saving PP with 300 dpi

[kzook]

Hi, I am trying to put together my first album and I am using PP. I know I need to save my slides as jpeg's, but how do I assure that they are 300 dpi? Thanks!!

[Marti]

Hi Kzook,

I think someone just discussed this on a recent thread here. But first, I would save the slide and then upload it to a MP template and see what happens. If the red border doesn't appear, then you can be pretty well assured that the dpi is good enough.

Check out some of the recent threads here for a more technical answer. I want to say Karen addressed it a few days ago, but now I'm not sure.

Marti

[kzook]

Thanks Marti - I'll look through the other posts again - I probably missed it. Okay, so another newbie question...what does it mean when your picture has a red border? And what does a blue border mean? I noticed that both pages I've imported from PP have red borders around the entire page...

[Marti]

Well, red borders aren't good. That means your image isn't going to print clearly - it will likely print blurred. If you use the tool bar above the image on the MP page to reduce the size of the image, eventually the red border will turn into a blue border, but sometimes the image becomes pretty small before the border turns blue. A blue border is good. It means your image should print clearly. This is where the size of your .jpg image becomes really important, so look around here and read some other posts about sizing slides in PP.

[kzook]

Thanks again Marti. Okay, hopefully just one more question. I've search through many posts regarding resizing PP jpegs and followed everyone's suggestion of making the slide 3 times what it should be if ordering the classic MP book. When I place it in the book, it has a blue outline, but when I look at it in the "preview" section, it's still not as crisp as when I look at in in PP.

Have you found this same problem? I just want to make sure it's not going to come out blurry in the final copy. Thanks!

[Marti]

No problem, kzook! In answer to your question, yes, I do believe that some deterioration can occur by using a PP slide as opposed to uploading a good quality, original photo to a template. (I'm not sure this happens with Photoshop, however.)

I have been satisfied with the PP images in my printed books, but for some people, they may not be crisp enough. I usually recommend that a person print a 20-page (the minimum) book first using PP slides in the templates. A book with fewer pages is not too expensive, but can be invaluable for assessing whether the PP images are going to be satisfactory before spending hundreds of dollars on books you might be disappointed with.

Some of this is personal preference, too. Some people want the images in their books to only look studio-quality perfect. I'm not quite that particular. On the other hand, I know what a bad image is and wouldn't be satisfied with something too dark, too light, or blurred.

[karenschulz]

Along this line..... I am ready to print a "test" book to check out several things before I proceed with an extraordinarily large project. If I am going to make the final project in the Classic format, would you recommend making the "test" in the Classic format also? The Pocketbook version is, of course, less expensive, but I am curious as to whether the test results will be equal in that size to what I might see in the Classic size. For example, I have a "traditional" scrapbook page. On one test page, I will simply copy and paste a scanned version of it into a Photoshop page to check for print quality in MP. Another example will be to use a 96 DPI background. It presents with a blue border in MP, but I also know that 96 DPI is significantly lower than what is recommended. I also will use a page to write sentences in different fonts and sizes. I find it somewhat difficult to tell exactly how large the fonts will appear in final pages. In some of the books I have made, the print preview in MP looks great, but in actuality, the print seems a tad smaller than I would have liked in the print version. Make sense? Thanks for any input.

[Marti]

Well, here's one smart girl, in my opinion! I like everything you said, Karen, and it makes so much sense. These books are such an investment that it pays to experiment a little first. I did my "test" book in a Classic size because I thought I could never afford to purchase a Deluxe (however, I have). I haven't ever ordered a Pocketbook version, so can't vouch for whether the quality of the images is the same as in a Classic. But your idea of using different techniques and styles on each page is great (I think, anyway). You should have a very good idea of what to expect on your final projects. I also agree on the font print sizes. It's a little hard to be sure because the size of the book online and in the preview is significantly smaller than in real life.

Good ideas, Karen.