🚀 go-pugleaf

Tom_Ricardo@adobeforums.com wrote:
> 
> Here is my situation. I want to print out professional quality DVD box covers in terms of text and image sharpness. I have all my covers saved in psd format. Printing in photoshop is horrible, and when I import just the pictures into illustrator then put the text over it, the images look horrible. So i've read that PostScript printing is the way to go. I do not obviously have a postscript printer, but I know I can install an emulation downloadable on Adobe's site. I downloaded GhostView and GhostScript already. Please, any information would save me. Thankyou so very much.
> 
Why not save your Illustrator file as a PDF, and use the free Acrobat
Reader to print it? You won't get great results on a non-PS printer,
but they might look better than when printing directly from the
application. OTOH if you're being put off by the appearance of your
Illustrator file on-screen, bear in mind that the images underneath
your text are just screen previews that don't necessarily give a true
representation of their quality when printed.

For best results you should get your project professionally printed
on PS equipment; most printers or copy-shops will be able to work
with a native Illustrator file or a PDF version thereof. Talk to them
first about their requirements for image colour mode and resolution,
but you're unlikely to go wrong if you save the pictures in CMYK at
240-300 ppi. (Type set in Illustrator, being vector artwork, is good
for any resolution -- it's just the raster images from Photoshop that
are likely to be a concern.)

--Odysseus

Ok, that's your first problem, right there. Using PSD format for text.
The text on DVD/CD covers is often very small and you need the best
possible text. Don't use an image editor to do the text. Hence, the
first problem. Beginners often make the mistake of trying to do
everything in one program, but that isn't what the pros do. Use
Photoshop to do your images, save them as TIFFs. Combine them in
InDesign, Illustrator or similar, then add text.

If the images aren't sharp, check your resolution.

General advice: avoid text on a photo or coloured background, and
avoid text in any colour except black until you are more confident.
This is really hard to get readable, and pros know that you have to
restrain your design ideas if you want it legible.

Anyway, that's getting off topic I guess. You write: "I do not
obviously have a postscript printer" - I don't know about the
"obviously" here. If you want "professional quality" you can't just
use a cheap inkjet.  ".., but I know I can install an emulation
downloadable on Adobe's site"  but there is no such thing on Adobe's
site.  Generally you have to buy an emulator. 

Aandi Inston

Ok, you mention resolution. I used the standard 72ppi which I believe is the problem. Can I go back into photoshop and re-sample my PSD's to like 300ppi? How would I do that. Then I just need to save as .TIFF and import to illustrator to add text, then just print correct? Thankyou so very much. This means a lot.

k

Tom_Ricardo@adobeforums.com wrote:
> 
> Ok, you mention resolution. I used the standard 72ppi which I believe is the problem. Can I go back into photoshop and re-sample my PSD's to like 300ppi? How would I do that. Then I just need to save as .TIFF and import to illustrator to add text, then just print correct? Thankyou so very much. This means a lot.
> 
You can certainly upsample your images in Photoshop (in the Image
Size dialog, with the "Resample Image" box checked), but the image
quality won't improve a whole lot -- basically you'll just turn
'jaggies' into 'blobbies'. While Photoshop's bicubic interpolation is
quite good at smoothing out large pixels while preserving what detail
is there, in going from 72 ppi to 300 ppi the program is in effect
'inventing' something like 95% of the image you see -- and it can't
add detail or sharpness that wasn't there to start with. For best
results upsample in steps; look at the file size in the dialog and
avoid increasing it to more than double at a time: e.g. 72 ppi -> 101
ppi, 101 -> 142, 142 -> 200 (I'd stop there, as 200 ppi is enough to
avoid noticeable jaggies if the job will be printed using halftone
screens in the 133- to 150-lpi range typical of offset printing).

There are some applications and Photoshop plug-ins available (e.g.
"Genuine Fractals" IIRC) that use fancy mathematical methods to
disguise a lack of 'real' data in an upsampled image, but none of
them can truly create something out of nothing. I realize it may not
be possible for you at this point, but the optimal solution would be
to rescan or recreate the raster artwork at a higher resolution,
before adding the text in a page-layout or illustration program.

--Odysseus

> Can I go back into photoshop and re-sample my PSD's to like 300ppi? 

No, absolutely not. It's like turning chicken soup back into chickens
- beyond hope.  Yes, you can increase the resolution in Photoshop but
you can't put back the quality you don't have.

You need to create your images or rescan at higher resolution.
Probably around 200 dpi (ppi).

> Then I just need to save as .TIFF and import to illustrator to add text, then just print correct? 

Yes.


Aandi Inston

By the way, this is really getting off topic. Questions on Photoshop
technique are best answered in the Photoshop forum - which has a whole
lot more people, who are experts in the field.

Aandi Inston