About Richard Moose Expertise I can answer any question about using Paint Shop Pro including, but not limited to, how to make fancy lettering, how to use layers, how to use gradients and textures, how to make 3D effects, how to make animated gifs, how and when to use vector graphics, how to choose the best format for your graphics, how to understand all the options and tools, how to retouch photographs, how to find and use filters, how to correctly understand resolution, dpi, and display size. I can answer all questions about graphics for different applications such as logos, magazines, the web, newspapers, flyers, brochures, and I have extensive knowledge of high resolution 3D graphics for posters and other types of promotional materials. I`ve used Paint Shop Pro to create video and film titles and credits as well as using it for "post production" fine tuning of graphics made with other applications like Bryce, Poser, and Maya.
Experience I've been using Paint Shop Pro for ten years, starting with version 2.0 and continuing through all releases up to the most current release. I've used it to create graphics for many personal and commercial websites as well as for print publications and film and video titles. I've been helping people use Paint Shop Pro and answering questions about it for over 8 years in my capacity as a Community Leader at a well known web building site and as an expert at question and answer sites on the web. I love helping people use this excellent program!
It seems to me that whenever I perform a screen capture using either the Paint Shop Pro (v5) or
the Windows <Print Screen> screen capture, I am losing quality off the original.
My questions are:
1. Would you know if incresing my Windows screen resolution has an impact on screen capturing quality? I have tried it and it does not seem to work (although I thought it should).
2. Can you recommend a screen capture tool that I can use to maximise the quality of a screen capture?
3. If there is no easy answer, could you offer me any advice/theory/further reading that may lead me in the right direction?
Thanking you (again) in advance,
Simon.
Answer Hi Simon,
There are a couple of issues here. The biggest issue is that Paint Shop Pro *displays* an image at 72 dpi regardless of its true resolution. This experiment will show you how it works. Open a "New Image" in PSP and notice in the New Image window that the default resolution is 72.00 dpi. Leave it at that setting and create a new image that is 4 INCHES by 4 INCHES. In other words, change the drop down menu from pixels to inches and then the Width and Height to 4.000. Once you have that new image open in Paint Shop Pro at a 1:1 zoom factor, use a ruler on the monitor to check the dimensions of the image. It *should* be pretty close to 4 inches x 4 inches. Ok, minimize that image and open a New Image but this time increase the resolution to 288 dpi but leave it at 4 inches by 4 inches size. Now look at that image in PSP. At a 1:1 zoom factor, the image is huge! If you zoom out to a 1:4 zoom factor, the image will then be 4 x 4. Since PSP always *displays* at 72 dpi, an image with four times the resolution displays at four times its real size!
So, while it is easy and natural to assume that PSP is WYSIWYG, that isn't really true, especially when working at higher resolutions.
However, if you take your 288 dpi image that is displaying at 16 inches x 16 inches on the screen at 1:1 zoom and look at it in Print Preview or actually print it, you will see that it prints at 4 inches x 4 inches just as it should.
So, I suspect this display size effect may be the source of at least some of your confusion.
Regarding screen captures, try this little test. Let's say your monitor is set at 1024 x 768 screen resolution. If you use the Print Screen key and then paste into PSP as a new image, PSP *should* report the image size as 1024 x 768. If it does, then all has worked as it should and the only issue is zoom factor and display size.
Let's say the physical working dimensions of your monitor screen are 14 inches by 10 inches. That can never change. Therefore, regardless of monitor settings, when you capture the screen, the resulting image will always have a native size of 14 inches by 10 inches.
Here is one last experiment that should help you see how it works. Change your monitor settings to 640 x 480 and look at the size of the icons. Also note their "quality." Ok now set the monitor to 1280 x 1024 and note the size of the icons. They are now half their size but have double the resolution. It works this way because the amount of data in an icon image is fixed. If you spread that data out over a large area, then the quality has to suffer. If you pack that same amount of data into a smaller space, then the apparent quality goes up. It is a zero sum game. For every winner, there is a loser. If size goes up, then quality goes down. If quality goes up, then size goes down. If you capture an icon at 1280 x 1024 and then use PSP to resize it to the size it would have at 640 x 480, you will see that the "quality" of the image reverts back to what you would have if you had just captured it at 640 x 480 to beign with. There is no way to get a free lunch. Like I said, think of it as data. Nothing you can do short of remaking the icon from scratch can ever change how much data is in the file and it is the amount of data that determines quality, not the monitor screen resolution.
I hope this helps, As always, please feel free to ask followup questions as needed. If you have a specific task you are trying to accomplish, tell me all about it with as many details as possible and I will do my best to help you find the best way to get what you want, given the constraints of what is possible. Contrary to popular belief, anything is not possible, especially in the world of computers.
