The only times I use jpegs is (1) to take an original shot with my Nikons, and (2) to post to the Web. I immediately save my camera shots into a loss-less format. I save my illustrations, such as the layout, in a native, loss-less format, and convert them to jpegs only when I want to post them. The Nikon jpeg algorithm, at the best "large, fine" mode, loses very little info. I believe it's a 4:1 compression ratio, which is pretty close to lose-less until you start opening and resaving again and again. I try not to do this.
Steve; TIFF is fine... just fading into history. PNG and GIF won't distort images either. By the way, GIF is a 24 bit color system. The "8 bits per pixel" is misleading. GIF's color tables hold up to 256 individual 24 bit color values, so the actual range of colors available is the same as 24 bit per pixel images. The 8 bit pixel is a lookup into the table. So with GIF you are just limited to 256 colors in your image; ample for any line art I can think of.
do the test, take a GIF drawing or picture and change the size in Photoshop, as soon as you change the picture size just a little the whole picture turns out very blury... ...something I don't see with a TIFF
I don't have PhotoShop anymore (had it where I used to work). I use Gimp (free Open Source image editor). It sounds like PhotoShop is dithering when you resize. You should be able to turn that off. It isn't a function of GIF's compression. These images are from Engine Shop. The web site says you can't use them commercially without permission. This isn't commercial. The first image is a cropped segment of the .gif I downloaded from the site. The second is a copy that I scaled to 200%. You can see the stair-stepping I talked about earlier. But I don't see any dithering-like distortion after re-sizing. Hope this makes things more clear.
I am using a free vector graphic program called inkscape to redraw my decals. I am able to draw what I want on an 8x11 sheet and size it down to the sizes I need. There is no loss and the letters do not become blocks or lines when they are shrunk to really small sizes.
OMG... they even have an OS X Tiger Universal version for us Intel Mac users. Thanks so much for telling us about Inkscape, Bobatin. You rock, friend! Now can we get you to share some herald files with us?
Inskscape for Mac's They also have it for Leopard, which I installed last month. Great OS! Thanks for the info Bobatin!! :tb-wink::thumbs_up:
Inkscape and .eps Back when Tbone said this, the topic of vector images hadn't come up. The .eps is Encapsulated Postscript. Inkscape does a nice job of creating .eps files. Now how much time do I really want to invest in creating vectored heralds? :tb-wacky:
Excellent point. I use vector graphics because I grew up with them. It took me a very long while to become "fluent" in Bezier curves. I think a lot of people don't realize how recently computer graphics came onto the scene--basically the late 70s, and pretty crude. Before then, most everything affordable was strictly alpha numeric. The early PCs and Apples were pretty crude at 640 x 480 and 256 colors. Most of the time today I just scan and print in native .psd mode for Photoshop. The Epson 4990 scanner is one incredible machine.
I remember those days. I helped organize a computer graphics conference in 1982... people came from all over the country to attend. The most astounding innovation to be seen there was 3D animation with hidden line removal. My, what kids today take for granted when they log into World of Warcraft or Everquest.
Heralds are time consuming but generally its a one time deal so its worth it. The type faces are the difficult part. Almost every road is different, even if it's subtle. This is the decal drawing I did for a Milwaukee passenger car. The Hiawatha emblem was ten times easier than the lettering. Jason
