When cutting and pasting bar codes from B-Coder into other programs,
the best graphics format to use is the Windows Metafile format. Metafile
images are device independent, scalable images that consist of drawing
instructions used internally by Windows to reproduce an image in a manner
that uses the highest resolution of the device that the image is being
printed on. Because most printers have a much higher resolution than most
computer monitors, the printed version of a Metafile will almost always
have a much higher degree of detail than the same image when it is displayed
on your computer's monitor. Bitmaps on the other hand do not automatically
use the highest resolution possible when printed and therefore the printed
output of a bitmap will retain the same (lower) quality as that of your
monitor.
When you paste a Metafile bar code
produced by B-Coder into a graphics or drawing program that only has the capability of
working with bitmap files (.BMP) such as the PaintBrush program that comes with
Windows, your bar code will be automatically converted from a Windows Metafile format to a
bitmap format. During this conversion process, the bar code will most likely be deformed
and thus it may be unreadable when it is eventually printed. A possible solution to this
problem is to increase the Narrow Bar Width value and avoid the use of any scaling
features in the target application (i.e. SHRINK & GROW in PaintBrush). Acceptable bar
codes can be produced with these types of programs but their output should always be
tested for readability.
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