I'm doing the cover art for a friend's CD and I'm wondering what would
be a good image size to do it?

Since this is for a CD-R project, I don't need 2880dpi Linotronic
printer resolution, but I'm wondering what's a good resolution for B&W
laser-printer quality images?

-- 
Francois Labreque | Rimmer: "Let's go to red alert!"
    flabreque     | Kryten: "Are you sure, Sir?  You realize it
        @         |          actually means changing the bulb!"
   videotron.ca

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If I want the back cover to "follow" the front, should I:

[1] make the image twice as wide and then cut it in two pieces, or 
[2] move the camera over?

I think [1] will make the perspective look weird, while [2] will be a
mess to get the two pictures to align.

Comments?

-- 
Francois Labreque | Rimmer: "Let's go to red alert!"
    flabreque     | Kryten: "Are you sure, Sir?  You realize it
        @         |          actually means changing the bulb!"
   videotron.ca

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In article <3A33977D.A5DBD833@videotron.ca> , Francois Labreque 
<fla### [at] videotronca>  wrote:

> Since this is for a CD-R project, I don't need 2880dpi Linotronic
> printer resolution, but I'm wondering what's a good resolution for B&W
> laser-printer quality images?

It depends on your printer.  I would suggest a fraction of the actual
printer resolution and smallest point size, i.e. for a 600 dpi printer more
than 150 dpi will waste the printer's memory and take longer to print (if it
prints at all).  This assumes you are using the printer (or its drivers)
halftone mode, of course.  If your printer supports only 300 dpi or the
printer memory is not sufficient to hold the whole image in 150 dpi
(unlikely, but still), even 100 dpi will give you a newspaper like
resolution.  If you have a printer that is advertised tooutput with 1200
dpi, a slightly higher resolution, maybe as high as 300 dpi for the image
might improve quality.

You should convert the image to grayscale before printing and you may have
to adjust it a bit to get it ligh/dark enough if you are using a
non-PostScript printer.  You will probably need an image editing program for
this.

So, as a CD cover is about 5" x 5" (a bit less, actually), your image should
be around 750 x 750 pixels.


    Thorsten


PS: If printing on a color laser printer, result may be better with twice
the image resolution, i.e. for the average 600 dpi color printer feeding it
an image witha resolution of 300 dpi may still increase the quality of the
image.  However, in order to print the color image, I strongly suggest to
make sure it looks well when converted to CMYK color space.

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"Francois Labreque" wrote:
> If I want the back cover to "follow" the front, should I:
>
> [1] make the image twice as wide and then cut it in two pieces, or
> [2] move the camera over?
>
> I think [1] will make the perspective look weird, while [2] will be a
> mess to get the two pictures to align.

If I understand you right I think you should make the image thrice as wide
and use the center piece for the front, the left piece for the back and
don't use the right piece.

That way the perspective will be centered on the front which is more
important, and the distortion will appear mostly on the back. BTW, the
smaller angle you use, the less the image is distorted by perspective. You
can also experiment with other camera types.

If you move the camera over it will be impossible to make the two images
align, since they're taken from different angles. Unless you use
orthographic camera.

Rune
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Thorsten Froehlich wrote:
> 
> It depends on your printer.  I would suggest a fraction of the actual
> printer resolution and smallest point size, i.e. for a 600 dpi printer more
> than 150 dpi will waste the printer's memory and take longer to print (if it
> prints at all).  This assumes you are using the printer (or its drivers)
> halftone mode, of course.  If your printer supports only 300 dpi or the
> printer memory is not sufficient to hold the whole image in 150 dpi
> (unlikely, but still), even 100 dpi will give you a newspaper like
> resolution.  If you have a printer that is advertised tooutput with 1200
> dpi, a slightly higher resolution, maybe as high as 300 dpi for the image
> might improve quality.
> 

With B/W laser printers, especially if it is only a 300 dpi printer, it's
often worth trying to do the rastering with software dithering.  It
usually produces higher contrast and less smooth results but depending on
the actual picture it can be better.  

Christoph

-- 
Christoph Hormann <chr### [at] gmxde>
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things on: http://www.schunter.etc.tu-bs.de/~chris/

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On Sun, 10 Dec 2000 09:57:39 -0500, Francois Labreque wrote:
>If I want the back cover to "follow" the front, should I:
>
>[1] make the image twice as wide and then cut it in two pieces, or 
>[2] move the camera over?

[1] and use a rather small angle to minimize perspective effects.

	hp

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| |   | hjp### [at] wsracat      | Zahlen neu festzulegen.
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Hi Francois,

I've made quite a few B/W laserjet CD covers, and
for just the day-to-day cover, I find 720dpi is just
fine.

=Bob=

"Francois Labreque" <fla### [at] videotronca> wrote in message
news:3A33977D.A5DBD833@videotron.ca...
: I'm doing the cover art for a friend's CD and I'm wondering what would
: be a good image size to do it?
:
: Since this is for a CD-R project, I don't need 2880dpi Linotronic
: printer resolution, but I'm wondering what's a good resolution for B&W
: laser-printer quality images?
:
: --
: Francois Labreque | Rimmer: "Let's go to red alert!"
:     flabreque     | Kryten: "Are you sure, Sir?  You realize it
:         @         |          actually means changing the bulb!"
:    videotron.ca

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> So, as a CD cover is about 5" x 5" (a bit less, actually), your image
should
> be around 750 x 750 pixels.

12 cm. x 12 cm., I think

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Francois Labreque wrote:
> 
> If I want the back cover to "follow" the front, should I:
> 
> [1] make the image twice as wide and then cut it in two pieces, or
> [2] move the camera over?
> 
> I think [1] will make the perspective look weird, while [2] will be a
> mess to get the two pictures to align.
> 
> Comments?

	orthographic camera 

-- 
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Francois Labreque wrote:
> 
> I'm doing the cover art for a friend's CD and I'm wondering what would
> be a good image size to do it?
> 
> Since this is for a CD-R project, I don't need 2880dpi Linotronic
> printer resolution, but I'm wondering what's a good resolution for B&W
> laser-printer quality images?

	Roughly 1.7something or more times the output resolution. 2 is good
enough but not exactly 2. You want a multiple that is not a divisor of
any number of image size or print resolution to avoid aliasing. It might
work fine with 2 but you might also get an artifact pattern from the
driver and printer combination. If used 2 and get an artifact, just
scale the original a bit and print it again. 

-- 
For recycling, should trash be separated by color,
religion, sexual orientation or ethnic origin?
      -- The Iron Webmaster, 25

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