Real World Print Production with Adobe Creative Suite Applications

Bitmap Images

Sometimes called “line art images,” bitmap images contain only black and white pixels with no shades of gray. If you need to scan a signature to add to an editorial page or scan a pen and ink sketch, a bitmap scan can provide a sharp, clean image at very high resolution. Because of the compact nature of bitmap scans, they can be very high resolution (usually 600–1200 ppi) but still produce small file sizes (Figure 4.2).

Figure 4.2. This 1200 ppi bitmap scan prints nearly as sharply as vector art. It weighs in at less than 1 MB; a grayscale image of this size and resolution would be nearly 10 MB. Magnified to 400 percent, it may look a bit rough, but at 100 percent it’s crisp and clean.