Mac/PC problems

[Glenn Ruga]

I am creating an electronic letterhead in Word. I am using Word 2004 on a
Mac. My client is using Word 2000 on a PC. I place an eps graphic in the
document. When they open it, it appears in reverse (black graphic with white
letters.) Any ideas why this is happening?

Another problem is that the document is about 500k, but when my client saves
it to his laptop, the size balloons to 5600k (this happens with either an
eps or a jpg.)

Does anyone have any thoughts about why these problems are happening and how
to solve them?

Thanks.

Glenn Ruga

 

[mmmmark]

I am creating an electronic letterhead in Word. I am using Word 2004 on a
Mac. My client is using Word 2000 on a PC. I place an eps graphic in the
document. When they open it, it appears in reverse (black graphic with white
letters.) Any ideas why this is happening?

Another problem is that the document is about 500k, but when my client saves
it to his laptop, the size balloons to 5600k (this happens with either an
eps or a jpg.)

Does anyone have any thoughts about why these problems are happening and how
to solve them?

Thanks.

Glenn Ruga

Glenn,

Did you see my response to your previous similar post? I did not copy it
here, but try to keep the same post rather than post the same thing again.

EPS files are problematic in word, particularly cross-platform. The other
part of the problem is you are using Quark which makes odd, non-standard
..eps files to start with. Consider using a tool more suitable for the job
such as Illustrator or Freehand or even Corel. You can get demos that are
free or try GraphicConverter, also initially free to convert these .eps
files to a vector format more suitable in the PC world such as .wmf or .emf.

A possible reason that they are ballooning in size is because on the PC side
is that Word creates a .png screen-representation "stand-in". It doesn't
parse the .eps file very effectively or must use a very high-resolution .png
or both. I've not found a good way around this.

If you are going to be working with PC people, meet them on their ground and
provide things in formats that they need. If you don't, someone who does
will steal your business.

-Mark

 

[Glenn Ruga]

Mark: Thank you for the detailed explanation both in this and your previous
email. A few follow-on questions.

What are .wmf or .emf graphics and how are they created?

If I export a Quark file to eps, open in illustrator, and re-save as an
illustrator .eps, does it still retain the problems that you refer to for
Quark eps files?

Lastly, what about bitmapped graphic such as jpgs? My client still had the
ballooning problems with this.

Thanks!

Glenn

 

[mmmmark]

Any idea what resolution you saved your .jpgs at? If it was 300 dpi or
more, that might explain it. Perhaps it was 300 dpi but at a larger size,
so points per inch (ppi) were even higher. If I understand correctly, Word
cannot natively display bitmaps of any flavor so creates a .png placeholder.

..Wmf (windows metafile) and .emf (enhanced metafile) seem to use their
internal bitmap representation and Word doesn't make another one for it.
I'm not sure about the hows and whys here, but their file sizes do no
mushroom like some others. These two file types can be created by exporting
out of Illustrator or Freehand or Corel. I know that GraphicConverter can
open these files, but I'm not certain it can save to them.

Does your Quark file have bitmaps in it as well as vector art?

I suspect you will have a similar outcome if you save as an Illustrator
..eps. Try saving as a .wmf or .emf instead.

-Mark