Photoshop CC: The Missing Manual

Resizing and Formatting Files

Besides making sure your images are in the right color mode, installing the right color profiles for your printer and paper, and calibrating your monitor—are you exhausted yet?—you also need to make sure your image’s size matches the size you want to print. For example, to print an image at 5"x7”, it should really be 5"x7” (as opposed to, say, taking a 6"x8” image and cramming it into that smaller format). You also need to make sure the image has sufficient resolution (see the table on Resolution Guidelines for Print for resolution guidelines). Finally, you need to save the image in a file format that works well with your printer. This section walks you through all those steps.

Printer-Friendly File Formats

Printers can accept a wide range of file formats, including PSD (Photoshop), TIFF, EPS, PDF, and even JPEG. Don’t worry: Choosing a format isn’t as hard as you might think. Once you’ve saved the master file in PSD format, choose File→Save As and then pick one of the following formats:

• TIFF. This format (whose name is short for “tagged image file format”) has long been considered the print-safe gold standard, and for that reason, almost any program can work with TIFF files. Saving a file in this format doesn’t compress it, so the quality remains as good as that of the original. And if the image will be used in another program but you don’t know which one—for example, you’re sending the image off to someone else to use in a book or magazine—saving it ...