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Digital Photo Requirements

Digital photos for reproduction carry many of the same requirements as conventional photos/slides in that they should be well-composed, properly focused, and have good color values. Further, the subject matter must be technically accurate.

FPP can accept digital photos in any of the following formats, either for Macintosh or Windows computers. (Windows formats are in parentheses) The formats are listed in their order of preference.

  • JPEG (.jpg) – Joint Photographic Experts Group format (WIN/MAC)
  • TIFF (.tif) – Tagged Image File Format (WIN/MAC)
  • EPS (.eps) – Encapsulated PostScript (WIN/MAC)
  • PSD (.psd) – Photoshop native file format (WIN/MAC)
  • PCD (.pcd) – Kodak photo-CD (WIN/MAC)
  • (.bmp) – Windows bitmap format (not recommended)

In order to have good quality when the photo is printed in one of our manuals, it must be of sufficient resolution. We prefer to have a minimum of 300 pixels per inch resolution at the final size the photo is to be used. The absolute minimum usable resolution is 200 pixels per inch at the final size. Most digital cameras shoot at 72 ppi. Some of the most common resolutions are listed below:



Camera
Resolution		Size of image
at 72 ppi		Size of image
at 200 ppi		Size of image
at 300 ppi
640 x 4808.9” x 6.7”3.2” x 2.4”2.1” x 1.6”
1280 x 96017.8” x 13.3”6.4” x 4.8”4.3” x 3.2”
1472 x 110420.4” x 15.3”7.4” x 5.5”4.9” x 3.7”
1660 x 120023” x 16.7”8.3” x 6”5.5” x 4”
1760 x 116824.4” x 16.2”8.8” x 5.8”5.9” x 3.9”
2048 x 153628.4” x 21.3”10.2” x 7.7”6.8” x 5.1”

Shaded area represents resolutions/sizes which are usable.

NOTE: As you can see from the above chart, many of the less expensive digital cameras (which are usually lower resolution) cannot provide file sizes sufficient to allow us to use their photos in print. They are designed to produce shots for use on the computer, in e-mail or web sites. Most digital cameras are now described according to the size of file they produce. A 1 Megapixel camera produces a file whose width x height in pixels = over 1,000,000 pixels, a 2 Megapixel camera would thus produce a file over 2,000,000, etc. For practical purposes, it takes a 1.3 to 2 Megapixel camera to produce even a small photo that is suitable for use in print, and a 2.5 to 3 Megapixel camera would be much better.

How to Send Your Digital Photos

Photos should be sent to us on disk if at all possible. Our e-mail has a size filter which restricts the size of incoming messages, so it is only possible to e-mail one or two smaller photos at a time. We can accept files on Mac or PC disk, CD-ROM, or Win/Mac Zip Disks.