creating great screenshots terry smith stc carolina tri-doc 2005 april 8 & 9
TRANSCRIPT
Creating Creating Great Great
ScreenshotsScreenshotsTerry Smith
STC Carolina Tri-Doc 2005
April 8 & 9
April 2005 2
Graphic Element Clarity
Fonts are best for all formats Vector art is next Bitmap art like all screenshots is least
flexible
April 2005 3
What is the best tool to use?
It really doesn’t matter for simple screenshots
Most tools can capture portions of the screen
The real difference is in post-processing
April 2005 4
Which graphics format is best?
Where will the graphic be used? Can you sacrifice quality for reduced
size? How important is dependable color
reproduction?
April 2005 5
What can I do before taking the screenshot?
Use standard appearance settings so your screenshots have a consistent look.
Use appearance settings that do not moirés.
April 2005 6
It’s a moiré
Moirés are checkerboard patterns that show up in print and sometimes online.
The appearance of the moiré depends on the resolution of the printer, how the screenshot was resized, and so on.
Moirés look unprofessional.
April 2005 7
How do screenshots get ruined?
Lossy format Changing size Changing size by dragging instead of by
adjusting DPI (FrameMaker) Settings in print driver Settings in Acrobat Distiller Pasting from Microsoft Word
April 2005 8
What is the worst graphic format?
JPEG (with one exception) Lossy format Compression algorithm is meant for
smooth images like photographs, not abrupt transitions
Can cause bloating in PDFs
April 2005 9
Good online formats
GIF if you need only 256 colors PNG if your users all have a browser
that supports PNG
(PNG is the native format for SnagIt)
April 2005 10
Good print formats
TIFF and EPS are best if you need top-quality color reproduction or cross-platform compatibility
PNGs are small and lossless if your desktop publishing program supports them
BMPs are big, but often useful for Windows programs
April 2005 11
What do users like to see?
Clear screenshots Screenshots with callouts Screenshots that highlight the important
parts in some way When appropriate, screenshots that are
layered and labeled to show relationships
April 2005 12
SnagIt
The most recommended screenshot tool
Easy to capture the portion of the screen you want
Easy to process the screenshots for professional, user-friendly effects
April 2005 13
SnagIt Drawing
April 2005 14
Resources
Creating Perfect ScreenshotsInput\LS2-ScrnCap.htm
Dov Isaac’s recommended driver and Acrobat Distiller settingsInput\Dov Isaacs PDF Presentation\Isaacs PDF Conf West 2002.pdf
April 2005 15
Q & A
April 2005 16
Tri-Doc 2005
Terry Smith
Per-Se Technologies, Inc.
(919) 549-2359