GCU Forum - Image quality

Renee_256728 GCU Newbies Posts: 27	Image quality Aug 22^nd, 2014, 6:37am Most of my cards are registering as poor quality. I don't know how to make them best quality. Where can I find information that will guide me with this? Thank you.
Back to top	Dollwumps Cards: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/dollwumpscards IP Logged

LD_131511 Full Member artist Posts: 144	Re: Image quality Reply #1 - Aug 22^nd, 2014, 7:22am What program did you make it in?
Back to top	Blue Girl Graphics Mercado: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/elledeegee IP Logged

Tracie_152843 Gold Member artist Posts: 573	Re: Image quality Reply #2 - Aug 22^nd, 2014, 8:13am Check your image size and dpi. 5x7 inches or 1500 x 2100 pixels and 300 dpi or pixels per inch works great.
Back to top	Photography TK Designs: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/PhotographyTKDesigns IP Logged

Doreen_137017 Gold Member artist Posts: 5328	Re: Image quality Reply #3 - Aug 22^nd, 2014, 8:22am Hi Renee, This blog post and the links within the post will help you understand how to make improvements, the right way, on your end. Good luck!
Back to top	Salon of Art: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/SalonOfArt IP Logged

Renee_256728 GCU Newbies Posts: 27	Re: Image quality Reply #4 - Aug 22^nd, 2014, 11:41am The cards that I have a problem with I have made in Illustrator. Then I take them into PhotoShop, and make them a jpeg. The largest size I am able to save them is about 230 dpi. Is there something I could do differently here?
Back to top	Dollwumps Cards: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/dollwumpscards IP Logged

LD_131511

Full Member
artist

Posts: 144

Re: Image quality
Reply #5 - Aug 22^nd, 2014, 3:42pm

Quote from Renee_256728 on Aug 22^nd, 2014, 11:41am:

The cards that I have a problem with I have made in Illustrator. Then I take them into PhotoShop, and make them a jpeg. The largest size I am able to save them is about 230 dpi. Is there something I could do differently here?

I don't know enough about Illustrator to say for certain but I think you can "export" your file from there as a JPG and that might help fix your issue.

Back to top

Blue Girl Graphics Mercado:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/elledeegee

IP Logged

Renee_256728 GCU Newbies Posts: 27	Re: Image quality Reply #6 - Aug 22^nd, 2014, 6:50pm Doreen, Maybe I'm not very savvy but how do I find the blog post you mention? Thanks.
Back to top	Dollwumps Cards: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/dollwumpscards IP Logged

Doreen_137017

Gold Member
artist

Posts: 5328

Re: Image quality
Reply #7 - Aug 22^nd, 2014, 7:06pm

Quote from Renee_256728 on Aug 22^nd, 2014, 6:50pm:

Doreen, Maybe I'm not very savvy but how do I find the blog post you mention? Thanks.

WOW ... Sorry Renee! Grin

I did not mean for you to be a detective! I fully intended to put the link in that post! Here ya go ...

http://gcucommunity.com/2013/07/29/dash-of-inspiration-image-quality-resolution/

You may also try this ... rather than saving as a JPG, try saving as a PNG which is a file format which does not use compression.

In Photoshop, when you say you save it to a JPG, what are the settings? In other words, jpgs for upload like this need to be saved at the highest level (12).

Hopefully one of these things will help!

Back to top

Salon of Art:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/SalonOfArt

IP Logged

Ron_196382

Full Member

Posts: 101

Re: Image quality
Reply #8 - Aug 23^rd, 2014, 9:58am

Hi Renee,
I create all my cards in Illustrator then take into Photoshop. Here's my steps.
1. Create artwork in CMYK mode in Illustrator
2. Save as Adobe Illustrator (ai) file. Make sure "Create PDF Compatible file" is checked.
3. OPEN the file through Photoshop (don't copy and paste). You'll get a dialogue box where you can enter file specs.
The "Crop to" should be set to: Trim Box.
Image size should read 5"x7"
Mode set to: CMYK
Resolution set to 300
Make sure Anti-aliased is checked.
4. In Photoshop flatten the image, make color or contrast tweaks if necessary while in CMYK mode then convert to RGB.
5. Save file as JPG with image quality at 12 and format options: Baseline (standard)
I never embed a color profile, but do whats been working for you.
This formula creates a near perfect match to my Illustrator file.

Back to top

Creative Greetings:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/ronmagnes

IP Logged

Renee_256728

GCU Newbies

Posts: 27

Re: Image quality
Reply #9 - Aug 24^th, 2014, 7:36am

Thank you for all the suggestions that several of you artists have sent me regarding my image quality. I have tried each one, many I had been doing, to no change in registering image quality.

Ron, thank you for your detailed direction on how to save my images. I did try the things you suggested that I had not been doing. The one suggestion I could not follow was "Create PDF Compatible file". I could not find a place to check that. It did not show up when I did "Save as" in Illustrator. Another consideration, if you have any thoughts on this, is that I am working in the CS2 version of Illustrator. Might that make a difference?

Thank you Doreen for the link to information about getting good image quality. When I view my image at 100% there are no jaggies. So it seems to be just fine but still registers as poor quality.

Any other thoughts anyone has would certainly be appreciated. Thanks!

Back to top

Dollwumps Cards:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/dollwumpscards

IP Logged

Angela_151919 Gold Member artist Posts: 552	Re: Image quality Reply #10 - Aug 24^th, 2014, 8:02am Hi Renee I make all my cards on Photoshop. I size them to 5" x 7" or 7" x 5" and 300 dpi resolution. Once I'm ready to save the card to my jpeg file. I save file as photoshop jpeg and when the box appears, I make sure I opt for 12 best resolution. Once it's saved as that, I've never had any quality issues with GCU. Good luck.
Back to top	Chez Inkflo: http://artist.greetingcarduniverse.com/chezinkflo IP Logged

Renee_256728 GCU Newbies Posts: 27	Re: Image quality Reply #11 - Aug 24^th, 2014, 10:03am Thank you, Angela. I have tried all of these suggestions with the same result. I'll need to look further. I do appreciate all the help offered.
Back to top	Dollwumps Cards: http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/dollwumpscards IP Logged