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The main advantage of using graphics is that they are system indpendent & don't require the computer to be equipped with Japanese language support.

Using Japanese graphic files - the pros and cons


Advantages

The main advantage of using graphics files is that, with a few exceptions (see PDF below), they are 'system independent'. In other words, you do not need a Japanese system to display them. The Japanese characters simply appear in the document as pictures in the same way as photographs or other graphic devices.
Graphics can be generated in many different fie formats. The characteristics of some of the most popular ones are summarised below. 

Disadvantages


As far as text goes, the main disadvantages of representing Japanese characters as graphics are as follows.

  • Text created as graphics can not be edited as easily as if it were pure text (for instance DTP packages can not automatically flow the text into neat paragraphs)..

  • File sizes can become very large.

Popular file types

EPS (Encapsulated Postscript)

This is a very popular file format which most printing houses are set up to handle. It is equally popular in both the IBM PC and Apple Mac worlds. The main advantage of EPS is that it does not require the computer to be equipped with Japanese fonts. This means you can send an EPS file to virtually any printing bureau to print your documents. The main disadvantage of EPS is that the files can be very large. Several megabytes is not untypical.

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

The GIF format was invented by CompuServe. They are limited by the number of colours which they can contain (maximum of 256) and so are rarely used for high quality printing. Their main application today is their use in Web sites.


JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

JPEGs files can contain up to 16.7 million colours and, as the name suggests, are often used to represent photographs. High definition JPEGs often end up as very large files in the same way that EPS representations do.


PDF (Portable document format)

PDF files were invented by Adobe. One of the major differences between EPS and PDF files is that PDF files require the computer to be equipped with Japanese fonts in order to display Japanese characters. PDF files tend to be smaller than their equivalent EPS for this reason.

 

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