Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 19 May 2006 to 21 May 2006 (#2006-101) From: MYSTARA-L automatic digest system Date: 22/05/2006, 17:00 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 3 messages totalling 182 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Map image quality (3) ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 08:21:35 +1200 From: Chris Furneaux Subject: Re: Map image quality /lurk off The even longer answer is to get the GIMP (www.gimp.org which is a GNU image manipulation program [and you need GTK+ from there installed too]) and ghostscript (www.ghostscript.com) so you can read/import pdf files. That way you can download the PDF version and convert it to any resolution you desire and even chop it up and print it how you like. Although if you get through all that I'll be impressed. I managed to break GIMP on my machine which I need to re-install and I haven't installed ghostscript yet because I haven't re-installed GIMP. The only issue with free software is the only person you can hold accountable is yourself. So good luck and let me know if it works. Chris. /lurk on >> Speaking of which, Hey Thorf, is there any chance you could >> increase the DPI of your maps? > > The short answer: no, but I already have. > > The long answer: Increasing the resolution of the PNG files is not really > feasible. Right now, they are balanced to provide reasonably good quality > without becoming so bloated that I can't handle the bandwidth to provide > the > files. > > The solution to this problem, though, is the PDF files. These files have > the maps in 100% vector graphics, which means that you can zoom in as much > as you like without losing any definition. That's why I have started to > release PDFs as well as PNGs for my maps. > > The only problem, as we have discussed before, is the printing, because > the > PDF files tend to have strange page sizes, and there doesn't seem to be an > option to split up images into multiple pages in Adobe Reader. However, > what you can do is zoom in on the file in Adobe Reader and copy and paste > the map into a paint program. Using this method, you can get a copy of > the > map in a higher resolution than I could ever hope to post online, as well > as > splitting up the map for easy printing at the same time. > > When we discussed this before, other methods were also suggested. > > The bottom line is that PDFs are the answer, problematic as they may be. > > Thorf > > ******************************************************************** > The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp > The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com > To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM > with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. > ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 23:12:19 +0100 From: Mark Howard Subject: Re: Map image quality If you have Excel installed, you can zoom in to any size you want on a pdf and copy it into Excel, then adjust the page size to suit. At least that's the way I do it. -----Original Message----- From: Mystara RPG Discussion [mailto:MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM] On Behalf Of Chris Furneaux Sent: 21 May 2006 21:22 To: MYSTARA-L@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM Subject: Re: [MYSTARA] Map image quality /lurk off The even longer answer is to get the GIMP (www.gimp.org which is a GNU image manipulation program [and you need GTK+ from there installed too]) and ghostscript (www.ghostscript.com) so you can read/import pdf files. That way you can download the PDF version and convert it to any resolution you desire and even chop it up and print it how you like. Although if you get through all that I'll be impressed. I managed to break GIMP on my machine which I need to re-install and I haven't installed ghostscript yet because I haven't re-installed GIMP. The only issue with free software is the only person you can hold accountable is yourself. So good luck and let me know if it works. Chris. /lurk on >> Speaking of which, Hey Thorf, is there any chance you could increase the DPI of your maps? > > The short answer: no, but I already have. > > The long answer: Increasing the resolution of the PNG files is not really feasible. Right now, they are balanced to provide reasonably good quality without becoming so bloated that I can't handle the bandwidth to provide the files. > > The solution to this problem, though, is the PDF files. These files have the maps in 100% vector graphics, which means that you can zoom in as much as you like without losing any definition. That's why I have started to release PDFs as well as PNGs for my maps. > > The only problem, as we have discussed before, is the printing, because the PDF files tend to have strange page sizes, and there doesn't seem to be an option to split up images into multiple pages in Adobe Reader. However, what you can do is zoom in on the file in Adobe Reader and copy and paste the map into a paint program. Using this method, you can get a copy of the map in a higher resolution than I could ever hope to post online, as well as splitting up the map for easy printing at the same time. > > When we discussed this before, other methods were also suggested. > > The bottom line is that PDFs are the answer, problematic as they may be. > > Thorf > > ******************************************************************** > The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp > The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. > ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 22:50:57 -0400 From: Angelo Bertolli Subject: Re: Map image quality Anyone who is interested in keeping SVG graphics on hand, should take a look at Inkscape: http://www.inkscape.org/ Angelo ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.pandius.com To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 19 May 2006 to 21 May 2006 (#2006-101) ****************************************************************