Images deformed when Printed

[Hominghead]

Hello, i've been having an Issue lately with Writer when it prints images that are on a text document.
The Text itself is clean looks just like on the preview, but the same text that i made into a picture appears deformed and pretty gritty and nothing like on the preview.
Same happens pretty much with every other image, they appear deformed and i don't really understand what the issue is here.
I tried it on multiple Printers, which all print pictures just fine, but have an issue like that when printing documents with images.
Anybody encountered same issue?

Regards.

[RoryOF]

Has the aspect ratio or scaling of your illustrations been changed using the facilities in OpenOffice? How were the original pictures scanned? I recollect that pictures scanned using a fax machine had 200 dpi horizontal and 100 dpi vertical, so they scrunched up when used in PageMaker 4.

It would be helpful if you could upload a small sample file.

[Hominghead]

Has the aspect ratio or scaling of your illustrations been changed using the facilities in OpenOffice? How were the original pictures scanned? I recollect that pictures scanned using a fax machine had 200 dpi horizontal and 100 dpi vertical, so they scrunched up when used in PageMaker 4.

It would be helpful if you could upload a small sample file.

I didn't edit or change the scale of the pictures. The pictures aren't scanned either, just "drawn" in msPaint.

[acknak]

It would probably help resolve the cause if you could attach a small sample document, including one of the problem images, here. You can use the "Upload Attachment" link (below the message entry area after you click "POST REPLY"). For tips on posting large or confidential documents, see: [Forum] How to attach a document here

[Hominghead]

It would probably help resolve the cause if you could attach a small sample document, including one of the problem images, here. You can use the "Upload Attachment" link (below the message entry area after you click "POST REPLY"). For tips on posting large or confidential documents, see: [Forum] How to attach a document here

I've attached a .zip file containing example Document, the same Document printed and then scanned back to PC (300dpi, jpeg), also i've attached both images (a logo and text in image form).
Thank you for your time

[acknak]

... the same text that i made into a picture appears deformed and pretty gritty and nothing like on the preview.
Same happens pretty much with every other image, ...

As far as I can tell, the images simply do not have enough resolution for printing with good quality.

[RoryOF]

They seemed to be about 100dpi. If it were me, I'd use TIFF files at 300 or 600 dpi (because I have always used TIFF files).
.

[Hominghead]

... the same text that i made into a picture appears deformed and pretty gritty and nothing like on the preview.
Same happens pretty much with every other image, ...

As far as I can tell, the images simply do not have enough resolution for printing with good quality.

I'm sorry, am i supposed to make huge images and then downscale them in OOWriter?

[acknak]

There's nothing mysterious about it.

If you want good quality printouts, any image should have at least 300 pixels per inch. The logo in your document was about 3 inches wide, so your logo image should be about 900 pixels across.

If that size image is too large for some reason, then you can go to a vector graphic. That will produce the highest-quality output possible for whatever device is rendering the graphic. Typically logos are created as vector art, so it may be a matter of locating a copy of the original logo.

[RoryOF]

Fo pasting into a word processor, continuous tone images can be typically 180-200 dpi. Line images should be 300/600/1200 dpi for best quality. Try one and see. It's your document, your decision as to quality.

[John_Ha]

Hominghead

The problem is because the logo has been saved as a small, low quality JPG file at some stage, which has introduced compression artefacts (blurring, spots, fuzzy edges etc). The file has then been saved as a BMP file, but it was too late - the artefacts are already there. Also, the pixel count is too low.

So to solve your problem

1 Go back to the software which created the round logo and save it as a PNG or BMP or TIFF or GIF, but NOT as a JPG. Choose the pixel resolution so that the final image is 300 dpi or greater. Remember that commercial printers typically use 150 and 300 dpi. Every time an image is re-sampled to a different resolution, the edges get blurred. (If you must save it as a JPG, ensure the Quality Factor is set to 90% or higher, and the pixel count is high).

2 Preferably, do all the text as text in OOo - this gives vector text which can be scaled to any size. If you put the text in the image, the text is pixels in the image" and by zooming in, you can see the jagged edges.

3 Import the new image and it will be perfect.

I have attached Result.odt with my crude logo just to show how it works. The logo circle is 776 x 776 pixels. Instructions are in the odt file.

There is another wonderful trick to get extremely high quality images out of OpenOffice Writer and Draw by exporting them as PDF files.

1 Create the text or draw document

2 File > Export as PDF. Now choose General > Lossless Compression and choose your Image dpi - 150 or 300 or 600 dpi.

3 Export the file as a pdf

4 Open the pdf and scale to whatever size you want - even so the image is bigger than the screen

5 Edit > Take snapshot and drag the cursor to collect the image - it takes a few seconds with a really big image. When you release the cursor, it says Image Copied. Paste the image into an image program (like IrfanView) and save it as a PNG. I created a 5000 x 5000 pixel image of the logo in logo.odg by doing this - the edges are incredibly smooth.

[John_Ha]

There is another wonderful trick to get extremely high quality images out of OpenOffice Writer and Draw by exporting them as PDF files.

You no longer need to use this trick with Draw, though it is still very useful Writer and PDF files in general.

1 Create the picture in Draw

2 File > Export > now choose your file format - use an uncompressed one like BMP, or a lossless compression like TIFF, GIF or PNG (best). Let's choose PNG as it compresses well for graphics like this

3 Set the Width to, say, 100cm. At the default 96 dpi this will give 100cm = 39 inches x 96dpi = 3,744 pixels wide. If you want it bigger, choose a bigger width.

4 Do not tick Transparency nor Interlace, and save the file. Mine was 3,780 pixels wide and the edges were extremely smooth

The Selection tick box seems unreliable - if you choose a selection before File > Export, it sometimes saves just the selection, sometimes saves the whole page.

[Hominghead]

Thank you for all the replies! I shall try out the next time i'm at Work