Expert: LizaL - 6/22/2005

Question
lizal.... i think that person who wrote that stuff before me must be nuts.  Obviously she has some kind of problem or she wouldn't have acted that way, or would have gone to some other board if she knows so much.

Can you help me figure out the best way to make my picture into the right resolution for a magazine? I'm doing an ad and I'm not sure what kind of dpi I should use.

TIA, and I know you know what you're talking about!

Susan

Answer
Hi Susan,

Well, thanks for your support! That's kind of you. I certainly don't know everything, but f I don't know the answer to your question, I'm happy to help you find it.

Now as far as your magazine submission -- you might have to do a little research.

When it comes to magazine printing, there are several factors to consider. If you're scanning the picture yourself, or adjusting a picture that's already been scanned and sent to you, you need to know ahead of time the production specs for the publication you're submitting to.

You should be able to get this information by emailing or speaking directly with the production manager of the magazine, the contact you're working with on the job (if it's somebody different than the production manager), or you could go to the magazine's Web site and see if they have production requirements listed there.

Here are the things you need to know:

1. What is the lpi -- the lines per inch -- at which the magazine is printed?

Lpi refers to the number of halftone lines per inch in your image, as opposed to dpi -- which is the number of dots in your scan.

Most magazines print at about 133 lpi -- although I think now with paper costs on the rise, lots of magazines are moving to 120 lpi, which is fine for a cheaper paper.

At any rate, do find out the lpi of the magazine you're submitting to.

2. This gives you a good approximation for the hardware resolution, or dpi, of your image. A good old rule of thumb that's been floating around for years is lpi x 1.5, in order to achieve a minimum scanning resolution; and for a maximum scanning resolution, use lpi x 2. So if your magazine is printed at 133 lpi, you'd want your image to be at least 266 dpi, for maximum resolution.

It might be tempting to go large -- thinking that the greater the resolution or your image, the better it will print. But this isn't always so. This will result in huge file sizes, since it adds excess information to the file.

I recently did a graphic that wound up being printed at 8' x 10' -- that's FEET, not inches, LOL! And I was surprised to learn that the printer wanted the image at 150dpi. I was figuring it needed to be 300dpi, and I sure was glad to find out ahead of time that I was wrong, because I might have messed up this job, had I stuck with 300 and not asked ahead of time.

3. Bottom line: Talk to the person who will be handling this job -- BEFORE you do the ad! I can't stress strongly enough how important it is to know ahead of time exactly what's expected. You know what they say: You can't unring a bell! And that really applies to printing. Once your ad's printed on the page, it's on for good. And if it's wrong, it gets put in the magazine wrong, and then the magazine is distributed with the ad printed wrong -- and you don't want that. So please always take the time and just ask the person in charge (be it production manager, ad rep, etc.) just what THEY want you to do.

4. If you're really concerned about what the ad will look like once it's printed, you might ask the production manager at the magazine if they could send you a proof. This is something you might have to pay for, but if it's crucial, it might be worth it. At the very least, there are production people at the printer who will be proofing the page with your ad, and you could ask them to give you a "heads-up" once your ad is printed.


If you have doubts about your resolution, feel free to email me your ad at lizal@little-works.com -- or lizal_ae@hotmail.com. I'll be happy to take a look at your file, and help you find the right resources for answering your production questions.

Hope this helps!

Lisa