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Saving high resolution graphics in MacVector

Here are a couple of methods for saving MacVector graphics for use with Word or Powerpoint.  

1. When a graphical map window or picture display is active in MacVector and you choose File -> Save As, MacVector creates a PICT file on disk.  PICT files are high-resolution Mac-specific graphic files and should be your first output option.  In this case, save your MacVector graphical map to your desktop and then open Word or Powerpoint and click Insert > Picture > From File ..., select your file and click Insert. The inserted graphic should have the same resolution as the original image.

2. Using the Edit menu to copy a MacVector graphic and then paste it into another application is equivalent to saving a PICT image and importing that PICT file.   If the first method doesn't work well enough for you, try using the copy-paste approach to insert your MacVector graphic into Word or Powerpoint.  You may see a slight improvement in resolution of the inserted image.

In combination with the two methods above, you can increase the resolution of the MacVector graphic by enlarging the graphical map window and clicking the Fit to Window button in the graphics palette before saving the file to disk or performing the copy-paste procedure.

If none of the above approaches are sufficient, then the following approach gives the absolute best resolution but requires a little more work on your part - sorry about that!

3. For reasons that are obscure to me, MacVector draws arc and curves more smoothly in PostScript format than PICT format. If you're working with circular plasmid maps, then the arcs and curves in your maps are probably "jaggy". In this case, you should see a significant improvement in the appearance of the graphical map if you create a PostScript format output file by printing the graphic to file; that is, on OS X 10.4 click File -> Print -> PDF (click "PDF" button in lower left corner) -> Save As PDF as Postscript.  

If you have an earlier version of OS X, such as OS X 10.3, toggle to the Output Options in the Print dialog, enable the Save as File option, select PostScript format, then click Save.

You won't be able to directly insert PostScript files into Word or Powerpoint but you can open the PostScript output file in the OS X application Preview and save it to another file format, such as BMP, GIF, JPEG, etc., that can be inserted. On my mac, the graphics files exported from Preview import into Word and Powerpoint just fine - text and colors are good, and the curves are smooth, not jaggy. It's possible to perform basic edits on the inserted graphic file in Word and Powerpoint to mask the page title and numbers. Alternatively, you could use the copy-paste approach to select and copy the graphic from the exported (i.e., non-PostScript) file while it's still open in Preview the paste the selection into Word or Powerpoint.

To communicate with a live human body knowledgable in all technical aspects of MacVector and Assembler, please call or email:

support@macvector.com

(919) 303-7450

(866) 338-0222

support@macvector.com

+44 (0) 1223 410 552

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