How ScreenSteps Deals With Large Images

ScreenSteps provides a couple of settings that can help in working with large images.

Scaling Images While Authoring

Scaling Images While Authoring

When you work with ScreenSteps you will notice that after you capture an image it appears to be smaller within ScreenSteps than it was when you capture it. Because the content are of the formats you export to are often smaller than the screenshots you take, ScreenSteps can scale your screenshots to fit within a predefined width while authoring. By doing this, your annotated image will not need to be scaled when exporting. This results in crisper annotations.

The percentage that an image is scaled by appears right below the image in the authoring environment (1).

You can change the percentage at any time by clicking on the arrow next to the percentage. This will display the menu of options for scaling (2). For more information about this menu please see this lesson.

Note: ScreenSteps will always store the original image you capture. Scaling only occurs while authoring and exporting.

How ScreenSteps Determines How to Scale Images You Capture

How ScreenSteps Determines How to Scale Images You Capture

ScreenSteps has preference settings that allow you  to automatically scale all images you capture to a specific width and height. By default, ScreenSteps will scale all images that are over 560 pixels wide. If you prefer to always have your images appear at 100% of their actual size then you can uncheck the checkbox for the "Scale Images on Capture" preference.

Scaling Images When Exporting

Scaling Images When Exporting

ScreenSteps may also scale your images when it comes time to export.

For PDF output an image will be scaled if it is too wide to fit in the available width. The height is sometimes scaled to make the image fit on the page as well.

For Word output, the full image is included and the editor you use to view the document will provide any necessary scaling.

When using an HTML template to export, the Maximum Image Width setting for the template you export with is used. As you can see in this picture, the maximum image width for this template is 560 pixels. If you have any images in your lesson that are wider than 560 pixels then they will be scaled to fit within 560 pixels. An HTML template can specify that the full-size image should be included as well. In this case ScreenSteps will also include the full size version so that the user can click on a link to view it.

So why does ScreenSteps allow you to scale images during authoring and exporting? The reason is that if you scale an image during export then the image annotations will be scaled as well. The annotations will not be as large as they appear in the ScreenSteps editor and scaling can result in annotations that are not as crisp as they would otherwise be if they had not been scaled.

7 Comments

Ben Glick

For export to PDF, I don't want the images to be automatically scaled to fit on the page. Can I turn off this behavior?

All of my images are 560 px wide, so no scaling should be necessary.

Trevor DeVore

@Ben: There isn't a way to modify how images are inserted into the PDF file.

Val Adam

Is there a way to include a full size image in a Wordpress export?

Trevor DeVore

@Val - If you want the full size image without the thumbnail then just increase (or remove) the maximum image size settings:

http://help.bluemangolearning.com/m/customizing_templates/l/1333-setting-the-maximum-height-width-for-step-images

If you want both the thumbnail and the full size image then you would need to create a custom HTML template that has the appropriate HTML/CSS for whatever Javascript library you have installed that handles image zooming for your WordPress install:

http://help.bluemangolearning.com/m/customizing_templates/l/697-using-image-zoom-in-templates

Gerry

I am using windows bootcamped on a Macbook Pro Retina. When I use Screensteps in Windows and commence screen capture the entire Windows pane for the application I try to capture appears "zoomed" and shows only approximately the top left quadrant of the screen. I can't capture a) the entire application or b) the entire screen. If I was to minimize the application to work around it will capture in the zoom state and is more pixelated. Any ideas? Am I missing something simple? I have changed my screen resolution to multiple settings but get the same result.

Trevor DeVore

@Gerry - Windows allows you to set different zoom percentages that affect the size of text, etc. When the zoom setting is set to 150% or higher than Windows is in a high-resolution mode. ScreenSteps 2 does not supper this mode and the end result is what you are seeing.

If you change Windows to 125% or lower then screen capture in ScreenSteps 2 should work. Here is a Microsoft document that discusses:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Make-the-text-on-your-screen-larger-or-smaller?v=t

Andy

Late response to this thread, but I experienced what Gerry describes and wanted to throw my 2 cents in.

I have an ASUS Ultrabook that uses Windows zoom settings by default, because without them everything is ridiculously tiny on its 13.3" 1920 x 1080 screen.

The workaround for me is to use SnagIt or Snipping Tool to capture images. You can bind a hotkey to Snipping Tool by right-clicking on its shortcut and setting one. That way, when you need to capture, just use the hotkey and you can capture and paste into ScreenSteps in "normal" display mode.

SnagIt is the more efficient solution for this, but of course it comes with a price tag. For my money, though, the SnagIt + ScreenSteps combination is unbeatable.

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