getting good screenshots into pagemaker 6.5 for windows 1

[kdhallett]

I'm new to pagemaker and am working on a technical manual that needs to include screenshots. I tried placing ones that I already have saved as .tif files, but they look AWFUL! Please help! I was using "full shot" to create the screen shots, but am open to any suggestions! I also have Illustrator and Photoshop, but no scanner.... HELP!!!

I need crisp, clean screenshots for the manual. [sig][/sig]

 

[zefir]

Make page with PM.
Go back to application and make screenshot by Key Print
Recall PM from bottom command line.
Insert screenshot from "Temporary memory" ( I don´t know this in English; in German: Zwischenablage)
This delivers precise bitmaps without any conversion to TIFF or other file formats.
In my cases this worked perfectly.

G.Hoffmann [sig][/sig]

 

[zefir]

Of course you must select "high resolution for graphics" in default settings !
G.Hoffmann [sig][/sig]

 

[Jaking]

Have you placed the screen shot in pagemaker and PRINTED IT OUT. Sometimes the images look terrible on screen because the preferences are set to show a low resolution on graphic. But they print out fine.If that's not the problem, try this.

Here is how I make screens in jpg format in Windows. I go to the screen I want to make. Press the Print Screen key (Holding it down a second or two seems to help). (It will seem as though nothing has happened, but the screen should be saved into memory.) Paste it into photoshop as a new document. Crop it and enhance it, if it needs it, and save it as a .jpg. Then it should look good placed into pagemaker. You can probably do this in any photo program, but I haven't tried it in anything else.

Hope this works for you as well as it does me. - Judith [sig][/sig]

 

[zefir]

The screen shot is under all circumstances stored with the actual resolution, e.g. 1280 x 1024 .
He is mapped in PM to an area and shown with rather bad quality, even with zoom.
When it comes to printing, let´s say to a Postscript printer, the unmodified file is
send to the printer and also the predefined area where the image is mapped to in the printer.
(For PCL printers in the computer).
Now the quality depends solely on the printer - good for a 1200 dpi printer, bad for a 300 dpi printer.

Judith: To store a screenshot by JPEG is definitely not good, because JPEG is made for halftones (Photos) and not for color areas and sharp lines. Thus: don´t use any compression, use BMP or uncompressed TIFF.
The only exception is this: If you convert your document to PDF, the Distiller will apply compression by default very good. But this is the final stage for sending documents to other people e.g. by

http://WWW with

small file size.

G.Hoffmann [sig][/sig]

 

[Kristin5]

I am doing something similar. I use SnagIt to pull the screenshots. It is a program that, I am sure, is available everywhere. I save the screenshots as jpegs or bitmaps, import into word, and then copy and special paste. Never a problem with clarity.

 

[BionicJohn]

Hi, Kristn5,

I use Snagit6 too - it's really good.

http://www.techsmith.com

I'd recommend having your screen rez cranked right up to the vid card's maximum when saving the screen shots.

I use TIFF for PMs and usually GIFs for the web as IMO they do text better.

----------------------------------------------------

zefir? Hi, Gernot!


Iechyd da! John
20:45 26/06/2003 BST

 

[Eggles]

Well there seems to be a rash of these screenshot questions lately!

I know it goes against one of the 'golden rules' in PM, (NEVER copy/paste unless it is from one PM doc to another) but I tend to agree with zefir (Hi, Gernot). That is, copy/paste the screenshot directly into PM.

Press the PrintScreen button which transfers the image to the clipboard. (Hold down Alt at the same time if you just want to include the active window e.g. a dialog box). Switch to your open PM doc and paste. Crop but try to avoid resizing. The clarity of these screenshots even on a humble (non-postscript) inkjet printer is excellent - text is crystal clear.

I realise that whatever resolution your monitor screen is set to will affect the quality of the screenshot, so switch to a higher rez such as 1048 x whatever it is. As will the quality of your printer. The images also embed (usually a no-no) but since they are usually very small file sizes, this is usually no big problem.

The only drawback to this method is if the PM file is to be commercially printed as the screenshots will still be RGB. Images must be CMYK for offset printing.

 

[111011]

I use screen shots a lot in my documentation. Although pasting directly into a document works well the problem I find is periodically you have to use the same screen shot in a few different locations in the document. (I don't like to refer users back to a page. It becomes to hard to follow the instructions.) By pasting the same graphic several times in a document you really increase the file size. Which can at time cause major problems.

I generally just paste the screen shot into a graphic file. save untouched and resize in document. this seems to provide the best resolution. but all screen shots are at screen resolution not print resolution.

 

[angler2229]

kdhallett,

I like using Snagit too. The strength of Snagit is that all the cursors and screen tools showup on the screen shots.

Using the PrtSc button took way too many steps! I setup Snagit to save as a tiff file. This saves me over ten steps before the File> Place command is used. I save all my screen shots so that I might use one more than once.

Daniel