Omni Systems, Inc.
Mif2Go User's Guide, Version 55
31.2.1.1.1 Scaling (or avoiding scaling) screenshots
Screenshots do not scale well at all, not even
a little. The text is messed up by even the slightest rescale.
If you use a screenshot graphic at its original
size, unless it is only a button or a small dialog the graphic tends
to overwhelm the accompanying text. If the graphic is a full-panel screenshot, it looks huge. And if you scale it
at all in FrameMaker, any screen-capture text becomes illegible. You
cannot reduce graphic size even by 5% and retain legibility.
These are your choices:
- Crop big images to show just the part you need,
in a graphics editor (such as Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, or Graphic Workshop;
see §5.7.2.3 Using third-party graphics converters).
- Eliminate the screenshots entirely; if users
are looking at Help, they also have the real application right there;
you can tell them how to get to the screen you are discussing.
- Use thumbnails: little images that each link
to a bigger version that is typically displayed as a pop-up in its own
window.
- If you are preparing bitmaps for WinHelp use,
resample them so that they are at screen resolution, typically 96 DPI,
at the size at which you wish to display them.
See also §31.5.1 Rescaling bitmap graphics.