Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why?

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dirtgirl
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Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why?

Post by dirtgirl »

Hi, all,

For the past week or so, I've been using Draw to create digitised versions of archaeological site plans. This involves importing a scanned image and using Layers to trace them (mostly using the Polygon and Line tools). Then I select the content of the 'traced' layer and export it to a GIF or JPEG file.

This has worked beautifully... until yesterday, when I checked my exported image file only to find that the resolution was suddenly very low. The lines, in particular, appear very variable, almost like a dashed line instead of a solid one. I've attached an example of a successful export (from several days ago) and the failed export from last night to show you what I mean. I've spent a couple of hours playing with various export formats and trawling through the menus to see if I'd accidentally changed some perameter, but no luck. The only export format that looked decent was PDF, but that's difficult for my client to use on his end, so I'd rather use a standard graphic format if I can.

I'm mystified by this, because I'm creating these drawings the same way every time, and it's suddenly stopped working! Does anyone have any bright ideas?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Cheers,
Amanda
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Zizi64
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Re: Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why

Post by Zizi64 »

Then I select the content of the 'traced' layer and export it to a GIF or JPEG file.
You can choose the compression rate during the export procedure. The compression rate determines the quality of the result.
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dirtgirl
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Re: Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why

Post by dirtgirl »

Hi, Zizi,

Thanks for the swift reply! I don't think I have the option to set resolution during export - as I'm using NeoOffice rather than OpenOffice (it seems to be more stable on my Mac). I can set resolution for PDF export, but as I said, that's not ideal for my purposes.

Plus, this method was working perfectly until yesterday - and I'm not doing anything differently! Very confused... :crazy:

Cheers,
Amanda
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acknak
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Re: Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why

Post by acknak »

I'm pretty sure it's not a compression issue, especially with gif images.

I assume you're using File > Export > ... to export the images? If so, double-check the output parameters. Draw may be setting the output based on settings from the images you're starting with, which may not be appropriate for good quality. There's no way to tell by looking at the screen, the image may look fine there. You have to check the settings when you do the export.

For fine drawings, to be viewed on the screen or printed on letter/a4 paper, I'd shoot for 150-200 dpi, or 200 dpi * 8" = 1600 pixels wide by 2000 pixels high.

If that doesn't help, make sure that you aren't exporting the image that you're tracing. I generally put the source image in it's own layer, then make that layer invisible after I finish tracing.

I'm curious why pdf should be an issue. I thought everyone could view a pdf and that would provide the best quality for screen or print.
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Zizi64
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Re: Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why

Post by Zizi64 »

I don't think I have the option to set resolution during export
Not only the resolution, but you can adjust the compression rate too:
LibreOffice4.4.7 - PNG export
LibreOffice4.4.7 - PNG export
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Re: Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why

Post by Zizi64 »

Yes, the GIF export option has "Resolution" paremeter only...
AOO, GIF Export
AOO, GIF Export
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dirtgirl
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Re: Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why

Post by dirtgirl »

Hi again, Zizi,

As I mentioned, I'm using NeoOffice, and I don't seem to have that option. I've attached a screenshot to show you what the dialogue looks like. All I can do is select the format; for some types (JPEG, for instance) it will then bring up a screen where I can select quality from 1-100 - but I've got it set to 100, and that's not helping.

And, of course, none of this explains why it used to work but no longer does!

I may just have to give up and download OO instead...

A.
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dirtgirl
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Re: Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why

Post by dirtgirl »

Hi acknack,

As I explained to Zizi, I don't seem to have the ability to control the DPI on export in NeoOffice - at least, I haven't been able to find it if it is there.

I have indeed been saving the imported scans in their own layer and locking it, then making it invisible before I export. I've been using "select all" in the active layer (the one where my work sits), then using File:Export and clicking the box labelled "Selection". That has worked perfectly... until yesterday.

PDFs are a problem for my client because he needs to be able to import the images into his reports, which are word-processing files, and I don't think he can import PDFs as images.

Cheers!
A
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Zizi64
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Re: Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why

Post by Zizi64 »

The resolution and other properties page must be appeared after the clicking on the Save button of the Export dialog.
That not appeared for you?
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dirtgirl
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Re: Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why

Post by dirtgirl »

Screen Shot 2017-01-15 at 14.19.10.png
No, not in NeoOffice. For instance, here's what pops up after I click "Save" when creating a JPEG. The other common file formats (GIF, TIFF, etc) don't offer me any options at all - it just exports the file.
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acknak
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Re: Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why

Post by acknak »

Ok, sorry. I missed that you were using NeoOffice. OO Draw used to require a separate extension (software) to be installed to get full control over export to image. The extension code was moved into AOO (and LibO) a couple of versions ago; I don't know if that was ever done for NeoOffice.

The only thing I can think of is that OO picked up a low dpi value from one of the imported images and is somehow making that the default for export.

If you don't want to switch software, you can always export to pdf and then use something like ImageMagick or Photoshop or whatever to convert the pdf to an image format.
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Hagar Delest
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Re: Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why

Post by Hagar Delest »

Have you tried with PNG? It has a compression rate option also, perhaps the dialog is in Neo.
Note: PNG is equivalent to GIF, minus the license issue. Better use PNG if you can (IMHO).
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keme
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Re: Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why

Post by keme »

According to NeoOffice support pages, they do not have the resources to follow up on feature development. The focus is on stability and OS-X integration. This may explain why the resolution settings are not made available yet.
acknak wrote:... The only thing I can think of is that OO picked up a low dpi value from one of the imported images and is somehow making that the default for export. ...
+1
Do you lock the layer where you keep the base image? That would prevent accidentally selecting the pixel map. Also, select your traced objects and tick "selection only" in the File menu to remove (or further isolate) the cause.

NeoOffice and OpenOffice will happily coexist (at least it did last time I tried, which was - admittedly - several years ago). Use NeoOffice for the work, then open your file in OpenOffice for the final conversion.
dirtgirl
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Re: Exported line drawings suddenly appearing low-res... why

Post by dirtgirl »

keme wrote: Do you lock the layer where you keep the base image? That would prevent accidentally selecting the pixel map. Also, select your traced objects and tick "selection only" in the File menu to remove (or further isolate) the cause.
Yep, I've been doing that all along - it hasn't seemed to help, unfortunately, at least not in the last several days. Still not sure what changed.
keme wrote:NeoOffice and OpenOffice will happily coexist (at least it did last time I tried, which was - admittedly - several years ago). Use NeoOffice for the work, then open your file in OpenOffice for the final conversion.
This is a good idea - I'll give it a try. I did download OO, but then realised it doesn't do something I need it to. In Neo, I can go to File:Open and simply open the PDF in a Draw document; OO won't do that without turning it into text gibberish. But if I can do the work in Neo and then open in OO just to export, that would work.

At the moment, I'm exporting to PDF and then using an online converter to turn them into image files, which also works.

Thanks for all the help, everyone!
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