Hello folks, Alison here.
I don't normally follow this list, since I don't understand much of what's
discussed on it. (I'm just not that computer/math geeky, unfortunately.)
But I hope we have some graphics/layout geeks here who can help us figure
something out. Feel free to refer me to informative webpages if you like...
We have a webpage where we have hi-rez graphics for download for people who
need pictures of our games or our logos to do print catalogs, magazines,
reviews, ads, etc...
What is the usual format/size for such things? What do people who put
together print-based media typically use/ask for? Way-back when, Marlene
had put it together with all tiff files for the raster-based stuff, and eps
files for the vector-based. My inclination is to use a wider variety of
file-types, based on what I know (or believe to be true) about them:
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As raster-based images go, gif and tiff are indexed color, so they are
smaller/more appropriate for images with only a few colors, like
flat-colored logos and such. Of the two, I had thought that gifs were
smaller (based on some experimentation that one of my graduate professors
did). I could not figure out why anyone would use a tiff if this were the
case, but there must be something that differentiates them.
For photographic-type pictures, with tons and tons of gradations of color,
a jpeg creates a smaller file, and I have often seen people request them,
since I think many tools are able to deal with them. I personally notice
some odd color distortion around edges, which I think is due to compression
inherent to the file-type... maybe? Did I mention I'm not much of a geek?
But I think at print resolution it's hardly noticeable.
I did have someone ask for actual photoshop (or jpeg) files once, and I was
at a loss as to why they asked for those, and did not list any of the
indexed-color types - it was a shame, since I already had lots of things as
tiffs, that Mar had generated. I mean, if they have Photoshop, they should
be able to change the file type to whatever they want, right?
I think in general, though, people don't want file-types that are specific
to a particular application, though. So...
for vector-based graphics, we go with eps files, rather than, say
Illustrator files... That seems clear enough to me. If you can take them,
then vector-based graphics are great, since they're almost infinitely
sizeable without loss of resolution. Eps is the only generic vector-based
file type I know (I'm sure there are more, but I think it's very widely
used and accepted by many applications, yes?)
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I know that for raster-based files 300 dpi is standard minimum for
color/grayscale, and 600 for b/w line art. Of course dpi means nothing
without a size for the image (people SO often forget this!) so I'll have to
figure out what size graphic to offer too. Input is welcomed on that.
I _think_ these will be used most often for magazine-sized pictures, with
more than one image on a page - not so much for full page product shots, or
posters, so I'm thinking about 3-4 inch on a side, depending on
aspect-ratio. That seems plenty big enough to me. What do you all think?
Also, I'm wondering if I can use the "save for web" feature in Photoshop,
which compresses the file-size somewhat (I think - I don't really know much
about compression, here). I like it because it lets you see how big the
file will be, saved out as different types. But will that compression
adversely affect the image quality (significantly)?
Also, now that I'm thinking about it, how do you make a link so it just
downloads an image, rather than attempting to take you to a webpage which
displays it? These are going to be so big that it will be useless to try
to view them at screen resolution. Actually, this is something that Robin
will have to deal with, not me, since she's pushing them, but I thought I'd
ask, while I had your attention, since I'm curious...
Anyhow. This has been a long post. Advice and answers are solicited.
Corrections to my graphics-worldview welcomed (or at least tolerated!)
Thanks for your help!
:)
-Alison