Hello,
we have many screenshots or other pictures in our documentation. I have noticed that the quality of the images decreases very much when exporting Webhelp, so the images look "blurred".
I have tried to import the screenshots in their original size into Help & Manual 8 and scale them down in the program, but the quality of the screenshots has decreased. Then I tried exporting the screenshots smaller using Photoshop and then inserting them into Help & Manual in their original size - but this made them even "blurrier" after the export. In the program itself the pictures look "sharp"...
Are there any settings in the Webhelp export that affect the quality?
We use a V3 Responsive WebHelp Skin.
Thank you very much and best regards,
Marie
P.S.: I can show you a before and after screenshot if you want to.
Quality of screenshots is very low in Webhelp
Moderators: Alexander Halser, Tim Green
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mehrwerk_gmbh
- Posts: 12
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Tim Green
- Site Admin
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Re: Quality of screenshots is very low in Webhelp
Hi Marie,
You need to be using the responsive setting for your screenshots, not the % of size setting. Always use % of page with, maximum is physical width. If you are using an older V3 skin the base font size setting may not be at 100% and this will affect the basic zoom of images. That can be corrected by updating to the current version of either Premium Pack 3 or 4. In addition to that, the text size setting that the user can adjust in the WebHelp menu in these skins will also adjust the display size of images as well as the text.
Apart from that, you will almost never see an image at exactly 1:1 representation on a web page any more. That is simply the way it is now. There are so many zoom and resizing steps on all systems (monitor size, monitor resolution, browser zoom set by the user, Windows display zoom and much more besides) that you have no way of knowing what the "real" resolution is. It might give you a warm, fuzzy feeling to adjust your own setup so that just once you see it at exactly that size, but that is really not relevant, because 99% of the time nobody else is going to see it at that size.
You need to be using the responsive setting for your screenshots, not the % of size setting. Always use % of page with, maximum is physical width. If you are using an older V3 skin the base font size setting may not be at 100% and this will affect the basic zoom of images. That can be corrected by updating to the current version of either Premium Pack 3 or 4. In addition to that, the text size setting that the user can adjust in the WebHelp menu in these skins will also adjust the display size of images as well as the text.
Apart from that, you will almost never see an image at exactly 1:1 representation on a web page any more. That is simply the way it is now. There are so many zoom and resizing steps on all systems (monitor size, monitor resolution, browser zoom set by the user, Windows display zoom and much more besides) that you have no way of knowing what the "real" resolution is. It might give you a warm, fuzzy feeling to adjust your own setup so that just once you see it at exactly that size, but that is really not relevant, because 99% of the time nobody else is going to see it at that size.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)
Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)
Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
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Martin Wynne
- Posts: 2656
- Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
- Location: West of the Severn, UK
Re: Quality of screenshots is very low in Webhelp
Hi Marie,
I posted some script earlier which prevents images from going fuzzy by always displaying them at the original pixel size, or smaller. This works in all browsers and at all system zoom settings that I have tested. The downside is that they will be quite small on some monitors. It's here:
https://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewto ... 128#p67128
(See my follow-up post if you have any images which are not loaded with the original page load, such as slide shows.)
The problem of fuzzy Webhelp screenshots has arisen time and again -- the problem is that browsers are optimized to display real-world images such as photographs, which they do just fine. But the zooming functions produce awful results with computer line graphics and screenshots, and it's getting worse as monitors get larger.
Some folks seem not to mind seeing fuzzy images, but I find them painful to look at and disabling, I have to look away after a while. I would rather have them very small than fuzzy.
cheers,
Martin.
I posted some script earlier which prevents images from going fuzzy by always displaying them at the original pixel size, or smaller. This works in all browsers and at all system zoom settings that I have tested. The downside is that they will be quite small on some monitors. It's here:
https://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewto ... 128#p67128
(See my follow-up post if you have any images which are not loaded with the original page load, such as slide shows.)
The problem of fuzzy Webhelp screenshots has arisen time and again -- the problem is that browsers are optimized to display real-world images such as photographs, which they do just fine. But the zooming functions produce awful results with computer line graphics and screenshots, and it's getting worse as monitors get larger.
Some folks seem not to mind seeing fuzzy images, but I find them painful to look at and disabling, I have to look away after a while. I would rather have them very small than fuzzy.
cheers,
Martin.