Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wuarchive!m.cs.uiuc.edu!gillies
From: gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Don Gillies)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Pasting PICT's into MSWord
Keywords: MacDraw II, MSWord, PICT
Message-ID: <1991May31.191526.25743@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
Date: 31 May 91 19:15:26 GMT
References: <altman.675559411@socrates.ucsf.edu>
Distribution: comp
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Lines: 33

You have encountered a serious problem with MacDraw II.  My impression
has always been that MacDraw II is written in an egocentric way -- it
won't export PICT graphics with 300dpi precision.  This is problem
because MacDraw II was written before 300dpi PICT graphics were
possible. 

You can see this for yourself.  Take a MacDraw II graphic that has
been aligned at 300dpi (4x resolution).  Paste it into any other
document (not just word 4.0, but canvas 2.1, for instance).  The
graphic has been rounded to 72 dpi.  The alignment has been ruined.

On the other hand, take a document from Canvas 2.1 and paste it into
MacDraw II 1.1.  It has correct alignment at 300dpi.

Basically, MacDraw II does not create device-independent graphics for
export.  The graphics it creates print differently on postscript and
on PICT devices.  There are three solutions:

	(1) Do not use MacDraw II 1.1 (my favorite).  Use something
		better, like Canvas 2.1.
	(2) Align all your MacDraw II 1.1 graphics at 4x resolution.
		(my old favorite)
		do not worry about how it looks at 1x resolution (in Word)
		realize that it will never print correctly on a
		 quickdraw device.  
		abandon Quickdraw printing.
	(3) Do all your printing from MacDraw II.
		(my least favorite)

Don Gillies	     |  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
gillies@cs.uiuc.edu  |  Digital Computer Lab, 1304 W. Springfield, Urbana IL

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