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Magazines & dpi requirements

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niikinut

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Frustrating to say the least.

Our local magazine only accepts digital files of 2 MB (jpeg) or 5 MB (tiff) for publication to accomodate their printing requirements.

Digital files must be at LEAST 300 dpi.

I have some I would love to submit, have changed the dpi to 300, but the image is still only 1.78 MB. ( Shot at top resolution on the 707)

So....no matter what I do, what I take with the 707 is it not possible to meet these requirements?

% (&$$# frustrating!!

Cheers,
Niikinut
 
bump the dpi higher?
niikinut said:
Frustrating to say the least.

Our local magazine only accepts digital files of 2 MB (jpeg) or 5
MB (tiff) for publication to accomodate their printing requirements.

Digital files must be at LEAST 300 dpi.

I have some I would love to submit, have changed the dpi to 300,
but the image is still only 1.78 MB. ( Shot at top resolution on
the 707)

So....no matter what I do, what I take with the 707 is it not
possible to meet these requirements?

% (&$$# frustrating!!

Cheers,
Niikinut
Click to expand...
 
Do NOT bump the dpi higher. Save the file to .tif (no compression) and it will become much larger in file size. Assuming your image is still close to the highest resolution possible (2560x1920 or near that), you should end up with a file that is about 8-9 megs.

Amy
michaelmichael said:
niikinut said:
Frustrating to say the least.

Our local magazine only accepts digital files of 2 MB (jpeg) or 5
MB (tiff) for publication to accomodate their printing requirements.

Digital files must be at LEAST 300 dpi.

I have some I would love to submit, have changed the dpi to 300,
but the image is still only 1.78 MB. ( Shot at top resolution on
the 707)

So....no matter what I do, what I take with the 707 is it not
possible to meet these requirements?

% (&$$# frustrating!!

Cheers,
Niikinut
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
beauty is really in the LCD/EVF of the beholder
http://www.something-fishy.com/photography
 
A JPG or TIFF File does not have any DPI, only Pixel !

DPI is calculated from the Pixel and printed Picture Size. Instead of DPi you could also say PPI (Pixel per Inch). Just divide your Pixel through Inch and you have the DPI Size.

For example, a 2560x1920 Pixel JPG or TIFF at 10x7,5 would have 256 DPI.
 
Amy - you are right - I just re-saved an image that was 1.78 MB jpeg into a tiff file, and it became 15.1 MB.

Why can't the magazines understand this?? As soon as they hear "digital" they freak!!

If they accepted the images as large res. jpegs - then converted them themselves to tiffs wouldn't that be something!!!

To e-mail an image to a publication is much easier at 1.78 or 2.MB then at 15 MB.

I will include, I think, a note of instructions with the submissions????

Thanks everyone, it's an interesting subject, and one I'd love to really understand. I always thought these jpeg files were "compressed files". ....but ...what do I know!! :^)

Cheers,

Niikinut
SFishy said:
Amy
michaelmichael said:
niikinut said:
Frustrating to say the least.

Our local magazine only accepts digital files of 2 MB (jpeg) or 5
MB (tiff) for publication to accomodate their printing requirements.

Digital files must be at LEAST 300 dpi.

I have some I would love to submit, have changed the dpi to 300,
but the image is still only 1.78 MB. ( Shot at top resolution on
the 707)

So....no matter what I do, what I take with the 707 is it not
possible to meet these requirements?

% (&$$# frustrating!!

Cheers,
Niikinut
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
beauty is really in the LCD/EVF of the beholder
http://www.something-fishy.com/photography
Click to expand...
 
Wow!! Really??? But then, why do they specify 300 dpi at every magazine I've encountered?
I think we need a short course on this subject, or am I the only idiot? :^)

Niikinut
p5freak said:
A JPG or TIFF File does not have any DPI, only Pixel !

DPI is calculated from the Pixel and printed Picture Size. Instead
of DPi you could also say PPI (Pixel per Inch). Just divide your
Pixel through Inch and you have the DPI Size.

