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Save as Image
Some special tools show plots, graphs or charts. These can be saved as image files which can be inserted into documents. To create an image file, right-click on the window showing the plot. A menu will pop up near the mouse cursor. If you click on 'Save as Image', the following dialog window will open:
File type
The radio buttons allow you to choose which format the file should be saved in.
PNG is probably the best choice for most purposes. It gives an accurate rendition of colors, a small file size, and no artefacts.
GIF is almost as good as PNG but limits the number of colours to 256. This will not normally be an issue. GIF produces smaller files than PNG.
BMP is an uncompressed format. It gives precise rendition of the image, at the cost of a very large file.
JPG is not the best choice for the types of images created with UltimaCalc. It produces a small file. The colour rendition is quite good, but can be marred by artefacts of the data compression technique used in this format.
An EMF file is a vector format image. The first four formats store images on a pixel by pixel basis. An EMF file attempts to store the methods used to create these pixels. The advantage is that when an EMF file is enlarged, text and lines are drawn more smoothly than with the other file formats. A disadvantage of EMF is that some painting programs have problems showing them correctly. File sizes tend to be larger, too.
The 'EMF to clipboard' option writes an EMF file to the clipboard. It is easy to paste this directly into a program such as Microsoft Word. This saves the bother of writing the image as a disk file first.
Image size
The image size edit boxes show what the current dimensions of the image would be. These are not relevant for EMF files.
The largest image that you can create is slightly larger than your total display area. Some features of the plot do not change as you enlarge its window. You can therefore adjust the image size for the nicest result.
When the 'Lock' checkbox is ticked, changing the width will change the height in proportion, and vice versa. (The aspect ratio is the ratio of the width to the height.) Deliberately changing the value of the aspect ration will automatically cause it to lock, and the width or height will be changed appropriately, depending on whether the height or the width box was the last one active.
File name
Select an appropriate name for the file by clicking on the 'Browse' button. If you choose to save an EMF image to the clipboard, no file name is required. If you forget to enter a file name when this is required, you will be prompted to do so. Your choice of file name and file type will be remembered for next time.
Note that the file extension of the file name needs to match the type of file to be saved. When a file name has been specified, changing the file type will cause the file name's extension to change accordingly.
To write the file to disk or to the clipboard, click on the 'OK' button. If you change your mind about saving an image file, cancel the dialog by clicking on the cross on the red background at top right.