Macintosh Tips & Tricks

Topic:

Improving the print quality of PICT(Vector) images in ClarisWorks.

Tip:

Here's a trick that works really well with both Cliptures PICT(vector) and KoolKat versions of the Cliptures images. It's easy to do, lets you use images with transparent backgrounds, and produces very good print quality. ClarisWorks does have a word processor program, but it also has a drawing program too. When you want to create something other than a very basic letter, a ClarisWorks drawing document is a much better way to go than a word processor document. In a "draw" document you can position graphics and text wherever you would like on the page and it's much easier to do than in a word processor document.

For most layouts, you will want to use the PICT-Vector version of the Cliptures images because they have transparent backgrounds. Unfortunately the Mac's PICT-Vector format leaves much to be desired, but don't despair! This trick will get around those shortcomings and let you create layouts with great looking Cliptures images!

The problem with the PICT-Vector format is that although the images may look OK on your computer screen, when you print the page, the Mac shifts every control point in the graphics onto a 1/72 inch invisible grid. Without getting into the technical aspects, the net is the graphic looks rough on a printed page. Bummer!

(The PICT-Raster versions of the Cliptures graphics don't have this problem but they also don't have transparent backgrounds. So, if you want to layer graphics you need to use the PICT-Vector version.)

Here's the trick:

1. Start a new ClarisWork Draw document.
2. Under the File Menu, go to Page Setup. Change the Reduce/Enlarge option from 100% to 25%. Click OK.
3. From the Format menu, choose the Document option. Set all four margins to 2" and click OK.
4. Reduce the view of your page to 25%. (Use the view setting in the lower left corner of your ClarisWorks document. It looks like a big and a little mountain.)
5. Note: Once you have done this you are looking at a page that is actually 16 pages in size but because you have changed your view to 25% and reduced the printing size to 25%, it looks and prints at the size of a normal page!
6. (From this point on, treat this as though it was a regular sized page.)
7. Now add some PICT-Vector images. Scale them to fit your new page size.
8. Add some text but make its size 4 times as big as you normally would. (If you would normally use 24 point text, make it 96 points. You can go up to 255 points.)
9. Finish putting together your layout and print your page. The Cliptures images will look great and you have transparent backgrounds!