Images are blurry.... what to do?

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steph
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Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by steph »

Greetings..

first of all - I'm happy I bought Mellel.. all the organizing-stuff helps a lot with my current work... and no crash yet. :-)

But my problem: I'm writing a scientific report with a lot of tables, graphs and pictures in it.... Pictures like Screenshots look fine.. but I also have to insert Tables and Graphs..

For example - inserting a graph:
I open excel/numbers and display it like i want it to appear.. then i do a screenshot of my desktop (tried snaps x pro also) and save just the graph as a TIF (tried png also). The Tif looks fine, but when i insert it to Mellel, all the lines and numbers are getting blurry... I've attatched a example...

So.. the picture in the text is scaled down to 84%.. but this also happens when I choose a picture that is not scaled down....

what do do? i have large graphs and they look like crap printed out this way :( do I have to resize the pictures to a specific format to look good at my DIN A4 printout?

too bad graphs and tables are not possible in mellel ...


thanks for your help and sorry for my bad english :)

steph :(
signinstranger
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by signinstranger »

steph wrote:what do do? i have large graphs and they look like crap printed out this way :(
No wonder when you're using low resolution bitmap images. Why don't you save your images in PDF format (File->Print->Save as PDF...) and trim off the edges with Preview.app?
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by aechallu »

too bad graphs and tables are not possible in mellel
Tables like the one you show in the screenshot are certainly doable in Mellel. You copy them from Excel and then do "Edit/Convert Text to Table". You need to figure out how some programs copy tables using tabs as separators; then you replicate the formatting in Mellel. It's a nuisance that you can't keep the formatting when you paste tables into Mellel, but for simple scenarios doing native Mellel tables works better for me.
steph
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by steph »

signinstranger wrote:
steph wrote:what do do? i have large graphs and they look like crap printed out this way :(
No wonder when you're using low resolution bitmap images. Why don't you save your images in PDF format (File->Print->Save as PDF...) and trim off the edges with Preview.app?

when i save as pdf and then insert back in mellel, a whole DIN a 4 page is inserted :-( a picture with a biig white border, (the pdf i opened in preview ist just fine) :(


and about quality... a TIFF in 2000x2000 should be an ok quality i guess ... ?


EDIT: managed to get a picture as PDF in preview AND get it in the correct aspect ratio into mellel.... but - guess what - blurry as always..
:(
Last edited by steph on Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:30 pm, edited 2 times in total.
steph
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by steph »

aechallu wrote:
too bad graphs and tables are not possible in mellel
Tables like the one you show in the screenshot are certainly doable in Mellel. You copy them from Excel and then do "Edit/Convert Text to Table". You need to figure out how some programs copy tables using tabs as separators; then you replicate the formatting in Mellel. It's a nuisance that you can't keep the formatting when you paste tables into Mellel, but for simple scenarios doing native Mellel tables works better for me.
Thanks for the advice, but the table i attached was a very small one.. i've got tons of em in my document - and most are a lot bigger.. and the problem with all my graphs is still there besides that workaround..

there must be a way to put "sharp" graphics into that....!
:(
jannuss
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by jannuss »

steph wrote:there must be a way to put "sharp" graphics into that....!
Two things:

First, granted it is a complex solution, but you'll be much happier with the results if you use Mellel's tables. I suggest you give it a try.

Second, using pdf will work, but you need to massage the pdf output in EXCEL before you export it. I use NeoOffice, not EXCEL, but I assume the options are much the same. Here's what I did for my test case:
-- in Format/Page,
---- I set all the margins to zero,
---- turned off Header & Footer, and
---- in Sheet, selected "Reduce/enlarge printout" with a scale factor of 275% (which suited my small test table)
-- to produce the pdf file I used File/Print, not File/Export to pdf
---- I selected Pages from 1 to 1 and
---- Save as PDF
-- I dragged/dropped the resulting file into Mellel and got a very sharp image.

So, I'd say that the problem is on the Excel side of the equation. You'll need to fiddle and prod a bit, but you should come up with a solution that works for all your tables.

All that being said, a more ideal solution would be to get EXCEL to produce jpeg images
------ does anyone have an idea how to do this?

Janet
steph
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by steph »

it's not only excel..

i got problems with spss and other programs aswell.. i need screenshots from a game too.... the pictures are always very sharp, but when inserted in mellel - the blur is back.
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by jannuss »

steph wrote:i need screenshots from a game too.... the pictures are always very sharp, but when inserted in mellel - the blur is back.
Screen shots are always a bad choice. They are quick & dirty, low quality images not suitable for printing.

Some games allow you to save better quality pictures of the screen.

Janet
steph
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by steph »

jannuss wrote:
steph wrote:i need screenshots from a game too.... the pictures are always very sharp, but when inserted in mellel - the blur is back.
Screen shots are always a bad choice. They are quick & dirty, low quality images not suitable for printing.

Some games allow you to save better quality pictures of the screen.

Janet
as i said - even with a 2000x2000 TIF,which shouldn't be a too bad, its blurry :(
jannuss
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by jannuss »

steph wrote:as i said - even with a 2000x2000 TIF,which shouldn't be a too bad, its blurry :(
Now we're talking about two different things.

Screen shots are 72x72 Oppi and are not suitable for print-quality work.

Tiff files are another matter. I've had problems with blurry tiff files in Preview. It must be a function of how they are generated. How was your 2000x2000 tiff file made and how many Oppi [dots/inch]?

Janet
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by laup »

Two additions to what has been said:

1. Beware of pdf images if you're using Word at some point because of standardization or collaborators. At least through Office 2004, Word mangles pdfs: a clean image can, when printed, turn out blurry. As a result, I use pngs, with which I've had excellent success. It's a pity, since pdfs retain more information, but...Although I have used TIFs in the past, I quit doing so and don't remember why.

2. I use screenshots routinely in publications. However, I take the snapshot from a large-screen monitor (23 inch, as I recall), using as much real estate as possible. I then compress the image in Mellel or Word. This generates images equivalent to something more like 288 dpi than 72. I have done this with many charts, but not with tables.
Paul
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by laup »

ScreenSnapz.png
Here is a png snapshot made with SnapZ pro after increasing the Excel table to 400%
Paul
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by BobMac »

No one has mentioned it yet - there is a very useful freeware app for Mac called Snap'n'Drag I find quite useful. It has a lot of options for file format saving and all that.

Regards, Bob
steph
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by steph »

pkensildavis wrote:
ScreenSnapz.png
Here is a png snapshot made with SnapZ pro after increasing the Excel table to 400%
thanks for the demonstration.. but still, i guess i am not clear enough.. even when i screengrab that size and put it into mellel, it's blurry.. i did the same with my example...
Mart°n
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Re: Images are blurry.... what to do?

Post by Mart°n »

Just three questions:

1. Which Mac and OS X version do you use? As far as I know, there had been some problem with the Intel graphics driver (for integrated graphics cards on MacBooks, education iMacs and Mac Minis) that sometimes lead to a blurred image (in iTunes for example).

2. Do those graphics only look blurred on screen or do they print out blurred too?

3. Could you provide a example Mellel file (just one page) with a blurred image? (Either via upload to some file hosting service or via Mail > uboot (at) quantentunnel.de )

EDIT: the mail address was accidentally disabled but should work again.
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