dpi advice AND indesign question (color prob)
david homes
multimedia/web) and I am currently designing a 11x17 brochure and it uses an
image in the background (it covers all the page), it's a render from Bryce4.
I wonder what is a good resolution for such a file, I currently have it
placed at 250 dpi and the file is quite big (65 Mb) but I know Imagesetters
handle way more than that, Is it an acceptable resolution?
Also, what resolution should I rasterize some art in illustrator that has a
drop shadow?, it says high is 300 but again, should I go for 600? (the art
is about 1.5 x 1.5 ")
something else, when I import in Indesign, what do i have this really
noticeable color shift (specially on red tones), I have set-up Illustrator /
Photoshop and Indesign with exactly the same color profiles to no good. Why
does also my art looks so pixelated even if i set the image display res to
FULL (not proxy or optimized)???????? I hav tried bringint it as .ai and
.tiff and it's all the same
i confess, i'm a newbie at this, the art looks really good in both
Illustrator and Photoshop but in Indesign I get these problems (and I just
don't like Quark, even if it's better)
please provide some advice
thanks in advance
Tacit
Wow. Get ready for a very, very steep learning curve, and be prepared to make
some expensive mistakes. Working in print is complicated and challenging, and
all the rules you know for multimedia do not apply.
>...and I am currently designing a 11x17 brochure and it uses an
>image in the background (it covers all the page), it's a render from Bryce4.
>I wonder what is a good resolution for such a file, I currently have it
>placed at 250 dpi...
In print, the proper resolution for a file is 2 times the halftone line screen
you will use. If your print shop will print the job at 150 line screen, the
images should be 300 pixels per inch. If your printer prints at 200 lines per
inch, the images should be 400 pixels per inch. And so on. The resolution of
the IMAGESETTER is not relevant. It is the density of the HALFTONE that is the
determining factor.
>...and the file is quite big (65 Mb)...
That's one of the things you have to learn when you go to print.
65MB is NOT a big file for print. I routinely work with files that are 200MB or
more. Your days of dealing with tiny Web images are over. :)
>...but I know Imagesetters handle way more than that,...
It is a common mistake to believe that the resolution of a printer or
imagesetter is somehow related to the resolution of an image.
This is not correct. An imagesetter may have a resolution of 3600dpi, but that
does NOT mean your images should be 3600 pixels per inch! Your images should
have a resolution equal to twice the line screen frequency of the halftone you
are using.
>Is it an acceptable resolution?
It's probably a bit low.
>Also, what resolution should I rasterize some art in illustrator that has
>a drop shadow?, it says high is 300 but again, should I go for 600?
No. Go for your halftone frequency times 2.
>something else, when I import in Indesign, what do i have this really
>noticeable color shift (specially on red tones), I have set-up Illustrator
>/Photoshop and Indesign with exactly the same color profiles to no good.
>Why does also my art looks so pixelated even if i set the image display res
>to FULL (not proxy or optimized)????????
Because InDesign is a page layout program, not an image-editing program.
InDesign does not show you a true representation of your placed images in the
same way that Photoshop does. InDesign shows you a quick approximation of the
image. Use the InDesign display only for positioning the images on the page. DO
NOT rely on it for color. DO NOT attempt to make decisions about color or tone
based on what you see in InDesign.
InDesign's resolution settings are not valid for raster (pixel) EPS images. An
EPS image contains an embedded preview. This preview is what you see in
InDesign, and that's it.
>i confess, i'm a newbie at this, the art looks really good in both
>Illustrator and Photoshop but in Indesign I get these problems
They aren't problems. InDesign is not a graphics editing program. You don't use
InDesign to evaluate the color of your placed images.
>please provide some advice
One more thing: You are working in CMYK, not RGB, right? Printing presses
cannot use RGB files. When you work for print, your final product must always
be CMYK, not RGB.
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david homes
1. yes, i'm working with CMYK color
still:
the horrible color shift I see on Indesign when placing .psd, .eps, .ai
files happens when I play with the color management settings, when i trun it
off the colors are exactly the same as when I place a file in QuarkXpess
(sorry, I just don't like the program). but when I import in indesign some
screen shots of an application (which have been converted to CMYK in
photoshop) to indesign with the CMS off there is a horrible shift in the
gray tones. I understand that the colors on screen are not why i would be
getting when printing (as it should send the external file to the printer
directly). However, printing it to a HP Color LaserJet 4500N gives me colors
pretty much the same as i see them on InDesign.
Let me Illustrate that a little better:
1. with CMS off, most colors print as I created them in Illustrator /
Photoshop. EXCEPT for the gray tones which just print horrible
2. with CMS on and sharing exaclty the same profile between the three
applications (Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign) the grays come ok but its
then the red tones that shift (they become very pale). the red I'm using if
C50 Y95 M100 K0, which looks nice in Photoshop / Illustrator but after
placing it in Indesign 1.5 (CMS on) is just ugly. I use the eye dropper tool
and it even says that it's a different color C23 Y60 and something
why is this shift ? I save all files as CMTK from the other apps, and why it
only happens with CMS on even though I specify exaclty the same profiles?
any help will be appreciated, thanks for the first piece of advice
Tacit
>files happens when I play with the color management settings, when i trun
>it off the colors are exactly the same as when I place a file in QuarkXpess
>(sorry, I just don't like the program).
In that case, it sounds like your solution is to turn off color profiles. :)
> but when I import in indesign some
>screen shots of an application (which have been converted to CMYK in
>photoshop) to indesign with the CMS off there is a horrible shift in the
>gray tones. I understand that the colors on screen are not why i would be
>getting when printing (as it should send the external file to the printer
>directly). However, printing it to a HP Color LaserJet 4500N gives me colors
>pretty much the same as i see them on InDesign.
Yep. And printing to an inkjet printer would be the same.
Like the color you get when viewing placed images on-screen, the color you get
when printing a composite isn't accurate. Your later printer isn't a proofing
device, and composite color can't be relied on.
There's an old saying in the prepress industry: "Film don't lie." The only
thing you can trust for color is what you get when you print SEPARATIONS.
>with CMS on and sharing exaclty the same profile between the three
>applications (Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign) the grays come ok but
>its
>then the red tones that shift (they become very pale). the red I'm using
>if C50 Y95 M100 K0, which looks nice in Photoshop / Illustrator but after
>placing it in Indesign 1.5 (CMS on) is just ugly. I use the eye dropper
>tool and it even says that it's a different color C23 Y60 and something
Your color profiles aren't set up correctly.
If you convert from one color profile to another, THE COLORS IN YOUR IMAGE WILL
ACTUALLY BE CHANGED. Your C50 Y95 M100 K0 red is being changed to a different
red by InDesign, because the embedded profile and InDesign's profile don't
match. This is one of the many, many reasons I don't use color profiles; in my
workflow, they do more harm than good.