Photo/ Image Resolution Guidelines

Ever find yourself the point person for a huge photo project at work or the person in the family
who takes on a family photo project? Here are a few general guidelines for gathering high quality
images from many different sources/ people

If you want high quality images tell everyone to send you high quality unaltered images
Be ready to follow-up with phone calls if they don't understand or don't read your e-mail. Tell them:
1.        Always send the original photo as an e-mail attachment. Do NOT send images as a
PowerPoint presentation.
2.        Do not alter the photo in any way
3.        Do not resize the photo.
4.        If you have really big files you can e-mail them to me one at a time. Also, send me a
separate e-mail informing me you are sending them by e-mail(s) so that if they do not arrive in my
in-box I know to contact you.
5.        If in doubt, please call me and we can talk about your photos and how best to send them.
6.        If you have a lot of photos you can send me them on a CD-ROM. Again, please let me
know that you are sending them so I can look for them in the mail.
7.        If you are taking pictures for me please have your digital camera set at the highest quality
image size you can take. The higher the picture size in your camera means fewer pictures you can
take on your memory card.
8.        Set 2 deadlines, one deadline to have all photos/ images gathered from all sources and the
other is your  deadline to have the project complete. Think about giving a reasonable deadline to
gather images. If you give people too much time they forget, if you don't give them enough time
they won't do it. Don't tell anyone your project completed deadline because they will work up to
your deadline and there will not be enough time for you to put together your project. Also, don't
hesitate to follow-up with phone calls or e-mail to check in with people to see how they are
handling the deadline.

If you are scanning images for a project here are a few basic guidelines to do that:
1.        Take the scanner off of automatic, put it on manual
2.        Scan at 800 dpi (dots per inch or resolution) or higher
3.        Negatives and slides should be scanned at 1200 dpi
4.        Line or graphic logo should be scanned at 1200 dpi
5.        Remember, you can always size down later, but keep your high resolution scans

Keep this in mind if you hire someone to create a logo for you or if you create one
yourself :
If you hire someone to create a graphic image for you they must give you the copyright/ ownership
of the image. Have this in the contract

Creating the images in the correct file types
Regardless of whether you are working on a logo image for yourself or have hired someone or
someone is creating an image for you, these are the image/ file types you need to end up with. If
you have these make a back-up on a CD-ROM and keep it safe.
1.        1 image as a PhotoShop (PSD) file, with layers, working image, once image has been
created. (This working image allows you to easily make changes to the image if you decide to
make changes to the original or alter it in any form later.)
2.        1 image at 1200 dpi in color in TIFF format (for print)
3.        1 image at 1200 dpi in black and white in TIFF format (for print)
4.        1 image at 72 dpi in color and in JPEG format (for Web)
5.        1 image at 72 dpi in black and white in JPEG format (for Web)

Basic resolution rules for the Web and print
Print at 300 dpi or higher (higher is always better)--if your image is under 300 dpi (resolution) your
image may not look great when printed

For the Web or e-mail your resolution is 72 dpi
Call us at (703) 360-8609 or e-mail micha@digitaltiff.com
Serving Northern Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C.
Home        Contact       Professional Affiliations   Site Map       Terms and Conditions and Privacy Statement

© 2005-2009 Restore My Old Photo   
Back to main page
Take a Computer Class!
Request more
information here
(online request and
comment form)