Optimum Image Size for Use in Graphic Forms and Reports (ActiveReports)

Many graphic forms and report (aka ActiveReports and Forms) incorporate an image or logo. When generating a series of forms (invoices or statement for example), the file size of the underlying image/logo can sometimes interfere with the resulting forms. This can manifest in a variety of ways such as the logo only being partially displayed, or black and white vs color, or the logo appears upside down or even offset and duplicated. Even if image-related issues are not present, an image file that is larger than needed will consume considerably more system resources than would otherwise be required when generating large number of forms.

The underlying logo file is typically named logo_custom.jpg and may reside in AGRIS\DATASETS\NNN or AGRIS\SUPPORT depending on when the image is supposed to be used. Or there may be AGRIS\SUPPORT\logo_***.jpg files used where *** refers to the 3-character package abbreviation in AGRIS (i.e. logo_GRN.jpg). Once the logo or image file in question has been identified, check the actual file size as well as the dimensions of the image.

A general recommendation would be that the image size should be around 1.5”x1.5” and less than 10KB in size. The dimensions are merely provided as an easy way to reduce the overall file size given that the document generally only shows the logo in a small area.

OPTION #1: Reduce the image dimensions:

Open the image using MSPAINT
Begin by maximizing the PAINT screen to ensure access to the options referenced below
Click on the View tab and put a check in the ‘Status bar’ checkbox
Click on the Home tab, click Resize
Make sure the ‘Maintain aspect ratio’ checkbox is checked
Click the radio button next to Pixels in the ‘Resize By’ box
Replace the largest value seen in either the horizontal or vertical boxes with the number 216 and click OK.
The resulting image should be approximately 1.5” in maximum size either horizontally or vertically.

OPTION #2: Reduce the file size:

Open a web browser such as MS Edge and search for ‘online image compression’
For this article, we will use the following 3^rd party site for demonstration purposes: https://compressjpeg.com/
Click the ‘UPLOAD FILES’ button
Browse to and select the desired image and then click OK
After the image is uploaded, select the ‘DOWNLOAD ALL’ option

NOTE: By default, the image quality when used with compression is 90%. This value can be adjusted if desired by hovering over the uploaded file and clicking on it when it displays the session option. You would then see the original image (displayed on the left), the compressed image (displayed on the right), and a slider that represents the compression ratio. As you adjust the slider up and down, observe how the compressed image changes and what the resulting file size would be. When finished making changes click ‘APPLY’ and then ‘DOWNLOAD ALL.’ (See attached document for related screenshot.)

Once the compressed image has been downloaded, rename the original file as a backup, copy the compressed image (extracted) into the location of the renamed file, then rename the compressed image so that it has the same file name as the original file did. (Again, many of the graphic forms/reports with AGRIS find the image based on the specific file name of Logo_custom.jpg.)

OPTION #3 (RECOMMENDED):
To obtain the optimal image size, it is best to use a combination of the approaches above by first resizing the image in MSPAINT and then compressing the image using an online image compression utility such as https://compressjpeg.com/ .

NOTE: If the above steps do not resolve the issue involving the image, then the Windows print driver may need to be updated or replaced.