Bosses, ppi and compression issues

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

01/31/2013 04:17:58 PM · #1

At work, I sometimes have to create an email signature for others to use. It involves a photo, a logo and text.
The boss wants me to create it at "300 dpi because then it looks better after it is imported into Outlook"

The other boss just complained about it, saying:
"this is incredibly blurry on my copy, even when I open it in photoshop
- can you increase the resolution?"

This is how I understand it all, please correct me if I am wrong:

The file is at 300dpi (as per instructions)and looks perfectly wonderful until I embed it into an email, at which point Outlook attacks it and yes, it doesn't look anywhere near as good.

I am under the impression that:
1) anything above 72 ppi (not dpi) is overkill for something to be displayed on a screen and won't make any difference.
2) Outlook munches it up and there is nothing I can do to improve that.

Could someone please set me straight or tell me how to explain it to them?

Strikeslip

Canon EOS-5D

01/31/2013 04:34:19 PM · #2

Just throw your coffee across the room and storm out of the office. Take the next few days off and then return as if nothing had happened.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

01/31/2013 04:41:36 PM · #3

DPI is only relevant as relates to output size -- exactly the same 300-pixel file will print 1" wide at 300 dpi on a printer, and display a little over 4" wide on a 72dpi monitor at 100% ...

If it's getting blurry when placed into an email file, check the mail program's options to make sure it isn't automatically either resampling the image, or/and increasing the compression/lowering filesize and quality when importing the picture. Also make sure what's the preferred file format for import (JPEG, TIFF, BMP, GIF, etc.) -- some formats may work better than others.

01/31/2013 04:54:36 PM · #4

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Thanks General, it is fixed now.

When I was originally told to do 300dpi, I tried to suggest that it may better if Outlook had to do LESS compressing, not more, but she didn't want to hear about it. So I just mentally shrugged my shoulders and left it at that.

Now that the other one complained, I went in search of an Outlook help file (since there was no setting anywhere to change anything about importing images). I found the suggestion to prepare images at 96dpi and it made a huge difference. Heck, I hate being right ;-)

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

01/31/2013 05:00:19 PM · #5

Yay! You might want to print out a screen-shot of that help page ...

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

01/31/2013 07:48:24 PM · #6

Ugh.....
So I presented both versions and she agreed that the 96 dpi (which really should read PPI) looks better.

5 minutes later I get another email... wanting to know if it would be better if I saved it as PDF instead of jpg.

I explained that I save the original in its full glory as a PSD file and that the damage occurs because of the compression in Outlook, nothing to do with my original file.

She comes back with: PDF???????

I explain about PSD vs PDF vs JPG, but she still isn't convinced *sigh*

Ugh.

Dr.Confuser

Nikon D800

01/31/2013 08:01:03 PM · #7

Originally posted by Beetle:

Time for a new boss not a new format or dpi!

Message edited by author 2013-01-31 20:01:24.

DrAchoo

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5

01/31/2013 08:04:37 PM · #8

Is the problem limited to the logo and text versus the picture? Sometimes with rasterizing it matters what the DPI was when you created it (ie. when another program resizes the rasterized portion looks even worse). I'm talking a little above my head, but I've seen this be the case before.

bhuge

Canon EOS-550D Rebel T2i

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

01/31/2013 08:08:01 PM · #9

I think you should go with an animated GIF. They are all the rage.

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

01/31/2013 08:09:28 PM · #10

From your .PSD file, use SaveAsCopy and make copies in all the formats, then send them all to her in a ZIP file -- tell her to use whichever she finds works best. For reference, I think these are the most common formats ...

.TIF or .TIFF -- Tagged Image File Format (probably the most versatile -- supports color, grayscale, or bitmap; option to save with LZW/lossless compression)
.JPG or .JPEG -- Joint Photographic Experts Group (color or grayscale, variable compression)
.EPS -- Encapsulated PostScript (can contain both vector and raster art, mostly used in print media)
.PDF -- Portable Document Format (essentially EPS files with a preview which you can see with the free reader)
.BMP -- Windows-based bitmap format (probably what you get if you use the "print screen" option to capture what's on your monitor)
.GIF -- CompuServe Graphic Interchange Format (limited to Indexed Color mode (256 colors), but supports animations)

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

01/31/2013 08:10:11 PM · #11

Originally posted by bhuge:

I think you should go with an animated GIF. They are all the rage.

You can make it literally "spell it out for her" ... ;-)

Strikeslip

Canon EOS-5D

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

01/31/2013 09:05:46 PM · #12

Originally posted by Strikeslip:

Just throw your coffee across the room and storm out of the office. Take the next few days off and then return as if nothing had happened.

Hello!?!?!?

Time to admit... I was right all along.

Mike

Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD Canon Mount

01/31/2013 09:21:55 PM · #13

why dont you use adobe illustrator (or equivalent) and create a vector graphic, they hold a nice clean resolution no matter how you scale it.

skewsme

Canon EOS-6D

Canon EF 200mm f/2.8 L II USM Lens

01/31/2013 09:23:13 PM · #14

save it as a PDFU

pamb

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM II

01/31/2013 09:23:52 PM · #15

Originally posted by skewsme:

save it as a PDFU

LOL!!!