"William at MyBlueRoom" wrote ...
I've recently setup a web site
www.myblueroom.com with a handful of
schematics on it.
Currently they (you click on the thumbnail) an get a 200/300dpi .PNG
file.
I would like to use .PDF but is this a better format? or .GIF?
PDF is not "a" format. Internally it can have multiple formats. If your
PDF generating software can include the schematic from a vector source, it
would be the best by far. With a vector format, you print it on any printer
or zoom in almost indefinitely without looking chunky.
BMP, PNG, GIF, TIF, and JPG are all bitmap formats. Bitmaps are made of
dots. Zoom in and eventually the dots show up.
JPG is in a class by itself in that it uses a compression format that throws
out part of the picture. It was designed for photographs and so that the
detail it throws out is not all that visible at lower compression ratios.
However, if you compress line art (like a schematic) with the compression
method, it will create small speckles along all edges. The higher the
compression setting is, the more pronounced the trash is.
BMP and color TIF files do not compress the picture at all and tend to be
larger files.
Black and White (not even gray) TIF files can use Group 4 compression which
comes from the fax standards. It is lossless but can compress the pictures
an amazing amount.
From my understanding PNG is similar to GIF (which I am more familiar with)
except that software makers do not have to pay royalties to a copyright
holder to use it.
GIF uses a limited (256 colors) color pallet and gets good compression
without any loss of image.
The hassle is that not all people have all the viewers for all types of
files.
In comes Adobe and the PDF format. Adobe is into publishing and created PDF
in that image. It is based on postscript with the ability to mix various
types of graphics inside a file. Depending on the quality of the software
you use, it can include some items as text, some as vectors (drawn lines and
areas), and some as bit maps. For bitmaps, it can change them to various
resolutions and compression types. Your software may allow the resolution
and compression to be adjusted.
If you go to
www.threeriversparkdistrict.org/parks/, they have a link to
their system map
(
http://www.threeriversparkdistrict.org/parks/Maps/Park_District_Map_05.pdf).
The file is about 1.7 meg but has an amazing amount of detail in color. The
paper map is 18x24 inches. It contains a lot more than you are likely to
ever include in a schematic.