graphics sizer - NAC (almost)

[Mike Veglia]

Mike, all good advice, more or less, so far. However, I would say "it depends" on your final output. If this publication is being offset printed (not likely in this day and age) it is best to set resolution for two times the line screen of the output device for a given output size. The industry standard tool for this (and everything else manipulating image files) is Photoshop. You can get the "lite" version (Photoshop Elements) pretty cheap and easily--often tossed in for free with cameras, scanners, printers, etc. It will work, but you have to get passed the "easy mode" in the user interface to get to the controls. For printing photographs with digital output devices it is best to know the device to decide if adjusting pixel dimensions is appropriate or not. If the device is a photographic printer (i.e. Noristu, Fuji, Kodak, Lightjet, etc. as used by a lab) it is best to get recommendation from the lab--as a general rule it is best to let the printer driver do the
 upsampling (or downsampling for small prints) rather than doing it yourself. Most common "photo" inkjet printers are pretty forgiving too, but sky is the limit on what you can spend for RIP (raster image processing) software--especially for fine art black and white work. The lower limit of 150 pixels per inch is a good rule to live by. Trying to achieve 300 is generally overkill. For example, if I want a monster print from a file from one of my digital cameras I will generally let the printer driver do the upsampling instead of using upsampling software--results are great. As far as JPEGs go, yes, you don't want to resave 'em very many times. You can get away with a couple of saves if you keep the quality setting up (10-12), and again best to use Photoshop. Adobe Lightroom may help, is available as a free beta (I think it still is) and is a very promsing addition to digital workflow. I hope this helps some...

Mike Veglia