TIFF Output Options dialog box

Use this dialog box to set formatting, compression, transformation, and resolution options for a Microsoft Office Visio file that you want to export as a .tif file.

General

Data compression

Reduces the amount of space or bandwidth needed to store file data.

• None  Uses no data compression.

• Group 3  Uses Group 3 compression, designed specifically for bi-level, black-and-white images for data telecommunications devices, such as fax machines.

• Packbits  Uses Packbits compression, which seeks repeated data values. Packbits is considered an RLE compression scheme, which is not as good for images that contain large color ranges because these images tend to have few runs of the same color.

• Group 4  Uses Group 4 compression, which is similar to Group 3 compression but much more efficient. It is especially good for images scanned from text documents.

• LZW Uses LZW (Lempel-Ziv-Welch) compression, the most commonly used method for compressing almost any type of data. LZW compression works by finding patterns of data to which it assigns codes. It works best on highly patterned images. Images that have irregular patterning, or noise, are not good candidates for this type of compression. LZW compression is commonly used in Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) and Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) image formats. LZW compression is also suitable for compressing text files.

• Modified Huffman  Uses Modified Huffman compression, a method of compressing a given set of data based on the relative frequency of the individual elements.

Color format

Controls the color depth of the exported file.

• Bi-level  Converts the exported image using a maximum of two colors (black and white).

• 24-bit color  Converts the exported image using a maximum of 16 million colors.

• 16 color  Converts the exported image using a maximum of 16 colors.

• 16 color grayscale  Converts the exported image using a maximum of 16 shades of gray.

• 256 color  Converts the exported image using a maximum of 256 colors.

• 256 color grayscale  Converts the exported image using a maximum of 256 shades of gray.

Color reduction

Controls the color reduction process used for the exported file.

• None  Uses no color reduction.

• Adaptive  Creates a palette by sampling the colors from the spectrum appearing most commonly in the image.

• Diffusion  Converts an image by using an error-diffusion process, starting at the pixel in the upper-left corner of the image. If the pixel's value is above middle gray (128), the pixel is changed to white—if below, to black. Because the original pixel is rarely pure white or pure black, error is inevitably introduced. This error is transferred to surrounding pixels and diffused throughout the image, resulting in a grainy, film-like texture. This option is useful for viewing images on a black-and-white screen.

• Halftone  Uses evenly spaced dots of varying diameter to produce apparent shades of gray. The darker the shade at a particular point in the image, the larger the corresponding dot in the halftone. Varying the size and density of the dots creates the illusion of variations of gray or continuous color. For a process color image, four halftone screens are used: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black—one for each ink used in the printing process.

Background color

Sets the background color for the exported file. The default is white.

Transformation

Rotation

Controls the rotation of the image in the exported file.

• None  Exports the shape or drawing without any rotation.

• Rotate left  Rotates the shape or drawing 90 degrees counterclockwise.

• Rotate right  Rotates the shape or drawing 90 degrees clockwise.

Flip horizontal

Reverses the shape or drawing horizontally (around the y-axis) to produce a mirror image.

Flip vertical

Reverses the shape or drawing vertically (around the x-axis) to produce an upside-down image.

Resolution

Screen

Bases the exported file's resolution on current screen resolution.

Printer

Bases the resolution on current printer resolution and gives optimum printout results.

Source

Specifies that the source program determine the resolution.

Custom

Specifies a custom resolution. (Width x height dimensions should be between 32 and 400 pixels per inch.)

Size

Screen

Bases the exported file's size on the screen size and places the largest possible image within the dimensions of the screen while maintaining the aspect ratio of the original drawing or shape.

Printer

Bases the exported file's size on the currently selected printer paper size, and places the largest possible image within the dimensions of the paper size while maintaining the aspect ratio of the original drawing or shape.

Source

Bases the exported file's size on the size of the source file.

Custom

Bases the exported file's size on the custom size (width x height) you enter and places the largest possible image within the custom dimensions while maintaining the aspect ratio of the original drawing or shape.