Question about loading pictures into a document

[djsmith911]

I recently read that pictures should always be inserted into Word documents by using File|Insert|Insert Picture, rather than just copy and pasting into the document (what I always do). Is there an advantage to doing that in Atlantis too? And could you explain why, if so?

[admin]

In Atlantis, it depends on where you copy pictures from.

If you copy/paste document fragments with pictures from one document to another within Atlantis, the underlying graphic data and format of the pasted pictures is preserved. For example, if you drag & drop a JPEG graphic file from a file manager to a document in Atlantis, Atlantis embeds the entire JPEG file into the document "as is". You can double-click any picture in an Atlantis document to see info about its graphic format and data size. Now, if you copy this picture in Atlantis, and paste it to another document in Atlantis or to another place in the same document, the pasted picture will also have the same JPEG data associated with it.

However, the "Insert | Picture..." command in Atlantis is a preferable option compared to copy/pasting from another word processing application or even graphics editor. For example, if you open a 500 KB JPEG file with Windows Paint, use the Copy command in Paint, then paste it to Atlantis, the picture will most probably be pasted to Atlantis as a much bigger (1 MB+) PNG file.

[djsmith911]

Interesting. Glad I asked. I have noticed large file sizes with my rtf files, due to all the embedded pics. But also that the file size is extremely reduced when saving as a pdf, which is the eventual destination file format for book publishing. Same deal with epub save. File sizes are very respectable, especially after converting pics to jpgs,. Thanks for the info.

[admin]

When saving as EPUB, the original graphic data of the pictures from the source document is preserved unless the picture is a Windows metafile or SVG. Metafiles and SVGs are always saved to EPUB as PNG or JPEG. In the case of PDF, Atlantis always embeds pictures into PDF files as JPEG. So, JPEG is a preferable graphic format if you plan to convert your documents to PDF in Atlantis.

[admin]

Another interesting fact is that if you insert multiple copies of the same graphic file into a DOCX document in Atlantis, the DOCX file will contain only one actual graphic file shared by the corresponding pictures in the document. So, inserting additional copies of the same picture into a DOCX file in Atlantis will not add to the DOCX file size. Same when saving documents as EPUB or PDF in Atlantis.

[admin]

I have noticed large file sizes with my rtf files, due to all the embedded pics.

Is the "Save compact RTF documents" option checked on the Load/Save tab of the "Tools | Options..." dialog of Atlantis. This option is enabled within the default configuration of Atlantis. Atlantis will create super-compact RTF documents with pictures if you also enable the "Save binary graphic data to RTF documents" option on the same tab of the "Tools | Options..." dialog.