Project settings for an album cover that will be digital and vinyl print?

[ergalthema]

The vinyl pressing recommends 300dpi. There are templates, but they are for CMYK and for both the front and back covers together.

My understanding is that I should create the RGB version for digital first because it's easier to make a CMYK version from RGB than to go from CMYK to RGB.

Also, I'd prefer to design the front and back covers separately. 

So, what should my settings be when starting the project? It sounds like 3600x3600 would be the exact size for a 12" LP jacket, but I assume I should start bigger to be safe. I also assume that if I make it too big that my (good gaming) computer might stat struggling after many layers. Is 5000x5000 a good safe compromise? 300 pixels/inch, 8-bit?

Like this? 

[vickyp4389661]

would like this info since Im wondering the same

[D Fosse]

Making an image at the correct size is straightforward. 300 ppi is a fairly safe bet. Work in RGB, preferably Adobe RGB which translates well to most offset printing processes.

What would concern me here is text. Presumably there will be a lot of text, and a raster image editor like Photoshop is the worst possible tool for text. That should not be done in Photoshop! InDesign (or perhaps Illustrator) is the right tool to use for that. The base image can be prepared in Photoshop, but the final design done in Id.

Once the final printing process is known, a press-ready PDF is exported from InDesign, converting to the appropriate CMYK profile.

[Stephen Marsh]

Making the width and height unit pixels and then setting the resolution to 300 PPI doesn't make any sense.

Setting the width and height to a physical unit of measure and 300 ppi does make sense.

There is no generic CMYK colour space, so you need to know what type of CMYK is expected.