are these file formats suitable for printing?

[Mike Grant]

I always export from Corel to .eps and print. Always had good results.

Edited because I put the wrong file type 😳

[John Hughes]

corel to EPS

john

[Phil Craddock]

don’t print from jpeg unless you want a pixcellated image as jpegs compress too much image info (detail) as they are for email and web use not print really. And jpegs are rgb not cmyk unless you manually change them in photoshop but you wil find that they are probably 72dpi and small physical size so wont pro up to any decent quality hence pixcellation !!

I use adobe illustrator and usually import a photoshop tiff file into my illustrator document to send to the rip.

[Matic Serbelj]

corel to eps and then let the rip to print? Have to try it.

thanks

[John Childs]

Illustrator to eps. 😀

[Martin Oxenham]

All files to Eps. Except if it is just a Bitmap image then save as a Jpeg but with no compression. eg Full size. The file will be smaller but you will not see any difference in quality if it is not compressed.
Also don’t be fooled by this theory that if you save at twice the resolution and half the size that it will be a smaller faster file. It won’t.
Some will disagree with this and say save the file at 1/4 size but four times the resolution. Just Try it it won’t work. The file size will be the same.

[Phil Craddock]

1/4 size @300 dpi should be fine.

remember though jpegs need converting from RGB to CMYK.

[Martin Oxenham]

What I’am saying is 1/4 size at 300 dpi will be the same file size as 100% at 75 dpi

[Phil Craddock]

and its also down to what the quality of the original image is – sometimes we receive files that are copies of copies and so on – so you’re onto a looser before you start.

[Stafford.Cox]

quote Matic Serbelj:

Hey!

Just a quick question. Me and some friends had a talk about what format were using for printing with our printers. I have a Mimaki jv3 160SP, another friend has a Roland. Well the thing is. From day one i was told that its bether to export from corel to .tiff or .jpg and then print . My friend prints PDF files and says its ok.

what would be the best way to keep files small but the image quality great?

I try and use EPS formats wherever possible, whether Photoshop, Illustrator, Corel….

Things are becoming more and more PDF based these days though.

Stafford

[John Wilson]

Right, just so i understand

If i’m designing a 28" x 52" banner in photoshop then I design it at 7" x 13" @300dpi?? and it will turn out fine??

I’ve been designing at full size @300dpi but as you can guess the file size is huge

[Peter Normington]

john 72 dpi final size is usually good for banners.

what is confusing to a lot of people is that the printer resolution is different from the image resolution, you can have an image at millions of pixels per inch but your printer cant do that so no need to overdo the pixels

Peter

Peter

[Martin Oxenham]

"you can have an image at millions of pixels per inch but your printer cant do that so no need to overdo the pixels"

Yes it can. Your not quite right there Peter. Yes printer resolution and image resolution are two entirely different things dots per inch and pixels per inch. But the more pixels per inch in your image then the better the print will be. The printer can only print so many Dots per inch so the more pixels that are in those dots the sharper the quality.
I agree 72 pixels per inch is fine for normal sign work and this is what your printer will print resolution wise regardless of how many ink dots it lays down in that inch.
As I said before working at full size at 100dpi will give the same file size as working at 1/4 size at 400 dpi. So why add a margin for error when calculating, just do it at full size.

[John Wilson]

I find that in photoshop when designing at full size some text doesn’t work fully….ie when i enlarge it then it just disappears hence designing it at less size but higher resolution but i’m not entirely sure if im doing the right thing

[Stuart John Halliday]

John,

Always try to place image element into illustrator as EPS and overlay text elements. The whole file can then be saved as an eps and placed into your RIP.

The text will then still be vector based printing to resolution of printer settings avoiding pixelated edges.

I believe this can be done direct from Photoshop with text layers.

[OwenTaylor]

It all depends on the design.

Anything that is vector based, keep vector based. Why convert this to a raster based file? For images it really depends on the physical size and application. Eg an image on a sign or banner that will be effective from a distance of over 2m never needs to be printed at 300dpi.

I have to disagree with Phil Craddock about jpegs being for web use only. A high quality jpeg at 300dpi is suitable for most publishing/print jobs. Any file that’s lifted from the internet will be rgb at 72ppi, it’s not correct to say that all jpegs are rgb unless you change them – photoshop only does what you tell it to do.

I always manually define my document properties in photoshop before creating or exporting any documents. You can set the compression quality of any jpeg being exported from photoshop.