Transcript VCD 357 Marketing Communication

JRN 440
Adv. Online Journalism
Raster file formats for print
Wednesday, 2/8/12
Class Objectives
 Note 1: Virtual lab instructions on home page
 Note 2: Ex. 1-3 graded
 Lecture
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Raster File Formats for Print
Introduce Neat Trick Assignment
 Homework
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P1 due Wednesday, 2/15, at 2:05 p.m.
First neat trick is on Monday, 2/13
File types
 File names, extensions or suffixes that
indicate the format or usage of a file and a
brief description of that format.
 The file format in which you save your file
depends on where it is headed…
 For print or a page-layout software, use TIFF,
EPS, or PDF
File Types- Photoshop (.PSD)
 Native format for Photoshop
 Positive: Most flexible
 Can save layers, paths, channels, masks
 Negative: A lot of other software does not
recognizes anything other than the flattened
composite
 Negative: File size is larger than other
formats
 Advice.. always keep a version of your work
in this format.
Tagged Image File Format-TIFF
 First version was published by Aldus
Corporation in the fall of 1986, after a series
of meetings with various scanner
manufacturers and software developers.

Originally created as a scanning format
 Now used as an ideal when printing hi-
resolution raster images
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More technically = describes image data that
typically comes from scanners, and paint and
photo-retouching programs.
TIFF
 Not a printer language or page description
language. The purpose of TIFF is to describe
and store raster image data.
 A primary goal = to provide a rich
environment within which applications can
exchange image data. (Both Quark XPress
and InDesign can minimally change a TIFF
file)
Features of TIFF: compression
 Saves graphics in lossless compressed (LZW)
or uncompressed format.

This gives you the option of using less space for
an image, or loading the image faster.
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Used to be that LZW was to be avoided b/c it might
have corrupted the file... This really no longer is the
case.
Can also compress with zip or jpg (don’t do- will
explain later)
EPS (Encapsulated PostScript)
 In general, encapsulation is the inclusion of
one thing within another thing so that the
included thing is not apparent

Think of an EPS as a TIFF file that is in a
capsule
 PostScript = a programming language that
describe the appearance of a printed page.
 Developed by Adobe in 1985
 Has become another industry standard for
printing.
Features of an EPS file
 Saving

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Were designed to be imported into other
programs so that these programs wouldn’t
have to worry about what is in them
If you save as an EPS, layers get flattened
PDF (Portable Document Format)
 Not a native raster file format
 A file format that has captured all the elements of a
printed document as an electronic image that you can
view, navigate, print, or forward to someone else.
 Are natively created using Adobe Acrobat

This currently is Adobe’s #1 selling software
 Are created by exporting from other software
programs
PDF
 Adobe has vowed to support PDF for the next 30
years.
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Why is this important?
 Because of documentation that may need to last for
30 years or more
 Designers can create PDF’s for magazine
advertisements, brochures, and flyers and use them
on websites

But- this does NOT mean that the brochure is a
replacement to a designed web page with web content
PDF Features
 More than just images of documents
 Multiple pages that can zoom in or out from and can go
forward or backward (navigation)
 Embedded type fonts so that they're available at any
viewing location
 Interactive elements
Buttons for forms entry and for triggering sound
 Quicktime or AVI movies
 PDF files are optimized for the Web by rendering text
before graphic images and hypertext links.

Which file format to use for Print?
 1st thing, ask your commercial printer what they
prefer!
 2nd thing, whatever Photoshop lets you save to
 3rd thing, it’s up to you
 Old school (TIFF) has less things that go
wrong… it is what it is…
 EPS is TIFF in a capsule… more info./more
can go wrong
 New school (PDF) is able to “store” the most,
but this may make it most problematic