Vectors? We don't need no stinkin' vectors!

[daqq]

Hi,

I've seen this in lots of datasheets, app notes and such - graphics are mangled beyond recognition through the wonders of lossy compression. It really pisses me off that someone goes to the effort of writing a useful document and does not actually check what came out of the PDF converter. As an example see: http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1800839.pdf ; page 6 and 8. I know it's a bother to export a vector schematic/diagram from a software of your choice, but IT'S STILL BETTER THAN PASTING A USELESS AREA OF PIXELS INTO YOUR DOCUMENT!

Seriously, if there's someone reading this from any semiconductor (or other) company that does this, go to your graphics/marketing department and kick someone. Because graphics that have been mangled beyond recognition and would require a forensics team to guess what was there are worse than useless - they are infuriating.

Short version: Just because you CAN export a schematic in JPEG doesn't mean you should. Remember that setting the compression setting to "Convert everything to a collection of smudges to keep the file size below 1kB" has its price!

/rant

David

[Kjelt]

Because graphics that have been mangled beyond recognition and would require a forensics team to guess what was there are worse than useless

[daqq]

OK, here's another one: http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/1813730.pdf

Page 12 and beyond... I mean, of what possible use is that document? The schematic and board layout are completely useless.

[T3sl4co1l]

What, your PDF viewer doesn't have the unlimited Enhance button?

[XOIIO]

What, your PDF viewer doesn't have the unlimited Enhance button?

He just needs the enhance software that all TV cops use.

[Maxlor]

I've noticed this lack of understanding for the technicalities of image formats and capabilities too. There is much struggling with the concept of pixel density. Sadly, not even our designer knew the difference between PNG and JPG. And I wonder whether our illustrator does (she doesn't: "one has better resolution?"). Some things are never going to get better.

[Bored@Work]

What is even more interesting is that this wasn't caught and fixed in the document release process. I mean, this is TI. Not everyone in the company can release a datasheet.

The summer intern or the lowest bidder "technical writer" from India messing things up? Ok, can happen. But the highly paid suit, responsible for signing it off, giving a flying fart? And what did anyone in between do? What did the marketing department do when cross-checking it, legal cross-checking it, the inspection group inspecting it, the manager tasked with supervising the intern, peers reviewing drafts, etc.? A bunch of lazy, no balls, fails.

[free_electron]

simple. they did a screen capture and pasted it.
to create vector data you would have needed to print the pcb or schematic as pdf, opened that in illustrator , manipulated it to strip off the unwanted portions , do a cleanup. and then re-export to EMF or AI format so it can be loaded in indesign or whatever editing tool for datasheets they use.

[T3sl4co1l]

Alas, the ones responsible aren't always the best suited to the task.  If the editor doesn't know LaTeX, isn't on that kind of level... well...

And not only is JPG lossy and PNG lossless, but JPG has variable compression level and other settings.  I normally save JPGs at "90-95%", which doesn't do too badly with line drawings, but works much better for pictures.  On average, a raw JPEG from my camera drops by about 50% in size, with little change in fidelity, if I simply resave it, nothing else.

Since 2007 I think (before which I used GIF), I exclusively use PNG for [raster] line drawings, usually at 100 DPI or more.  (My average schematics e.g. http://seventransistorlabs.com/Images/Deadbug_Sch.png look best around 100 to 125 DPI; I have a set of symbols that look best at 300 DPI, of course it's a bigger pain to draw at that scale.)

Tim

[daqq]

to create vector data you would have needed to print the pcb or schematic as pdf, opened that in illustrator , manipulated it to strip off the unwanted portions , do a cleanup. and then re-export to EMF or AI format so it can be loaded in indesign or whatever editing tool for datasheets they use.

Also known as "givin' a damn". I'm sure that it's annoying, but images like this are just useless...

[amyk]

What is even more interesting is that this wasn't caught and fixed in the document release process. I mean, this is TI. Not everyone in the company can release a datasheet.

I noticed this with several other TI datasheets too.

An obscure Chinese company who probably doesn't even have dedicated personnel writing datasheets I can see making this mistake, but for TI to do this, it's surprising.

[T3sl4co1l]

TI has the same problems that any other large company does: it's inhomogeneous.  It would be nice to imagine a single company as a single, consistent entity, but the fact is, there are many departments and many teams working on a huge number of projects.  Some of them will be crummy projects by weak teams, some will be awesome projects by experts.  Some will be a mix of one or the other, and you'll have great chips with awful datasheets, or vice versa, or anything else you might imagine.  LT and ADI have their foibles as well -- not usually as dramatic (regarding the present case, I can't think of an LT or ADI datasheet that's had poor images or formatting*; likely, they run everything through a trained team of editors), but nonetheless obvious in exactly the same form.

*One might argue Jim Williams' deadbug circuits, or hand drawn doodles, are an example against this, but their utilitarian suitability in the document, and charming style, easily absolve such an accusation.

Tim

[Bored@Work]

TI has the same problems that any other large company does: it's inhomogeneous.

Sure. And that is why they have gatekeepers, and processes and checks to enforce corporate standards. Someone is not doing his job. Or they have rubbish standards (which means the people setting the standards aren't doing their job).

[Kjelt]

simple. they did a screen capture and pasted it.

If only they had done that then it would at least still be readable.
The original is probably an A3 format and they have made it into a 464x727 pixel picture, that is ridiculous. If the creator had taken any trouble in (re)viewing this pdf file (s)he could have seen that it is completely useless.

My guess is that they have automated the entire process and that some parameters (for instance max. picturesize of max. filesize) turns some cad source files into these completely useless datasheet pictures.

[westfw]

http://e2e.ti.com/support/interface/high_speed_interface/f/138/p/253799/888304.aspx#888304

"The documentation is being updated to include higher quality schematics. Please e-mail dac.tran (at) ti.com for a higher resolution version of the schematic."

(that's a forum message from more than a year ago.)