Conversion of images for print

[Judith@Mosaic]

I'd appreciate some feedback on the process I'm using to convert image files for print (book). I've recently come over from Photoshop and am sure that Affinity Photo/QuarkXPress2017 are the right combination to produce the result I want, but I need reassurance - or suggestion of a better way ...

 

This is what I do:

• Open the file (usually a .jpg) in Affinity Photo
• Change colour format to CMYK (8 bit)
• Using Resize document, change DPI to 300, uncheck Resample and click resize
• Then using Resize document again, change units to Millimetres (is there a way to make this the default unit) and then change the width to slightly over the finished size of the image in the book, choosing Resample at this stage.
• Then save as ...
• Then Export as TIFF CMYK (making no other changes on that dialogue box)

 

However, I then always seem to have to resize the image (sometimes to less than 10%)  once I've imported it into QuarkXPress2017 ... and the image file produced is rather large.

 

Can anyone suggest what I'm doing wrong?

 

Help would be much appreciated!

 

[toltec]

Why are you changing to a TIFF?

 

1 Changing to CMYK is OK.

 

2. Select the Hand tool and set Units to Millimetres

 

3 In Resize Document, set the size you want in MM

 

4. Set DPI to 300 ,

 

5 In Resample: use Bilinear if sizing down, Bicubic if sizing up.

 

6 Make sure Resample is ticked.

 

7 Click Resize.

 

8. Export in JPEG or Tiff format for Quark.

 

Tiff files will be much larger (in MB) than JPEGs. If you use a high quality JPEG setting like 85%, that is considered "Press Quality".

[Judith@Mosaic]

Thanks, toltec. Just tried your method and it works a treat.

 

Since posting and playing around, though, I wondered whether dropping the original image straight into QuarkXPress2017, and letting it do the work would produce a result of comparable quality. Do you have a view on whether resizing an image in Affinity Photo and then placing in QXP is a better method than bypassing AP altogether and just using QXP?

[toltec]

I think it depends very much on the images. Do you know the source and resolution of all of them?

 

I certainly would not trust Quark for every image unless I knew the original resolution, colour format etc. That is why we use pixel editing programs like Photo or Photoshop rather than DTP programs like Quark.

 

But then, I'm a bit of a control freak 

 

 

[Judith@Mosaic]

No problem with being a control freak!

 

So, would you judge the final quality of the image editing purely visually, or do you have a rule of thumb (eg. file size change) for determining whether an image will print well? I'm producing a 200-page book with c100 images of natural history, so quality is important. 

 

I'm also surprised that, even using he method you recommended (great to apply, thanks) when I then take the correctly sized image into QXP, I still have to reduce to say 30% to fit the image box. (eg. I've changed document size to 100mm wide, at 300dpi using Affinity Photo, then import it to a 100mm wide box in QXP and it comes in as say 72dpi but resizes to 300mm when reduced in dimension to fit the box). 

 

Any comment, anyone?