Re: Best export format for commercial print from Publisher

What's the difference between PNG, TIFF, BMP, and JPEG?

They are all raster formats and all suffer from "becoming pixels". PNG is
intended primarily for web graphics, but can be used for many things
depending on how many colors are used. BMP is less common of a format for
"quality" (what-ever that means) raster images. It works just fine, though
you are likely to be asked to provide a TIFF. It's a perception thing, not a
technical matter per se. Where as TIFF and JPEG are ubiquitous, de jure and
de facto standard formats. JPEG becomes "blurry" when too much compression
is applied or is repeatedly applied. TIFF's can also suffer from this kind
of "blurryness" by being JPEG compressed (LZW, ZIP/Flate/JPEG, and None are
supported for color images). LZW is the old "standard" compression but
really should be switched to ZIP/Flate. LZW and ZIP/Flate do not delete
redundant image data like JPEG and JPEG2000 do.

So depending on *how* the document is saved as a raster image it can be
"good" or "bad". I'd put PNG way down at the bottom. You can always change
image compression, but you can't change what PNG does to images. If you do
choose to use JPEG, use the highest quality setting that you can. Try to
save the image at no greater than 600 dpi if using lots of colors.

PDF's as a practical matter for most purposes cap out at 1200 dpi, for high
resolution imaging for printing presses 2400 is standard. But you can go
higher. PDF is just a container format essentially. Meaning it holds all the
pieces together so it can be displayed anywhere on anything that has a PDF
viewer. So fonts and other vector objects are just programs that describe
lines and fills regardless of the resolution. So they will always be sharp
and crisp. Images however have a finite resolution. Printing a 200dpi image
at 4000 dpi will provide no improvement in quality. Similarly printing a
4000 dpi image at 200 dpi will provide no benefit.

Most RIP's (Raster Image Processor) process images at the same resolution as
the rest of the art. Some process them at different resolutions than the
rest of the job. When sending a image down at 600 dpi you may see a slight
improvement in the text and other objects that were originally vector at
300dpi (2 x LPI (lines per inch)). But you won't really see any extra
benefit from 600 dpi than you would with 400 dpi. It's the "point of
diminishing returns". So the RIP won't actually be able to take advantage of
the extra 200 dpi to make much of a difference. So it's wasted data that can
have adverse effects on the subject. Dual plane RIP's (RIP's that treat
images differently than everything else) take all the images and make them
one giant image for the whole page at one particular resolution. So this too
*can* have an adverse effect. Again, depending on the subject matter. Think
of herringbone weaves or fine weaves/patterns are most affected. At any
rate, sending more data than is needed no matter what kind of RIP you have
will always have some sort of detrimental effect.

Matt Beals
Consultant
Enfocus Certified Trainer
Apago, Calls, Gradual & Markzware Recognized Trainer
(206) 618-2537 - Cell
(720) 367-3869 - eFax
mailto:matt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Come visit me at:

http://www.mattbeals.com
http://www.actionlistexchange.net
http://www.mattbeals.com/blog/

Friends don't let friends write HTML email
On 11/27/06 5:34 PM, in article uaI6L1oEHHA.1220@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Ed
Bennett" <the_nerd@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

Beverly wrote:
When I print my document to PDF directly from Publisher, my graphics do not
come out the way I expect - they are a bit distorted. The text is amazingly
clear at high zoom levels this way but my graphics do not look right.

When I save as .jpg at 300 DPI, why don't I get the same high resolution
that I see when I print to High Quality PDF? My graphics look perfect when
I save as .jpg but the text isn't as clear at high zooms.

Should I be saving as a different format (.tif, .png, .ps)? Can someone w/
experience in preparing documents for commercial print please help?

JPEG is the worst format you can use. Not only does it convert
everything to pixels, but it also blurs everything up.

High quality PDF is theoretically infinite resolution - it is limited
only by the fonts, shapes, application and resolution of photos used.

Order of preference:
- PDF
- PS/EPS
- PNG/TIF
- BMP
- WMF/EMF


<Long gap cannot possibly express how preferable the upper options are>


- JPEG

HTH!


.

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