For example, a 2560x1920 Pixel JPG or TIFF at 10x7,5 would have 256
DPI.
Click to expand...
 
Hi,

These specs from the magazine aren't very meaningful. For one, a 2 meg JPEG could be many sizes and resolutions. JPEG compression is scaleable. High quality, low compression, large file size (in megs). Low quality, high compression, small file size. You can see this in photoshop. It's the slider thingy when you save a JPEG. It's also evident in the 707 itself, fine versus standard. Fine is just less compression and higher quality than standard (actually less lossiness but that's another topic). TIFFs can also be compressed either with lossy or lossless techniques. So giving you a file size doesn't mean very much.

DPI doesn't mean too much either without the physical size of the file. A 12"x18" image at 72 dpi is actually higher resolution than a 5"x7" @ 300 dpi. To see this just do the math, 12x18x72=15552 pixels, 5x7x300=10500.

My advice is to take your image into photoshop use the cropping tool to size your image to close to what you need in inches @ 300 dpi. 14.4 megabytes is the largest uncompressed file that the 707 can produce. If your resized image is no larger than that and you didn't crop the file too much then you haven't done much interpolation and should be fine. Save your image as an uncompressed TIFF and send it off to them. Whether you tell them where the image came from is up to you.

Hope this helps.

Kevin.
niikinut said:
Frustrating to say the least.

Our local magazine only accepts digital files of 2 MB (jpeg) or 5
MB (tiff) for publication to accomodate their printing requirements.

Digital files must be at LEAST 300 dpi.

I have some I would love to submit, have changed the dpi to 300,
but the image is still only 1.78 MB. ( Shot at top resolution on
the 707)

So....no matter what I do, what I take with the 707 is it not
possible to meet these requirements?

% (&$$# frustrating!!

Cheers,
Niikinut
Click to expand...
 
Thankyou Kevin, your response is very helpful.

They are not saying " no digital images", just that the images have to meet their specifications.
Their words are :

" Digital files must be high resolution ( at least 300 dots per inch) and saved in TIFF or JPEG format. Digital files should generally be at least 5 MB (tiff) or 2MB ( jpeg) to accomodate our printing requirements"

I've run into this over and over again, and would love to have a great response. You guys are giving me that.

This new technology is just too complex for my old brain!! :^)

Cheers and thanks,

Niikinut
Kevinpc said:
These specs from the magazine aren't very meaningful. For one, a 2
meg JPEG could be many sizes and resolutions. JPEG compression is
scaleable. High quality, low compression, large file size (in
megs). Low quality, high compression, small file size. You can see
this in photoshop. It's the slider thingy when you save a JPEG.
It's also evident in the 707 itself, fine versus standard. Fine is
just less compression and higher quality than standard (actually
less lossiness but that's another topic). TIFFs can also be
compressed either with lossy or lossless techniques. So giving you
a file size doesn't mean very much.

DPI doesn't mean too much either without the physical size of the
file. A 12"x18" image at 72 dpi is actually higher resolution than
a 5"x7" @ 300 dpi. To see this just do the math, 12x18x72=15552
pixels, 5x7x300=10500.

My advice is to take your image into photoshop use the cropping
tool to size your image to close to what you need in inches @ 300
dpi. 14.4 megabytes is the largest uncompressed file that the 707
can produce. If your resized image is no larger than that and you
didn't crop the file too much then you haven't done much
interpolation and should be fine. Save your image as an
uncompressed TIFF and send it off to them. Whether you tell them
where the image came from is up to you.

Hope this helps.

Kevin.
niikinut said:
Frustrating to say the least.

Our local magazine only accepts digital files of 2 MB (jpeg) or 5
MB (tiff) for publication to accomodate their printing requirements.

Digital files must be at LEAST 300 dpi.

