Resizing Wide Graphics For Print/Online

[Jessa]

My situation:
Most of my help files (WebHelp) contain graphics that are report samples. Being spreadsheets, many of these report samples are very wide. On average, we're talking 10 to 12 inches wide. The purpose of having these graphics is that our internal team likes to have them so that they can walk the user through a report without having to actually run one. Not the purpose of online help, I know, but it's what I'm stuck with.

Right now, we're dropping the file in without maximum size limits. What is happening is that the report sample appears at 100% in the HTM file if the user scrolls right to see everything. However, when the HTM file is printed, the report is cutoff. The same behavior occurs for output to Word (i.e., full size in Word, cutoff when printed).

Here's what I've tried:

• Changed the <img> tag/style to a Maximum width of 6 inches (an 8.5 X 11 page with a one-inch border all around). The image in the HTM and Word output looks terrible and also looks terrible when printed.
• Changed the <img> tag/style for Medium Print only. This does not work.
• Set maximum width to 6 inches on the Object itself. The graphic in the HTM output looks really bad and prints even worse.
• Re-sized the graphic to 6 inches in Snagit and MS Office Picture Manager. This looks terrible in the source file, HTM, and printed from HTM.

The net effect of all the things I've tried is that the graphic looks bad, which means unreadable, which means unacceptable.

Here's what I'm thinking of:

• Using BMPs instead of PNGs. I know BMPs are bigger, but, in my experience, they size and re-size better. 1) I think I could resize the source file without losing quality and 2) I think the BMP might survive Flare's re-sizing better.
  How do you think this will affect the online output? Printing from the output file?
• Use a thumbnail that the user can expand to see full size in a popup window. I'm not sure what would happen when they print the HTM. Anybody have experience with this?
• There's always splitting the graphic, which I think would be terrible; some of the older samples are like that and I do not like the results.

Right now, I'm using Snagit; I don't know Madcap Capture yet.

I'd love your feedback. Thank you in advance.

[KevinDAmery]

I'd try something first: use an image editor to resize a screenshot to 6" width and print it. Can you read the results? I've seen some wide Excel files scaled down before, and even if the resize is good often the text itself ends up so small you can't read it. (I'm going out on a limb and assuming that your reports are 12" because they have lots of columns and text, not because someone wanted them to use large fonts....)

What you might want to do instead is

a) include an actual sample Excel file instead of an image - your support personnel and customers could then open the report by clicking on the link to it from the topic
b) in print output, replace the link with a print-only blurb that refers users to the sample report file rather than trying to include an image in your Word output - that way, if a user really wants a printed copy they can open the Excel file itself and print it

[Jessa]

I'd try something first: use an image editor to resize a screenshot to 6" width and print it. Can you read the results? I've seen some wide Excel files scaled down before, and even if the resize is good often the text itself ends up so small you can't read it. (I'm going out on a limb and assuming that your reports are 12" because they have lots of columns and text, not because someone wanted them to use large fonts....)

What you might want to do instead is

a) include an actual sample Excel file instead of an image - your support personnel and customers could then open the report by clicking on the link to it from the topic
b) in print output, replace the link with a print-only blurb that refers users to the sample report file rather than trying to include an image in your Word output - that way, if a user really wants a printed copy they can open the Excel file itself and print it

You're right about the reason for the width.

I'd have to see about using Excel files. The user views the report through a BI interface. They can export to Excel but that's not the primary view. We want user to use the BI interface. I don't think people here would have a problem with the way it looks, just the fact that an Excel file is opening. I may not be able to get around that.

The PNGs I have do not resize well. You can't see a thing. I'm wondering if another file format will work better. Are there issues using BMPs in Flare?

[Andrew]

The issue with BMPs is typically size. A 12" BMP will be huge. If you have many of them, your WebHelp output will be similarly huge.

Edit: by "size" I mean file size, in megabytes.

A BMP will indeed resize better in Word -- Word has certain smoothing effects it uses to resize BMPs, and they typically look really good in Word.

Personally, I favor using PNG and simply creating thumbnails.

[KevinDAmery]

I don't think BMP is a Web-friendly format, so while it would work for print it wouldn't work for WebHelp.

From your description, I don't think the readability problem is caused by the PNG format - I think it's caused by the fact that if you scale an image that contains text down too far, you don't have enough pixels left to resolve what the text says. However, Flare itself isn't all that good at resizing. This is why I suggested using an image editor to do the resize - image editors are generally better at it than HATs or word processors. If you can't read it in Photoshop / Paint Shop Pro / GIMP / whatever image editor you use, then you're not going to be able to read it in any other application either.

[Jessa]

Yes, you're both right about BMP size in WebHelp output. That's what I thought.

I've tried re-sizing the PNGs in Snagit with lousy results. Maybe I need to save the file as a .snag, re-size, and then export to PNG. Is there another file format that would be better?

I'm exploring the thumbnail option. The thing I am not sure about is what shows up when the user prints the HTM file - the thumbnail or the large file?

[Andrew]

When you say "prints the HTM file" -- I assume you mean from the WebHelp? I'm not sure in that case, but I would imagine it prints the thumbnail, unless there is some creative way to make it print otherwise (e.g., javascript).

Edit: as for file formats, I don't know that the format is so much the issue. PNG is one of the better compression formats for screen shots. It's more likely to matter which program you use to downsize it, but as Kevin noted, at a certain point, you run out of pixels. A typical screen is 96dpi, and when letters start getting to the size where there are only a few pixels on the screen per character, it really doesn't matter what file type, compression method, or program you use.

[Jessa]

Andrew,

Thanks and yes, I did mean printing the HTM WebHelp file. I guess I'll just have to test it and see.

[Jessa]

What you might want to do instead is

a) include an actual sample Excel file instead of an image - your support personnel and customers could then open the report by clicking on the link to it from the topic
b) in print output, replace the link with a print-only blurb that refers users to the sample report file rather than trying to include an image in your Word output - that way, if a user really wants a printed copy they can open the Excel file itself and print it

How do you insert an excel file? I can't find the instructions. Thanks!

[SteveS]

I think Kevin means insert a link to an excel file...