Forum Discussion
Blurry Images.. Still
Hi all,
This seems to be an issue many people are talking about but I can't find a definitive answer without having to trawl multiple threads and links.
It would appear that Storyline is not fit for purpose when it comes to inserting images. Even when I'm trying to use the 'Try-it mode' on screen recording, the start and end frame is blurred regardless of what resolution, size, quality of screen grab I insert into Storyline.
I would think it should be quite simple to do and fix, but appears not to be.
I thought the major selling point of using Articulate was that it 'Automatically scales to mobile and tablet', if the only workarounds (which are far from perfect and still blurred), are fixing image sizes, or player sizes etc.. then this removes the automatic scaling onto mobile devices and means we have to develop the course mobile ready.
I'm in the process of deciding whether as a business we should curate in Articulate, or the Adobe Suite, and this problem is unfortunately making us lean away from Articulate. I've found no way to make these images High Quality and would appreciate an easy way to do this.
72 Replies
Hi Cheryl!
Thank you for attaching your sample files! I understand what you're pointing out. This could be an issue stemming from the image size. If images are too small or too big, the image quality is affected.
Also, I noticed the images in Four Motivations are named rectangle. Can you import the images as jpg? This could help ensure the quality isn't compromised.
Okay so maybe my file is too big or too small. What size file is 'just right'? Tried the jpg suggestion and saw no improvement.
Anything new on this yet? I have imported images with 2000ppi and they are crisp in the editing but once I preview they get blurry. This is obviously frustrating. Using Storyline 360.
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for reaching out and letting us know that you're seeing some blurriness with your images in Storyline 360 as well.
We have some recommendations for high-quality images in your projects, which you can find here.
'Just right' would be an image that does not have to be scaled up or down to fit your Storyline project.
- What size is your image?
- What is your story size?
With your permission, I'd like to take a look at your project file to investigate what's happening. You can share it publicly here, or send it to me privately by uploading it here. I'll delete it when I'm done troubleshooting.
Still no help with blurry images in Storyline 360. Captured from a 4K monitor, all images are blurry and unusable. My company will be changing tools!
Hi Mike!
I've opened a case on your behalf with our Support Engineers! You should've received an email from me around 9:00 am EST. We're absolutely happy to help!
Still not fixed... =(
As a work around for screen captures... use the screen recording tool in Storyline to capture a single frame and use Media Viewer to source the image for use. It takes longer, but the results are MUCH better than inserting an image any other way. This quality issue makes our hard work look less professional and needs the highest priority from Articulate.
What is Media Viewer? And I would agree with you. It looks terrible. And frankly has been deemed as unacceptable quality for my organization. We switched to Camtasia for straight demos and are much happier. Unfortunately, Camtasia doesn't have the interactivity power that SL has. I'm interested in checking out Captivate again and see how they've come along with interactivity. We've experienced enough crashes and degrading quality in images lately that we're looking to switch products. We've also just switched to MAC which forces us to work on parallel. So, would be nice to have a MAC compatible product.
Sorry, it's Media Library under the View tab.
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Hi Stephanie,
Your correct, Camtasia doesn't have the interactivity. Camtasia is a video editing tool, and Storyline is an E-learning tool. Different task, different tool. I actually use Snag-it for my screen captures, which is another tool by tech-smith. I've found that I can get images of suficient quality that when I import them into Storyline, they work just fine.
I think one of the keys is to make sure that your captures are of suficient quality to begin with. One thing that you can do is to make sure that your captures are at least as big as the size you need after you import it into Storyline. If it is smaller, then you will loose resolution. It is also important to be sure that your monitor is large enough to get you an image with sufficient quality. If your monitor is to small, for example: many laptop monitors, your image will be low resolution. In this case, it doesn't matter what tool you capture it with, it will still be low resolution. Also, if possible, when you capture your screens, try getting the screen to zoom in some. This will get you an image with more resolution.
I've been frustrated with this for years. I use Snagit on a 4k monitor. Certainly larger images than needed. I then save as EMF file. I've tried maintaining the size and also tried sizing it to the exact dimensions needed in SL (paste an image, check the size, delete, scale in Snagit and save to that size). Sadly, none of this really works. Image files are sharp and clear. Imported into anything I've tried so far, sharp and clear. Imported into SL=blurry.
Hi Don,
Thanks for reaching out and sharing what you are experiencing as well.
With your permission, I'd like to take a look at your .story file with this image on a single slide, if possible, to investigate what's happening. You can share it publicly here, or send it to me privately by uploading it here. I'll delete it when I'm done troubleshooting.
I've uploaded a file for you.
