Ancestry.com Image Quality

[MichaelQ]

I am a fairly new user of Ancestry and I find the quality of the downloaded census images quite poor for my liking.
I am able to get a better quality when I download on my Windows system.
Does anyone have a suggestion as to what I can do to improve the quality of the Mac images.

MichaelQ

[SGilbert]

Have you checked the resolution of your display is correct? (System Preferences-->Displays)

[kmgenealogy]

I am a fairly new user of Ancestry and I find the quality of the downloaded census images quite poor for my liking.
I am able to get a better quality when I download on my Windows system.
Does anyone have a suggestion as to what I can do to improve the quality of the Mac images.

MichaelQ

Make sure that you have the image at 200 resolution - upper left area-click on + Zoom until you reach 200. Click on print and choose your option. When print screen comes up, you can print to PDF. Once in PDF, you can usually zoom in quite well. PDFs don't go to iPhoto very well. I usually store them in "My Family History" file under the names of the people. See

http://macgenealogist.com/creating-a-genealogy-folder-system-on-your-mac-part-1-my-family-history-folder-2/

for info on setting up a "My Family History" folder. Setting this up was one of the best things I've ever done!

If you want a jpeg version, just right-click on image and choose. These images are not as clear & will pixilate when you try to zoom in.

Hope this helps.

[Robert Godfrey]

I am a fairly new user of Ancestry and I find the quality of the downloaded census images quite poor for my liking.
I am able to get a better quality when I download on my Windows system.
Does anyone have a suggestion as to what I can do to improve the quality of the Mac images.

MichaelQ

If using Ancestry.com to access census files, you can change the magnification (resolution) of the image prior to downloading. Changing to 200% does the trick.

[B Jansen]

I am a fairly new user of Ancestry and I find the quality of the downloaded census images quite poor for my liking.
I am able to get a better quality when I download on my Windows system.
Does anyone have a suggestion as to what I can do to improve the quality of the Mac images.

MichaelQ

Once you know the specific census image you want, you might want to try going to archives.org to find what you need.

[kmgenealogy]

Once you know the specific census image you want, you might want to try going to archives.org to find what you need.

But, don't you have to pay (again) for the image? Or, are the census images free? Oh, just noticed that B. Jansen was talking about archives.org not archives.com. ".com" is a subscription site.

You can also look at the images, for free, on the FamilySearch sites i.e.
http://search.labs.familysearch.org/
https://beta.familysearch.org/

If they send you on to Footnotes.com, I think the images are also free.

So, looks like you have some choices to see if you can find the best image for your needs.

Kaye

[John Hill]

I am a fairly new user of Ancestry and I find the quality of the downloaded census images quite poor for my liking.
I am able to get a better quality when I download on my Windows system.
Does anyone have a suggestion as to what I can do to improve the quality of the Mac images.

MichaelQ

When you are looking at an image on Ancestry, you should see a "Print" icon somewhere at the top. Click on it and you should see a panel with buttons for Image Only Print, Image and Source Print and Customised Print. I always use the first of these. I have never tried the last, so can't suggest what to do here.
Anyway, click the top button. The image will appear, together with some instructions on how to print or download it. For the latter, you will see:
To save a copy of this image to your computer:
1. Click on the image with your right mouse button (control-click on Macintosh)
2. Select "Save Picture As" ("Download Image to Disk" on Macintosh)
3. Select a name and location for this image on your computer
4. Click "Save"
This downloads the image at the maximum resolution available on the site, whether to a Windows PC or a Macintosh. It has nothing to do with magnification, screen resolution or whatever - you are getting the original file from which the on-screen images are generated.
If you have a reasonably up-to-date mouse, you will be able to right-click on a Mac, too.

[MichaelQ]

When you are looking at an image on Ancestry, you should see a "Print" icon somewhere at the top. Click on it and you should see a panel with buttons for Image Only Print, Image and Source Print and Customised Print. I always use the first of these. I have never tried the last, so can't suggest what to do here.
Anyway, click the top button. The image will appear, together with some instructions on how to print or download it. For the latter, you will see:
To save a copy of this image to your computer:
1. Click on the image with your right mouse button (control-click on Macintosh)
2. Select "Save Picture As" ("Download Image to Disk" on Macintosh)
3. Select a name and location for this image on your computer
4. Click "Save"
This downloads the image at the maximum resolution available on the site, whether to a Windows PC or a Macintosh. It has nothing to do with magnification, screen resolution or whatever - you are getting the original file from which the on-screen images are generated.
If you have a reasonably up-to-date mouse, you will be able to right-click on a Mac, too.

Thank you John, Kaye, Robert & Bradley. You have been most helpful and I am very grateful for you expert assistance. I am now getting great images on my Mac.

[Paul Dupuy]

I am a fairly new user of Ancestry and I find the quality of the downloaded census images quite poor for my liking.
I am able to get a better quality when I download on my Windows system.
Does anyone have a suggestion as to what I can do to improve the quality of the Mac images.

MichaelQ

Instead of "saving" the image, tell it to print, then when the print menu comes up, select "save as PDF" and name the file however you wish. That will give you the very best resolution possible in a resizable file. Once saved as PDF, you can later open it and select whatever quality best suits your needs to resize for examination for details, or open it in preview to annotate, or select just a section to print.

[MichaelQ]

Instead of "saving" the image, tell it to print, then when the print menu comes up, select "save as PDF" and name the file however you wish. That will give you the very best resolution possible in a resizable file. Once saved as PDF, you can later open it and select whatever quality best suits your needs to resize for examination for details, or open it in preview to annotate, or select just a section to print.

Hello Paul,

Thank you very much for the information.

[John Hill]

Instead of "saving" the image, tell it to print, then when the print menu comes up, select "save as PDF" and name the file however you wish. That will give you the very best resolution possible in a resizable file. Once saved as PDF, you can later open it and select whatever quality best suits your needs to resize for examination for details, or open it in preview to annotate, or select just a section to print.

Or, select the Print button when you see the image and then Image-only Print. When the next window opens follow the instructions at the top - essentially command-click or right-click on the image and choose Save Image As... in the dropdown menu. This gives you the copy of the original .jpg image as stored on ancestry.

John.

[MichaelQ]

Or, select the Print button when you see the image and then Image-only Print. When the next window opens follow the instructions at the top - essentially command-click or right-click on the image and choose Save Image As... in the dropdown menu. This gives you the copy of the original .jpg image as stored on ancestry.

John.

Thank you John.

[Kate McCain]

Or, select the Print button when you see the image and then Image-only Print. When the next window opens follow the instructions at the top - essentially command-click or right-click on the image and choose Save Image As... in the dropdown menu. This gives you the copy of the original .jpg image as stored on ancestry.

John.

That's what I was going to suggest as well. No loss -- and I can open it in GraphicConverter, trim the bits I don't want, print out hard copy for my files (yes, I still have paper files) and close without saving changes. What I found is that if you save the image that ancestry.com first shows you, it's really crappy compared to the "print button" version. A fast load but if you look at the size, you can see how much you've lost.