johan@dutnak2.UUCP (02/12/90)
I find that the current Macintosh graphics handling is often
quite lousy. Let me illustrate that with two examples:
- When you copy graphics from MacDrawII to Word 4.0 or WriteNow 2.0,
linestyles (dotted, striped) and line thicknesses usually get
mixed up. When you resize the MacDraw graphic in Word, e.g. a
flowchart, things misalign, causing the text and the boxes around
it to overlap.
- We use IGOR, a sophisticated "plotting" application that I can
heartily recommend. Suppose you plot a smooth function like a
sine. Directly printing from IGOR to the LaserWriter gives perfect
smooth results. However, exporting the graph to Word or MacDraw
and printing no longer gives a smooth result. Doing so, the
function looks "piecewise continuous".
So when making publications, we still end up with cutting and pasting,
using real scissors and glue. A Mac programmer omce told me that
these problems are due to the limitations of Quickdraw, which is used
when copying something to the clipboard.
I would like to know if these problems are going to be addressed in
new system software. I think they should, because presently, two
"standard tools" like Word and MacDraw can't communicate properly with
each other.
Johan de Haas tel. +31 15 785188 E-mail: johan@dutnak0.tudelft.nl
Delft University of Technology
P.O Box 5046, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlandsramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) (02/13/90)
In article <1128@dutrun.UUCP> johan@dutnak2.UUCP (Johan de Haas) writes: >I find that the current Macintosh graphics handling is often >quite lousy. Let me illustrate that with two examples: > >- When you copy graphics from MacDrawII to Word 4.0 or WriteNow 2.0, > linestyles (dotted, striped) and line thicknesses usually get > mixed up. When you resize the MacDraw graphic in Word, e.g. a > flowchart, things misalign, causing the text and the boxes around > it to overlap. > >- We use IGOR, a sophisticated "plotting" application that I can > heartily recommend. Suppose you plot a smooth function like a > sine. Directly printing from IGOR to the LaserWriter gives perfect > smooth results. However, exporting the graph to Word or MacDraw > and printing no longer gives a smooth result. Doing so, the > function looks "piecewise continuous". > >Johan de Haas tel. +31 15 785188 E-mail: johan@dutnak0.tudelft.nl Still just a beginner in the mac world, and one who isn't familiar with IGOR or MacDrawII, my guess is that the clipboard doesn't accept objects... a clipped object gets converted to bitmap. What Word gets is a bitmapped image of your object from IGOR... then your printer does a 72 dpi job on an otherwise beautiful graph.... just a thought.. maybe well off into the ozone.. -kevin ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu
clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu (Chaz Larson) (02/13/90)
In article <5711@blake.acs.washington.edu> ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) writes: >In article <1128@dutrun.UUCP> johan@dutnak2.UUCP (Johan de Haas) writes: >>I find that the current Macintosh graphics handling is often >>quite lousy. Let me illustrate that with two examples: > >Still just a beginner in the mac world, and one who isn't familiar >with IGOR or MacDrawII, my guess is that the clipboard >doesn't accept objects... a clipped object gets converted >to bitmap. What Word gets is a bitmapped image of your >object from IGOR... then your printer does a 72 dpi job on >an otherwise beautiful graph.... > >just a thought.. maybe well off into the ozone.. > I think the problem is that the Clipboard translates all graphics data it receives into PICT format, which deals rather poorly with things like patterns and line styles. I've also run into this problem with MacDraw II and Word; it's a real pain. <chaz> -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Chaz Larson - clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu "Hey, I'm no Jack Kennedy..." - Flaming Carrot ----------------------------------------------------------------------
nebel@wam.umd.edu (Chris D. Nebel) (02/14/90)
In article <1129@ux.acs.umn.edu> clarson@ux.acs.umn.edu (Chaz Larson) writes: >In article <5711@blake.acs.washington.edu> ramsiri@blake.acs.washington.edu (Enartloc Nhoj) writes: >>In article <1128@dutrun.UUCP> johan@dutnak2.UUCP (Johan de Haas) writes: >>>I find that the current Macintosh graphics handling is often >>>quite lousy. Let me illustrate that with two examples: >> >>Still just a beginner in the mac world, and one who isn't familiar >>with IGOR or MacDrawII, my guess is that the clipboard >>doesn't accept objects... a clipped object gets converted >>to bitmap. What Word gets is a bitmapped image of your >>object from IGOR... then your printer does a 72 dpi job on >>an otherwise beautiful graph.... > >I think the problem is that the Clipboard translates all graphics data >it receives into PICT format, which deals rather poorly with things like >patterns and line styles. I've also run into this problem with MacDraw II >and Word; it's a real pain. > Actually, PICT deals very well with objects, fill patterns, and line styles. The one big ugly with PICT is that it has a resolution of 72 DPI. This means that all distances will be rounded to the nearest 1/72"; so fine detail may be (and frequently is) lost. Chaz is correct about graphics being stored in the clipboard as PICT, but it's the application that the graphic came from that does the <internal format>-to-PICT translation. So while PICT is capable of representing objects, line styles, &c., the application is under no obligation to do it that way. It could, for instance, turn the whole picture into a bitmap and give that to the clipboard. (Never heard of anyone actually doing that, though :) Note that most apps only turn stuff into PICT when they're going to paste into another application; otherwise they use a special internal clipboard to make sure no information is lost. So there are two things that could mess up your picture when copying and pasting it between applications: one is the 72 DPI nature of PICT itself, the other is applications not supporting all of PICT's capabilities. There has been talk for some time (mostly in the CAD area) of making a "high-resolution PICT" standard, but nothing (to my knowledge) has ever materialized. Chris Nebel nebel@wam.umd.edu
J.Pearce@ucl-cs.UUCP (02/17/90)
From: J.Pearce@uk.ac.ucl.cs We too have suffered from problems when transferring simple pictures from MacDraw II 1.1v1 to MS Word and a variety of other applications. We have had particular problems with arcs joined to straight lines that look OK in MacDraw even if you zoom in 3200%, but as soon as you copy them to the clipboard there is an erratic alignment problem (if you use show clipboard in MacDraw the problem is visible). The only work-around we have found is to save the picture in PICT format, re-open the PICT file, then copy. This is tiresome, but it seems to aleviate the problem. To have to resort to manual cut & paste on a macintosh is a "crime". System 7 must be an ideal opportunity to address this problem. John R. Pearce Computer Science Department, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, ENGLAND. Disclaimer : These are my own personal oppinions