Version: 2004
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
Processor: Power PC
I'm building templates for a client and we want to provide a "digital
template," which includes logos and type as image. Usually we embed a black
and white bitmap tif and it works great. However, I'd like to try to have
these in color this time. I have 2 questions:
1. What is the best format for color images (think logo/type) that will embed
in Word?
TIFF [see note 1]
You would think eps or pdf would give you a proper vector image, but
you have to jump through so many hoops [2] to have it appear properly
on screen and on paper. If you sink to TIFF, poor old Word can just
about cope. Don't ask for more than 300 dpi. Get the image you want to
place at the correct size and quality before you bring it into Word.
Stick the logos in the header and footer, even if they overflow out of
what you would normally think of as the header. Stupid Word will show
them pale on screen, but they will print well.
2. Is there a way to make these color images print as black but appear onscreen as color?
Yes. Use colour tiffs, then :-
a. Use a mono printer
or
b. In the print dialogue: Color Matching, choose ColorSync, then
profile È black and white.
Nothing to do with Word. It comes standard with OS X.
NOTES:
1. File size is huge, but it transfers to PCs better than jpg or gif.
Word has no compatible vector format between Word 2004 and the dark
side. The dark side's 'vector' formats WMF and EMF are a joke, and
undisplayable on Macs for the most part. Eps is problematic because of
the differing preview standards. It will print OK if the PC has a
postscript printer, but it will be horrid if not invisible on screen.
2. I jump through the hoops. I place an eps of the logo in the header,
created outside Word with the best tiff preview I can create
externally. It still looks like rubbish on screen, but Word *is* OK for
ransom note typography and below. If you set your sights too high, you
are bound to be disappointed.
It prints to pdf beautifully, *if* you print to postscript first, then
use Mac's Preview.app to convert the postscript to pdf. Poor old Word
send the low resolution preview off to be printed to pdf, so print to
PDF has to be avoided if there are any eps files included in the
document.
See what I mean by hoops? You are better off taking the quality hit
when printed with a 300 dpi tiff to get something that does not offend
the viewer's eye on screen, even though there is no way of displaying
the header and footer other than half greyed out.
If I want a PC user to see what it was like before their computer
mangled it, I send 'em the pdf created via Postscript as above.
Do I think Word is of merchantable quality?
Well. I *am* getting grumpy in my old age. I'm getting grumpier faster
than Word is getting better. And I'm talking twenty years of Word
history here!
It depends on the content of the image & the