Hi All,
Sorry to post this topic here, but I guess this Blueprint donation section is the most read here, so at least I can have Your attention then.
( You moderators can transfer it to another area of course )
Let me answer some questions that were posted here before and also give some guidelines for Blueprint donators.
- SCANNING
If You SCAN Your prints Yourself, always use GRAYSCALE ( instead of BLACK AND WHITE or LINE ART ), if Your images are in so called Black and White ( meaning NON- colored images )
Scanning them as Black and White ( 1bit ) destroys a lot of fine detail and will give You blocky lines.
So, scan them using grayscale and at 300ppi, what will mostly be more than adequate.
Color images should - of course - be scanned in color, unless color isn' t needed.
DON' t save as JPEG right now, use TIFF instead ( or PSD or BMP if nothing else available )
If You scanned directly into Your image manipulating app, You can tweak it now. If scanned outside, import the TIFF file You saved from the scanner.
- IMAGE MANIPULATION
First, crop all unwanted borders out.
Then use the tools You have at hand to optimize the image, like " Brightness " or " Levels " settings. See image below.
Then, if working on a grayscale image, You can lower the amount of colors. Mostly, 16 colors ( 4bit ) will do for grayscale line- drawings.
If You' re satisfied with the result, change the resolution to 72ppi.
Normally, this will not change Your image' s quality.
However, depending on Your app, it can look a lot bigger on screen - or it may appear as nothing happens at all...
Some applications WILL scale Your image smaller, so if that happens, just leave it at 300ppi.
Check different apps if You like ( export as a jpeg or gif and open it in Your browser - like IE or Mozilla or something to check )
Line drawings - like most images posted here - can be saved as 16 color GIF files.
Saving as JPEG will mostly end up with a file that is much bigger, unless You used a low quality setting, resulting in blurry lines.
As an example, I used an image that was posted here before - excellent picture BTW - but it was just too enormous: 1.6MB ...
As can be seen in the picture below, using the steps as explained above, it became ... errr .... slightly smaller: 96Kb ...
The third image shows that there isn' t a trace of quality loss, if done properly.
BTW, the image used was probably created from a vector- line drawing. When exported as a bitmap - what requires rendering the drawing - I guess Antialiasing was set to " off " - resulting in some pretty ugly pixelation of the lines.
Pity, because this could have been the " Blueprint of the Year " if done right... :cry:
Peter
Made it an announcement
NightEye
Sorry to post this topic here, but I guess this Blueprint donation section is the most read here, so at least I can have Your attention then.
( You moderators can transfer it to another area of course )
Let me answer some questions that were posted here before and also give some guidelines for Blueprint donators.
- SCANNING
If You SCAN Your prints Yourself, always use GRAYSCALE ( instead of BLACK AND WHITE or LINE ART ), if Your images are in so called Black and White ( meaning NON- colored images )
Scanning them as Black and White ( 1bit ) destroys a lot of fine detail and will give You blocky lines.
So, scan them using grayscale and at 300ppi, what will mostly be more than adequate.
Color images should - of course - be scanned in color, unless color isn' t needed.
DON' t save as JPEG right now, use TIFF instead ( or PSD or BMP if nothing else available )
If You scanned directly into Your image manipulating app, You can tweak it now. If scanned outside, import the TIFF file You saved from the scanner.
- IMAGE MANIPULATION
First, crop all unwanted borders out.
Then use the tools You have at hand to optimize the image, like " Brightness " or " Levels " settings. See image below.
Then, if working on a grayscale image, You can lower the amount of colors. Mostly, 16 colors ( 4bit ) will do for grayscale line- drawings.
If You' re satisfied with the result, change the resolution to 72ppi.
Normally, this will not change Your image' s quality.
However, depending on Your app, it can look a lot bigger on screen - or it may appear as nothing happens at all...
Some applications WILL scale Your image smaller, so if that happens, just leave it at 300ppi.
Check different apps if You like ( export as a jpeg or gif and open it in Your browser - like IE or Mozilla or something to check )
Line drawings - like most images posted here - can be saved as 16 color GIF files.
Saving as JPEG will mostly end up with a file that is much bigger, unless You used a low quality setting, resulting in blurry lines.
As an example, I used an image that was posted here before - excellent picture BTW - but it was just too enormous: 1.6MB ...
As can be seen in the picture below, using the steps as explained above, it became ... errr .... slightly smaller: 96Kb ...
The third image shows that there isn' t a trace of quality loss, if done properly.
BTW, the image used was probably created from a vector- line drawing. When exported as a bitmap - what requires rendering the drawing - I guess Antialiasing was set to " off " - resulting in some pretty ugly pixelation of the lines.
Pity, because this could have been the " Blueprint of the Year " if done right... :cry:
Peter
Made it an announcement
NightEye
