Reducing Screen Capture For Print

Microsoft Word does better than Photoshop

[rubik]

I screen captured some web sites to add to my print resume. I then crop to just the browser window. If I scale the image in photoshop, it gets pixelated and doesn't look as good, even if I switch it to 300dpi. When I shrink it down to fit on the resume page, you can can tell what it is a picture of, but it isn't very clear.

As a last resort, I pasted the full picture into Microsoft Word 2000 and used their image tools to scale the web-site down to roughly 2 inches square. The outcome is truly amazing to me, I can still read the text when I print it. On my resume now, are 2 inch square sites that I can read the text on. It looks great!

Now for the questions.
Why does it look good when I did it in Word, and looks bad when I did it in Photoshop?

I would like to save the files in their "small" size, but can't outside of word. If I save the word document, it stays in there, but I would like to have it saved to disk by itself.

I heard somewhere that Word uses CorelDraw to do the picture editing, is that true?

[mivox]

Photoshop doesn't automatically do anything to optimize its scaling output. To scale down a screen shot (or any non-antialiased image) sharply in photoshop, you have to work in multiples of 4 when increasing the resolution. It also helps to switch the images to 'indexed color' mode, which prevents photoshop from antialising the image when it is scaled.

So, if you start with a 72ppi image, switch to indexed color and increase the resolution to 288ppi. If you start with a 96ppi image switch to indexed color and increase the resolution to 384ppi. Then, reduce the image dimensions by an even number... reduce an 8"x 8" image to 4"x 4" or 2"x 2".

I would imagine MSWord probably handles the details like that 'behind the scenes' for you...

[korkus2000]

If I scale the image in photoshop, it gets pixelated and doesn't look as good, even if I switch it to 300dpi.

I am not sure if I understand what you mean with your photoshop usage. are you scaling it up? I can't imagine pixelation while scaling down. After a screen capture you should be able to print pretty well with a little shrinking at 150 dpi. My print resume looks really sharp. I did it in photoshop and I don't understand why you are getting blurry results.

As a last resort, I pasted the full picture into Microsoft Word 2000 and used their image tools to scale the web-site down to roughly 2 inches square. The outcome is truly amazing to me, I can still read the text when I print it. On my resume now, are 2 inch square sites that I can read the text on. It looks great!

You can read text off a screen capture that is 2 inches square? That is quite small.

I would like to save the files in their "small" size, but can't outside of word. If I save the word document, it stays in there, but I would like to have it saved to disk by itself.

have you tried coping and pasting back into photoshop?

I heard somewhere that Word uses CorelDraw to do the picture editing, is that true?

I don't think so.