I have some I would love to submit, have changed the dpi to 300,
but the image is still only 1.78 MB. ( Shot at top resolution on
the 707)

So....no matter what I do, what I take with the 707 is it not
possible to meet these requirements?

% (&$$# frustrating!!

Cheers,
Niikinut
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Kevinpc said:
DPI doesn't mean too much either without the physical size of the
file. A 12"x18" image at 72 dpi is actually higher resolution than
a 5"x7" @ 300 dpi. To see this just do the math, 12x18x72=15552
pixels, 5x7x300=10500.
Click to expand...
Error again! Not higher res, would make a larger file instead with more pixels.
Imagine you have 10 apples. You can make either

a) 1 gallon of apple juice, very light and transparent with litttle taste.

b) two cups of apple pureé, dark in color, strong taste.

The apples would be your number of pixels, the quantity your image size, where juice compared with the puree has less taste, less resolution.
 
niikinut said:
Their words are :
" Digital files must be high resolution ( at least 300 dots per
inch) and saved in TIFF or JPEG format. Digital files should
generally be at least 5 MB (tiff) or 2MB ( jpeg) to accomodate our
printing requirements"
Click to expand...
What they are telling you here is that they want printable high-res images, and that TYPICALLY, a .tiff below 5mb or a jpeg below 2mb wouldn't be good enough to print -- it would either be too low in quality, or too small in size (in printed format). These "typicals" they've given you generally stick. Keep in mind the words they used -- GENERALLY and AT LEAST. :)

Amy
 
Hi,

I was wondering if someone would catch on to that. You're right in a sense but I was refering to resolution in terms of an image and it's component parts, ie. pixels. Resolution is in part relative. For instance if you were to print an image at 8 x 10 inches @ 300 ppi, and the same image at 80 x 100 inches @ 30 ppi. Would one of these images be less resolved? If they were both viewed at the same distance, you might say that, but at the relative distance (1 to 10) no.

I'm sorry if I confussed anyone.

Kevin.
jorge elguera said:
jorge elguera said:
DPI doesn't mean too much either without the physical size of the
file. A 12"x18" image at 72 dpi is actually higher resolution than
a 5"x7" @ 300 dpi. To see this just do the math, 12x18x72=15552
pixels, 5x7x300=10500.
Click to expand...
Error again! Not higher res, would make a larger file instead with
more pixels.
Imagine you have 10 apples. You can make either

a) 1 gallon of apple juice, very light and transparent with litttle
taste.

b) two cups of apple pureé, dark in color, strong taste.

The apples would be your number of pixels, the quantity your image
size, where juice compared with the puree has less taste, less
resolution.
Click to expand...
 
This short course is in accurate. The following is my understanding.

First digi images are only pixels. Each pixels is represented in a 24-bit color space. Monitors have a display resolution of say 72 PPI up to 144 PPI.

Inkjet printers (even Imagesetters) are not continous-tone printers. They have dpi and lpi resolution. Up to 16x16 dots are needed to print a single pixels. Therefore,

Say you have a 2560x1920 image at 300 PPI. It would be 8.533"x 6.4"

Now if you have a 2880dpi x1440 dpi inkjet printer. Using 16x8 dots to represent a single pixel, it would have an effective PPI of 180PPIx180PPI.

Printiing the 2560x1920 image at the max 180PPIx180PPI. would result in 14.22"x10.66"

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks.
David_S85 said:
http://www.shortcourses.com/how/resolution/printed.htm
  • David
David_S85 said:
I think we need a short course on this subject, or am I the only
idiot? :^)

Niikinut
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
--
For Public Pictures Album, go here:
http://www.web-a-photo.com/OPA/
Use 'Nashua_Hawk' in the Visitor box.
 
OK, Don't like that other one, try this one:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/und_resolution.shtml
  • David
Nashua_Hawk said:
Nashua_Hawk wrote:
This short course is in accurate. The following is my understanding.

First digi images are only pixels. Each pixels is represented in a
24-bit color space. Monitors have a display resolution of say 72
PPI up to 144 PPI.

