Saving images for CD portfolio

[Karen_Seeland@adobeforums.com]

I'm putting together an array of illustrations for my portfolio on CD using Photoshop7. What is the most universal format to save them in to send to anyone on the planet? pdf? jpgs? tiffs? Some seem to be opening up looking too small on my monitor and thereby losing detail. WHERE am I going wrong? I don't want the viewer to have to enlarge them to view properly! Help!

[Scott_Weichert@adobeforums.com]

jpg. Everyone has a web browser

You can't really control what the viewers monitor resolution is set at. On a 800x600 monitor 600x600 pixels would be big, covering almost the entire screen. But on a 1024x768 monitor it would be a good size, not too big not too large. On 1280x1024 it may be too small.

Rather than just throwing images on a CD I would reccomend that you create a presentation for them. Do not ask any potential emplyer or client to wade through a file list of images. Give then a well designed user interface that is easy to understand and they can just watch, or click through. In which case, setting up a self-contained Flash file or Director file may be benefical. Even a Quicktime movie might work well. If you dont' know any of the multimedia application, create a simple web gallery and burn that to CD.

[Scott_Falkner@adobeforums.com]

Don't use JPEG if you are archiving. TIFF is a long-standing, and long-lasting format. Everything can read a TIFF file, and there's no risk of image degradation through compression, as there is with JPEG.

Also, if the images are for screen view only, then use RGB. If they are intended to be printed, then use CMYK.

[Karen_Seeland@adobeforums.com]

THANKS so much for your help!

[Neil_Keller@adobeforums.com]

Another choice is to create a multipage PDF. Everyone has or can download Adobe reader, and you have control of the content and its display and printing. You can also provide links in a PDF (much like within a Website). You can also give the file privileges to allow or not allow printing or copying of text, etc. It is also easy to email (unless the file size is large).

Scott's idea of using Photoshop's is also a good approach, but you have more than one file component to keep track of.

Neil

[Karen_Seeland@adobeforums.com]

Thanks again! Actually pdf's were my original thought but the file size on some of the illustrations were too large. I alienated and old friend because 1 image took an hour to open after I e-mailed it to him...ooops! Thanks again for your expertise!

[Neil_Keller@adobeforums.com]

Karen,

If you need PDFs for onscreen or other low-res uses (such as typical portfolio use), make sure that you aren't creating higher resolution PDFs (for print or press). That will significantly cut down on the PDF file size. Also, keep your individual images relatively small (at 72 ppi), not full screen size.

Neil