Re: Preparation of graphics for Mif2Go

["Jeremy H. Griffith" <jeremy@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 10:54:58 +0000, Steve Rickaby 
<srickaby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>We're running up a dual-source project for a client that 
>wants both a printed user guide and the same thing in 
>WinHlp (yes, I know...).

That's actually single-source, with two targets... ;-)

>My inclination for the printed guide would be to take the 
>screenshots as TIFFs for optimum quality. 

Sounds good.  Frame works well with TIFFs.

>However, it would be tiresome to have to maintain two sets 
>of screenshots, as Mif2Go wants BMP or WMF. We could 
>batch-convert, but...

Batch conversion is a good workflow, assuming you have
most or all of your graphics in one or two directories.
And most graphics converters take under a second to do
a screenshot.  You could make a batch file to do the
job, and invoke it automatically from Mif2Go whenever
you run a conversion; that reduces maintenance of the
second set of images to near zero.

Mif2Go can also do the conversion itself, using the
Frame native graphic export filters, but a third-party
converter would give you better quality if someone
were printing from the WinHelp.  BTW, the BMP/WMF
requirement is from WinHelp, not Mif2Go... it may
seem that other formats like GIF work, but really
they are converted by the WinHelp compiler using
an MS Office filter, not the best of processes.
 
>We are working cross-platform with Mac and PC Frame. 
>Mac Frame cannot import BMPs, but can import WMFs. 

You can keep TIFFs in Frame (referenced), and set
Mif2Go to look for a matching BMP (a better choice
than WMF for bitmaps, to avoid a Win9x memory bug).
The BMPs can be in the same dirs as the TIFFs, or
in the Mif2Go conversion output dir, your choice.

>My question, as I'm not too familiar with the WMF 
>format, is whether there are any quality 'gotcha's 
>in using WMF for printed work. Quick and dirty tests 
>here look ok, but we don't want to encounter problems 
>at the printing stage that would force a redo of all 
>screenshots. 

Just keep using TIFFs in Frame.  For bitmaps, WMF
merely wraps a BMP-coded image.  For WinHelp, it's
best to use 256-color BMPs, not higher (no 16-bit
or 24-bit BMPs).

>(The user guide for Adobe Illustrator advises EMF 
>instead of WMF wherever possible, but Frame can't 
>import EMF either.)

And WinHelp may have trouble with them too.  Avoid
EMFs if you possibly can; support for them is not
consistent.

HTH!

-- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc.
  <jeremy@xxxxxxxxx>  http://www.omsys.com/

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