Photoshop Image Size

[rpcarnell]

I have been asked to design a catalog for a small store

I know I must use CMYK and the pictures must have at least 300 dpi.

But what about the image size? If the paper will be 10 x 11 inches, how big must the image be? Using an image that big produces a file that is like 32 MB big.

[KDLA]

Are you talking about for a print publication, or for web display?

[Mr. E. Cryptic]

If you are talking about a print publication, DON'T use a raster editing programme (like photoshop) to set it up - these are for photo manipulation, touch-ups, graphical text etc only. Use a vector programme (like corel draw, adobe illustrator).

When resizing and /or touching up photos in photoshop that are going to be imported/placed into your layout;

yes, 100% of print size at 300dpi/ppi (don't mistake for ppc)

Save as a tif/tiff file with NO compression (Make sure bits are ordered for IBM PC). These files will be a moderate size, and the file size greatly depends on colour and complexity of the image. Most tiff files I would save in a day would be in the 12 to 120MB range.

Most vector programmes handle tiff files much better than they would other formats (quality is at its best as well), can can employ their own in-built lossless compression techniques when the files are imported.

Corel Draw is the best in this respect; saving a .cdr file that contains a 12 MB tiff file as an embedded bitmap (no external files needed), will result in a .cdr file that is only a meg or two in size but keeps all the quality.

If you don't have access to a vector editing programme, InkScape for both Linux and Windows is sufficient for most jobs.

[Pixelchik]

If you are creating a multiple page catalog for print, use something like InDesign or Quark. Illustrator or Photoshop are used to create the images (vector or raster) that will be placed inside the document. I work in print every day and InDesign is your best bet for creating catalogs or multi-page documents.