Calculating the resolution to print a JPEG poster in InDesign?

[Katherine25238449muqx]

Hi!  I recently took a test and I don't think I answered this question correctly.

I had to design a 22”x28” poster with an 1/8 bleed.  The directions said it will go to a web designer so save a low resolution JPEG with 1200px width.

So...I had no idea how to calculate what resolution I should export as, but online I found that if you want to print a 22”x28” and you want the resolution to be 300 PPI, then you multiply the inches by PPI amount (PPI is just the resolution, right?) and that gives you the pixel amount.  So, if the width of this poster is 22inches, then I'd take 1200 (the width of the final JPEG image) and divide by 22, right?  That gives me 55.  Should 55 be the resolution?  It seems awfully low!

I feel something is amiss.  Any help on this, or directing me to a tutorial or something on it, would be very much appreciated!!

Thank you so much!

Kathy

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

I think I would have exported the poster to PNG without bleed and down-res in Photoshop to 1200 pixels. As mentioned, web graphics have no PPI resolution, just x-number of pixels by y-number of pixels. Of course, any type would be practically impossible to read. Also, web graphics are usually output double size to accommodate uHD devices. 

I'm curious about this test. The question sounds as if it was written by someone with partial knowledge about images. 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I'm curious about this test. The question sounds as if it was written by someone with partial knowledge about images.

I have lost track of how many "evaluations" I have been asked to do, usually online and as part of an application process, that were so ineptly designed it was clear the owner or recruiter had no idea how this field works.

I suspect there is an airplane book out there full of "secrets" about how to hire creative talent cheap and giving these canned "tests" and "evaluations."

/editorialmodeoff

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[Katherine25238449muqx]

Haha, no, I'm afraid the mistakes lie with me -- I probably unknowingly misstated the question because I misunderstood it.  The guy who gave me the test has been a graphics designer himself for 15 years and is now Marketing Director 🙂

[Katherine25238449muqx]

Thank you!  Great recommendations.  (Do you usually find yourself working with multple programs -- e.g., InDesign first and then Photoshop?).

Re. your second point - nope, it's probably just how I rephrased it for this forum.  I'm the one with very dusty and partial knowledge about images. 🙂

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

(Do you usually find yourself working with multple programs -- e.g., InDesign first and then Photoshop?).

Oh, yes. I think most of us working pros do; I routinely move from ID to PS to Illustrator to Acrobat in most projects. And more, if I am doing any video/animation work.

There was a time when it was very difficult to move files and objects from one tool to another; you had to save something in a particular format, go open it with another tool, save it back in another format, and then re-import it in the first tool. Then it got easy to move the same object around the Adobe tool set. Now there are some things that are nearly seamless, such as being able to manipulate Photoshop PSD layers within InDesign. Many of the annual(ish) upgrades have been about enabling such file/object fluidity. Since most of us have all the tools... it's lovely to be able to use each one to its strengths.

Which doesn't keep me from drawing little illustrations and charts in InDesign a lot. 🙂 Years of experience with this sort of tool and it's faster to work around ID's limitations than to go fire up Illustrator.

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[Katherine25238449muqx]

Wow!  Fascinating, and impressive.  Didn't it take you a long time to learn each program?  The programs I know best are Logic and Final Cut, and I still get my wires crossed sometimes when there are different keyboard shortcuts to do similar things.  Little things can trip me up!  But I'm also not a professional using those programs, no maybe that's the difference.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

At a certain point, you learn that the tool is not the task. I have used so many apps for each of these purposes that I don't really notice them any more. Well-designed tools use the same processes, and that's what's important. Yes, there is a curve of expertise with the fine points and full spread of a tool's menus and commands, but I can sit down and get a job done at any equivalent workstation.

Which, to tie into my editorial rants here, is a huge problem with employers in this field. Unless there is an experienced pro at the center of the hiring, employers and recruiters tend to focus on the tools, which can be quantified in simple ways. There's no real difference between PC and Mac platforms any more, not for Adobe products and little for any others... but I still see listings that simply will not consider applicants without Mac experience. FCP, Premiere and AVID are all but indistingusihable at the process level—and process is all in video editing—but. Shops still using QXP refuse to consider ID experts. And so forth. And it gets ridiculous when you get out to more 'commodity' tools; I was declined for a perfect-fit contract position the company was frantic to fill because my CMS experience was on two other platforms, not the specific one they used.

And I've battled this mindset not only as a gunslinger for hire, but as a consultant helping companies build a pro graphics department. The boss or owner just can't get around the idea that 15x1 is superior.

To David C's excellent point, I'll add, set in Stone (I use Stone a lot): The tool is not the task. (Except to someone who wouldn't know how to create a new document in any layout tool.)

/editorialrantoffforrealnow

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[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

Generally, for most work I funnel everything to InDesign: Photoshop, Illustrator, and Word files. 

This reminds me of a couple of old jokes (all in good fun, of course 🤣)

"The guy who gave me the test has been a graphics designer himself for 15 years and is now Marketing Director.:

There is "15 years of experience"--and then there is "1 year of experience 15 times over".

As far as getting promoted, look up the Peter Principle, and the similar Dilbert Principle.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

There is "15 years of experience"--and then there is "1 year of experience 15 times over".

Ooh! That's a good observation!

But, y'know, I've sat through a lot of job interviews where my extremely wide experience, skill set and portfolio are a lead sinker... because the hiring manager, HR week or recruiter is looking for 15x1 experience. "Oh, you don't have 12 years on QXP? Well..."

That puts this mindset in great perspective.

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[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

>>"Oh, you don't have 12 years on QXP? Well..."

I could say "yes"--but I would have to add it was from 1988-2002? (ID 2 came out in 2002; I consider it the first "real" version of ID.) 😁

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

I almost entirely bypassed QXP, for a variety of reasons. (FM was my workbench tool for most of that era.) But I do have time on it (and good riddance) and I have run into gigs for magazines, catalog houses and trade printers who are still grinding along with it.

And, of course, if you note that you had experience on QXP in that era... your app will hit the discard pile instantly, because you're obviously not 28.

This place needs a pub. 🙂

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[Peter Spier]

I ran into a case quite a few years back when I applied for a job in the advertising department at the local daily. Art director would have loved to hire me with my years of experience (including pre-press troubleshooting) but corporate set a salary cap of $15/hr and I wanted twice that. The art director agreed that I would undoubtedly produce more than twice as much error-free work in an hour as someone fresh out of school who would gladly use them as an on-the-job traing facility and leave as soon as they got a better offer.

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Oh, pay is a different issue and (for a lot of reasons) hasn't been a big factor in my choosing contract and contract to potential hire positions. (I prefer a challenge and job scope that will let me use every blade on my Swiss Army Knife over the last 20% in compensation for one-blade jobs.)

It's the ignorance, prejudice and often conniving mindset behind creative hiring that irritates me. I've had the same underhanded tactics used by a number of disconnected would-be employers, which is why I say/think there's an airplane book out there filled with these "secret tricks."

Could very much write a book, especially about the last five years of being the only applicant with a gray beard (or, sometimes, only one old enough to grow a beard, including the recruiter). But no one would read it.

Way off course for this thread and this forum.

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