Inkjet printers (even Imagesetters) are not continous-tone
printers. They have dpi and lpi resolution. Up to 16x16 dots are
needed to print a single pixels. Therefore,

Say you have a 2560x1920 image at 300 PPI. It would be 8.533"x 6.4"

Now if you have a 2880dpi x1440 dpi inkjet printer. Using 16x8 dots
to represent a single pixel, it would have an effective PPI of
180PPIx180PPI.
Printiing the 2560x1920 image at the max 180PPIx180PPI. would
result in 14.22"x10.66"

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
Nashua_Hawk said:
This short course is in accurate. The following is my understanding.

First digi images are only pixels. Each pixels is represented in a
24-bit color space. Monitors have a display resolution of say 72
PPI up to 144 PPI.
Click to expand...
Pixels or picture elements, can have many different bit depths the most common is 8 bits per channel. RGB = 8x3 = 24. As for 72 ppi to 144 ppi, you'll just have to do the math.
Nashua_Hawk said:
Inkjet printers (even Imagesetters) are not continous-tone
printers. They have dpi and lpi resolution. Up to 16x16 dots are
needed to print a single pixels. Therefore,

Say you have a 2560x1920 image at 300 PPI. It would be 8.533"x 6.4"
Click to expand...
Inkjet printers usually don't have a LPI (line per inch) They do what is call FM or freqency modulation printing. Some examples are error diffusion and stocastic screens. The size of the dot remains the same but the frequency changes for changes in density. Offset printing is usually done by AM or amplitude modulation printing. 1270 dpi to 2540 dpi gets converted to 85 to 200 lines per inch. The dots that make up the lines change in size for changes in density.
Nashua_Hawk said:
Now if you have a 2880dpi x1440 dpi inkjet printer. Using 16x8 dots
to represent a single pixel, it would have an effective PPI of
180PPIx180PPI.
Printiing the 2560x1920 image at the max 180PPIx180PPI. would
result in 14.22"x10.66"

Please correct me if I am wrong.
Click to expand...
It's pretty difficult with inkjet printers to come up with a general rule for ppi. Epson has a variable dot size and can take advantage of slightly higher resolutions than printers without it. HP uses something called photo RET. They claim they can lay down 17,400 drops of ink per inch (drop not dot) Canon uses something called Advanced MicroFine Droplet Technology. So how do we make general rules? You can't. I'd print anywhere from 150 ppi to 300 ppi on an inkjet. The higher resolution the printer the higher ppi I'd use. The larger the print the lower the resolution I'd print. (mainly because viewing distance changes)

For offset it's easier to come up with general rules. 1.5 to 2 times the line screen. Sometimes this is called the quality factor. Typical magazines use 133 to 150 lpi = 200 to 300 ppi. A newspaper would use anywhere from 85 to 100 lpi = 130 to 200 ppi.

These are of course general rules I'd talk to whoever is doing the printing to make the decision about ppi of your images.
Nashua_Hawk said:
Thanks.
Click to expand...
 
Thankyou David, I will
Cheers,
Niikinut
David_S85 said:
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/und_resolution.shtml
  • David
David_S85 said:
Nashua_Hawk wrote:
This short course is in accurate. The following is my understanding.

First digi images are only pixels. Each pixels is represented in a
24-bit color space. Monitors have a display resolution of say 72
PPI up to 144 PPI.

Inkjet printers (even Imagesetters) are not continous-tone
printers. They have dpi and lpi resolution. Up to 16x16 dots are
needed to print a single pixels. Therefore,

Say you have a 2560x1920 image at 300 PPI. It would be 8.533"x 6.4"

Now if you have a 2880dpi x1440 dpi inkjet printer. Using 16x8 dots
to represent a single pixel, it would have an effective PPI of
180PPIx180PPI.
Printiing the 2560x1920 image at the max 180PPIx180PPI. would
result in 14.22"x10.66"

Please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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