What is best fomat to use when inserting scanned signatures into Word?

[Mary]

I previously posted on this subject but still haven't resolved the issue.
What is the best format to use when inserting scanned signatures into Word?
I would like them to look both good onscreen and also print and PDF well.
Also we would like to keep the filesize small without loss of quality. We
have been using GIFs in the company where I work but although they look OK
onscreen, they look bad in printouts. We have been saving them from
PhotoShop as GIFs for the web which may be part of the problem.

 

[Vocátional© & Technicál© Educátion®]

Using Word 2K
Open word
Save.As > Photo Test
Insert Table 2 X 3
Click inside one of the cells


-------------------------------------
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[Vocátional© & Technicál© Educátion®]

Think creative
Using Word 2K
Open word

Think creative
Save.As > Photo Test
Insert Table 2 X 3
Click inside one of the cells

Think creative
Insert a Table 1 x 1
Insert a Photo
Open the Photo
Make it 50% larger or smaller

Insert the smaller Photo
Insert the larger Photo
Think creative
-------------------------------------
Best regards - Vocátional© & Technicál© Educátion® -
VoTecEdu at MSN Dot Com - (e-mail address removed) -
Cooking Crawfish & Alligators in New Orleans...
Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original
dimensions - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/
http://www.nola.com/

* New! Eliminate pop-up ads, Spy Ware and Home Page Hi-jacks*
http://toolbar.google.com/

 

[Mary]

What is Photo Test?

 

[pre]

Obviously a proposed file name.

In my opinion you´ll benefit from this recently revised article in
Microsofts Knowledge Base:

OFF: Guidelines for Selecting the Appropriate Picture Format

The easy way to get it is:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320314

pre

What is Photo Test?

 

[Mary]

Pre:

Thanks for the link to that KB article. It really didn't help me though. I
was hoping to get a reply from someone who had experience of using scanned
signatures in Word.

Obviously a proposed file name.

In my opinion you´ll benefit from this recently revised article in
Microsofts Knowledge Base:

OFF: Guidelines for Selecting the Appropriate Picture Format

The easy way to get it is:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;320314

pre

 

[John]

GIF is a good format. If the quality doesn't look good, try scanning at a
higher resolution. I always scan things like this to black and white (ie no
shades of grey) if printing on a b/w laser printer, since laser printers
mess up shades of grey.

 

[Mary]

Thank John, I have been scanning them as GIFs. However, if I scan at a high
resolution, the image is very large when inserted into Word (I think they
are inserted at whatever screen resolution the user is using). I then scale
it down which helps to sharpen the image. Is that what you do also?

I found that if I size the image first in Photoshop, it appears at about
95dpi in Word and so is poor quality.

 

[pre]

Hey
There are a few rules of thumbs to follow when you work with pictures: On
scanning, allways work in color, make sure you get the best resolution
available. Usually save in a format without compression. Normally that´s
TIF or BMP.
If for printing you´ll be satisfied with a 300 DPI Resolution, for screen
(incl. Web) you might be content to 92 DPI.

Use the original scanning to produce (and maybe crop) a copy for final work,
then you may pay attention to file size as well. JPG is often recommended
for reducing needed desk space . It´s done by (lossy) compressing where
details are removed to some degree. That´s done every time you save in
that format. A fair picture editor will give you opportunity to select the
compressing degree, often you can have a preview as well.

GIF format was specially made for use on the Web. Here the file reducing is
made by decreasing colors. Where JPG may work in up to million of colors,
GIF inclue only 256.

Roughly seen, JPG is working best with Photos or pics with small details
wherea GIF produce as best when larger areals of plain color dominate.

When inserting in Word, preferably use Insert from file, that way you´ll get
the smallest result.

 

[Mary]

Pre: Since these are just signatures and most are signed in black, I've been
scanning in B&W. John also suggested that was a good idea. The docs
containing them will most likely be printed to B&W laser printers.
Since GIF images are automatically reduced to 92dpi (or something like
that), and I want a higher resolution for the sigs, do you think I'm better
to (1) create larger GIFs than necessary and scale them down after insertion
in Word? or (2) use a different image format?
Thanks for all your help.