Performance Is Slow When You Insert a Black and White Image File into a Visio Drawing (827244)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Office Visio Standard 2003
  • Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2003

SYMPTOMS

When you insert an image file that has the following characteristics into a Microsoft Office Visio 2003 drawing, rendering is very slow:
  • The image file is large, meaning that is has many dots per inch (dpi).
  • The image file is black and white 1-bit.
  • The image file is in .tif format, in .bmp format, or in some other compressible format.
Additionally, it takes a long time to zoom in, zoom out, or pan around the image. When you save the Visio drawing that contains the image file, it takes several minutes and the saved file size is several times larger than the size of the original image file that you inserted. If you try to compress the image in Visio, the image file size does not decrease, it increases.

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because of the way Microsoft GDI+ handles large black and white 1-bit images in Visio. When GDI+ reads the image that is inserted into the Visio drawing, the size of the image is increased. Because of the increased size of the image, it takes Visio much longer to display the image when zoom in, zoom out, or pan around the image. It also takes much longer to save the Visio drawing file that contains the image.

There is an increase in the drawing file size when you compress a large black and white 1-bit image. This behavior occurs because the image file is converted to a JPEG format (.jpg) during the compression process. The JPEG format requires that the 1-bit black and white pixels in the image be converted to a 24-bit color format, so any reduction in the drawing file size that you receive by compressing the black and white 1-bit image file is offset by the increase in the pixel size, from 1-bit to 24-bit.

WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, follow these steps:
  1. Start Visio 2003.
  2. Open your drawing.
  3. On the Insert menu, point to Picture, and then click From File.
  4. In the Look In box, locate and then click your large black and white 1-bit image file, and then click Open.
  5. Click inside the drawing, and then click Picture on the Format menu.
  6. In the Format Picture dialog box, on the Compression tab, under Compression options, click to select the Compress pictures check box.
  7. Use the slider to set Quality to 70%.
  8. Under Change resolution, click Web/Screen, and then click OK.

    This compresses the image and reduces the output resolution of the image to 96 dpi.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about GDI+, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/gdicpp/gdiplus/gdiplus.asp

Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:1/11/2006
Keywords:kbpending kbBug KB827244 kbAudITPRO
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