Email From Maylene

I've gone back through old emails, etc. to refresh myself on this issue. Apologies if you know all this.

The way (resolution) you take the pictures are different from the way they are used.

The screen shot as captured has a number of pixels limited by the screen size and display settings: it might be 1024 x 768, or some other value, depending on your hardware. That's the base information you have to play with.

Pixels per inch (PPI) or pixel density is a measurement of the resolution of a computer display, related to the size of the display in inches and the total number of pixels in the horizontal and vertical directions. This measurement is often referred to as dots per inch, though that measurement more accurately refers to the resolution of a computer printer. Typical circa-2000 cathode ray tube computer displays are generally capable of 72 to 130 pixels per inch. For example, a display that is 11 inches wide by 8.5 inches high, capable of a maximum 1024 by 768 pixel resolution, can display about 93 PPI in both the horizontal and vertical directions. This figure is determined by dividing width (or height) of the display area in pixels, by width (or height) of the display area in inches. It is possible for a display's horizontal and vertical PPI measurements to be different. The apparent PPI of a monitor depends upon the screen resolution (that is, number of pixels) in use; a monitor in 800 by 600 mode has a lower PPI than the same monitor at 1024 by 768 mode. The dot pitch of a computer display determines the absolute limit of possible pixel density.

So, the resolution, or PPI, of the screenshots Renee takes will depend upon her monitor and the settings of her display. You could do a Google search to determine what resolution might be best to set it at.

I believe that most of the screenshots used in the existing documents were taken at 96 PPI.

I (and Expert Support) use SnagIt to do screen captures on the PC. It's a nice little program that gives you control over the areas you capture, and the file formats you can use. It's used to be $39.95 online; there is a 30 day trial that you can test (http://www.techsmith.com). Let me know if you need to purchase, we can look at getting a pack of licenses (I'm using a free one right now).

Expert Support sent us some tips last year:

CHANGING SCREEN RESOLUTION - Assuming you're using a Windows system, set color to true color (32 bit) and screen area to 1024x768. The graphics card you have installed makes a big differences, so, if at all possible, shoot your screens on the system with the best graphics card available.
Not all graphic formats look good in both print and PDF. Decide whether you want the PDF version or the print version as your target output and pick graphic formats that look good in the target and OK in the other. Usually, you can get OK quality in both print and PDF using GIFs or TIFFs.
JPGs look great in web pages; they are not always the best choice in FrameMaker. They can look fuzzy in FrameMaker and frequently look fuzzy in PDF.
And don't be afraid to use BMPs--sometimes, they produce the best quality print and PDF results for screen shots.

Richard, perhaps you can help decide on the graphic format for saving the files.

The file that is used (in PhotoShop or Framemaker, for example) has a DPI setting, nothing to do with the pixel count. Richard, or whomever is importing the screenshots to the documents, will set this as needed. The smaller the DPI, the larger the diagram.

For the Optimizer manual, I used 108 DPI which seemed to be about the right size. As Richard noted, in the User Guide and Tutorial, a number of different DPI's are used.

I believe that shots with DPI of 100 and over will print clearly.

Then there is the issue of clarity of screenshots. There is a precise formula that determines at which zoom level in PDF a particular DPI is clear: %ZOOM = (DPI-in-FM / 72) * 100.

So, it is a tradeoff between a convenient and reasonable zoom % and the size of screenshots on a page (which is determined by DPI). For example, 90 DPI is clear at 125% zoom, but is rather large, and doesn't print very clearly. As I said, I used 108 DPI, which is clear at 150% zoom. Max wants the PDF files set to open at 100%. The diagrams are readable but not very clear. Check the Optimizer Guide as an example.

I hope this is helpful.

maylene