Graphic file ext.

[Rowski]

Terry

The Delorme mapping software is two years old. I am familiar with the "save as" funtion, but the Delorme software only saves files in thier format for their program.

I did find out (after many hours of messing around) that the .bmp that the Delorme software generates is less in quality than the printed paper from the Delorme program, not a problem with my other programs. So I'm going to try to scan a printed paper of the map at a high resolution with color and then try working with it that way, hopefully.

Thanks for the help. I'll let you know how it comes out.

 

[Rowski]

<font color=blue>Is this helpful? Does anybody care? Maybe not, but look at all the big words I got to use.</font color=blue>

Thanks Harv. Thats good to know. I do care. More big words I need to look up in the dictionary /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif.

 

[TerryinMD]

Rowski,

Well, there ya go.... For some reason, the developer of the software likes to ensure that you use their stuff. Bad in my book.

Yes, scanning the final graphic will be your be choice. Then you can choose the format best for you.

Good luck,
Terry

 

[MikePA]

What about doing a screen print to the Clipboard and then pasting into your favorite graphics editing program?

Attached is a jpg file from Street Atlas. The original bmp was almost 2 megs.

 

[Buck]

Rowski,

BMP is the native format for windows. The reason it is used so often is that images are actually stored on the video card exactly the same way as they are saved in a file. Saving the image as a BMP in most programs is nearly identical to dumping the contents of the memory making the format easy for programmers to support. BMP is lossless, it currently does not support compression. Displaying a photograph using BMP is as good, from an image quality point of view, as any other format. Therefore, your problem is not the file format per-se.

If you are using a mapping software package that renders lines, arcs, circles, and background objects that make the screen have graphic as opposed to photographic appearance, then the program that you are using does not work in the same way a photographic rendering would work. The program would be storing instructions rather pixels. When it comes time to display the instructions, the program would determine the screen characteristics of your monitor (e.g. resolution 800x600, 1024x768, number of colors, etc.). Once this information is known, the program renders the instructions as a bitmap or BMP file consistent with the limitations. Therefore, if you have a low resolution monitor/graphics card, your saved image would be low resolution.

At first, when I read the post, I wondered why you would print the image rather than save it as an image file. However, in the case for graphic rendering, printing may make sense because the resolution of the printer is far greater than the monitor or graphics card. If the program is smart enough, it will adjust its’ graphics rendering engine to the printer resolution, yield a far higher resolution picture. Most printers today have a real resolution of at least 300 dot per inch, so a rendering to the printer at 7 inches x7 inches x 300 dpi inches gives you at least 2100 pixel X 2100 lines, a reasonably high resolution image.

Now, if we assume that you are rendering graphics, and not photographic materials like aerial photos, the authors of the program could have allowed you to save an image to disk at whatever resolution you wanted as easily as they programmed for printing.

Therefore, I think you ought to see if you have the ability to change the saved file’s DPI, that is the effective resolution of the output device.

Buck

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Graphic file ext.-Free Conversion Software

Download PhotoIsland JPG Batch File Converter
FREE!

In a single click, you can automatically convert all your images into web-ready JPEG format.
Batch converts: bmp, tif, gif, jpg, tga, pcd, pcx & flashpix file types.
You set the compression ratio.
You decide on the image resolution for the result.
"If you want to save time and aggravation in preparing your photos for the web, this little utility is just the ticket."

System requirements:
Win 95, 98 or NT
24 MB RAM
3 MB free hard disk space

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://pacific.photoisland.com/photosharing/jpgconv.html>Batch converts: bmp, tif, gif, jpg, tga, pcd, pcx & flashpix file types-Free Software Download</A>
~~~from the web~~~

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Re: Graphic file ext.-Free Conversion Software

More Free Conversion Software...

Input file formats: BMP, EMF, GIF, ICO, JPEG, JPG, PBM, PCX, PGM, PNG, PPM, TIF, TIFF, TGA, WMF

Output file formats: BMP, JPG, PBM, PGM, PNG, PPM, TGA, TIF

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.wavelsoftware.com/pic2pic.htm>Pic2Pic Website</A>

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.wavelsoftware.com/pic2pic.zip>Download Free Conversion Software Now!</A>

 

[gordon]

Re: Graphic file ext.-Free Conversion Software

What about this freeware? <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.ryansimmons.com/users/irfanview/english.htm>http://www.ryansimmons.com/users/irfanview/english.htm</A>

Gordon

 

[MChalkley]

Re: Graphic file ext.-Free Conversion Software

Gordon - IrfanView is what I use. I think it's great, but I haven't tried pic2pic.

 

[Rowski]

Re: Graphic file ext.-Free Conversion Software

Thanks for the link. To cure my problem I scanned the printed (hard copy) in color at 300 dpi. Then did what I had to do. So it all worked out in the long run. I did have to get more ram for my computer, went from 64k to 256K. Made a big difference.