pixelated images, what am I doing wrong? 4

[ianclay]

Hello to all,

I’m new here and new to PM as well. I’m having trouble with my images becoming pixelated. I’m trying to make a flyer for a garden center in my area using some pictures I took this past summer. I scan the images in at a high resolution, save them as jpgs and place them in the flyer.

When the image comes up, it is fairly small so I grab the corner of the image and hold the control key as I drag the picture to the correct size. That’s when the image becomes blurry and prints blurry as well.

The printing company told me to embed the images. Well I’ve tried to do that but that never helps either. The book I read says you can copy and paste an image from Photoshop which will embed the image. Does that sound right? Thanks for any help I may receive.

 

[111011]

there could be a couple of things that are happening here.

One jpeg is for online graphics and if you are putting them into a paper document you should be saving them as a tif file.

Another other thing is to make the graphic larger or smaller you should do that in your graphic program and resample it. You should use a program such as coral photopaint or adobe photoshop.

Three you not only have to scan the picture in at a high reslolution you must also save it as same. you should be using about 300 dpi for both.

Forth although you can copy and past from a program. Sometimes you are actually getting the screen resolution not the image reslolution and this is a lot less.

 

[Eggles]

Eeekkk!! you are doing everything wrong here. But since you have admitted to being new to PM, we'll forgive you. Plus the fact you've been sensible enough to come and ask here. In addition to the excellent post made by 111011, I would like to add a couple of points. Starting with the graphic.

If you are scanning a photo, save it as a TIF, although it will be a larger file size than a JPG. This is because JPGs are a file format that compresses the image (it's designed for web graphics) and in order to do so, it throws out some of your pixels. So use of JPGs for print graphics - where every pixel is important - is not recommended. The resolution should be 300ppi (if commercially printed) although 200ppi is OK for printing at home on a desktop printer. But here's the important bit - 300ppi is the general rule - but only if the image is already at 100 percent of the final size. If you must 'stretch' your photo to fit the spot reserved for it, then you must rethink how you are doing this. If you already know the final size you wish your photo to be, then make allowances in your scanning. If you don't know in advance, then scan at a high enough resolution to take care of upsizing. For example, say your final printed photo size is to be 8" x 6". But your original is only 4" x 3" (half the size). Either you scan at 600ppi, or if your scanning software is capable, increase the scale at which you are scanning to 200 percent and scan at 300ppi. Either way, when you double the dimensions of your photo, you still have 300ppi resolution. If you plan on cropping any part of the photo, and your scanning software will allow it, do it before you scan. Remember to take into account the change in size and thus any necessary scaling, if you crop. By the way, if you plan to crop part of the photo, do the cropping in Photoshop, not Pagemaker.

It is no good stretching your photo to fit after scanning, as you are just spreading your existing pixels further apart, and lowering the resolution necessary to provide crisp, clear non-pixelated images in print. Pixelation is caused by (usually) having your resolution too low.

Now on to the second isue - getting the graphic into Pagemaker....

The golden rule is to use the File>Place command. Never copy/paste. It is also usually recommended not to embed, but to link graphics to the PM publication. The tricky part here is that as well as the PM file, you need to supply your printer with the graphics files as well. But this workflow keeps the PM file size down. Also, remember to convert your graphics to CMYK from RGB if the publication is to be commercially printed. It is not so critical for home printing if the graphics are left as RGB.

You will also need to supply the printer with copies of any fonts you have used. Do you know about the 'Save for Service Provider' utility in PM? It will firstly do a check of your publication and if all is OK, package all graphics and fonts used in to the one folder, ready for delivery to the printer.

Post back if you want to know any more, or if you need a point clarified.

 

[ianclay]

Wow, thank you very much for your help. Both of these responses are very helpful. I’m going to go back and re-scan the images, and save them as tiffs. As for the save for service provider command, I didn’t know it existed. I’ll dig around and find it. Thanks for the tip. The printing company that I took my CD to said, “I should place the fonts and images in a folder for them”. This must be what they were referring to. I am new to this software so I appreciate the fact that no one has flamed me for asking such a basic question. I wish one of the local colleges around here taught this program but they don’t. I’m kind of winging it as I go.

I bought a Canon 2720 film scanner and have Photoshop 6.0 so hopefully after scanning the negs back in I will be able to get this straitened around with the advice the two of you gave me. Thank you for taking time out of your Holliday to help me.

 

[Eggles]

In V6.5 (and probably 7.0), 'Save for Service Provider' is found under Utilities>Plugins.

People on this forum never flame, no matter how simple the question. We're a very nice crowd!

Finally, if you need a book, there are a couple I could recommend: Adobe's 'Classroom in a Book' for your version of Pagemaker is very good. Also the Visual Quickstart series, although brief, tend to point you in the right direction. If you get stuck, post back here.

 

[ianclay]

Thank you Eggles, you’re very kind. The only other forum I belong to is photo.net and a lot of the people there seem to enjoy belittling others for asking common questions. I’ll pick up the books you mention and learn what I can. It’s a shame that other forums here on the net aren’t this friendly. We can all learn a little something from each other. That’s what makes this world spin. I look forward to talking to you again.

 

[Eggles]

Are you up and about at an unusual time for your part of the world? I am awake because it is 6.00pm on 26 December where I am (Australia). Where are you?

 

[ianclay]

Hello Eggles, I was up late checking for responses. My kids keep me pretty busy so some times late at night is the only chance I get to work on the computer. I live in Ohio in the US.

 

[viol8ion]

Eggles,

I gave your post a star because it is excellent! Hope your holidays were great! When in doubt, deny all terms and defnitions.

http://www.wuli.com

 

[Eggles]

Thanks viol8ion - high praise coming from you (and many thanks to you to, 'cos so much of these finer details about PM I have learned from you and others on the forum).

 

[ianclay]

Hello Eggles,

I just stoped in to see if anything new had been added to my post. I see where your response has been marked helpful by another member. Being new here I overlooked this feature so I'm glad viol8ion picked up on it. Your response was very helpful so again, thank you.