WebHelp image export

[jabramoff]

Hello. I currently publish documents to PDF but I am testing publishing to WebHelp, as an additional delivery format. That means I can't make changes that would affect the existing PDF output.

So, with the Display size setting for screenshots and other images set to % of physical image size and publishing to WebHelp, I noticed that H+M appears to scale export screenshots and other images at that %, which contradicts what appears at https://www.helpandmanual.com/help/hm_w ... esize.html, under WebHelp, ePUB, Kindle and eWriter: Export images with original dimensions

The images are exported with their original native dimensions when you publish to to these formats...

I've read through the Regarding image clarity forum topic /http://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewto ... 232eb8bf38 and some of the How to prevent WebHelp from downconverting images topic http://helpman.it-authoring.com/viewtop ... 232eb8bf38, but I don't see any information directly addressing this apparent contradiction between what H+M is supposed to do when publishing to WebHelp and what it appears to be doing.

[Tim Green]

Images are exported natively to WebHelp when you use Web-native formats (GIF, JPG, PNG) but the scaling will still depend on what you apply in the size settings if you set them. I don't think you would prefer it if HM ignored your configuration?

The bottom line here is that the best setting for both PDF and WebHelp is % of page width, maximum is physical dimension. The % of physical size setting is a legacy thing dating from the days of old monitors in which each pixel of an image was represented by a single pixel on the monitor. That is no longer the case, and with the huge range of display resolutions, sizes and pixel densities you now need to relate layout dimensions to the "page" dimensions to get predictable results. This setting will give you images that adapt responsively to the page they are currently in, which is the browser window in WebHelp and the physically-defined page dimensions in PDF. In WebHelp the image adapts dynamically all the time because the window dimensions can be changed by the user at any time. In PDF it only adapts once when the PDF is published. After that it is a printed page. (Not "like" a printed page, it is a printed page. A PDF is just printer data in a file, "printed" to the screen with a printer driver.)

Note that when an image is in a table the "page" that its dimensions relate to is the table cell.

[jabramoff]

Thank you, once again, Tim, for your quick response.

I understand. If we decide to deliver these documents in both formats, I might need to change the Display size setting to % of page width, maximum is physical dimension. However, for PDF publishing, I often use the Display size setting to make sure pages break properly, for example. Even though that's not an issue when publishing to WebHelp, I (unfortunately) might still need to make sure PDF pages break properly.

I don't expect nor want H+M to ignore my configuration, but I hope you can see why I and others might want to specify different display size settings for different outputs, or to be able to retain current PDF-optimized settings while also being able to publish to WebHelp with high-quality images.

In any case, I believe that sentence in https://www.helpandmanual.com/help/hm_w ... esize.html is either not accurate or is only accurate when certain settings are specified.

Again, thank you.

[Tim Green]

Yes, I initially thought you only meant scaling, not physical resizing. A few versions ago, HM introduced physical resizing for WebHelp output as well if you use the % of physical size setting. The images won't be physically resized if you use the responsive settings (% of page width).

[jabramoff]

I see.

I also just realized I was thinking that the images H+M is resizing are PNG (a "Web-native format", as you noted). In fact, they are IPP.

When I publish to WebHelp, H+M is not resizing the PNG images that do exist in this document.

[Tim Green]

When I publish to WebHelp, H+M is not resizing the PNG images that do exist in this document.

I'm going to have to re-check this. I haven't looked into it for a while, but my last information was that WebHelp was now also resizing for physically scaled images.