not printing a giant billboard or in the National Geographic. For
this project, the photo will end up on "a 'phonebookish' type of
cardstock".
If you like TIFF, and have big Memory Sticks, go right ahead. But
trust me, your photo will go through so many changes by the time it
gets onto the cardstock that TIFF vs. JPEG Fine vs. JPEG Standard
will be the least of your worries.
HOW MANY PIXELS?
The halftone screen used by the printer to turn continuous-tone
photos into little printable blobs ...
... is measured in Lines Per Inch. A printed line does not equal a
digital photographic pixel. To find how many Pixels Per Inch are
necessary to give good quality, multiply LPI by 1.5 or (to be
extra safe) 2. This page has one of the best, quick overviews of
this concept:
http://faculty.kutztown.edu/decoster/IntroDigital_1/introDigital_1_images2.html
If your university's publication uses 133 or 150 LPI halftone
screens, which is standard for typical magazines, then using the
extra-safe formula of LPI*2=PPI, you will need to provide 266 or
300 pixels per printed inch. (I'll bet that the cardstock cover
uses 133 LPI or less, but since you were asked to provide a photo
at 300 PPI, let's use that figure.)
How big should your photo be? Multiply the cover photo dimensions
in inches by 300. For example, if the cover is 8.5 x 11 and your
photo fills the cover, then at 300 PPI your submitted photo should
be (8.5*300) x (11*300) or 2550 x 3300 pixels.
This is actually nominal, since to print a full bleed (off the
edge) you should provide about 1/8 inch over on each side that
bleeds. The final result for 1/8" full bleed on all four sides is
(8.75*300) x (11.25*300) or 2625 x 3375 pixels.
PICTURE FORMAT AND SIZE
While you want your photographic subject to fill the frame pretty
well, don't get too close to the edge when framing the shot. This
is because of two factors:
-- Your photo and the printed page are likely to be different
proportions. The F717's highest resolution format, of 2560 x 1920,
is 1.33:1. An 11 x 8.5 sheet of paper is slightly narrower, at
1.294:1. A bit of the F717 photo will have to be cut off.
-- If there is a bleed remember to have a little "breathing
room" on each bleed side, which may get cut off or not printed.
ENLARGING IN PHOTOSHOP
You will have to use Photoshop or equivalent to enlarge the photo
to the desired 300PPI size. For an 8.5 x 11 bleed (2625 x 3375),
the enlargement from the F717's maximum size of 1920 x 2560 will be
136%. The result will be 2625 x 3500. Remember about the proportion
-- you'll have to cut 62 pixels off one side and 63 off the other
to get to the final size of 2625 x 3375.
Although there is always some loss of quality in enlarging, 136
percent is nothing to worry about for this particular print project.
For the next step, getting the file to the printer, there are two
potentially confusing things.
WHAT FILE FORMAT? IT SHOULDN'T MATTER
One is that the printer will probably say they must have the
digital file in TIFF mode (or maybe BMP or EPS or whatever). They
don't -- you could supply a high quality JPEG (saved using low
compression) and they should be competent enough to convert it into
their preferred format. But I have found that printers tend to be
obstinant and stick to lines like "We must have it in TIFF mode,
all others are unacceptable."
So if you can provide TIFF (or BMP or EPS or whatever), great. But
its just as fine if you can provide a high quality JPEG and they
can convert it. Hooray for the more advanced print shop!
On your print project, there will be no difference in printed
quality between TIFF and a high-quality JPEG. None, zip, nada.
However, in file size the difference is big. A 2625 x 3375 TIFF
photo is about 15MB vs 3.6MB for the same picture in high-quality
JPEG.
CONVERTING FROM RGB TO CMYK: LET THEM DO IT
The second point is more important. The picture will have to get
converted from RGB color space (what the F717 provides) to CMYK
(4-color printed ink) color space. RGB color space is wider meaning
your photo will appear duller (less color range) in CMYK. Sorry,
not much can be done about this.
I firmly believe the print shop should do the conversion from RGB
to CMYK. They can tweak it and do whatever to make it look as good
as possible. But if for some reason they make YOU do it, here's the
procedure in Photoshop.
Open the photo. Note the Photoshop title bar has "(RGB)" in it,
indicating an RGB colorspace photo. Go to Image/Mode; note that RGB
Color is checked. Select CMYK Color instead. Save the file, adding
"CMYK" to the filename (before the .tif or .jpg suffix) so you can
tell it is in CMYK mode. You may want to close the picture, then
reopen your saved CMYK version to be sure it loads back in and says
"(CMYK)" in the Photoshop title bar.
A FINAL NOTE
Congratulations on getting the recognition and chance to do a
high-profile cover for your university! You'll be very excited once
you see your work in print.
Best wishes on getting it done with as high a quality and least
amount of hassle as possible,
-- Patrick Murphy
. She did however clearly state that I will get full credit for it in the directory. And if it went over well, I could do it every year if I wished. But before she found out about me, they were given 640x480 images from PR to look through at no cost to them, but the choices were pitiful.