Advice on printing/image quality

[camelot217]

99% of my work is for online use.

I have one client that want an ad printed in amagazine.
It's a small ad, 2.25 x 8.5 in. and contains to small images. They need this work as a pdf 300 dpi or better and CMYK colors.


Everything is fine except for the images. After I reduce them they are low res images. They are originally 2560 x 1920.
What is the correct way to reduce these and still keep the high resolution suitable for printing?
I did this:
I make a bitmap copy of my native image and sizeed it to 2.25 inces wide (it's a portion of the original pic) in the bitmap resolution box. I noticed the resolution default to 96 dpi. I don't know much about printing...is this correct?. Well…it can’t be since I no longer have a high re spic.

I export the ad as a pdf at 300 dpi.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Tom

[Tao jones]

you need to change from 96 dpi to 300 dpi when you make your bitmap copy via the drop down menu. When you make your PDF select CMYK as the color mode, bitmap compression to none, resolution dpi to 300 and convert text to shapes. First check your colors in xara by flicking to show print colors. If it needs to be brightened or whatever open xara bitmap editor and play with the levels before exporting...regards tao

[David O'Neil]

If possible, you can also skip the bitmap copy step, and just resize the imported, full-resolution picture to the final size and location. This will keep the maximum available resolution for PDF export purposes. And you can even do as Tao said, and use the Xara Picture Editor to sharpen it before PDF export. A benefit of this is that XPE is non-destructive to the original graphic, and your Xara file will not be doubled in size by having two pics in it.

[camelot217]

Thanks to both....

When I change the dpi to 300 the file dimensions get huge. I want to reduce it to 2.5 in. high res not make it larger in dimension

If I just reduce the image in xara that much it appears distorted, not clean.

Still confused.

Tom

[David O'Neil]

Maybe the following Xara file can help you...

[Tao jones]

hi tom just do what david says above. Resize your image by making it smaller with the selector handles until you have the right size you want. As you do it watch the corner of your task bar it will give you the info about what is happening ,you will notice the dpi change. It doesn't matter if it goes up to 600 dpi or whatever. Because you are going to make a PDF with it at 300dpi. Try looking here http://www.xaraxone.com/html/workbook_index.html you will find heaps of info on all sorts of things about Xara...tap

[David O'Neil]

ps - you can set the exact size for your graphic using the 'W' and 'H' edit boxes, the second set of edit boxes to the left of the 'Lock Aspect Ratio' button I indicated using the Selector Tool. Just enter "2in" in the width box and press 'Enter.' If the Lock Aspect Ratio button is enabled, the width will become 2 inches, and the height will automatically be figured to keep the aspect ratio correct.

[handrawn]

If I just reduce the image in xara that much it appears distorted, not clean.

Still confused.

Tom

Hi Tom

when bitmaps are reduced in xara, the way they appear on the screen [rendering] changes and eventually they will appear on screen distorted.

the xara window is designed to hold multiple bitmaps that can all be at different dpi's, and therefore some will be clear and others not, for a given screen zoom setting..

this distortion is not in the bitmaps themselves.
in order to see them clearly either: zoom in, or open a new view window at the higher zoom value.
so for example if you reduce a bit map to 25% - zoom in to 400% and it should look fine.

[DGehman]

Tom - a couple of things.

First, contact the art director at the magazine (or magazines) to see exactly what's wanted. The options are many, and the A.D. may have a pet file type and content.

Second, physical size (on screen) and printed size are only loosely related. Screen space has traditionally been treated as completely different from paper space by graphics programmers.

This is for many good reasons... screens have nowhere near the resolution of printers... printers have nowhere near the color range of the screen... the eye sees printed colors as reflected light/hues, and screen colors as transmitted light/hues... big differences.

The result is that what appears on screen and what appears in a calibrated printout are two completely different things.

In some programs, displaying a given drawing as "1:1" will show a 2" wide drawing at 300 dpi as roughly 6 1/4" wide on screen. That's because screen resolution is 96 dpi... 300 X 2in = 600 dots / 96 = 6.25. It's still 2" wide when printed.

What counts is the printout.

And the PDF output is a type of printout, so Tao Jones has it right: the final color space... CMYK... and the resolution... 300 dpi... are controlled by the PDF creation process. Just be sure any bitmaps are at least 300 dpi in the original.

Although it's Illustrator/PhotoShop based, the following has a good, succinct discussion of resolution:
http://www.psprint.com/shared/html/f...resolution.asp

Dave

[camelot217]

Thanks a bunch to all.

Since I rearly do printwork I never really got into this in detail. What you all have contributed helped me understand this much better.

I now have produced an ad to the specs of the magazine: PDF CMYC 300 dpi and it looks fine!

The difference in screen apperance and print output through me off a bit...thanks for clearing that up.

Once again this forum came to the rescue! Thanks again!

Tom