I have images in my Flare project that are 300 dpi (I updated them from 96 to 300 dpi) and they look okay in Flare. Problem comes when I output to Word, they become blurry to the point where the flowcharts are illegible.
I have tried:
1) In Flare, I deselected the option to resize low DPI images (nothing happened)
2) In Word, I made sure that the "Do Not Compress Images in file" was checked.
When I insert the image directly into Word, it is crystal clear. And it is clear in Flare. Something is happening in the output to mess up the images. I have tried PNG, BMP, JPG, GIF, EPS, you name it. Nothing works.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks!!
Flare images on Word Output BLURRY
Re: Flare images on Word Output BLURRY
I have continued to play with this issue, and have discovered the following:
In addition to these Flare and Word settings, when taking a screen shot or image capture using Snagit, I have to resize image to 300 dpi and set the print max width before I save. Then, when it is imported into Flare, I need to leave it at that size (before I was using the style sheet to select a maximum width).
When ALL of these factors are in place, the image is legible (not crisp, but legible, which it was not before).
Does anyone have similar experience?
In addition to these Flare and Word settings, when taking a screen shot or image capture using Snagit, I have to resize image to 300 dpi and set the print max width before I save. Then, when it is imported into Flare, I need to leave it at that size (before I was using the style sheet to select a maximum width).
When ALL of these factors are in place, the image is legible (not crisp, but legible, which it was not before).
Does anyone have similar experience?
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SteveS
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Re: Flare images on Word Output BLURRY
If you are taking screenshots you are taking an image at 96 dpi (72 dpi Mac). If you set the resolution of the image you are not resampling the image, you are telling the graphics processing part of your machine to display 300 of the dots to every inch instead of the original 96. This means when the image is shown it will be less than 33% of its original size.
Depending on how things are set Word will try to set the image so that it fills the page, particularly if you are trying to reset widths using a style sheet. At some stage the graphic process will have to make a decision about what colour a resized dot is. This results in blurriness.
Try resetting your images to 96dpi (Snaggit has a 'filter' to do this, all it really does is change the header in the image file so the images displays at 96, rather than 300, dpi). Make sure Word doesn't resize the images (I even have a macro to reset all images in a Word document to 100%, sometimes it slightly changes something even though it shows 1005). I guarantee your images will be clearer. Remember, they were captured at 96dpi and programming tools render all objects at 96 dpi, so that's the clearest resolution.
The above relates to screenshots. If you are scanning, using photographs, or creating graphics you can start with a higher resolution.
Depending on how things are set Word will try to set the image so that it fills the page, particularly if you are trying to reset widths using a style sheet. At some stage the graphic process will have to make a decision about what colour a resized dot is. This results in blurriness.
Try resetting your images to 96dpi (Snaggit has a 'filter' to do this, all it really does is change the header in the image file so the images displays at 96, rather than 300, dpi). Make sure Word doesn't resize the images (I even have a macro to reset all images in a Word document to 100%, sometimes it slightly changes something even though it shows 1005). I guarantee your images will be clearer. Remember, they were captured at 96dpi and programming tools render all objects at 96 dpi, so that's the clearest resolution.
The above relates to screenshots. If you are scanning, using photographs, or creating graphics you can start with a higher resolution.
Steve
Life's too short for bad coffee, bad chocolate, and bad red wine.
Re: Flare images on Word Output BLURRY
Thanks for your reply. So the only way I've gotten these images to remain clear, regardless of dpi (I have tried 96 and 300), is to have them full size in Flare (which makes the editing pane a headache since the images extend off the page), and then have Word size them to the page, as you mentioned. I just tried to size it in Flare so that we can see them on a page, and then output them to Word. Blurry, as you said. Then I reset size, but it doesn't improve anything - keeps it to the size that was set in Flare.
Where I am having a mental block here, is that I was under the impression I could use a Flare style to set a print width in Flare. So for example, I take a screen cap using Snagit, which when placed in a topic, is way large and extends off the page, making editing difficult in the print layout view. So I created a style for screen shot that not only resizes it, but indents it within a procedure and places a border around it. When output, Word loses the indent, border, margin, and makes it blurry. Which leads me to wonder how Flare actually "supports" Word output. Our docs need to be in Word for clients to edit (we have a sort of work book area in each chapter). I tried PDF output, and the images are clear, regardless of how I size or apply styles in Flare.
