Correct Image File Format For Magazine Printing

[InDesignCS4Student]

I am using InDesign CS4 and I would like to know if it's ok to use JPG or JPEG images for printing magazines ?  If not, can you please tell me the correct image file format I should use with InDesign for designing and printing a magazine ?  Also what would be the best way to convert the image files from JPEG to that correct image file format ?

[Björn Öst]

Jpegs are perfectly fine, make sure to use highest quality setting when you save them to avoid compression artifacts.

Edit: Many printers advice against jpegs when asked, but that is mostly to avoid having uninformed people pulling small and hard compressed images from webpages and expect it to look good in print. However, if you edit the image and resave repeatedly, tiff or psd will be better as intermediate steps to avoid image degradation.

[Printer_Rick]

If you start out with JPEG RGB images and you do absolutely nothing to the images then you can place them in InDEsign and convert to CMYK when you output to PDF.

If you do anything at all to the images in Photoshop save as TIFF or PSD.

JPEGs are pretty limiting when it comes to print. The compression is lossy and the format does not support transparency.

[Peter Spier]

And there are high quailty jpegs, and crap that you steal from a web page.

Print requires a much better image than the screen. It depends on the printing process, but the rule of thumb is resolution should be around 300 ppi at the size the image will be printed, and if jpeg compression has been used it needs to be at the highest quality end of the spectrum (i.e something like a digital camera capture on high quality mode). Most web images are over-compressed and full of artifacts that will look bad, even if you have enough resolution. If the quality or size of the image isn't there to start, you won't make it any better screwing around in Photoshop.

[marlaau]

Use what ever format you like, I perfer .tiff with LSW compression or .eps. If you don't know what you are doing just include the original image when you send you project to the printer and link the image in InDesign don't embedded it.  When you furnish the original image the prepress department can set it up correctly.

I perfer 300 dpi with image is at 100% of the final size, if the image is printing 150 line screen when printed. 200 dpi is ok for 133 line screen.  I would even perfer a 100 dpi image over a .jpg image that has be over compressed.

[Gola Raj]

If you are placing any image, prefer it should be as .tiff or .eps with good resolution. For color halftone resolution should be 300ppi, and if any image has both (picture and any line art in pixel version) its resolution should be 500ppi, If you are importing any bitmap then resolution should be 900-1200ppi.

Remember : Many printer can print 100-300ppi for halftones. These value are not fixed, can be vary according to situation. We can maintain all these things when we have sufficient space to increase the resolution. These resolution are recommended for good results and if you are working in good workflow then you have to maintain all the guidelines.