Re: Graphics DPI, FrameMaker, & Acrobat troubles

[Ezra Steinberg <ezra@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dov:

Great set of instructions. Thanks.

Can you elaborate on how these instructions apply when working on UNIX
(and perhaps particularly, Solaris)?

Ezra



Dov Isaacs wrote:
> 
> Eric and others who have responded to this issue:
> 
> The question of handling of screen captures comes up quite frequently
> on this list. I am repeating some advise that I have previously posted
> on this and other lists along with some updates. Note that unfortunately,
> very few "printing services" or "service bureaus" REALLY understand what
> is going on underneath the covers here, so to speak. Their recommendations
> are effectively a translation of classical prepress advice that works
> perfectly well in certain situations, primarily those in which high
> resolution images, such as Kodachrome or Ektachrome transparencies,
> are being scanned on drum scanners and the resolution at which the
> scanning is done needs to be chosen carefully to preserve detail but
> not overwhelm the imaging system. That is exceptionally different
> than capturing computer screen shots!
> 
> Here goes ...
> 
>         - Dov
> 
> ========================================================================
> 
> Based on our experience at Adobe, there is one way that easily yields
> the highest quality computer screen shots for both display and
> printing.
> 
> (1) Grab the image with whatever your favorite tool is. Under Windows,
> the easiest thing to do is Alt-PrintScrn which puts the RGB bits onto
> the pasteboard. On the Mac, Shift-Command-4 followed by CapsLock yields
> an image file.
> 
> (2a) Under Windows with Photoshop 6, create a new document. It will
> automatically be the size of the image on the pasteboard. CTRL-V will
> then paste the screen capture into that new image. Then, flatten that
> image.
> 
> (2b) Under MacOS with Photoshop 6, open the generated image file (a PICT
> file with a name of the form "Picture x" where "x" is an integer).
> 
> (3) Convert the screen shot image to CMYK or grayscale to suit your needs.
> Not all service bureaus require CMYK! If you are displaying the PDF file
> and printing to laser printers, CMYK buys you nothing other than potentially
> a larger file.
> 
> (4) Do not resize or change resolution of the image!!!!!!
> (Why? Because you generally don't know at this time exactly what the
> magnifications and resolutions are that you will be viewing and printing
> with! In fact, zooming in and out with Acrobat or Acrobat Reader changes
> those requirements on the fly. Better to simply just have the captured
> data. Upsampling or downsampling at time of need to exact specifications
> yields much better results than multiple such transformations!)
> 
> (5) Save the image using File=>Save As using the "Photoshop EPS"
> option. In the "EPS options" screen, you should use the TIFF (8bits/pixel)
> preview option (yields an EPS file that can be used both on Mac and Windows),
> Encoding "binary" (ASCII can be twice the size and JPEG is totally inappropriate
> for screen shots). Check "PostScript color management" if you are using
> color management in your workflow. The key though is that you MUST check
> "Image Interpolation". This sets a image dictionary key that Adobe PostScript
> Level 2, Adobe PostScript 3, Acrobat, and Acrobat Reader use to do very high
> quality image interpolation and/or downsampling appropriate to the device's
> actual resolution and technology at the time the image is viewed or printed.
> (Distiller passes this key along from PostScript or EPS in a PostScript stream
> into the equivalent PDF image key!)
> 
> (6) Close Photoshop 6.
> 
> (7) Import the resultant EPS file into whatever application you have
> in which you wish to include the screen print. Obviously you will only
> see the EPS preview in those applications (except for InDesign), but
> your resultant printed output (via PostScript or PostScript=>PDF) or
> display via Acrobat / Acrobat Reader will be of exceptionally high
> quality. During distillation, do not downsample any of these images.
> Downsampling of the screen shots can be avoided by having a high enough
> threshold for downsampling; 300dpi or higher will do!
> 
> Working on a budget? It turns out that you can replace Adobe Photoshop 6
