Expert: Amy - 1/6/2008

Question
QUESTION: i'm using cs3 on intel mac. I have multiple raw images that were
modified/touched up in photoshop and are now .tiff files (a professional did
this work). Now, I'm trying to import the product images into illustrator. The
images are importing too small / too large, jagged, blurry, you name it. I
can't seem to find the right edit combinations. My purpose is to export final
files as pdfs for print ads.

ANSWER: Hi Laura.

Check the tiffs in PhotoShop.
At 100% size (final print size):
Photographic images should be CMYK color mode, 300 dpi.
Line art images should be Bitmap color mode, 1200 dpi.

All image resizing should be done in PhotoShop using "Image Size to make sure that you are maintaining the proper resolution while doing your resizing.

Place the images into an Illustrator document that's CMYK color mode.

Once in AI, it's okay to reduce an image by a little. Major reductions are best done in PhotoShop. Be aware that any time you enlarge an image, you are reducing its final output resolution. A 300 dpi image enlarged by 200% will print at 150 dpi resolution.

When saving as a PDF or printing to a PDF file with Adobe PDF printer (part of Distiller/Acrobat Pro), it's important to keep any image compression to a minimum. This is done in the PDF options window. Choose an image quality that suits your needs. Color photos can usually be compressed a little more than other types of artwork. I usually use Very High - downsample to 300dpi. Gray scale is about the same. Line art compression should be kept to a minimum. Compression shows the most on line art... compress them too much and they'll look jagged.

I hope this helped you a little.

-Amy Pace




---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: (1) does it matter whether I cut-n-paste, or should I "import" or "place" image
into AI? (2) once in AI, do I assume that what I see @ 100% is true (and ignore
what it looks like zooming @ 200%)

Answer
With the job you're doing, you should use the place command.

When I'm doing drafts or little flyers for people... stuff that won't be printed professionally, I often cut and paste. But things that will see the printer, I never trust to cut and paste.

All images will always look somewhat jagged at 200%... but, yes, it's pretty much WYSIWYG at 100%! There are exceptions. Duotone/Multichannel EPS images are 8-bit previews and won't display properly. But CMYK tiffs should look accurate. I forgot to tell you, the tiffs should not contain layers. If your photographer didn't flatten them, you might want to.

-Amy