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Subject:Word as a graphics tool?!?!? From:kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Wed, 22 Sep 2004 13:45:31 -0600
I just found a surprisingly handy way to use Word to modify a graphic.
Our company often does customized demos for prospective customers,
adopting their data model and customizing the front end of the GUI with
their company name and logo. I'm frequently tasked with creating these
graphics, usually by resizing logos I've snatched off their websites.
Sometimes the resizing process really degrades the image quality,
particularly if the source graphic is significantly different in size from
the desired final graphic.
Today I was fortunate enough to have a very large source graphic. But when
I began shrinking it, it got too blurry too quickly, and did not look
professional.
On a whim, I inserted the graphic file into a Word doc, then messed around
with the Zoom setting at which I was viewing the document. As I lowered
the Zoom setting, I saw far less degradation of the graphic. Once I got it
to the size I wanted, I screen-capped it, and viola (or cello, if you
prefer), I had a great looking logo in the size I needed.
I don't know why - and frankly am surprised - but Word's resizing
algorithm did far less damage to the image than bicubic resampling. My
source graphic was 650 x 300 pixels, and I was able to shrink and crop it
to a crisp, clear 165 x 55 pixel logo, with far better results than I was
getting from my graphics program.
Anyway, just wanted to share this trick. Normally I cringe at the thought
of dealing with graphics in Word, but here's a situation where the Dreaded
Software actually HELPED.
Keith Cronin
________________________
Hi, my name is Keith. I'm a fontaholic. It's been 15 days since I fondled
a font. I'm recovering nicely, and--ooooh, is that Garamond? Look at those
serifs! So whimsical, so perky, so beguiling. You just want to reach out
and touch them, and--
Oops.
Sorry.
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