So other than resizing them in Word, is there anything I can do to make them clear in Word when formatted in Flare first? Or are we just stuck having mammoth screen caps in our Flare topics in order to have them legible in Word?
Thanks so much for your help - I have been going in circles with my Bronze support on this - with 2+ day turnaround in between questions that aren't fully answered.
Where I am having a mental block here, is that I was under the impression I could use a Flare style to set a print width in Flare. So for example, I take a screen cap using Snagit, which when placed in a topic, is way large and extends off the page, making editing difficult in the print layout view. So I created a style for screen shot that not only resizes it, but indents it within a procedure and places a border around it. When output, Word loses the indent, border, margin, and makes it blurry. Which leads me to wonder how Flare actually "supports" Word output. Our docs need to be in Word for clients to edit (we have a sort of work book area in each chapter). I tried PDF output, and the images are clear, regardless of how I size or apply styles in Flare.
So other than resizing them in Word, is there anything I can do to make them clear in Word when formatted in Flare first? Or are we just stuck having mammoth screen caps in our Flare topics in order to have them legible in Word?
Thanks so much for your help - I have been going in circles with my Bronze support on this - with 2+ day turnaround in between questions that aren't fully answered.
Re: Flare images on Word Output BLURRY
Out of curiosity, in your Word target, do you have the following option enabled?
Despite the claims of the tooltip, I've found that this almost always results in blurry versions of scaled images. I was having a similar issue with my output just the other day. Disabling this option resolved the problem.
Despite the claims of the tooltip, I've found that this almost always results in blurry versions of scaled images. I was having a similar issue with my output just the other day. Disabling this option resolved the problem.
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Re: Flare images on Word Output BLURRY
Thanks - I will try that too!
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SteveS
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- Joined: Tue Mar 07, 2006 5:06 pm
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Re: Flare images on Word Output BLURRY
If your screen captures are larger than a page in Word you are always going to have a resizing issue.
Changing the dpi is one way to resize the images and theoretically you shouldn't suffer from a loss of clarity. You will, however, get a blurred image if the page is viewed on screen, the graphics processor has to render the image at 96dpi.
The test is in printing the document. Just because it is blurry on screen doesn't mean hard copy will be blurred. Printers work at much higher resolution, and use fancy algorithms such as interpolation to maximise image quality.
When I work with images in Snagit I try to work with a maximum image width of 550 pixels. This gives me an image that fits a Word page without the need to resize. If my screenshot is wider I can either use cropping and editing features to make it narrower, or resize the image using Snagit and sharpen the image (again within Snagit) to try and retain some image quality. Snagit, being an image processing program (Word isn't) does a better job of resampling the image.
Changing the dpi is one way to resize the images and theoretically you shouldn't suffer from a loss of clarity. You will, however, get a blurred image if the page is viewed on screen, the graphics processor has to render the image at 96dpi.
The test is in printing the document. Just because it is blurry on screen doesn't mean hard copy will be blurred. Printers work at much higher resolution, and use fancy algorithms such as interpolation to maximise image quality.
When I work with images in Snagit I try to work with a maximum image width of 550 pixels. This gives me an image that fits a Word page without the need to resize. If my screenshot is wider I can either use cropping and editing features to make it narrower, or resize the image using Snagit and sharpen the image (again within Snagit) to try and retain some image quality. Snagit, being an image processing program (Word isn't) does a better job of resampling the image.
Steve
Life's too short for bad coffee, bad chocolate, and bad red wine.
Re: Flare images on Word Output BLURRY
Yes - that did it. So as much as I would like to use Flare's styles to resize my images, it will never end well in a Word output. 
)
When I resized the image in Snagit and Photoshop (for test), and specified 300 dpi, they both came out clear on screen and in print. At 96 dpi they were still blurry
Thanks to everyone who responded to this post. I can now add a note to our process guide for writers to resize images to 5.5 inches and 300 dpi within Snagit prior to inserting them into Flare.
) When I resized the image in Snagit and Photoshop (for test), and specified 300 dpi, they both came out clear on screen and in print. At 96 dpi they were still blurry
Thanks to everyone who responded to this post. I can now add a note to our process guide for writers to resize images to 5.5 inches and 300 dpi within Snagit prior to inserting them into Flare.