Measurements!
The first thing you have to do is work out how big the image will have to be. It’s no good getting a great image that’s too small - you can’t make a small image bigger without losing quality. (I suppose an exception would be if you were wanting to create some graphical effect that would disguise the ‘mistake’ but you need to be able to show that you understand sizes for this task.)
An A4 sheet measures about 30cm wide by 21cm high. Or about 12 inches by 8½ inches. To allow for printers that might not print to the edges, we’ll use 11 inches by 8 inches.
A printer will want at least 300 dots per inch resolution. The more dots the closer together they’ll be and the sharper the image will appear. So there’s some maths to do:
To cover 11 inches, you need 11 x 300 dots. That’s 3300 dots. Now, technically, dots aren’t exactly the same as pixels but pixels will do just fine for this type of task. So that’s an image at least 3300 pixels wide that you need.
Just to be on the safe side, you should check the height too. To cover 8 inches you’ll need 2400 pixels.
So now you can start looking for an image, knowing that if it measures more than 3300 x 2400 it should be suitable. (Obviously, if you intend to use only part of an image then the original will have to be bigger.)
Where will you find a suitable image?
Remember that this is for commercial use so you can’t take any chances with the first one you find on a normal Google search. You’ll need to use either Google’s advanced image search tools and set the requirements to licensed for commercial use or use another gallery like morguefile, stockxchange or others where license terms are shownso you have evidence it’s OK to use it.
What do you want an image of?
The businesses are related to flowers and fast modern cars so either a flower or a sports car seem sensible choices. But it doesn’t have to be. You may find that you can edit something different to give either the impression of speed, electricity and technology in one case, or illustrate a Valentines theme another way. The choice is yours (although your ‘client’ will have the final word on what you proceed with!)
Editing
First of all save the original somewhere. then save it again with a different name and use that copy for the edits. Then if it all goes horribly wrong you can start afresh.
Size
The actual image you’ve found will almost certainly be the wrong size so change that. In Serif PhotoPlus that’s quite simple - Image | Resize (making sure you keep the ratio or the image will be distorted). Change the resolution first to 300dpi and then the width to 3300 pixels.
Is the height now more than 2400 pixels? It probably will be as many images are in a 4:3 ratio but not all so check. If the height is less than 2400 pixels you’ll need to set the height to that figure instead.
Either way, you’ll still have an image that is too wide or too tall. So another edit is needed to cut some of it off. Your choice - use crop tools to achieve the required size.
A better way to get the right size would be to crop the original size image down to dimensions that are proportionate to what you require. For example, a rectangle 4400 x 3200 would work. Then you could resize either the height or the width and it would give you 3300 x 2400. That does require some calculations, though, and a bit more thought - so if you can’t figure that out stick to the first method.
Save this file regularly (in whatever format the software uses).
More edits
The task needs you to make changes to the appearance of the image now. There is a huge range of choices so it may be a good idea to try several variations. Just save each with a separate file name.
File types
Once you’ve decided on one you need 3 versions: the (new) original, a PDF and a version for the web. You’ve got the first one - that’ll be something like image.spp or image.psd.
Next, the PDF. You should simply be able to Save as > PDF and the application will do the rest. Add some crop marks and a file name in the PDF print options if you can. That’ll be image.pdf
Now for the web version. First, 3300 is too wide for the web! The task says between 1000 and 1200 pixels wide so some further changes are required. It may be sensible (but not essential if you know what you’re doing) to save the file again with a different name before these. Something like image-web.spp or whatever would be a good name.
For the web, resolution above 100 is pointless as monitors don’t show any more than 96dpi or, in most cases, only 72dpi at best! So if you were to use Image | Resize again and change the resolution to 100dpi you’ll find that the dimensions will change to 1200 pixels wide - which is what you want. The height will also be OK too.
Then use File | Export Optimiser (or similar) to transfer the image to another file type. The choice will be between .jpg (or.jpeg) .gif and .png Ignore anything else you’re offered. For each file type Serif PhotoPlus displays what the image will look like and its new file size in kb. You have to get your file size down to less than 120kb. For each file type there will be quality settings - either a sliding scale or to choose a number of colours to use.
Try out various settings. You’re looking for the best combination of good quality and least file size within the 120kb limit. You’ll probably find a lower .jpg setting will give the best compromise but it’s worth keeping screen prints (or saving separate files) of a range of settings to provide evidence for other criteria you can write about later.
Save the chosen file as image-web.jpg or whatever and that’s the practical part of the task done.
In order to present the work you’ve done, and illustrate notes about how you’ve done it in your portfolio, it’s a good idea to place the amended original, the PDF and the web version(s) in one folder. You can then take a screen print displaying the file sizes and types easily for comparison. The original (pre-edit) file can be included but it’s not essential.
This task provides an opportunity to meet these criteria:
P2 explain how different types of graphic images relate to file formats
P3 demonstrate the use of editing tools to edit and manipulate images
M2 justify the software, tools, file format, image resolution and colour depth used for creating graphic images.
Andrew Hill September 2010
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