manual available

Post by **nikos** » 2007 Jun 20, 19:02

the latest version of the full manual is now available for downloading
thanks narayan!
http://www.ps.ic.ac.uk/~umeca74/x2docs.zip

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2007 Jun 20, 19:15

wow! the doc is out before the s/w

... trusting, no doubt, that the niggles and bug-fixes that will come in ver.1.7.0.3, when issued, will be "as intended".

Good work, narayan!

Gandolf · Post by **Gandolf** » 2007 Jun 20, 23:50

Narayan, what have you done to the graphics? They look as if they are very lossy JPEG images - page 30 in Version 1.7.0.3-1 is an example, compare it with the same image on page 29 in Version 1.6.5.1-1. I haven't checked them all but looking at several they all appear to be the same. Reader is Adobe 7 at 100%.

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2007 Jun 21, 00:41

I see it, too. (Now that I've looked)
To me, it looks like something got screwed up with the illustration conversion rendering. The quality is way down and the individual sizes are way up.

[ by 5x for the two small illustrations I checked, and over 3x for the MainScreen illustration on pg24/25 in old/new versions 200kb/650kb ] !

narayan,
It looks like you (or nikos if he does the final conversion) have lost the recipe for embedded picture format that worked so well in prior editions.

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2007 Jun 21, 01:46

Spot on, guys!

I make the full version of pdf with OpenOffice. This time Nikos tried to compress the file with some tool (Acrobat or something). That screwed up the images.

Nikos, I am sure the best way is to settle for less compression, and not let the images suffer.

BTW Fred, how did you find the image size in KB?

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2007 Jun 21, 02:25

indirectly ...
1. create 3 empty MS Word docs: baseline.doc, figs165.doc, figs170.doc
2. copy select "same" illustrations from pdf's of UM165 & UM170 to corresponding doc files.
3. compare .doc filesizes, subtracting the baseline.doc size

PS - by the above technique, the implied size for the MainScreen illustration in your O-O.pdf draft UM1702 (which I downloaded, but did not look at

) is identically the same as that in the published UM1653 & about 30% of the size of the same figure in the 'compressed' edition that was published. :shock:

Post by **nikos** » 2007 Jun 21, 05:03

this separate version will have crappy graphics. The one that will be distributed with the installer will have better ones, but it is going to be 1MB larger!

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2007 Jun 21, 11:48

I don't understand why the crappy graphics are actually many time larger than the good graphics when they are copied out for size comparison.
If my comparison technique is valid, the pdf with better graphics s/b the smaller one.

Mr.Pleasant · Post by **Mr.Pleasant** » 2007 Jun 21, 12:49

If my comparison technique is valid

I'm in doubt about that... I mean, it is compressed as jpg in the pdf (probably). But when you copy and paste it in Word and then save it, is it still jpg? Or might it be pasted in Word in an uncompressed format (or compressed after being uncompressed). In that case all this jpg clutter might takes more bytes than its cleaner counterpart.

Mr.Pleasant · Post by **Mr.Pleasant** » 2007 Jun 21, 12:54

BTW, thanks for the manual, narayan

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2007 Jun 21, 13:31

@ technique ...
I know its not a true measurement; so only expect it to be comparative.
Muddying the waters are "renderers", which take the images from the .pdf to the screen for display (as a bit map) or as a meta-file object into Word, converting in both cases from the (perhaps proprietary) format used in the .pdf which would have been converted upon importing the "original" illustrations in native format -- the native format being most likely .jpg or .gif

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2007 Jun 21, 13:49

The best part is, I don't know the format: I took screenshots using MWsnap. It places the image on clipboard. Then I pasted it in OOo. I do not know how it stores, or whether it downsamples. Then again what does it do during conversion to pdf?

And then there's the role played by Acrobat Reader... :?

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2007 Jun 21, 13:51

thanks for the manual, narayan

You are welcome!

I am working on ways to reduce size without losing quality.

Mr.Pleasant · Post by **Mr.Pleasant** » 2007 Jun 21, 14:25

If I can be of any help: when export/print to pdf you can set the image quality, both in the pdf creator of OO, and in the Adobe distiller (joboptions). My best guess would be that in the case of screencaps there's not much to gain when it comes to reducing file size, but there is much to lose when it comes to quality (as you can see). I'd say that it would be best not to put the image quality setting to a low value.
A big book of more than 300 pages, and with colors becomes heavy in file size. Not much to do about it, AFAIK. You might see what happens if you downsample the images to a lower resolution, or consider using smaller icons like the warning-signs and such.

narayan · Post by **narayan** » 2007 Jun 21, 14:40

That's what I have done with OOo (put out samples at 100%-30% for the "old hands" group to judge) The jury is still out.