These directions are relevant for preparing any art that has been scanned, captured from a digital camera, or copied off the Web. However, JPEGs and GIFs from the Web are very compressed and usually saved at a resolution of 72 ppi (pixels per inch), which is generally not satisfactory for print. It's best to capture from a digital camera or scan in art for print at a high resolution. Some websites do feature art at higher resolutions. Store your high-resolution art in a folder called Source Art in the native Photoshop format, PSD, or as a TIFF or BMP. Keep these originals and use them to make copies later for TIFFs, JPGs and GIFs.

Materials needed to complete this tutorial are in the IVLE Workbin.Copy the folder "Newsletter Art" into your Print folder.  It should contain copies of nus1, nus2 and nus3 as PSD files.

1. Open nus1.psd in Photoshop. If the horizontal and vertical rulers are not showing on the edge of the picture, select View > Rulers. Under Edit > Preferences > Units and Rulers set Units: Rulers: to picas and click OK. It is very important for graphics to be in the right mode, for print or web. This art is being prepared for print. In CS4 we must select the profile for our newsletter: Edit > Convert to Profile and choose Uncoated FOGRA29.... In CS3 or earlier, choose Image > Mode > CMYK Color. To see the image as it will appear on a printed page, choose View > Print Size. You can experiment with saturation (Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation) and brightness (Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast) if the picture looks dull or washed out. Any adjustments should be very subtle, though.

Check the resolution of the picture, by going to Image > Image Size. It may already be set at 180 for this exercise. If not, in the Image Size window, under Document Size, change the Resolution to 180 pixels/inch. Your goal in setting the resolution for print is to strike a balance between image quality and file size. The higher the resolution, the better the quality of the picture but the larger the file size.

The resolution balance you strike depends on the purpose of your printed piece and how it is to be produced. For example, a high-end job that will be printed from disk might be saved at a resolution of 1,200 depending on the capacity of the printer. It's useless to save a TIFF at a higher resolution than the capacity of the printer to be used. It also takes up valuable space on the computer (both storage and RAM), and slows down the computer and network considerably. Heavy files can lead to computer crashes and other problems, so save the art at the optimum resolution for the printer and the job. The printers in the lab generally are capable of 300 dpi, with some exceptions. For these lab projects, the best resolution is about 180, unless you are planning to use the publication in your portfolio. Then you might want to opt for 300 dpi.