Best format to post schematics?

I'm fond of 150dpi PDF's. Check them out on the S.E.D/Schematics page of my website and see if you like the readability.

...Jim Thompson

PDF is more annoying because you need to open a whole program (or plugin) to view a file; GIFs, JPGs and PNGs can be embedded smoothly.

PDF may be better where text, such as a document is needed with the schematic, or for complicated schematics where scrolling may be easier.

Tim

-- Deep Fryer: a very philosophical monk. Website:

I can zoom in in Acrobat reader. I converted Ladybug, but its aparently has some Jpeg trash when you zoom in. Perhaps converting top PNG?? Pdf file is 4 times bigger. Perhaps Acrobat is creating the trash? PNG looks fine, as long as the drawing has big enough lettering. I'm printing now to see what it looks like.

greg

Why not offer the user a choice?

A screen-sized (say, 1024x768) GIF or PNG for quick viewing, and a page-sized PDF for printing and detail viewing. Note: the PDF only makes sense if it's produced directly from your schematics; don't bother with a PDF that just has a copy of the GIF inside it; the advantage of PDF is that it's resolution-independent and thus produces very crisp printouts.

I'd stay with color if there are just a few; the user can always convert to b&w if they want, and IMHO color - used appropriately (i.e. sparingly and consistently) - can make a schematic much more readable.

I do have a way of printing PDF files. I do like using them, didn't realize they kept vector information.

Can you "print" directly to a PDF? I think the problem you are seeing is that you are using your application to create a .png file, which is raster graphics. Then you are trying to convert that file into an Acrobat file. That will never work well, because the original vector graphics information was lost during the rasterization process of saving it to a .png.

If you have Acrobat installed, you should have a virtual Acrobat printer available. When you "print" to that virtual printer, the vector information should be passed to Acrobat, and then Acrobat will create a much better document; one that can be scaled easily w/o artifacts and will be much smaller in size.

Kurt

It depends on the application whether or not the vector information is retained. The Acrobat virtual printer driver can accept either raster or vector data, and it is up to the application to send the best format. Give it a try and see what happens.

Does anyone know a way to copy a picture/image in a pdf w/o any text that may be in the same field when you use the snapshot tool? So far I've had to copy everything in the box from the snapshot tool and the only program I've been able to copy it to is MS Word. After getting it to Word, I haven't been able to find a way to extract only the picture/image. Thanks

For those of you sick of the eternal load times for Acrobat Reader, I happened across an alternative.

It's a program called FoxItReader at

I'm not affiliated with them in any way. Just a satisfied user for the last 2 or 3 days since I found it.

PNG is just as good or better than GIF.

For the smallest file size vs. resolution, both TIFF and PDF can use the Group 4 fax compression algorithm, but your source needs to be 1 bit per pixel (Black and White). (Both will also use other compressions for other source encodings).

PDF will use a JPeG type compression for greyscale and color, which can really look ugly and bloat to huge sizes. Depends on your distiller's settings.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

I'll try that later. I don't see how one can use PNG to print directly, and get readable results, unless you zoom and print multable sections.

I saw Jpeg artifacts when i converted that PNG page to Acrobat. PNG is supposed to be lossless, yet I saw artifacts during this conversion.

I'll fool around when I get a chance. greg

Paste it into any paint program, and crop it. THEN put it in your MS doc.

Good Luck! Rich

Site seems to be a newsgroup, unsure how to see your pdfs?

PDF is not "a" format. Internally it can have multiple formats. If your PDF generating software can include the schematic from a vector source, it would be the best by far. With a vector format, you print it on any printer or zoom in almost indefinitely without looking chunky.

BMP, PNG, GIF, TIF, and JPG are all bitmap formats. Bitmaps are made of dots. Zoom in and eventually the dots show up.

JPG is in a class by itself in that it uses a compression format that throws out part of the picture. It was designed for photographs and so that the detail it throws out is not all that visible at lower compression ratios. However, if you compress line art (like a schematic) with the compression method, it will create small speckles along all edges. The higher the compression setting is, the more pronounced the trash is.

BMP and color TIF files do not compress the picture at all and tend to be larger files. Black and White (not even gray) TIF files can use Group 4 compression which comes from the fax standards. It is lossless but can compress the pictures an amazing amount.

From my understanding PNG is similar to GIF (which I am more familiar with) except that software makers do not have to pay royalties to a copyright holder to use it. GIF uses a limited (256 colors) color pallet and gets good compression without any loss of image.

The hassle is that not all people have all the viewers for all types of files.

In comes Adobe and the PDF format. Adobe is into publishing and created PDF in that image. It is based on postscript with the ability to mix various types of graphics inside a file. Depending on the quality of the software you use, it can include some items as text, some as vectors (drawn lines and areas), and some as bit maps. For bitmaps, it can change them to various resolutions and compression types. Your software may allow the resolution and compression to be adjusted. If you go to

google groups does not have an alt.binaries.schematics.electronic and your other link just runs my email newsreader, again without finding anything.

I'd like to see one of your .pdfs, email me with a .pdf if you like snipped-for-privacy@myblueroom.com

Bill

You need to check your settings. Your PDF software may be using JPEG compression for bitmaps in the PDF file.