Importing photograph without quality loss

[jordan8201]

Hello, I am trying to make a brochure in illustrator for the printer and am having some problems with my photos. Our printing company told us that as long as the photos had a resolution of 300 or higher that it should not be a problem. The photos look fine when I am in photoshop, but once I open them in illustrator they get jagged edges. How do I avoid this? Thanks!


Jedidiah

 

[apepp]

...what format are these images saved as from photoshop?

...eps is often pixelated when an image is placed and linked as opposed to placed and embedded...

...psd is often better, as well as tif and jpg...

...so long as the image isn't scaled up in the layout it will still be 300dpi...

Andrew

 

[apepp]

...worth noting that if you are quality conscious then best avoid jpeg as this uses compression and therefore removes image data...

...however, saying that, it can be useful for data transfer and space saving...

Andrew

 

[apepp]

...another option if on mac is to save to eps from photoshop, but with a jpeg preview instead of the default preview 8bit...

Andrew

 

[jordan8201]

I am saving them as a 300+ ppi tif. That is why I am not undertanding it. I have tried placing the photograph, pasting it, and opening and dragging and dropping into the desired location and I have had the same issue each time. It is not pixelated as I am not changing the size of the photo once in illustrator. Rather some of the edges are just jagged.

 

[apepp]

...check that your illustrator zoom level is at 100%...

...also compare it at 100% zoom in photoshop...

Andrew

 

[jordan8201]

Interesting. That was part of my problem. It is now looking perfect but it is taking a lot of work. When I place the file, it is extremely small on the screen. I then have to manually key in the height and width in order not to have the rough edge. Is there a way to have it actual size when I place it? Thanks again!

 

[eugenetyson]

When you place the image, on the top of the screen, just under the FILE EDIT etc

You will see the information for the file. You're looking at a placed file, or a linked file, it's just a thumbnail for graphical representation, Illustrator is not a pixel program, so it probably can't render the whole image, rather it uses the thumbnail generated by Photoshop.

But the bar at the top shows all the info. If you resize the image you will see the ppi change. So if it says it's 300 x 300 then it's 300 ppi/dpi. If you make it bigger the figures should get lower, and vice versa.

 

[jmgalvin]

Have you sized it correctly in photoshop? If you're working in inches in AI and you need a 4 by 6 photo, did you size it to that in photoshop?

You can reduce the physical size and gain apparent quality but you cannot increase the physical size without losing quality.

Using OSX 10.3.9 on a G4 & G5

 

[jordan8201]

OK. I did not know it was only a thumbnail. I save it in Photoshop as the actual size that I need with a resolution of 300. When I place it into Illustrator it is very small. If I try to either drag it to actual size or manually key in the size I need at the top it dramatically decreases the resolution as you said. So how do I make it show the actual size when I place it so that I can see what I am working with? Thanks!

 

[eugenetyson]

It's the size that it is. If it's too small then you need to get your hands on a larger image from somewhere.

 

[jordan8201]

The original image is 1872x754 pixels at 300 ppi. I then size it down to 300X121 which is roughly the size that I need.
When I place the file in Illustrator the size is 72x29 and resolution remains 300. When I size it up back to 300x121 the resolution goes back to 72.

 

[jordan8201]

Another question which I think is very much related...I created a file in Photoshop that was 5"x3" which is the size I have been working on. I stated the size of the inner image earlier that I have been working with that seems to fit well within my 5x3 illustrator document. So I created the 5"x3" file in Photoshop at 300ppi and I can't even fit it all on the screen. I am not sure what I am doing wrong.

 

[eugenetyson]

Basically what you are doing is reducing the amount of Pixels per inch.

Which is the wrong approach.

Basically what you're doing is telling the photo not to have 1872x754 pixels per 300 pixels per inch.

You're saying let's have 300 x 121 pixels, but spread them over 300 pixels per inch. So you have less pixels per inch.

You see what you've done.

 

[jordan8201]

I am sorry, but I really do not understand. All I know is that the company who is doing the printing wants the images to be 300 resolution so I made sure that they are. Once I do that I am trying to make them the size that I need. Beyond that I do not know what is wrong.

 

[apepp]

...1872x754 pixels at 300 dpi prints 6.24 x 2.513 inches...

...300 x 121 pixels at 300dpi prints 1 x 0.403 inches...

...when you place an image in illustrator it will come in actual size based upon resolution and pixel dimensions of that image...

...so your 5 x 3 inch file needs 1500 x 900 pixels (at 300 dpi)...

...so 300 x 5 inches = 1500 pixels...

...and 300 x 3 inches = 900 pixels...

Andrew

 

[jordan8201]

That is very interesting. Thank you for the explanation. Why is that even though the image is 3x5 it is showing up about 3 times that large my screen. I have to have it zoomed less than 50% to even see it all. When I zoom to 100%, however, the picture is very crisp. Even when doing it this way though, when I place it into Illustrator the picture becomes someone "jagged." I would upload the file to a server if this is not make sense, but the file is around 12mb. I appreciate all of the help, I really need to get this figured out.
Thanks again,
Jedidiah

 

[jordan8201]

I should mention that one major problem is fixed now. Before when I imported the image I had to drag it to make it full size and therefore greatly decreased the resolution. Now when I import, the file is the correct size it is just someone jagged.

 

[eugenetyson]

Yes you won't see a full resolution version of it until you print, as Illustrator is a vector based, meaning that it produces images on the screen using mathematical equations, and the image is raster, meaning that is made up of pixels.

Simply, it's showing you a preview of the image that will print. If it says 300 x 300 ppi on the control bar at the top when you have your image selected then that is the resolution it will print at.

 

[jordan8201]

Wow, that is very interesting! I opened it Illustrator file in Acrobat and it looks just fine. That is unfortunate but I guess I will get used to it. Thank you very much, that helps very much!

As for my other question, why is it appearing so much larger than it actually is Photoshop?