Pictures that were cropped in Writer look different on another device

English
#1

I use LibreOffice Writer (24.2) on two computers (both Win 10). I created almost all my (.odt) files on the first computer. My files contain plenty of images copied from web (copy -paste). They were often edited (mostly cropped) directly in Writer. (Yes, now I know it would be better to edit them in another way, f. e. in IrfanView, but it´s too late.) If I open this files on another computer, they look different (for example gray blur instead of my picture or only part of my picture or some part of picture which was contained in original downloaded picture and that I cut off or some strange blur that wasn´t even contained in original picture). Recently, I reinstalled Writer on both devices. It didn´t solve the problem. (Experimentally, I tried to open some files on another device with Win11. Again: it didn´t solve the problem.)

I have thousands of .odt files. I need to have the same pictures regardless of where I open them. And I need to back up my files. If I don´t try to change pictures manually (for example I can manually copy all pictures to IrfanView and then back to Writer) and my main computer crashes, I cannot normally access my files with pictures and years of work are lost. If I try to repair them manually, it means months of work. I can create .pdf files but I need to edit my files: so I would backup my files but I would not be able to work with them normally.

Could you please propose a solution?

#2

On the second computer, if you start LibreOffice on safe mode, Start menu - Programs - LibreOffice 24.2 - LibreOffice (Safe mode) - Continue in safe mode, and then open a file from the first computer, is the picture as expected?

It is possible that the images that you thought you had copied were only links to the pictures online in which case they are at risk anyway.

#3

Even in safe mode, the pictures don´t look normal.
Please, how can I control if I copied only links?
(I don´t think so, as I copied images from various sites, the most of them have been cropped, and almost all images seem to be “damaged”. It seems to me unprobable that so many sites would be changed.)

#4

Can you upload a small sample document that exhibits the behaviour? Click the upload icon (up-pointing arrow) or drag file onto comment pane.

Maybe you can paste the details from both computers? Click Help > About LibreOffice and click the icon immediately after the words Version information.

#5

Thank you for your willingness to help.

DEVICE A (here the most files were created):

Version: 24.2.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 433d9c2ded56988e8a90e6b2e771ee4e6a5ab2ba
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 19045; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: cs-CZ (cs_CZ); UI: cs-CZ
Calc: threaded

DEVICE B (here the most images don´t look normal):

Version: 24.2.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 433d9c2ded56988e8a90e6b2e771ee4e6a5ab2ba
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 22631; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: cs-CZ (cs_CZ); UI: cs-CZ
Calc: threaded

File 1 - how it looks like on computer A.pdf (428.3 KB)
File 1 - how it looks like on computer B.pdf (536.9 KB)
File 1.odt (990.5 KB)

#6

Your file displays “normally” on my computer (Fedora 40, KDE Plasma desktop, LO 24.2.3.2). I wrote “normally” with quotation marks because I doubt your document is a normal one. It is written just like we’d have done it more than 50 years ago in the mechanical typewriter era. This technique is called direct formatting and is the cause of most problems (in any office document processor).

To make things worse you added drawing objects to show divisions in your page (lines at top and bottom) or to insert callouts (arrow + text box), not to speak of the page number at bottom. Drawing objects are “external” to text and don’t cooperate willingly with text. Just add a paragraph at top and everything desynchronises.

At least, you should read the Writer Guide to get an idea about what can be done with Writer and how to use it.

I can’t reproduce your issue with images but you should start by creating a normalised document. This would eliminate many problems hiding the image issue.

1 Like
#7

First of all, it looks fine in my version of LibreOffice
Version: 24.2.3.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 433d9c2ded56988e8a90e6b2e771ee4e6a5ab2ba
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 10.0 Build 22631; UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-NZ (en_NZ); UI: en-GB
Calc: CL threaded

Secondly, your uncropped images are still there, both in the .odt and in the pdfs (open them in Draw) so no need to panic.

I do note that the first two images are distorted, they have different percentage height and width

It looks a bit like tdf#83734 but that would mean you cropped the images and then compressed them. It might affect the second computer if the screen resolution is different, see tdf#52598

Given they are screenshots, a better option would have been to right click the images, select Edit in external tool and cropped them in that. The images would be much smaller than with jpg compression, especially if you reduced the number of colours.
This is still an option, but keep in mind that the image has been damaged by compressing with jpg so you won’t get back the crispness of the screenshot. For the first two images, reducing the number of colours to 256 and saving as png would have been optimal.
To permanently crop the images, remove the LibreOffice crop, and reset the proportions:

  1. right click the image and select Edit with external tool, crop the image and close the external tool. You will be asked if you want to save the image, click Yes. Do you want to overwrite it? Click Yes
  2. right-click the image, select Properties and, in the Crop tab click the button Reset Crop, then set both height and width to the same percentage, for example both 35%. OK
1 Like
#8

Thank you. I checked some images and it seems that all “distorted” images have different percentage height and width while all other images (that could be viewed normally on both devices) have the same percentage.

