Web to Print/Computer Graphics Question

[Godzilla Blitz]

I'm working on a Japanese Katakana Workbook that I hope to eventually publish, and I'm trying to incorporate a lot of authentic materials in the text. One of the things I'm trying to do is get some screenshots of some Japanese websites, and use them as the foundation of some exercises.

I can get the screenshots alright, but of course the low-res graphics used on websites look crappy when you print them out. I'm curious if anyone knows an easy way to take a low-res graphic and sharpen it to the point that it looks good when printing.

For background, I'm doing this on a Mac with most major design software packages installed (Illustrator, Freehand, etc.). I have a PC here in the office as well, but don't have an extensive collection of design software for it.

Any thoughts or guidance would be greatly appreciated, even if it's to point me to a forum or website that might be able to help.

Thanks!

[Cap Ologist]

How's your programming dynasty going? Have you been making any progress lately?

[Godzilla Blitz]

How's your programming dynasty going? Have you been making any progress lately?

Hi Cap,

I've been so close to getting back to it over the past month, and haven't given up hope yet. Maybe soon?

I see you've been asking a bunch of VB questions. Looks like you're making good progress?

[Cap Ologist]

Yeah, I'm really enjoying VB. I'm learning alot, but there is still alot I don't know, as evidenced by my many questions. I'm programming a couple of games that I've always wanted to program and play, so yeah, I'm definitely enjoying. Hope you pick it back up soon, I really enjoyed reading your progress.

[kcchief19]

When I have screenshots that I want to look crisp and sharp, I use Adobe Acrobat to print the screenshot to a high-res PDF setting. You can then open the PDF in Photoshop and some other graphic programs and save it as a graphic file.

Also, screen captures will work OK if you paste them into a graphics program and bump up the dpi to at least 200. The catch is that you can only run the graphics to a certain size before the resolution craps out.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Kcchief: Interesting. Thanks. I was originally thinking that I would want to somehow convert the screenshots to vector graphics (EPS files), but I'm guessing that is not the way to go.

I'd like to try both of your suggestions, but I'm curious, when you take the screenshot that you intend to output as a high-res PDF with Acrobat, do you take it as a PDF, a .bmp file, or does it not matter that much?

Thanks again for the tips.

Cap: One thing that surprised me during the month or so that I worked on the fighting game was how much I learned. Keeping that journal/dynasty really helped me stay confident. When I looked back on the beginning, I realized how far I had come. I'm glad that you enjoyed it. Talking about it makes me want to get back to it.

[Cap Ologist]

Cap: One thing that surprised me during the month or so that I worked on the fighting game was how much I learned. Keeping that journal/dynasty really helped me stay confident. When I looked back on the beginning, I realized how far I had come. I'm glad that you enjoyed it. Talking about it makes me want to get back to it.
:D