Forum Discussion
Screenshots are blurry after publish
Hi,
We are using Presenter 360. Our presentation has a lot of screenshots as images.
We've had issues with blurry images in the past (see my old post here), the publish settings we use are as described in the above linked post.
I also reviewed this article on images sizes, but nothing helps, the published images look blurry.
I did lot of testing and the result is the same even when I don't resize the original image.
What are we doing wrong? There has to be a way to have our sequence of screenshots look good when published. Appreciate any ideas you guys may have!
Thanks
Maya
- BrandanLauraCommunity Member
I too have this problem; published output of screenshots inserted into PowerPoint then published with Studio360 (Presenter) as HTML5 results in very fuzzy screenshot images viewing on IE11, Firefox and Chrome. It is January 2020 and I have the latest version of Studio360, so all the other threads about software updates fixing the issue does not work.
When I showed the first course to the customer they immediately asked why the screenshot are so fuzzy. I have been reading all the old threads all afternoon on this issue. I will try the optimal browser size settings and capturing images at the final size for the course (and not reducing them), but I am not happy that I have to run all those experiments.
An additional issue is that the customer's SMEs are the ones capturing screenshots and building the PowerPoints, then giving them to me to create the eLearning. Therefore I am not looking forward to teaching them the particular way they need to start taking screenshots. They will not be happy.
I've been using Articulate since the beginning and never had this problem before outputting to Flash. If this is a unfortunate bi-product of HTML5 for all eLearning software apps, then I apologize if I sound disappointed at Articulate. I might have to try my other eLearning apps to see if I have the same problem. Unfortunately, that won't be easy because I don't have the Windchill application we are building training for. Sorry for venting.
I forgot to mention, I had the image quality set to 100% the entire time.
Hi Maya,
Thanks for including those links, and it sounds like you've already tried the settings we normally recommend without much luck.
You mentioned the images are blurry after you publish the file--what publishing format are you using? Are the images blurry in all browsers, or just one browser in particular?
- MayaYifatCommunity Member
Hi Alyssa,
We are publishing to Articulate Online, but my testing is made with web publishing. Both with same results.
Browsers tested were Chrome and Firefox.
Will creating the project in Storyline instead of Power Point be worth a shot?
Many thanks
Maya
Hi Maya,
Before you try importing the slides into Storyline, I'd like to get a closer look at the bluriness in Presenter.
Since you published for Web, try uploading the zipped output to Tempshare. Then, send me the Tempshare link to your file, and I'll take a closer look!
- PatrickOBrienCommunity Member
Maya - are your blurry screen captures in HTML5 published versions?
What I am experiencing (in Presenter 13) is the flash version looks great. What I did not realize is, after publishing in Articulate, when you click "View Presentation" it launches the flash version. My default browser was IE, so it played the flash version. That is why I never noticed blurry screen captures before. If I change my default browser to Chrome, this will not run at all. To launch the HTML5 version, go into the folder and launch "presentation_html5.html." That will run in any browser, and the screen captures won't be great. From what i have read, HTML5 does not vector pictures as well as flash, hence the blurriness. AND, apparently, if you use a shadow around your picture (screen capture), that will make it even worse. I removed shadowing on several to see for myself, and it is better. Maybe Articulate can recommend a best method of screen capturing?
Hi Patrick,
Sorry you ran into issues with Chrome too. They've started to block Flash by default, and we have some steps to help with this here.
Also, for the issues with your screen captures we'd always recommend capturing the image in the highest possibly quality and resolution and inserting it into your project at the same size as which you'd like it to display. That'll limit the amount of scaling or resizing that takes place inside Articulate.
Also, the helpful tips here on recording high quality screencasts may help!
- ShaileshGuravCommunity Member
Is this issue resolved with Presenter ?
I think we need to switch to iSpring Authoring tool, which gives crisp quality responsive output.
Hi there, Shailesh.
This conversation is a bit older, so I want to make sure you get the most up-to-date help. Could you help me with these key details?
- What version of Presenter are you using?
- What are the dimensions of your slide? (Images might appear blurry if the Slide Size is different than the dimensions of the images.)
- Do you notice the difference in quality during Preview, in the published output, or both
..and if you can share a sample file with us for a closer look, that would be gold! You can send it to our Support team privately by using this upload link. We'll look into what's happening with the quality, and delete the file after troubleshooting!
- ShaileshGuravCommunity Member
Hi Katie - my answers inline.
What version of Presenter are you using? // Articulate Presenter 13, Update 11: 1809.1417.
What are the dimensions of your slide? (Images might appear blurry if the Slide Size is different than the dimensions of the images.) // Slide resolution is 1920x1080. Actually, everything looks blurry (not just images), text, icons, shapes, images almost everything.Do you notice the difference in quality during Preview, in the published output, or both // Yes, there is a visible difference in preview and published output.
Observations:
1. The output looks perfect in IE 11 (browser), but it gets blurry while running in Google Chrome v76, which is strange.
2. In player settings, if I lock the player for optimum size, it gives crisp output but loses responsiveness. Why we can't have both?
3. HTML5 output is just a gimmick, it actually plays with Canvas, nothing else. The moment flash is scrapped, Articulate apps lose an edge over tools. You need to get out of that canvas and be a real HTML5 player.
4. Tried everything using;
- HD quality images/screens - doesn't work
- TT fonts - doesn't work
- Different background to see fonts in crisp quality - doesn't work
- Simple animations - doesn't work
- Setup PPT dpi settings at Hi-Fi/do not compress image - doesn't work
- Tweaked code in HTML - doesn't work
I have tried different settings but it didn't work.
Finally, I just wanted to confirm if there is no resolution, you can simply tell us that you don't have a solution to this. Don't route me to different articles that are saying the same thing.
With the iSpring tool, it worked perfectly without any issues.
- RenGomezStaff
Hi Shailesh,
Thanks for sharing those additional details. Great call to open a case and I see my teammate, Peter, has asked for some additional details to get to the root of the issue and offer some help.
I'll update him with what you've shared with us, and I'll keep an eye on the progress so that any resolutions can be posted here.
- RenGomezStaff
Hi Brandan,
Sorry to hear you're running into this issue as well! Once you try all the troubleshooting steps as suggested above, and are still running into a wall, feel free to connect with our support engineers to provide some tailored support. They're available 24/7 and are always happy to help in any way!