Paint Shop Pro support - Problem printing image that looks good on screen

Author

Problem printing image that looks good on screen

Stan Hilliard

2005-02-22, 6:46 pm

Using PSP 7 I reduce the color depth of a screen capture to remove
excess. Then I save it as BMP and insert it into a help file with
VBHelpWriter.

The images look good on the [help] screen, and when I export them to
an RTF file to make a user manual with Word. I can insert them
directly into a word document and they look good on screen and printed
from Word.

But when I try to Print a topic of the help file, the images have
backgrounds make of hugh dots -- as if the image were 10 pixels per
inch expanded to 5 inches. So a 5 inch wide printed picture has 50
dots of background across.

Image information in PSP 7 for a typical image
494 x 521 Pixels
6.882 x 7.195 inches
Pixels per inch 72
Pixel depth/colors 4/16

What could be happening when the image is printed from a help file?

Stan Hilliard

Kris Zaklika

2005-02-22, 6:46 pm

Stan Hilliard wrote:
>
> Using PSP 7 I reduce the color depth of a screen capture to remove
> excess. Then I save it as BMP and insert it into a help file with
> VBHelpWriter.
>
> The images look good on the [help] screen, and when I export them to
> an RTF file to make a user manual with Word. I can insert them
> directly into a word document and they look good on screen and printed
> from Word.
>
> But when I try to Print a topic of the help file, the images have
> backgrounds make of hugh dots -- as if the image were 10 pixels per
> inch expanded to 5 inches. So a 5 inch wide printed picture has 50
> dots of background across.
>
> Image information in PSP 7 for a typical image
> 494 x 521 Pixels
> 6.882 x 7.195 inches
> Pixels per inch 72
> Pixel depth/colors 4/16
>
> What could be happening when the image is printed from a help file?

I don't know why you are asking a question about printing
Windows Help files in a PSP newsgroup. PSP isn't involved
in the printing if I interpret you correctly. However, I
would guess that whatever is printing your images has
decided to halftone them, i.e. render them as dots as in
a newspaper photo. Look at the options in whatever is
printing your images to find out how to switch this off
or how to print with a larger number of colors.

> Stan Hilliard

Trev

2005-02-22, 6:46 pm

"Stan Hilliard" <usenetreplyUM@sampling4plansNOTSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:snnm11p4mq1gpedggnmrd02d1dke4ltfrl@4ax.com...
> Using PSP 7 I reduce the color depth of a screen capture to remove
> excess. Then I save it as BMP and insert it into a help file with
> VBHelpWriter.
>
> The images look good on the [help] screen, and when I export them to
> an RTF file to make a user manual with Word. I can insert them
> directly into a word document and they look good on screen and printed
> from Word.
>
> But when I try to Print a topic of the help file, the images have
> backgrounds make of hugh dots -- as if the image were 10 pixels per
> inch expanded to 5 inches. So a 5 inch wide printed picture has 50
> dots of background across.
>
> Image information in PSP 7 for a typical image
> 494 x 521 Pixels
> 6.882 x 7.195 inches
> Pixels per inch 72
> Pixel depth/colors 4/16
>
> What could be happening when the image is printed from a help file?
>
> Stan Hilliard

As I discovered last week Word very cleverly Interpolation the image so that
it prints well. I thought I would have to resize to get 200 ppi but word
sorted it for me where as your help file is printing at 72ppi and that's not
good for prints

Stan Hilliard

2005-02-22, 6:46 pm

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005 17:59:56 -0000, "Trev"
<trevbowdenATdsl.pipexDOTnet> wrote:

>
>"Stan Hilliard" <usenetreplyUM@sampling4plansNOTSPAM.com> wrote in message
>news:snnm11p4mq1gpedggnmrd02d1dke4ltfrl@4ax.com...
>
>As I discovered last week Word very cleverly Interpolation the image so that
>it prints well. I thought I would have to resize to get 200 ppi but word
>sorted it for me where as your help file is printing at 72ppi and that's not
>good for prints

I have confirmed that it is only the grey scale part of the images
that have the hugh dots. Text, solid lines, and curves print clearly
from the help file.

I cannot find any print properties in my help file editor
VBHelpWriter, and the images print correctly from other applications,
so I suspect that the problem could be something to do with the MS
WinHelp helpfile compiler.

I will describe the problem on microsoft.public.helpauthoring.

Stan Hilliard

Norbtach

2005-02-22, 6:46 pm

72 pixels per inch ( DPI ) is good for screen, take 300 DPI for printing.

Robert.

"Stan Hilliard" <usenetreplyUM@sampling4plansNOTSPAM.com> wrote in message
news:snnm11p4mq1gpedggnmrd02d1dke4ltfrl@4ax.com...
> Using PSP 7 I reduce the color depth of a screen capture to remove
> excess. Then I save it as BMP and insert it into a help file with
> VBHelpWriter.
>
> The images look good on the [help] screen, and when I export them to
> an RTF file to make a user manual with Word. I can insert them
> directly into a word document and they look good on screen and printed
> from Word.
>
> But when I try to Print a topic of the help file, the images have
> backgrounds make of hugh dots -- as if the image were 10 pixels per
> inch expanded to 5 inches. So a 5 inch wide printed picture has 50
> dots of background across.
>
> Image information in PSP 7 for a typical image
> 494 x 521 Pixels
> 6.882 x 7.195 inches
> Pixels per inch 72
> Pixel depth/colors 4/16
>
> What could be happening when the image is printed from a help file?
>
> Stan Hilliard