PDA

View Full Version : Using InDesign for Book With Web Captured Images?


alexis
02.18.05, 03:35 PM
Hello everybody, I have almost finished designing a book in InDesign CS.

Yes, it's my first time with InDesign but I didn't have too much problem after reading "InDesign's Bible" and already knowing Illustrator and Photoshop. Most of my designing experience is web oriented, this is my first printing job (besides doing my company business cards and stationary, which it's not such a big "job" actually).

Well, this book includes many images captured from web sites, most of them stock quotes and online brokers screenshots.

As far as I know, everything we see in a web page is 72 DPI, am I right?

I know that printers require images in 300 DPI (at least most local printers I've asked told me so).

Should I use "Image -> Image Size" in Photoshop to change resolution?

Currently I'm doing this:

1. Copy image from a web page.
2. File -> New in Photoshop
3. Set resolution to 300 DPI.
4. Set color mode to CMYK.
5. The book is 6"x9", so, if the image is too big I change image size (in inches) so that it can fit.

Is this the right thing to do?

I'm guessing the original web capture image was in 72 DPI and by going to 300 DPI I'm telling Photoshop to add pixels out of nothing.

I followed the steps in some other thread in this forum to save from Photoshop at 72 and 300 DPI, place in Illustrator and save as PDF, then I zoom to 400% or more and I can see the 300 DPI version is a little better.

I have even made a test capturing the logo from Graphics-Forums and saving both versions, 72 and 300, to a PDF file. To be honest I don't know what to conclude from the testing, I can see 300 DPI version looks a little, very little in my opinion, at 400% or more. But of course I can't compare what I see in a 17" computer screen with what would be printed from a professional equipment.

I have a simple HP DeskJet 3420 printer, so I can not see a big difference in the output.

I have many books which include images captured from web pages. And the images look great, I've seen them in color and b/w. How did they do it?

Some printers told me "if you can bring us the original we can use our super-duper-out-of-this-world scanner and get it in the right resolution", but I already explained them the only "originals" are the ones at the web sites.

I would very grateful if you could give me some ideas about this, the book is almost finished and I just have to solve this image resolution issue in order to go to print :)

As always, thank you very much!

Builtdown
02.19.05, 06:26 AM
Well, if your picture is 72dpi, then itīs going to be 72dpi also when printed. Thatīs it. Itīs going to look worse than your 300dpi photos etc. but it will still look as it looks on the internet.

Thereīs no use to raise the resolution if the original is 72dpi. Itīs not going to look any better. Maybe even worse.

When a printer says that you need 300dpi pics, thatīs bull. Thatīs just a recommendation. If itīs possible to give printers 300dpi pictures, thatīs good. But your 72dpi web-captures are very well suitable for your needs. Turning them to CMYK is all you need.


- Built

alexis
02.19.05, 11:52 AM
Hi Built, thank you very much for your explanation.

I think I already knew that was the answer, after all, it's just plain common sense, "upgrading" the resolution can only create pixels out of nothing, at least that is how I see it from all that I've read.

I agree that printers asking for everything at 300dpi (including web captured images) is not very realistic.

So, I'll go ahead with my project with the "original" 72 dpi web captures.

Regards!