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Creating pdf from Winword

Hi

I recently tried to create a pdf from winword (using Acrobat Destiller). The Word document contains a lot of jpegs (mainly screenshots). The screenshots look perfect in Winword but in Acrobat they look just awful. The text is hardly readable and everything is a bit blurry.

What am I doing wrong ?

Thanks for yout help !

Magbert

webwoman

What size are you viewing them at? How do they print?

If you look at them smaller than you do in Word, of course they're going to look horrid.

weed

In distiller did you play with the compression options? Distiller WILL compress images as JPEGS unless you tell it otherwise.

Magbert

ASKER

I don't know how to play with the compression options. All I can do is choose between Screen optimized, Print optimized or Press optimized.
I tried all three options and it didn't really make a difference.

I look at them the same size or bigger than they are in word.

When I print the document text and screenshots are in perfect quality. But I don't want to print the document. It is just for screen display.

Magbert

weed

If theyre printing fine, all the data is there. Webwoman is probably right about you viewing them at more than %100. Itll also make a difference if youre viewing them on a Mac or a PC? Mac's use display postscript and anti-alias just about everything which makes it look better.

webwoman

Did you resize the images in Word? Don't EVER do that. It makes them really really crappy for screen display. They might look OK in Word, but anything else is going to look bad onscreen, though they might print OK.

If they print fine, they're good. I suspect that if you get to the right resolution, they'll look good onscreen too.

These are screenshots? How did you do them?

Magbert

ASKER

I have tried SnagIt and Hypersnap to make the screenshots. For editing the pictures before I insert them into Word I use Photoshop.

I have not tried viewing the document on a Mac.

What resolution and picture format should I use for the screenshots ?

weed

Any format is ok, and the rez depends on what you want to do with it. 72 for screen, and at least 150 for print.

Magbert

ASKER

Obviously it is not possible to convert word files containing screenshots to pdf in acceptable quality for screen display.
Any suggestions what I could use instead of winword to create my manuals ?

weed

I'd be using something like Illustrator or InDesign but those will cost you a little. Quality always has a price.

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webwoman

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