What is the best format for publishing your Family Tree chart?

Charting Companion offers many options for telling the story of your family.

	Image (BMP, PNG, GIF, JPG, TIFF)	PDF Portable Document Format	RTF Rich Text Format	HTML Hyper Text Markup Language	SVG Scalable Vector Graphics	DXF Data eXchange Format	STL STereo Lithography
Big wall charts		Y		Y	Y	Y
Take to a print shop	Y	Y		Maybe
Insert in a book	Y		Y
Email	Y	Y	Y	Y
Publish on the Web	Y	Y		Y
Edit with vector graphics program					Y	Y
3D Printing							Y
Technology	Raster	Raster + vector	Vector	Vector	Vector	Vector	Vector
Maximum size	ca. 3,800 in2   Ex: 28" x 136"	36" x 200" 80" x 150" 66" x 180"	22"	2,000" and more Depends on browser	No limit	No limit	8" to 10" Depends on 3D printer

Print your family tree on a 3D printer

3D printers use melted plastic or fused resin to create objects in every shape imaginable. 3D printers are becoming popular as the technology improves and prices come down.

 

Charting Companion now includes an option to output Ancestor and Descendant Fan charts as "STL" files, which can be fed to 3D printers for printing as physical objects.

 

Preview of 3D Fan chart

 

 

3D printers range in size and price from small, desk-top units, to large industrial machines. Schools and libraries are now offering 3D printing facilities. 3Dhubs.com is a network of 3D print shops all over the World where you can email your 3D print file, and receive a fabricated piece in a few days.

 

Typical 3D printers

 

3D printing is still in its infancy. Low-cost desktop units have a low resolution and small base plate size. Finer resolution and larger pieces require high-end, industrial-grade machines. 3D printers aimed at the consumer market are limited to three-generation Fan charts. A five-generation Fan chart is best done with 8" diameter.

 

If you haven't already upgraded, click to get the latest version of Charting Companion 6. A 3D printed family tree lasts forever, and makes a great gift idea. Share your story with your family and friends. Click for more information.

 

Charting Companion charts will make you a hit with your relatives, and the star of your next family reunion.

Ancestor chart, "Bottom-up" style

Charting Companion now prints the Ancestor chart in vertical or "Bottom-up" style.

 

Many of you have requested this option, and we are pleased to provide you with another attractive way of telling the story of your family.

 

Preview of Ancestor "Bottom-up" vertical format

 

 

Charting Companion also outputs charts in DXF format. DXF is used by all CAD (drafting) graphics software, such as AutoCAD . The DXF format allows you to edit and modify your charts using a wide range of graphics software.

New Event Type selection for Charting Companion

Charting Companion now allows you to pick specific event types in your Ancestor and Descendant charts.

 

Many of you have requested this option, and we are pleased to provide you with another convenient way of telling the story of your family. Get your copy of Charting Companion version 6: click to buy a Registration Key.

 

Preview of Event Type selection

 

 

You can tailor your chart by specifying the exact mix of events that you would like to see for each person. Click on the list of events in the Chart Options dialog, and the dialog above appears. Click on an event in the "Excluded" column, click on the move ">" button; the event will appear in the "Included "column, and on your chart.

 

Don't forget that you can publish your chart in HTML  format; the social media links become "clickable", to launch each person's Facebook page or Twitter feed.

 

Don't miss out on this colorful way of celebrate your family history: buy Charting Companion. We are honored to be part of your story.

Improving Charting Companion with GDI+

A Windows program uses GDI (Graphical Device Interface) to create graphics. GDI is a great invention that enables the programmer to easily mix text, raster (photos) and vector (drawings) graphics in the same output. GDI is what allows a Windows program to display the same thing to a screen and a printer (know as WYSIWYG, or "What you see is what you get").

GDI was introduced in 1985 with Windows 1.0. Windows XP was released in 2001 and featured GDI+, an improvement over GDI including anti-aliasing, gradients, built-in support for image files (JPG, GIF, PNG), transparency & color blending, and better display of text characters.

Antialiasing is a software technique for diminishing jaggies - stairstep-like lines that should be smooth. Jaggies occur because the output device, the monitor or printer, doesn't have a high enough resolution to represent a smooth line.

Antialiasing reduces the prominence of jaggies by surrounding the stairsteps with intermediate shades of gray (for gray-scaling devices) or color (for color devices). The pixels that surround the edges of the line are changed to varying shades of gray or color in order to blend the sharp edge into the background.

Raw vs. Antialiased vs.line

 Here is a before & after example:

Antialiasing makes smoother and better lines

 Here is what it looks like at scale:

Un-aliased & antialiased letter

  This what it looks like for text:

Antialiased text is smoother and looks better

You can see how the un-aliased text is jagged and crotchety:




We are improving Charting Companion by converting the GDI graphics to GDI+. Users will see an improvement in the quality of the text and lines. Displaying photos with GDI+ will also free us from a third-party library whose licensing model has become exorbitant.

We hope to bring you these enhancements soon, so you can tell the story of your family ever so attractively.