Best format for images in Indesign/Quark

[Deefadog]

Hi all, Just found this place, just what i need :)

So first quick question;

What is the best format to save your images for print, i have always used EPS with Jpeg compression at full But another designer always saves his as PSD's.

Thanks

[Two-Toe Tom]

welcome to the forum! :)

jpeg is a lossy format, but its hard to tell at maximum quality, especially for photos. if you keep on opening and resaving, the compression artifacts do add up tho. tiff and psd are lossless, so it's probably best to save as those formats.

[DesignVHL]

i Think that eps w/ jpeg compression is only for thumbnail views...what they are doing as an EPS would work and print fine...just make sure your in CMYK. Industry standard for print work requires images be 300DPI CMYK TIFF or EPS...however w/ ID I suppose you can now use PSD files if you wanted to. I still use Tiffs though.

[Deefadog]

Cheers, I guess the jpeg compression is a bad habit from the days when we had the Syquest disks and I produced rather big jobs LoL.

btw love your sig - I just hate it when i here that LoL

[DesignVHL]

AHHHH Syquest! Brings back the old school days for sure!! I think i still have some - no drive though to read em...

Yeah I wouldn't go w/ jpeg compression....unless it is Just for Preview/thumbnail view....and also lately i've been doing Postscript 3 instead of 2....my printer suggested that.

[steve2112]

I work exclusively with indesign and i use .psd and .ai unless the customer supplied other formats. Even then if i edit anythings it gets saved to .psd or .ai. If your printer can't handle these files or are scared to I would consider going to a new printer. EPS are very outdated and mainly were used because quark could support them and nothing else back in the day. But they still have there flaws. I usally package my indesign documents and send a finished pdf for them to use. Depends on the client though sometimes just a pdf.


steve

[DesignVHL]

printers need to have updated software though to work w/ psd and ai files i believe and rip a bit differently (based on what I have been told)....so I still go w/ the old eps...it def. depends on the printer, project, and client though. Some printers can't get the PSD or AI to properly rip.

[PrintDriver]

Always ask the printer. I have fully updated print vendors who insist on eps files rather than ai and eps or tif files instead of psd. It's not because they can't open InD files with linked psd or ai files, some rips just don't support them. Especially in large format and especially if the file is being scaled up.
I imagine the rip issue is true even with regular print vendors. That one reason alone is not enough to dump a print vendor.

[Deefadog]

I always output to pdf, but the rubish system we work with at the moment is that i have to collect each image each time even though it's used in several jobs! So the jpeg compression saves a hell of alot of space!

Thanks for the info anyways, always good to know the up to date ways :)

Well i have been a slave to the Windows for the last 7 years :( But new job next month with a top G5 5 dual waiting for me :D . I learnt Mac os before i ever new about windows so it really good to go back!

[SpugNothuson]

Its not much of an issue these days but an eps with jpeg compression on some platforms can result in a failure to print in CMYK format, only comes out as greyscale.

I have 2 file types for images that I use for going to print, flattened tif and eps. This can mean that I'm working with hellishly large files but I know how they're going to react when it hits the printers.

And thanks for the blast from the past Deefa, I've not heard the term Syquest in years, I might go and crack out the 5 1/4 inch floppy disks in a minute for my BBC. I miss my BBC (best computer I ever had). :(

[Deefadog]

Thanks, I never knew there could some issued with it, thanks for the heads up, i have never had a problem before though, anyway best get on with my last job for my current company before i leave :)