Ways to import a photograph in a book: full-size TIFF, downsized JPG, etc.

Hello all,

I hope this forum is the right place to ask this type of question. If it doesn’t belong here, do not hesitate to delete it and I’ll take it elsewhere.

I am working on a project of art book, a coffee-table book. To give you an idea, the page size is currently set at 250 mm wide (almost 10 inches) × 340 mm tall (13.3 inches). The basic photos I work with are uncompressed TIFF files of 7,500 × 5,200 pixels, which at the rate of 300 ppi, should be enough to cover a full spread when necessary. Each TIFF file “weighs” about 230–270 MB.

However, many times I will use the photos at sizes smaller than one page. My question is, in such a case, should I always Place the full-sized TIFF file anyway, and trim it down to the desired dimensions in InDesign, or do that work before in Photoshop and import (Place) only the smallest possible photo file, so as to avoid bloating my book document? Or does it not really matter after all, as the number of megabytes saved would be negligible?

Placing the full-sized file would provide more flexibility, like allowing me to enlarge the photo again if the layout of the page should change, but as it is going to be a photo-intensive book, I may need to trim down the overall size, even though I will create separate documents for chapter to be later assembled via the Book option.

Many thanks in advance for your advice. I will need the best quality photos, so I do not intend to go below 300 ppi, nor use JPEGs as I do not want any kind of compression.

Dominique