poor image quality

[Chris]

I can't seem to figure out why when I import an image into my Word file
(using Office 2003) the image quality is poor. I've tried high quality JPG,
TIFF files and it doesn't seem to help. The image appears to be softened?
I'm a developer and I'm using Macromedia products to create the images.
I've tried importing and pasting, both look the same.
help.

 

[Chris]

duh, figured it out. It requires like all 'print' work to be high dpi. I
coverted to 300pdi and it looks good, crisp. But you must do this in the
graphic software. And if you're using a photo, it must already be at that
resolution or higher. You can't increase it unless you rescan (i.e. Kinko's
has a service, and I'm sure others do also) the photo to a higher res.
Hope this helps anyone else.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Chris,

If the graphic does not have embedded the PPI (pixel per
inch) value to use then Word will tend to use the one
set in Tools=>Options=>General=>[Web Options]=>/Pictures\
when you Insert or paste a graphic. You can set the
value there up to 420 PPI, with the default being 72 PPI.

===
duh, figured it out. It requires like all 'print' work to be high dpi. I
coverted to 300pdi and it looks good, crisp. But you must do this in the
graphic software. And if you're using a photo, it must already be at that
resolution or higher. You can't increase it unless you rescan (i.e. Kinko's
has a service, and I'm sure others do also) the photo to a higher res.
Hope this helps anyone else. >>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Office 2003 Editions explained
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/office/editions.mspx

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I was curious about this, Bob, since I was experiencing graphics
difficulties yesterday. I checked this setting in Word 2003, and I find that
I have only three PPI settings (72, 96, and 120) regardless of what I set as
the screen size. How does one get 420?

The problem I was having was in pasting diagrams created in Publisher. In
the past (as recently as Word 2002), I was able to use some Paste Special
setting and get flawless text and straight lines (curves were just a big
jaggy), but although the material I was pasting yesterday was all text boxes
and arrows, I could not find a really satisfactory option.

I couldn't remember what setting I had used before, so I started with GIF,
then tried PNG, JPEG, Windows Metafile, and bitmap before finally throwing
in the towel and using MS Office Drawing Object. All the alternatives looked
great on the screen, but when printed (as the document must be), the text
was just dots, the few diagonal lines were jaggy, and the horizontal and
vertical lines and arrows varied in thickness. The Office Drawing Object
works pretty well except that the vertical centering of text boxes is not
preserved, so Space Before has to be added (HTML Format, which is offered as
the default selection, has the same drawback but does do a good job of
rendering the lines and text).

This morning I tried the final alternative, Enhanced Metafile, and found
that it renders the lines and arrows perfectly and the text more or less
acceptably (clear but with erratic spacing), so perhaps that was the option
I used before, but the jagginess of the PNG, GIF, JPEG, and even WMF options
was what made me wonder about increasing the PPI setting.

Hi Chris,

If the graphic does not have embedded the PPI (pixel per
inch) value to use then Word will tend to use the one
set in Tools=>Options=>General=>[Web Options]=>/Pictures\
when you Insert or paste a graphic. You can set the
value there up to 420 PPI, with the default being 72 PPI.

===
duh, figured it out. It requires like all 'print' work to be high dpi. I
coverted to 300pdi and it looks good, crisp. But you must do this in the
graphic software. And if you're using a photo, it must already be at that
resolution or higher. You can't increase it unless you rescan (i.e. Kinko's
has a service, and I'm sure others do also) the photo to a higher res.
Hope this helps anyone else. >>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Office 2003 Editions explained
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/office/editions.mspx

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Suzanne,

You can type in values other than those on the dropdown
for the PPI value in Tools=>Options=>General=>Web Options=>Picture
It's similar to the Font dialog drop down on the formatting
toolbar.

EMF/WMF files can have both vector and bitmap type elements
in the composition.

Bitmaps, when the pixel per inch spacing is increased
as the number of colored pixels in the graphic does not increas
can show the 'jaggies' (rough edges) from the loss of curve
smoothness illusion.

Compounding some of this is the ability that different programs
give to the ability to transfer data/formats to and from
their clipboard paths and the differences in printer resolution
from the screen resolution and the way the printer
or the program sending data to the printer renders
the sizing and graphics.

=========
I was curious about this, Bob, since I was experiencing graphics
difficulties yesterday. I checked this setting in Word 2003, and I find that
I have only three PPI settings (72, 96, and 120) regardless of what I set as
the screen size. How does one get 420?

The problem I was having was in pasting diagrams created in Publisher. In
the past (as recently as Word 2002), I was able to use some Paste Special
setting and get flawless text and straight lines (curves were just a big
jaggy), but although the material I was pasting yesterday was all text boxes
and arrows, I could not find a really satisfactory option.

I couldn't remember what setting I had used before, so I started with GIF,
then tried PNG, JPEG, Windows Metafile, and bitmap before finally throwing
in the towel and using MS Office Drawing Object. All the alternatives looked
great on the screen, but when printed (as the document must be), the text
was just dots, the few diagonal lines were jaggy, and the horizontal and
vertical lines and arrows varied in thickness. The Office Drawing Object
works pretty well except that the vertical centering of text boxes is not
preserved, so Space Before has to be added (HTML Format, which is offered as
the default selection, has the same drawback but does do a good job of
rendering the lines and text).

This morning I tried the final alternative, Enhanced Metafile, and found
that it renders the lines and arrows perfectly and the text more or less
acceptably (clear but with erratic spacing), so perhaps that was the option
I used before, but the jagginess of the PNG, GIF, JPEG, and even WMF options
was what made me wonder about increasing the PPI setting.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill>>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

Office 2003 Editions explained
http://www.microsoft.com/uk/office/editions.mspx

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Thanks, Bob. I'm not sure I understood most of that, but it's useful
information!