The screen resolution is really different: 1280 x 1024 (device A) / 1920 x 1024 (device B). I tried to set the screen resolution on device B to 1280 x 1024. Even after this, images don´t look normal. Could I change any other setting of screen so that it would solve my problem?

After this experience, I edit my images in IrfanView, but the problem is that thousands of files contain images edited directly in Writer. I know that it would be a solution to edit this particular images with an external tool, but it would be very complicated. The images are probably not thousands but tens of thousands, as there are usually more images in particular files…

(It´s not my primary concern now but: I tried to use IrfanView to permanently crop the images. It seems that if I copy an image, crop it and paste it back to Writer, the percentage height and width is the same then. So, could I leave out the step 2 without risk?)

#9

Thank you. Do you think there is any solution if the direct formatting causes my problem (except for changing all images manually)?

I checked the Writer manual, cleared direct formatting (Format > Clear Direct
Formatting) and then opened the file on device B. Unfortunately, the problem persists.

If it is the direct formatting that causes the most of problems, could it be avoided generally, without clearing it for each file?

Drawing objects are essential for me. If I eliminate the direct formatting, could they still put my files in danger?

#10

Thank you. Do you think there is any solution if the direct formatting causes my problem (except for changing all images manually)?

I checked the Writer manual, cleared direct formatting (Format > Clear Direct
Formatting) and then opened the file on device B. Unfortunately, the problem persists.

If it is the direct formatting that causes the most of problems, could it be avoided generally, without clearing it for each file?

Drawing objects are essential for me. If I eliminate the direct formatting, could they still put my files in danger?

#11

Because you followed this track without being aware of other better possibilities.

Regarding your separator lines, you should use the possibilities offered by Borders in page and paragraph styles. The lines will then be attached to these “primaries” (page or paragraphs) and you won’t need any more to worry about them.

The only remaining issue is your “callout” to comment an image. There is no really “stable” and reliable solution in Writer. Best but not perfect is to add the callout with Draw on the image, group everything in order to copy and paste a single image/object back into Writer. You’ll then be safe against further edits or reviews.

Direct formatting is not the primal cause of your problem. But, as your document is completely direct formatted, fixing it adds more and more direct formatting to the point the document becomes unmanageable. Once its structure is cleaned, it’ll be time to look carefully at it.

I don’t think screen definition (1280×1024 vs. 1920×1080) is important. It only changes the amount of document visible without scrolling. If distortions are different, something else is playing.

#12

See this comment in bug report, 52598 – Writer ignores original picture pixel density in .jpg files, and uses 120 dpi (refer comment 19 and 26)

#13

My comment targeted the different X-Y scaling where image does not keep its height-width ratio. Global scaling is another factor (very important too, to get predictable results). Sorry if I was not clear enough.

#14

“As your document is completely direct formatted, fixing it adds more and more direct formatting to the point the document becomes unmanageable. Once its structure is cleaned, it’ll be time to look carefully at it.” But once the structure is cleaned, then there is no more need to examine the cause of my problem as the problem is already resolved…

For example, File AB (here: the files were too big Dropbox - Writer (1) - Simplify your life ) contains some images that are not viewed normally on my second device. There is apparently a problem with this immages. If I copy them to another file (File AB - images viewed as cropped) which contains nothing but these images, then again, they could not be normally viewed on the second device (as expected, there was a problem in original file they were copied from and this problem persists). If I create another file, copy these images to IrfanView and than back to LibreOffice, these images can be normally viewed on both devices (as expected). The problem is that I would need weeks of concentrated work to do it with all my files manually and respectively.

It seems hard for me to imagine to abandon a direct formating (if I understand it right: even if I manually highlight a sentence, it is also a direct formating). It seems hard to define clear patterns and only “switch between these patterns”. I use “arrows” referring to text fields, speech bubbles etc. (see File AB). And my files are very different from each other.

Maybe it is not so difficult. My worries can be due to my ignorance, right. It is also possible that it would be better if I (considering my expectations) use another app (f.e. Draw not only to edit images but to create whole files). Or I should consider to switch to Word.

But it seems that the main problem is with images that were edited in Writer. I know it should be avoided, but it was not, and I wish my images would display in the same way on my both devices without focusing on every single file and repairing it manually. Can I hope that it succeeds or is it impossible?

Thank you for your help.

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