Or, to be more precise how the 'dots' that make up the image are displayed.

If an image is deteriorating the first thing I'd check is resizing. If an image is being resized the graphics processing unit needs to 'decide' how to handle dots that would be on the border of colour changes.

The next thing, although unlikely, is over compressing the image file (such as 'jpg), this creates noise within the image. It can also happen if a .jpg is modified and saved too many times as it is a lossy format that looses information evry time it is saved.

There are also issues with images that have been exposed to Adobe products, Adobe products (including pdf) seem to want to convert images to a different resolution. This changes the size (area the image takes on a page) so when you resize the image back to the original you run into the problems listed above.

Can you be a little bit more explicit about what is happening?
Image
Steve
Life's too short for bad coffee, bad chocolate, and bad red wine.
LenaLo 66
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Re: Why blurry images.

Post by LenaLo 66 »

I take screen shoots (using SnagIt) of different forms in order to describe asspects of our software.
A screen shoot can never have any other resolution than the screen form which you are taking it from.
When I put them in MS Word they look crisp and fine, both on the screen and if I print them on a printer.
However when I use D2H to create Nethelp pages, the same pictures turn blurry.

As you know it is not possible to increase the resolution of a screenshot and keeping its size.

Nether the less I have spent half a day trying combingations of:
Resizing the image
Putting the pictures in Word via CopyPaste or "Insert Image"
Saving in PNG, JPEG with all kinds of settings

None of this to helping a bit.

????????
SteveS
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Re: Why blurry images.

Post by SteveS »

I came to MVP status through Flare, not D2H, so I'm not sure of its foibles...

I tried a quick test, captured a screenshot with Capture, made sure the resolution was 96 dpi, saved it, inserted it in a word document used for a 2H project, and built the net help.

The images were clear in the output.

So, we need someone more familiar with D2H to come along...

The only other thing I can think of is zoom on the Window's desktop. Changing the size of text via the display settings can cause funkiness.

Sorry I can't be of more help.
Image
Steve
Life's too short for bad coffee, bad chocolate, and bad red wine.
SKamprowski
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Re: Why blurry images.

Post by SKamprowski »

Hi,

with reference to the issues described by Lenalo, I suggest to read
http://help.madcapsoftware.com/d2h3/Con ... t=pictures
Further information which may already be well-known:
D2H needs system resources to extract the picture back from Word, and scaling in Word is not optimized for browsers but for print output.
Old browsers do a rather poor scaling which might influence them in your Nethelp.
Graphics Scaling = "Do not scale graphics" should return original graphic quality.

Kind regards,
Sabine Kamprowski
Kind regards,
Sabine Kamprowski
DocToHelp MVP (by ComponentOne)
LenaLo 66
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Re: Why blurry images.

Post by LenaLo 66 »

SKamprowski wrote:Hi,

with reference to the issues described by Lenalo, I suggest to read
http://help.madcapsoftware.com/d2h3/Con ... t=pictures
Further information which may already be well-known:
D2H needs system resources to extract the picture back from Word, and scaling in Word is not optimized for browsers but for print output.
Old browsers do a rather poor scaling which might influence them in your Nethelp.
Graphics Scaling = "Do not scale graphics" should return original graphic quality.

Kind regards,
Sabine Kamprowski
Super thanks Sabine!

Setting the target setting "Graphics scaling" to "Do not scale graphics" did the trick! :D

Now some images turn out a little bit to big, but downsizing the original is a manageable problem.

Summer greatings
Lena Hyllander
jalexander
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Re: Why blurry images.

Post by jalexander »

I am having a lot of trouble still with this. The Do Not Scale Graphics setting is not keeping the images the same size as in the word document and definitely not the same quality. Also, it's changing the placement of things like an image on top of an image - for instance, a red call out box over the top of an embedded image. I need to figure this out ASAP. Resizing the images in Word is not an option as we do both a PDF version (which looks great as is) and a Nethelp version from the same document.

Any suggestions? I have tried all the different scaling options, none of which keep the images as they should be.
Jack Konings
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Re: Why blurry images.

Post by Jack Konings »

jalexander wrote:I am having a lot of trouble still with this. The Do Not Scale Graphics setting is not keeping the images the same size as in the word document and definitely not the same quality. Also, it's changing the placement of things like an image on top of an image - for instance, a red call out box over the top of an embedded image. I need to figure this out ASAP. Resizing the images in Word is not an option as we do both a PDF version (which looks great as is) and a Nethelp version from the same document.

Any suggestions? I have tried all the different scaling options, none of which keep the images as they should be.
Hi jalexander,

First, the Do Not Scale Graphics setting does exactly what is says: it does not scale the graphic and keeps the original format in the online output. So, it does not apply the scaling used in Word to the online version.
The weird thing is, that in this case no image quality loss should occur. Maybe you could try other images format settings in the help target settings. Also, check the quality of the image in the images folder of your help target (so, the converted image) - if that is oke could also be a local browser issue. And also, Word has its own web options that sets image quality when saving as html. Check those as well.

Regarding the placement, I do not think that D2H supports the conversion of floating images and floating shapes, like your call out box. I always create a new work document for these type of images, insert the inline picture, add call out boxes and text of whatever and then make a new snapshot of it. Then you can insert the new image in your source document.

"Resizing the images in Word is not an option....": Why not? Just insert the image twice, keep one in the original size for online and scale one for the PDF version. Then use the conditions feature to keep the original in the online platform and the resized in the printed manual platform. I always do this, because any scaling in Word means loss of quality in the online output.

Note for all: please note there is an issue in D2H V3 in combination with the older .doc files (so not the .docx files). When compiling the project D2H does not respect the scaling of images in Word and will always insert the images in the original size. A bug report is made and confirmed several months ago, but no solution yet. If you need to rescale images in .doc files, better to keep V2 at the moment.

Best regards
Jack
jalexander
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Re: Why blurry images.

Post by jalexander »

Thanks for that info. Unfortunately, the images are being enlarged bigger than the original image. I tried it without resizing the image at all in word and it is making it bigger when I publish to NetHelp, which makes the image quality bad. I just can't seem to figure out why it is enlarging the images at all.
Yes, I could go through the 200 page document that is one of 5 documents for us and re-insert every image a 2nd time under conditional settings, but that is a lot of time for something that should just work I think. If it is told not to resize the images, it shouldn't be resizing them period, right?

I have never had the older version of the software, only 3, so I know that isn't the issue I am having.

Thanks again. I have put in a support ticket for it as well, so hopefully they will have an answer for me soon.

Jen
LenaLo 66
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Re: Why blurry images.

Post by LenaLo 66 »

I suggest that Madcap should set up a webinar addressing best practice for image handling.
DTH webinars are scarces and far apart compared to their Flare counterparts.
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