> with Adobe Photoshop Elements 1.0 if you do not need to convert to CMYK
> and don't need any other advanced image handling. This could save you
> $500 a copy if your image handling needs are more limited.
> 
> NO, as far as I know, neither JASC nor Corel PhotoPaint nor any of the
> other budget image edit programs offer the EPS export image interpolation
> option, assuming they even offer the EPS format. Furthermore, none of
> the nifty screen capture utilities that we know of offer either EPS or
> EPS with the image interpolation option.
> 
> We know of NO better means of producing high quality printed or displayed
> screen shots in an output device independent manner. Forget GIF, TIFF, BMP,
> and especially JPEG. Forgetting the issue of the image interpolation feature
> for the time being, use of any of these formats results in the "host"
> program (such as FrameMaker or Microsoft Word, etc.) doing their own
> resizing of the image in conjunction with the PostScript drivers based on
> the device resolution selected. The bottom line is that by the time
> Acrobat gets to display the image or the PostScript RIP gets the image data,
> the image data will have been upsampled, downsampled, resampled, i.e.
> overmangled!
> 
> Also, note that for purposes of placing other images in FrameMaker or
> similar applications, EPS with the image interpolation also is the preferred
> means of image placement for exactly the same reasons. In terms of image
> resolution, you may choose to leave as-is and let the Distiller do the
> heavy lifting, if necessary or downsample in Photoshop if the original
> image is grossly over-endowed, so to speak. Remember, you cannot later
> reconstruct what you downsample now.
> 
> With regards to the "resolution" that you set the Acrobat Distiller
> printer to, that resolution primarily affects non-EPS image handling.
> As long as you set the resolution to 600 dpi or greater, character and
> vector artwork placement will be fine and not affected. You don't need
> to use the resolution of the final device (in fact, don't go over
> 1200 dpi under Windows or you might hit a nasty bug in FrameMaker's
> interface with the driver).
> 
> For distillation job options, always use "compress text and line art".
> This is non-lossy compression and you gain nothing by not using it
> other than a larger PDF file size.
> 
> I know that this information is very much at odds with what your service
> bureaus, printers, or Kinkos will tell you, but it is authoritative and
> Adobe Systems Incorporated stands behind it completely when used in
> conjunction with Adobe Acrobat and RIPs with Adobe PostScript Level 2
> or Adobe PostScript 3.
> 
> ========================================================================
> 
> At 5/22/2001 06:21 AM, Eric Thomas wrote:
> >Hi all.
> >
> >I'm in a bit of a confused state right now, and could really use some
> >explanation. Our printing service sent us some information on getting our
> >documentation production flow to work more smoothly, and it included the
> >following statement:
> >
> >...all graphics in the document should be set to a resolution of 200 DPI for
> >Docutech work and 300 DPI for Offset work.
> >
> >I'm at a loss to know how to set specific resolution for screen captures. I
> >use Paint Shop Pro to perform a capture, I save the image as a bitmap
> >(usually, though sometimes as a GIF), and then import it into the Frame
> >document and size it. I then print it to PostScript using the Distiller
> >print driver, and convert it to a PDF with the following compression
> >settings:
> >
> >Color Bitmap Images:
> >Resampling, Bicubic Downsampling at 300 dpi
> >Compression, Automatic
> >Quality, High
> >
> >Grayscale Bitmap Images:
> >Resampling, Bicubic Downsampling at 300 dpi
> >Compression, Automatic
> >Quality, High
> >
> >Monochrome Bitmap Images:
> >Resampling, Bicubic Downsampling at 1200 dpi
> >Compression, CCITT Group 4
> >
> >Compress Text and Line Art
> >
> >I also have the resolution set to 1200 dpi in the General tab for job
> >options. Am I doing something wrong, or is the printer having problems with
> >something that should work? If anyone can offer some suggestions, I'd be
> >most appreciative.
> >
> >Thanks.
> >-Eric
> 
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Ezra Steinberg				Resonate, Inc.
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