[Scribus] photo quality

[Craig Bradney]

On Sat, 2004-06-26 at 02:10, Gregory Pittman wrote:
> Chris Smith wrote:
> 
> >Hello,
> >
> >Are there certain methods which consistently provide the best possible photo 
> >quality output from a Scribus page?
> >For example, should one avoid having Scribus resize the photo on the fly by 
> >using one that actually fits the frame? Will a tiff work better than a jpeg?
> >Basically most photos I use will be jpegs from a digital camera that get 
> >drastically reduced in size and I'm wondering what are some of the better 
> >ways to handle the process. Also are there certain techniques that work best 
> >for photo reduction for print purposes.
> >  
> >
> I use jpeg a lot since that's how I have my camera set up to keep file
> sizes manageable.  What you will want to do is keep them big and let
> Scribus reduce them internally -- i.e., don't reduce the dpi with an
> external program.  Also, as has been stated, every time you save an
> image from an image program, jpegs lose quality; on the other hand
> simply copying and moving the files doesn't.  Use Scribus to shrink and
> select the part of the picture you want. If you need to do some image
> manipulation, then switch to tiff or crank the quality up on the jpeg,
> and keep your original file intact -- work with a copy.  It might
> happen, but it would probably be rare when you might truly need tiff as
> opposed to jpeg -- you would have to be printing with a device or
> professional print shop that has a really high dpi.  Monitor resolutions
> are nowhere near print quality so unfortunately you can't use the screen
> to make these judgments.
> 
> Greg
> 

Having read all that from everyone.. I'll contradict the lot of you and
general DTP advice. (snigger snigger).. /me watches all the DTP pros
turn away in disgust.

I get large resolution images from Renault press service as I do the a
car club magazine for Australia. Some of you might of seen it. One
screenshot is use on the Qt Cool Apps page. 

These photos I get are usually a few mb large and up to 3000+ pixels
wide, sometimes at 300DPI. As I live in Luxembourg now, I have to send
the PDF from Scribus to the printers in Sydney so the size cant be too
big. I resize in Gimp to the frame size I want and make sure DPI is at
300. Because the images are so large originally I still get excellent
printed image quality after resaving as JPG. Sometimes I use PNG..
rarely use TIFF. 

Even Peter recognises these images turn out well as I know he has tested
every Scribus produced magazine I have done with PitStop and on the
Fiery he has access to.

But I like to break the mould a little.. no need to be normal all the
time :) Its good to keep the printers on their toes. Dont read this as a
"use JPG, use JPG" email.. but given the right source images with high
resolution, it is still possible to get them to come out ok.

Craig
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