Expert: Amy - 4/25/2009

Question
Amy,
I am designing over 60 graphics for an important e-book. Most of the graphics are flow charts and many contain small pictures which I edit in Photoshop at 200 dpi. The book will be a PDF.  What are the optimum settings to Export the JPEGs.
I am on a quick turn deadline.
Thank you.
Rachel


Answer
Hi Rachel,

This depends on what the graphics look like. Yours are a blend of lines and images, so you'll have to experiment a little.

If this is only for an e-book, and will never go to print, an RGB jpeg with minimal compression will be fine, technically.

Two ways to get there. See which result you like best.

Try using AI's "Save for Web" and saving as a Maximum or Very High Quality Jpeg at 100% of the size you've got it set up at right now. Then reduce in Word to get the most resolution you can out of your little 200dpi graphics. Because, remember, anything you "Save for Web" from Illustrator will now be 72dpi.

Alternatively, you could size the artwork to the exact size you need in Word, then Export (not Save for Web) as an RGB jpeg with these settings:
Quality: maximum (10)
Color Model: RGB
Format: Baseline Standard
Resolution Depth: High (300)
Anti-Alias: Yes
Include ICC Profile: No.

Then to control ultimate file size, when you optimize the finished PDF in Acrobat Professional, you can downsample/compress all the images to whatever resolution you find looks good and is still a small enough file size.

Good luck!
Amy