User Guides Images

Hello all,

I'm looking at the contributor guide and past versions of the user guides
now. I have some questions about images.

1. Are there source files (ODG, SVG, etc.) stored in Nextcloud or
otherwise? I don't see anything for Writer or Getting Started, current or
previous version.

2. Regardless of where past files are stored, where should current files be
stored? I see an images folder for WG6.4, containing only PNGs. Is it okay
to place them side by side, same name, different extension?

3. When exporting the image to be embedded, what format and settings should
be used? My instinct is to use PNG and 300 DPI. The LO Draw export dialog
for PNG also has options "Mode/Interlaced" and "Drawing Options/Save
Transparency".

Thanks,

--Kenneth

Hello

I agree with Kenneth about what to use for images being place in LO documents.

PNG format and a minimum of 300 DPI when embedding images. From my own past experiences in technical writing I have found that this is the best to use. You get no formatting or fuzziness using these settings, especially when it is screenshots.

Peter Schofield
psauthor@gmail.com

Mostly we haven’t kept source files for images other than in the chapters
where they’re used, except for some that are labelled - and those not
consistently. We should do more, especially if the originals are ODG, SVG,
etc. Yes, they should go in an Images folder for the book version. Same
name, different extension, where relevant.

The Contributors Guide needs a lot of updating. Images - creation,
insertion, anchoring, storage, etc - are among the many topics that are out
of date. (Updates are being done on the wiki first; feel free - indeed,
encouraged - to contribute.

Jean

Hi Kenneth,

3. When exporting the image to be embedded, what format and settings should
be used? My instinct is to use PNG and 300 DPI. The LO Draw export dialog
for PNG also has options "Mode/Interlaced" and "Drawing Options/Save
Transparency".

How do you want to get images of screenshots with 300DPI? My screen, for
example, has 96 dpi. Could be I'm missunderstanding something here, but
in the Base-Handbuch are only screenshots. And all these screenshots
were saved in *.png-format and 96dpi.

Regards

Robert

In my experience, that functionality is by far the buggiest part of LibreOffice. To the degree that it may not be possible to document what happens.

I know someone who almost had a nervous breakdown attempting to create an ebook with images, using LO in 2017.

luke

Hi Kenneth

Hello all,

I'm looking at the contributor guide and past versions of the user guides
now. I have some questions about images.

1. Are there source files (ODG, SVG, etc.) stored in Nextcloud or
otherwise? I don't see anything for Writer or Getting Started, current or
previous version.

2. Regardless of where past files are stored, where should current files be
stored? I see an images folder for WG6.4, containing only PNGs. Is it okay
to place them side by side, same name, different extension?

3. When exporting the image to be embedded, what format and settings should
be used? My instinct is to use PNG and 300 DPI. The LO Draw export dialog
for PNG also has options "Mode/Interlaced" and "Drawing Options/Save
Transparency".

Thanks,

--Kenneth

On a side note, when inserting illustrations in a chapter: do not use
OLE objects such as ODG, ODS, formulas. Always take a picture/screenshot
of the drawing or object and embed as PNG (preferably) or JPEG.

If you have a drawing in ODG, export as PNG and insert in the chapter.
Take a screenshot of the spreadsheet or formula and embed as PNG.

The main reason is when we export to alien formats such as EPUB, OLE
object are not supported and we get a broken image icon.

Another tip for dialog screenshot is available here:
https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Documentation/Screenshots#Creating_screenshots_manually

Regards

Why not export ODG to SVG, as vector components will stay high res and scalable, and image parts will stay as images, and it's supported by EPUB?

luke

Hi, Luke,

V V čet., 16. apr. 2020 ob 20:43 je oseba Luke (gmail) <
luke.kendall@gmail.com> napisala:

Why not export ODG to SVG, as vector components will stay high res and
scalable, and image parts will stay as images, and it's supported by EPUB?

for pure screenshots of UI and its elements a raster image is needed, so
PNG is used.
Localized guides will need new generated screenshots from a localized UI.

For graphics with text about elements in the pictures, that requires direct
localization for localized builds - archived ODG is preferred (where
exported PNGs will be used in the book).

Lp, m.

Thanks, all.

Peter and Jean: will do.

1. One outstanding issue is that raised by Robert, regarding the DPI of
screenshots. Actually, I was thinking that existing screenshots look kind
of wonky in my PDF viewer (Okular) at many zoom levels.

I've been thinking mostly about diagrams and annotated screenshots. I don't
know what, if anything can be done about the DPI of the screenshots
themselves. By exporting at 300 DPI, we can at least ensure that the
annotations added to screenshots will be crisp.

Also, if you have everything in a vector graphics file (ODG or SVG), you
can replace the screenshot later with little or no work to fix the
annotations. If we could get all screenshots, annotated or otherwise, into
a folder for each guide, it would make it much easier in the future for
someone to update all screenshots at once.

2. Luke and Martin responded as I was writing the above. I was also
thinking about embedded SVGs myself.

I've had problems with embedding SVGs in LO in the past. I don't know if
these issues have been fixed. This alone might be reason to avoid them.

Martin: assuming we have external ODGs for annotated screenshots, is there
some other reason why exporting to SVG and embedding that would be worse
than PNG?

--Kenneth