Image quality is better with EFS Web as compared with ABX

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"converted" by ABX e-filed via EFS Web
via ABX via EFS Web

We recently needed to file a republication request in a US patent application. As you are probably aware, a republication request can only be filed via ePave (not via EFS Web and not on paper or by fax). The ePave filing required that the to-be-republished application be re-authored using ABX. (Recall that as of August 18, 2004, ePave refuses to accept applications authored in tools other than ABX.)

The problem is that ABX always fiddles with any image that is inserted into it. No matter how carefully we create the TIF images, ABX always resizes them and "converts them to black and white" even if they were already black and white. The result is things like "jaggies" and loss of some thin vertical or horizontal lines. You can see the actual ABX-converted image quoted in the table.

We then e-filed another copy of the figures, using EFS-Web. You can see the actual EFS-Web-filed image from IFW quoted in the table.

Look at any of the diagonal lines (e.g. link 6 between boxes 2 and 3a). The line on the left has jaggies while the line on the right is smooth. Look at the keyboard of computer 4. The keyboard on the left has horizontal lines that blurred and merged. Link 8 as seen on the left has aliasing artifacts due to resizing.

The conclusion we have reached around our office is that whenever we are filing figures, we will want to use EFS Web rather than ABX and ePave.