What is best way to make very tiny, high-resolution photos?

JS
Posted By
Jeffrey_Stuart
May 29, 2005
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290
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I have some well-lit product shots with text on the box label. My camera produces 2560×1920 tiff at 72 ppi. I want to make really sharp, high-resolution, tiny photos for export to Indesign CS2 (such as 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch) for printing on commercial press so the text is still somewhat sharp instead of fuzz. What is the best way to change the image size with Photoshop CS2? 300 ppi with bicubic sharper? Or higher ppi value? Export tiff or eps to Indesign? Or, maybe redo the text in Photoshop with a text layer so it looks better after reduction?
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J
Jim
May 29, 2005
wrote in message
I have some well-lit product shots with text on the box label. My camera
produces 2560×1920 tiff at 72 ppi.
It produces an image that is 2560×1920 pixels. Whether you save it as a tiff, jpg, psd, or whatever, those dimensions do not change. The 72 dpi is a scaling factor. All this means is "display this 2560×1920 image at 72 dpi".
I want to make really sharp, high-resolution, tiny photos for export to
Indesign CS2 (such as 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch) for printing on commercial press so the text is still somewhat sharp instead of fuzz. What is the best way to change the image size with Photoshop CS2? 300 ppi with bicubic sharper? Or higher ppi value? Export tiff or eps to Indesign? Or, maybe redo the text in Photoshop with a text layer so it looks better after reduction?

Can’t help you with text issues. However, for the image: Select image size
Enter your desired dpi
Deselect resample image

This will preserve the fundamental image size which is 2560×1920.

Jim
TT
Toby_Thain
May 29, 2005
I have found that Unsharp Mask with a suitable radius (e.g. about finaldpi/300, or in your case between say 12 and 17) works well for retaining detail under reduction (especially when conventionally dot screened instead of stochastic). Try different % amounts too.

That is assuming that you’re not downsampling e.g. to 300dpi at final size first. If you’re doing that, then apply USM at 1.0 radius (again, adjust % amount).
DM
Don_McCahill
May 29, 2005
You should not have any problem getting sharp pictures of this size. The camera does not produce images at 72 ppi … only the pixel dimensions count. Ppi is an arbitrary figure the software is using.

You can easily change the ppi figure in the Image>Image Size box, and the image will not degrade if you turn resampling off.

You should only need 200 or 300 ppi at your desired size for sharp colour photos … so you can make them as large as 10×7 inches or so.

Don

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