Resizing a PP image to 300dpi for printing in a book with Adobe Indesign

[ERU]

I'm making an A5 Version (148 x 210) guidebook with Adobe Indesign and have now come to the bit where I need to add photos and topos. Some of my photos/images are from a point and shoot. It's also worth noting i'm on a steep learning curve here ...

Would I be right in thinking I need to only do the following?

1. Load up image/photo in Adobe Photoshop CS5.
2. Image > Image Size.
3. Uncheck the 'Resample Image' tick box at the bottom.
4. Change to 300 pixels/inch. Click ok.
5. File > Save As > JPEG (Quality 10)

5. Open my Adobe Indesign document.
6. Drag and drop the JPEG onto the correct page in my book.
7. Resize the image with the corner toolbars to fit the image onto the page as required. Bit worried I might need to make the image/photo the right size for the A5 page in PP here!
8. Right click the image > Fitting > Fill Frame Proportionally.
9. As the image might look a bit fuzzy ----> Right click the image > Display Performance > High Quality Display.

 

[Chappers]

You might not need to resize if the image is large enough. You may simply need to go to step 5 and start from there. An image straight from a D40 and most modern P&S cameras would have more than enough resolution for an A5 page. The only reason you may need to visit Photoshop is if you need to change the crop.

 

[ERU]

Ah right. I've been advised by a few people to make absolutely sure they are at least 300dpi, including a previous author who had terrible results for going in at a lower dpi. So a little confused now if lower than 300dpi is ok? Here is what was said:

Photo DPI when ready for printing

Just to share a few problems i've encounterd after meeting with the pinters for the winter guide. As well as width and height; photos need to be sized at 300 DPI. With this finer resolution any lines you draw on will be less likely to pixellate (there are couple of horrible examples of pixellation in the last guide where lines were drawn on 72 or 96 DPI images and you can see the ‘steps&#8217. Whatever images you send to the printer will need to be at this resolution anyway for the printing process ...

I am saving the final images, to send to the printer, as a 300 DPI .TIFF because that’s the resolution that the printing processes work to. You’ll find that working at 300 DPI on screen will mean you see what you are going to get. Computer resolution and print resolution are different. Just as well to know in advance.

I'm also taking note that I should be saving at the highest .jpeg setting or alternatively shoot for a .tiff or .png? Also just to clarify ... i'm originally shooting the photos and have to then add some lines to them using Abode Illustrator. A lot of the files are actually .NEF (i.e. RAW files) so I can save them as anything I like. I guess .png or .tiff would be better than .jpeg?

~I also have a load of scanned slides that I assume might be an idea to add some gain to and try to achieve 300 dpi too?

 

[Chappers]

If you are using Photoshop or something similar to process your NEF files you can specify the final output dpi in most software so you could do that. I wouldn't save them a png. high quality jpeg is more than good enough.

Check the quality of scans. The scans should give you the required pixel dimensions at 300 dpi or near enough from the original scan. Just upsizing to hit the 300 dpi limit may not give you the final quality you need