Thanks Richard -- The original line drawings are coming ot me as PDFs. I don't have AutoCad or Katia or any of the other programs that the engineers have, so I get the drawing as a PDF file. I turn it into a jpg so I can erase lines and words.
It would be nice to have the original vector drawing! On 10/9/08, Combs, Richard <richard.combs at polycom.com> wrote: > Deirdre Reagan wrote: > > > In my documents, we use black and white line drawings exclusively. > > > > I've been cutting and pasting 200 pixels / inch bitmaps. FM scrolls > > through them very quickly. > > > > My colleagues import 300 pixels / inch jpgs. Their jpgs are better > > quality but FM works very very slowly when scrolling past a page with > > a jpg. > > > > I just imported a PDF-ed graphic that was made from a 600 pixels / > > inch jpg. It has the best resolution and FM scrolls through the page > > very quickly. > > > > So here's my question: is there any downside to using the PDF-ed > graphic? > > None at all. IMHO, PDFs are a great way to import graphics into FM. > > But here's a question back to you: Where are these line drawings coming > from? > > See, any graphic format described in terms of pixels or dots per inch > (dpi) is what's called a bitmap (or raster) image -- that includes BMP, > JPG, PNG, and GIF. Its resolution is limited to whatever it was created > at (200, 300, 600 dpi). If you resize it (or zoom in), you lose > resolution. > > But line drawings are by nature vector images. That means they're not > defined in terms of a fixed resolution, but in terms of vectors -- lines > and arcs -- that can be scaled to any size without loss of resolution. > If you're starting with a vector drawing (like from Adobe Illustrator or > Corel Draw), it's best not to turn it into a bitmap. > > Instead, make a PDF from the original vector drawing, and it will still > be a scalable vector drawing in PDF form. You'll really see the > difference if you zoom way in (say 800%) on a bitmap version and a > vector version of the same drawing. > > HTH! > Richard > > > Richard G. Combs > Senior Technical Writer > Polycom, Inc. > richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom > 303-223-5111 > ------ > rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom > 303-777-0436 > ------ > > > > > > >
