Design & Publishing Center . / . Photoshop . / . Tips & Tricks

Tip #86 - Photos for Newsletters...

Is it better to start from B&W photos or Color if the newsletter is just black ink?

Generally speaking color is better, then converted to B&W via Photoshop, or at the scanner stage. The most beautiful halftones you'll see are B&W scanner halftones from color transparencies.
__ Color offers a wider range of tonality than does black and white. Therefore your final halftones should have a higher degree of range. Be careful though -- they can muddy up in a hurry if you don't make the conversion just right. I recommend a chat with the printer for the right set up to match their plate making and press equipment. Or, better yet, let them do it for you.
__ If you're pulling color off a CD increase the brightness, and be sure to print a proof.

Beauty in B&W

A lot of folks these days say they don't want to be bothered with a B&W image in Photoshop. Don't believe it. 88% of all printing is still single color. We can't all enjoy that other 12% of the industry.
__ Discover what we discovered more than twelve years ago. Discover Bitmaps.
__ Yup... you heard right. Working with PS's Bitmap mode can offer some rather nice advantages when producing straight line shots for low end reproduction... newspaper, quick-print newsletters, and even copiers and faxes.
__ Try this. Set the resolution to that of your printer. Now, convert the image to grayscale. Convert to bitmap using Diffusion Dither. You'll see your image transform into a beautiful mezzotint effect. It will look really bad on the screen. Don't worry. Now, print it.
__ You can have a lot of fun with this simply by playing with the brightness, contrast and levels in the grayscale mode. Keep a record of what settings produce the best looking prints. Remember for low-end printing, the printer will be using the actual art you provide. So if it looks good on the laser output, chances are it will look better printed.
__ Now, save the image as an EPS file, and import it into Quark, PageMaker or RSG. Reduce it if you like, but not too much. You'll get a nice crisp looking stipple conversion of your photo that you never thought was possible. OOOOOOOOO sweet.

Design & Publishing Center . / . Photoshop . / . Tips & Tricks

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