Images
It's important to include all images used in your publication or ad when you submit it to us. Even if you place photos or graphicsin your layout, you must provide the original image. Otherwise, especially if it's a color image, your document will only contain a low-resolution thumbnail.
To reproduce images correctly you must be careful with image size, resolution, and color mode.
Image Size
It's best to size an image to fit its picture box exactly. The easiest way to do this is to use your image editing program's "Crop" feature. In PhotoShop you can select "Fixed Target Size" in the Cropping Tool window and enter the dimensions of your picture box. You may then crop your image exactly, keeping the correct height and width proportions. You should never squeeze a larger image or blow up a smaller one to fit the picture box. If you shrink a large image, you will distort the proportions add make your overall document size (in kb) larger which will increase printing time and could cause crashes. Blowing up a small image will make the image fuzzy. Scale your image to the box.
Resolution
Resolution determines the clarity of your image when it's printed. It's measured in "Dots Per Inch" (dpi) which means the higher number of dots per square inch, the finer the detail. Correct dpi for an image is determined by what kind of publication you're creating.
We print newspapers at a resolution of 85 lines Per Inch (lpi - also called "line screen.") Magazines, brochures, yearbooks and other publications printed on slick paper are usually printed at 133 lpi. A good rule of thumb for determining the correct resolution for your images is twice the lpi of your publication. So a newspaper photo or graphic should be about 170-200 dpi and a magazine image should be 266-300 dpi. Going higher than this won't help the clarity of your printed image and just uses a lot more disk space and memory. Always check with us to determine what lpi will be used.
Select resolution when you first scan an image. Your scanning software will have a line or box where you can set this value. If you're not sure what value to set, always scan at a higher dpi and reduce it later. Going from a lower dpi to a higher one will produce a fuzzy or grainy image. You can also change the resolution in your image editing program. You can find this setting in Photoshop by going to the "Image" menu, selecting "Image Size," and changing the number in the box called "Resolution."
Color Mode
Color publications printed by the offset press method we use are always printed in CMYK. This means cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks are overlaid on each other in combinations to produce the colors needed. This is also called "Additive Color." So any color images you submit should be in CMYK mode. But remember that computer screens use RGB mode. This means that the screen starts with black and combinations of red, green and blue are removed, instead of added, to produce needed colors. This is also called "Subtractive Color." When you scan a photo or download it from the internet, it will probably be in RGB. You will have to convert it to CMYK before we can be print it. Do this in an image editing program such as Photoshop. With your image open, go to the "Image" menu at the top, select "Mode" and choose "CMYK Color." If we have to convert RGB images to CMYK, it will your increases costs.
With black and white images, always submit them in "grayscale" mode. Don't scan b&w images in RGB mode and forget to convert them to grayscale. This will add to the memory requirements of the printer and sometimes causes the document to separate into four color plates. Again having us convert the images increases your printing costs.
