File Size Problem

MP
Posted By
Monique_Perticone
Nov 1, 2005
Views
236
Replies
5
Status
Closed
Hello. I need some help with a file size issue. I use Photoshop 7.0 for software documentation purposes, so I am working mainly with screen shots of software. The screen shots are created as bitmaps, which works fine unless the doc is going to press. In that case I convert the images to CMYK/eps in Photoshop. The issue comes during upping the resolution to 300 dpi (required). The images turn out great during publication, but the files become enormous in the conversion process. This has not been too much of a problem, except that now I have a very large doc with hundreds of screen shots to publish and don’t want it to be gigabytes in size because of the image conversions. I am not a very knowledgeable user of Photoshop, so I have not been able to find a solution to this problem. Is there some way that I can change the resolution to 300 dpi, decrease the file size somewhat, and still maintain crispness in the final image?

Your help and experience is much appreciated!

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L
LenHewitt
Nov 1, 2005
Monique,

Re-sizing the images will inevitably increase file size, but saving as EPS will exagerate the problem. TIFF will be smaller, LZW Compressed TIFF smaller still. Additionally JPEGs saved with max quality will print without any visible degradation.
CN
Cybernetic Nomad
Nov 1, 2005
Is there some way that I can change the resolution to 300 dpi, decrease the file size somewhat, and still maintain crispness in the final image?

Make sure you are at 300 ppi at the final output size.
MD
Michael_D_Sullivan
Nov 3, 2005
Use "nearest neigbor" interpolation for screenshots when resizing. Resize the .bmp in RGB and then convert to whatever format you need.
MP
Monique_Perticone
Nov 7, 2005
Thanks everyone. This was very helpful!
JS
John_Slate
Nov 8, 2005
Use "nearest neigbor" interpolation for screenshots when resizing. Resize the .bmp in RGB and then convert to whatever format you need.

If you use nearest neighbor, it should be and exact multiple of the resolution that you start with, like 288ppi from 72ppi.

Otherwise you will get rows and columns of pixels in which menu items captured in the screen grab may "jump".

The need to resample at all depends entirely on the type of rip that will eventually be processing the images.

If the rip re-interpolates all rasters (like a Creo/Scitex rip) then this step is important.

If the rip does not re-interpolates all rasters (like a Harlequin rip) then this step is totally useless, and you will be printing 16 times the data for the exact same effect.

When you resample from 72ppi to 288ppi using nearest neighbor, you end up with 16 equally colored pixels in place of an original pixel, the images are identical at the same print size, unless as I said before the rip reinterpolates the image.

If you are unsure about the rip, the safest bet to do do the resample.

Also, it would be good to start in RGB and use a custom conversion to CMYK utilizing a maximum black GCR, that way all your neutrals will be on the black plate only. If you do this also trap the file by 1 pixel

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