Commercial Photoshop Retouching: In the Studio

Improving the Existing File to Survive Magnification

If the image is unacceptable once resized and no retouching has been done, drop the image into the new canvas you created; in the case of Figure 7-6, use the billboard image created earlier. Again, if you have problems making the image full size, try to create the biggest size you can within your limitations.

Resolution on Demand

One other option you may want to look at for scaling images up is a program from Genuine Fractals (www.lizardtech.com/solutions/gf/). Some people swear by the ability of this program to scale images up with little degradation. Their web site claims they can "output any file size from a single encoded file, up to 600% without image degradation." It is reasonably priced and may be worth a look.

Figure 7-6. Motorcycle image dropped into billboard canvas at original size (pretty small, eh?)

Remember to add an extra amount of canvas for bleed. Bleed on an image is basically the extra portion of the image that extends around the perimeter of an image or ad. When an image or ad is printed and the image prints to the edge of the paper or page, an extra amount of image is needed so that when the paper is trimmed to the printed size, there is image or bleed there in case the trim process is slightly off. If the image were supplied with no bleed and the trimmer cut the paper outside of your image, a small amount of ...