Best format for images?

[smiggy-b]

Hi there!

I'm fairly new to FM (Pro 5.5). I am trying to set-up letters which we can send out to our clients (pasted text from older AppleWorks Mail Merge letters) and these are working fine (which is nice!).

What I am also trying to do though is use peoples signatures inside the letters.

I've scanned these in and saved them as Greyscale JPEG's in Photoshop 5.5, but if I copy and paste, insert picture directly, or create a field container, and then insert the picture, the signature comes out "dotty" (not pixelated, but "dots" surrounding the image.

What am I doing wrong?!!? Is there a preferred file format (jpg, tif, bpm) which FM likes?!

Thanks in advance

Dave, Leicester, UK

[LiveOak]

If you are using a postscript printer to print the letters, try inserting the signature directly as a postscript image (don't use a container). The problem you are having is that the signature is being converted to a 72 dpi pict image.

-bd

[HazMatt]

The real problem is with the JPEG format. If you zoom in to a JPEG, you'll notice that it gets "artifacts" surrounding features in the image. The more JPEG compression, the smaller the file size, and the worse the picture gets.

I don't know how FileMaker handles JPEGs, but I know that EPS files work just fine. Either bitmap or vector EPS images should print out great. For the very best results (most realistic), convert a scanned in signature to line art in Illustrator or FreeHand and save as EPS. Then import. -Matt