Inserting into Microsoft Word 2007

[allanc]

I am new to this type of program and would appreciate help with the following problem:

I created a new Word 2007 document and I keyin one word in Arial - 26 - bold - blue.

I print it in 'medium' quality and the result is very crisp.

I create a new document in Paint.net 3.5.1 (300 dpi) with the same word, same font, etc, crop it and save it in the default format.

I then reload the document and save it in .gif, reload the document again and save it in.jpg, and finally .png.

I then paste this three files into Word 2007 and print in 'medium' quality.

The result is that in all three cases the word appears to be somewhat grainy to the naked eye and much more so with a magnifying glass.

I also tried the above with 96 dpi and there is very little difference (if any) compared to the 600 dpi test.

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

[Simon Brown]

I create a new document in Paint.net 3.5.1

Click Utilities -> Check for updates.

[allanc]

I create a new document in Paint.net 3.5.1

Click Utilities -> Check for updates.

Sorry, but no difference in the Word 2007 output that I can detect.

[Rick Brewster]

First, Simon Brown is correct in that you must be running the latest version of Paint.NET, which is v3.5.3.

Second, I don't see the point to your "test" at all. You're using Paint.NET, which is a raster graphics editor, and round-tripping some text through several quality-destroying file formats. You then compare it to Word 2007 which is a word processor and which stores its data in a manner that retains all semantic meaning related to text. When you compare printing pixels vs. printing text, the latter will always win.

When you copy from Paint.NET and paste into Word, you are pasting a bitmap. Word does not and cannot reify the text out of that. Especially when you've done the weirdest thing I've ever seen anyone do, which is to save in .GIF then .JPG then .PNG (what on Earth are you doing!?).

If you want to print crisp text, then just use Word!

[allanc]

First, Simon Brown is correct in that you must be running the latest version of Paint.NET, which is v3.5.3.

Second, I don't see the point to your "test" at all. You're using Paint.NET, which is a raster graphics editor, and round-tripping some text through several quality-destroying file formats. You then compare it to Word 2007 which is a word processor and which stores its data in a manner that retains all semantic meaning related to text. When you compare printing pixels vs. printing text, the latter will always win.

When you copy from Paint.NET and paste into Word, you are pasting a bitmap. Word does not and cannot reify the text out of that. Especially when you've done the weirdest thing I've ever seen anyone do, which is to save in .GIF then .JPG then .PNG (what on Earth are you doing!?).

If you want to print crisp text, then just use Word!

Thank you for your reply.

From a non-technical viewpoint what I am trying to do is:

I am trying to design a logo for my company that is comprised of Arial and WingDing-2 fonts.

The placement of the WingDing-2 characters is a little lower than the Arial fonts.

This logo will be used in letterheads (3 inches), business cards (1 inch) and WEB site (4 inches).

I was hoping to design the logo *once* with the exact place of the WingDing-2 characters with the length being the longest required (4 inches).

After that I was going to save two other versions (1 inch and 3 inches).

The purpose of trying to import to Word in various formats is because the first that I tried was grainy.

I cannot envision that everyone creates their logos from scratch for each required physical size.

I suppose the question is what is the best / easiest way to accomplish this task?

Thank you very much in advance.

[Rick Brewster]

First, create the logo image at the highest resolution you can deal with. Now, this first assumes that you have read up on what exactly "resolution" means: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=32569 . For instance, changing the "Resolution" from 96 DPI to 300 DPI does not change the fidelity of the image as it appears on the screen. It only affects the default physical size used for printing.

For instance, the Paint.NET icon (the clouds + mountains + paintbrush) was authored at a pixel size of 2048 x 2048. It is then feasible for me to reduce it to pixel sizes of 256x, 48x, 32, and 16x, which are all the standard Windows icon sizes. If someone asks me for a "print version", that usually means they want 300 dpi. So I set the image to "300 dpi", and send it to them. In reality, the only thing that happens when I set it to "300 dpi" is that the number 300 gets written into the file instead of, say, 72 or 96. The pixels do not change, and the image has not actually "grown" or "shrunk". It is only a hint for your desktop publishing or word processing software with respect to how large you intend it to appear when printed on physical paper.

Also, you should always use .PDN or .PNG. If you use .JPG or .GIF, they will mangle the quality of your work. Those file formats are intended to be used for photographs and low-bandwidth web images, respectively. Not logos.

[allanc]

First, create the logo image at the highest resolution you can deal with. Now, this first assumes that you have read up on what exactly "resolution" means: viewtopic.php?f=34&t=32569 . For instance, changing the "Resolution" from 96 DPI to 300 DPI does not change the fidelity of the image as it appears on the screen. It only affects the default physical size used for printing.

For instance, the Paint.NET icon (the clouds + mountains + paintbrush) was authored at a pixel size of 2048 x 2048. It is then feasible for me to reduce it to pixel sizes of 256x, 48x, 32, and 16x, which are all the standard Windows icon sizes. If someone asks me for a "print version", that usually means they want 300 dpi. So I set the image to "300 dpi", and send it to them. In reality, the only thing that happens when I set it to "300 dpi" is that the number 300 gets written into the file instead of, say, 72 or 96. The pixels do not change, and the image has not actually "grown" or "shrunk". It is only a hint for your desktop publishing or word processing software with respect to how large you intend it to appear when printed on physical paper.

Also, you should always use .PDN or .PNG. If you use .JPG or .GIF, they will mangle the quality of your work. Those file formats are intended to be used for photographs and low-bandwidth web images, respectively. Not logos.

I will follow your suggestions.

Thank you sincerely, once again.