what picture format best for first pdf then printing

ketanco

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i will insert pictures to my word document and then convert it to pdf and then send it to createspace for publishing

what file format is better to use when inserting pictures?

createspace wants 300 dpi at least for images.

i plan to organize the images first in ms publisher, by adding text near them and formatting photos or aliginng them etc, and then i will convert to jpg and import to word. do i make sense or what am i missing?
 

Laer Carroll

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The process you describe should work. I've done it much the same way on several books.

I first convert my color images to black and white since the cost of printing color is prohibitive. Then I increase the contrast as much as I can without erasing the distinction between different areas. That done, I increase the intensity quite a bit since the printed version of the image is duller than what you see onscreen. Finally I print up a proof copy to see how well the results were. I have to do this two or three times for a book to get what I want.

I use an inexpensive consumer version of Photoshop (PS Elements) which has most of the features of full Photoshop to do this. The exact path is Enhance -> Convert to Black and White. The popup screen gives you several choices of how to do this. I choose Scenic Landscapes first, then several others. After finding the best one for my images, I then tweak the result a bit.

You can get free software such as GIMP to process your images, but the how-to information for it and other free SW is not too well written and organized. You can save yourself an enormous amount of time and frustration by spending $70 on PsE and $30 on a good user guide. The following book I recommend has well over a hundred illustrated step-by-step guides to do everything you might want to do to your images.

You hate to spend money when self-pubbing a book? Want to get everything for free? It doesn't work that way. You will always spend SOMETHING, and time is the thing you have least of when trying to create a quality product which will bring people to buy your books and convince others to do the same.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014GP8XGM/?tag=absowrit-20

http://www.amazon.com/Photoshop-Elements-Digital-Photographers-Voices/dp/0134290895/