Chapters 4 & 5

In summary of chapter 4 the history of pixels are covered, scaling and formatting an image to print are discussed, and the differences between RGB and CMYK are touched upon as well. Chapter 5 discusses vectors and their various uses and formats. All of this of course is necessary in the final printed product.

Now to go in depth into each chapter. First I'll talk a little about pixels. Pixels in their truest form are a multitude of tiny dots that when placed side by side with each other, formulate an image or video recording. In terms of how the images are saved, most often the images are a toss up between either JPG or RAW files. JPG pictures are very generic RGB-laid files that are compressed and can be created with a simple point and shoot camera. Most digital cameras today save their image files as RAW files: files that are far less compressed than JPG and are much easier to save in different formats rather than JPG. The RAW files though much more flexible than JPG, can also be quite large and take up large amounts of memory on the camera's card or computers in general. The chapter also discusses the resolution of images in ppi, which is the standard abbreviation for pixels per inch. This is different than dpi (dots per inch) because ppi is the pre-printed form of the image where as the dpi is the post-print. Other subjects touched upon in the chapter are Bitmap images and cropping/rotating images. The former, is a file format that is used to store images. Standard versions of bitmaps include: JPG, GIF (Graphic Interchange Format), TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), and PNG (Portable Network Graphics). Bitmaps are in black and white pixels that can produce a large or small file of a clear, high res. image. The latter (cropping and rotating) are part of the images initial touch ups. Cropping an image most often occurs when you first scan or when you're saving the image. When rotating the image, the safest rotation is 90 degrees. This is safest rotation because too many odd rotations to an image can soften the detail, hurting the look of the overall picture.
Towards the end of chapter 4, a breakdown between good printable file formats and bad printable file formats were compared. According to Claudia McCue in her Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications book, the best types of formats for print are TIFFs and EPS (encapsulated PostScript) with PDF sometimes being okay, depending on the file.  Certain formats NOT beneficial to print are generally PNG, GIF and, JPEG (Joint Photograph Experts Group). This is because most of these formats exceed the amount of colors provided by the printer.
Lastly, chapter 4 talks about the transparency tip and its importance. The transparency tip is mainly a result of certain software's ability to blend modes in the Photoshop file. To ensure the blend goes smoothly, create the file how you want it in InDesign or Adobe Illustrator for optimal image efficiency.

In summary of chapter 5, a breakdown of vector graphics and file formats happens, as well as detailing ways to embed fonts, outline text and simplify paths. In starting, vectors are pixel-free images that can be scaled to any size without sacrificing image clarity. Originally the file format for vectors was EPS but has since become more popularly used in Adobe InDesign. When saving the vector, its better to save it as an illustrator file rather than EPS, as an illustrator file is usable for software such as InDesign. Vector formats unable to print are Raster formats, Windows Metafile Formats (WMFs), and Enhanced Metafile Formats (EMFs).  To embed a file, you can use EPS or AI to transfer into other programs, meaning the files are available to be opened and print. To embed the font of the file, these fonts should be readily available on your system beforehand. All fonts use "hinting" as a means of expressing the kind of data stored in the file as well. If outlining the text of your file, this will eliminate the hinting but will also lower the resolution of the image and is encouraged unless the file needs to be digitally printed. To simplify the paths of the image in InDesign, use your pen tool sparingly so as to give it a smoother effect. This smoothness will also help in the transition process to InDesign.

That concludes my summaries of chapters 4 and 5! Have a high res day!