Image Resolution

[Fred_R]

One of the uses of my Series 7 is for presentations. I use a Colourgraphics adapter to connect to the projectors.

I usually develop the presentation on Powerpoint, or use a Powerpoint presentation developed by someone else. I 'save as' JPEG files and show them using 5FX as the presentation package which allows me to select the slides I want to show and what effects I will use.

The problem I have is that the images are not very sharp - indeed text is sometimes almost unreadable, as if the screen resolution is very low. The problem does not exist if I write a new slide using Presentation - when the text resolution is excellent! How can I improve the resolution of the JPEG images imported from the PC?

If I could resolve this I save myself heaps of trouble having to buy a 'laptop' (otherwise known as a boat anchor) just for the slide presentations, as my Psion does just about everything else, at a much lower weight.

many thanks
Fred

[diem]

As I'm quite sure you're aware, jpeg is a lossy format (that's why the files are so small) and thus should only be used at the very end of the chain, as it were. Thus, the first suggestion is to export the slides from Powerpoint as an uncompressed bitmap format (such as BMP).

My next thought relates to resolution. Since the Pison uses 640x480 at 256 colours, I suggest keeping this in mind when developing the slides on the PC - perhaps even change your screen settings to match the Psion when you are developing presentations, so that you develop them in the same environment in which you display them.

On the Psion, where these BMP files may well be simply too large for the available RAM, use a file conversion program such as MBMView to reduce the filesize and to convert them to a format that your slideshow application can handle.

HTH,

yan

[spegru]

I've tried this too. The problem with storing a powerpoint as a graphics file is that it treats all objects exactly the same whether it's text or empty space. Printing the powerpoint to an A4 page and then zooming out (if that's what you are doing) loses resolution (and slows it down). The lossy format that Diem refers to makes it even worse.
First you can try printing to an S7 sized screen in the first place so that zooming is not required.
An even better solution if if you can get Adobe's Acrobat Pro which enables you to 'print' from Powerpoint to a PDF file - which you can then open on PDF+ for Psion http://www.mbrainsoftware.com/Pdf/Pdf.htm

This treats text as text and is far far clearer. (this method also works for MS Word docs)

The only problem is the cost of Acrobat pro. Maybe you can get one through work?

spegru

[Fred_R]

I tried Yan's suggestion, but my Powerpoint didn't save a multislide file as BMPs so I tried saving the slides as WMFs but the resolution remained lousy!

Unfortunately I am work and Adobe Acrobat is on the horizon, but as yet not on the budget. I do however think it is the best solution from what I have seen so far.

The only other possible way I found was to copy as HTMs and read from the Web program, but this involves loading each one, and using the history component of Web, which is very inflexible, unlike Presentation, 5FX, or MBMView which allow relatively easy modifications to the order, etc of the slideshow.

I guess I will just keep on looking ...

Fred :(

[nmbaker]

try out www.fineprint.com as there are fully featured downloads available and I have found this an ideal alternative to Acrobat which I couldn't afford