Images losing their clarity in Webhelp output

[TeSol]

I have screenshots in my help file that have been captured using SnagIt. These are quite long and hence I have used Auto Scroll to capture the entire screen shot. Thereafter, I have used Paint.NET V3.5.11 to remove unnecessary areas and also add balloon text. The file is then saved in PNG format and inserted into the Flare help file. At this point, the image is very clear. In the Preview too, the image is clear. However, when I generate the Webhelp output, the image loses its clarity. It appears compressed and the text is slightly blurred. I have used img style but there are not settings defined. In fact, when I set the width in img to 100%, the image did not even appear in the help file. Hence, I removed it and left all default Flare settings.

Any idea what I can do to improve the clarity of the output image?

Thanks in advance.

[kwag_myers]

I generally use Snagit Editor (which is what displays your screen shot) for editing. I'm not sure that matters, though. The first thing to check is the resolution:

1. Open the image in Snagit Editor. I'm using 10.0.
2. On the Image tab, go to Filters > Resolution (DPI). I find the best setting for this is 100.

The next thing I'd check, and I think you may have done this already, is the image size:

1. Open the topic in Flare's XML Editor and right-click the image.
2. Select Edit Image from the context menu.
3. In the Edit Image dialog, click Size. I generally enter the size in pixels, even though I'm displaying the image at 100%. This seems to render the best results. I've yet to use the Minimum and Maximum settings.

One thing I've noticed is if I resize the image, there's some loss in clarity. The only way to improve this is to use Filters > Sharpen > 75% in Snagit Editor. This is not a fix, but it does make the image clearer. I've spent days on this issue alone, and this is the best I've come up with.