[Elecraft] How to get your own board trace images

[Bob-W5BIG]

The best way to get digital images of PC boards is to start with the
original artwork. This gives the sharpest image and also the smallest file
size.  The artwork image file can be compressed much more efficiently than
the file for a scanned board because the noise pixels are eliminated. This
allows the compression algorithm to leave out a lot of redundant pixels,
such as the background,  but the viewed image will be recreated exactly like
the original, without loss of quality.

The gif format is much better than jpg for compressing line drawings. As an
example, I've posted screen shots of a section of a board stored in both jpg
and gif formats.  These images represent an area about 2 inches on a side.
The jpg file is 170K bytes, the gif file is 34K bytes.  Several gif images
to cover a K2 RF card would probably total less than 1 Meg.

Not only is the gif file a lot smaller, it actually looks better too because
the jpg process creates noise in line drawings, while the gif image is
noise-free.  By working with the original artwork, it's possible to combine
the layers so the lines on the back side can be followed even when they pass
under lines on the top side.  By choosing the colors carefully, these images
would be readable when printed in black and white.

http://w5big.home.comcast.net/Sample_1.jpg  - 170K
http://w5big.home.comcast.net/Sample_1.gif   -   34K

73/ Bob  -- W5BIG   (formerly, AG5Q)