Poor Image / Movie Quality
May 19, 2011
Hello All,
I’m running into an issue that I hope you can provide guidance on. My issue is two-pronged:
1) When I insert my images / screenshots (.png) into the PPT, they look great provided that the player template browser window settings are set to display at current user’s browser size and scale presentation to fill browser window. However, when I change the browser window settings to rescale to optimize size and then preview / publish, the images automatically scale down and the quality is poor.
2) Conversely, when I insert Flash movies (created in Captivate) into the PPT, they look great when the browser window settings are optimized. However, when I change the settings to display at current user’s browser size and preview / publish, the movies scale up and lose quality. I have tried manually resizing the Flash movies to return them to their original size. However, this has been hit or miss and is not a good solution.
I need to find a happy place where both my images and Flash movies have decent quality. And, this issue needs to be resolved before I can roll Articulate out to our greater instructional design team.
Note: I have taken the screenshots using the steps provided in the following resource: http://www.articulate.com/blog/how-to-get-perfect-screenshots-in-presenter-09/. The problem is not with my screenshots or graphics; it’s with the Presenter settings.
Any suggestions would certainly be appreciated.
Thank you!
8 Replies
Hi Betsy,
Have you tried setting your Player Template to "lock presentation at optimal size"? This will give you the best output as the images aren't scaled up (distortion).
Hi Brian,
Yes, I have tried locking the presentation at optimal size and my graphics still seem to be scaling down. Any other suggestions? I certainly appreciate the help!
Betsy
Are your PNG files 8-bit or 24-bit in depth?
Have you adjusted the quality in the presentation options window to see if that had any effect? you can change the image compression there.
Brian, my png files are 24-bit in depth. Should they be 8-bit? Thanks.
Hi Betsy,
Would you mind submitting a support case to us so that we can take a closer look at the issue?
http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/
Was there ever a resolution to this issue? I am new to Articulate and am searching the forums for some issues that I am experiencing. One of them is that the published quality is poor compared to the actual PPT. I am publishing at the lossless preset "CD" quality.
Hi Vimal and welcome to the forums! I would take a look at this article:
http://www.articulate.com/blog/how-to-get-perfect-screenshots-in-presenter-09/
Also, any text that is added to shapes that have effects applied to them typically are rasterized, not treated as vector objects. The solution for that is to create a plain text box to add the text to and group it with the object.
Movies and images lose quality because they are scaled. If you follow the steps outlined in that article to lock your template to its optimal size that will reduce the number of quality issues which are related to resizing SWF movies.
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.