Equation editor output resolution

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Greg Smith
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Equation editor output resolution

Unread post by Greg Smith »

I have a few equations that in the past I tediously entered in a separate equation editor, then made a bitmap of for inclusion, so the new system is wonderful... but the resolution is a bit low, or at least it appears so to me. Can you explain how the bitmap resolution is set and if we have any way to control it?
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Alexander Halser
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Re: Equation editor output resolution

Unread post by Alexander Halser »

Equations are currently exported as PNG images at their native size for 96 DPI.

Our goal is to export them as inline SVG to make the equations fully scalable, as we do with the new symbol font conversion option. The SVG export was implemented for testing and works like a charm for many equations, but unfortunately not for all. It will require some deep change to the paint routine of the equation editor to make this work. We've postponed that for a later update and went with PNGs for v8.0.
Alexander Halser
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Greg Smith
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Re: Equation editor output resolution

Unread post by Greg Smith »

Yes, SVG would be great, but for now you really need maybe double the resolution in x and y. Having changed from using my hand-constructed png files to your equation editor, the result is a definite down-grade. Perhaps an option for hires equation images?
Gottkehaskamp
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Re: Equation editor output resolution

Unread post by Gottkehaskamp »

For me, too, the resolution is too bad; double the resolution as suggested would be good.
In addition, it would be important to make the background colour adjustable in future releases. From my point of view, "transparent" would be optimal, as the formula would then be displayed correctly regardless of the selected topic background colour.

Is there already a date when the export to SVG will be possible?
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Alexander Halser
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Re: Equation editor output resolution

Unread post by Alexander Halser »

Please have a look at the beta build 5733:
https://www.helpandmanual.com/download/ ... p-v822.exe

Equations are now exported as transparent PNGs and twice the size of the displayed area, to support higher resolutions. We've experimented with PNG sizes, but double size definitely looks best on most devices. The only occasion when an equation does not get exported in double-size is, if you create a CHM file and explicitly made it non-compatible with high-resolution monitors.

As for SVG export, we'd love to implement that. But the equation library does not support any SVG export yet. While we can work around that by converting the entire equation into a high-resolution SVG path tag, some nuisances do prevent us from completing the task. And those nuisances are, unfortunately, deeply buried in the drawing routines of the component and extremely difficult to fix (if we can fix them at all without risking drawing errors at other occasions we don't know about yet).

Here's an SVG export of an equation. You get the idea...
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Alexander Halser
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Gottkehaskamp
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Re: Equation editor output resolution

Unread post by Gottkehaskamp »

For me, the resolution is sufficient, but I have a problem because the png is now transparent and the formulas are then displayed in black on a black background. Before version 8.3, the formulas had a white background.

So far I have written all formulas with the font colour "automatic". Then the formula is displayed in the editor in the font of the paragraph, but in the CHM file they are always displayed in black font colour and thus now black on black for me.
Is there a possibility that the compiled formula in the chm-file has the same font colour as the representation in the editor, i.e. the font colour of the paragraph?
Or is it possible to set the background again?

Regards,
Raimund
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Alexander Halser
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Re: Equation editor output resolution

Unread post by Alexander Halser »

Can you send a small example (.HMXZ) for testing, please? alexander.halser (at) ec-software.com
Alexander Halser
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Gottkehaskamp
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Re: Equation editor output resolution

Unread post by Gottkehaskamp »

I just sent an Email to you because I can't attach the File here.

Regards,
Raimund
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