TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
As far as I can tell, Christine and John are on the same page.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: CHRISTINE ANAMEIER [SMTP:CANAMEIE -at- email -dot- usps -dot- gov]
> But since we're still
> seeing regular "why's my PDF fuzzy?" posts to the list, I suspect the
> defaults aren't working for everyone.
>
This really has nothing to do with the defaults. It has to do with Acrobat
Reader only clearly mapping images with a resolution that is a multiple of
72ppi. Additionally, it has to do with the nature of screen captures, that
screen captures are rasters, that screen captures are really not resizable,
that screen captures are not dynamic like the dialog boxes of which they are
pictures, and that Adobe Acrobat itself is a viewer, not a full-fledged word
processing or desktop publishing package, and the limitations of screen
resolutions setup.
It's like this, if the image was "this big" (imagine my fingers drawing a
rectangle) when you created/captured it, and you resampled the resolution to
fit it into a layout design "this big" (imagine my fingers drawing a smaller
rectangle), and then it is displayed in a window on a desktop "this big"
(imagine my fingers drawing an even smaller rectangle to reflect the size of
the Acrobat Reader Application and zoom on a host PC), then the image is not
going to look unaltered. If you digitize an image of the Mona Lisa and then
render it to a PDA, how good could that possibly look. That thought is an
exaggeration of what I speak.
Nevertheless, by designing the document up-front to consider the end result
and deliverable, you can accommodate these things and you can also produce
crisp images. But, in any event, John's point is well-taken. Most people for
most documents and most audiences can do quite nicely with PDF.
Planning to attend IPCC 01, October 24-27 in Santa Fe? Sign up by
October 3 and get a substantial discount! Program information,
online registration, and more on http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
+++ Miramo -- Database/XML publishing automation. See us at +++
+++ Seybold SFO, Sept. 25-27, in the Adobe Partners Pavilion +++
+++ More info: http://www.axialinfo.comhttp://www.miramo.com +++
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.