Preping B&W photos for photocopying?

[pcal]

Hi guys,

Hoping you can help me with a little volunteer problem...

I was issued an ultimatum this morning - "Make this **&#@!*@# photocopier do what I want, or find a new newsletter editor". I suspect the problem, as usual, is the nut behind the wheel.

We have an artistic type putting together the newsletter for our group with lots of subtle greyscale images and text variations that looks just lovely when it comes out of the printer, but turns to hash once it goes through the photocopier. I've tried the obvious "well don't use them" kind of suggestions, and even avoided injury, but to no avail. Photo mode, and mixed mode on the photocopier have both been tried and rejected.

What I suspect is needed, is for the original to go through whatever the process is that newspapers used to use to reduce the images to a series of dots that photocopy OK, and that your eyes can just merge back together. Problem is, I don't know what the process is called, or how to add it to the newsletter editor's arsenal of tools. She uses all Microsoft Office tools, so I suspect it would be either Word or Publisher that is generating the print, but I don't use any M$ software at all if I can avoid it - and am not familiar with either tool to make any suggestions.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Pcal

[woodbe]

Just off the cuff, I think the photocopier can either do it or it can't. Adding a screen will help, but I really doubt that the editor will be happy with it.

Best option I can think of is to save yourself the heartache and outsource the printing. You might find that it is easier, better and quicker than flogging your inhouse copier. We did it all inhouse for years, but we found that concentrating on the content and leaving the final output to the people who do it all the time and who have the volume to operate much better machines resulted in a better finished product.

Depends on your quantities, but as a first suggestion if you want to go this way, is Abbott copy centre in Hindmarsh or the City. If the volume is high, be worth talking to a printer, but it depends on your numbers and budget.

hope that helps.

woodbe.

[jow104]

Have you tried using the photocopier with instructions set to colour,(I know you said greyscale) but you get more options when manipulating in an image program if colour had been set.

Also settings in the photocopier might need the magazine option scan set, something like "delina......??? " cant remember the exact word.

[joe greiner]

Depends on quantities of course. But if the printer version is OK, why not do your production printing on the printer? Pretty much the same consumables for a photocopier and a laser printer. Needs to have the entire newsletter in a software file. Otherwise, outsource the work as woodbe suggests.

Joe

[pcal]

Thanks guys...

The copier is fairly new. We are the 2nd owners via one of the photocopy companies here in town. We only got it in the first place because said editor complained so much about the last one! (Which in my humble opinion was still quite ok - if a little slow by current standards)

It is supposed to have all the bells and whistles, network connection, duplexing, faxing etc. etc. Nobody else seems to have any problems with it at all - just the one who needs to take the fancy graphics over the top. I've even set up a pc for access by said individual to print the newsletter directly to the photocopier... While the print quality is "somewhat better", that is said to be way too slow (no doubt, while the internal processor copes with the graphics).

Joe, my preference is still pretty much with using the photocopier rather than the printer. The copier is under an all inclusive maintenance contract which covers the consumables up to a whole lot more printing than we do every month, while the little lexmark laser costs us extra every time it swallows another toner cartridge.

Jow104, I don't know what the various options are in Word/Publisher. I'm pretty sure the pictures are just being inserted into a text document, but if you know of a relevant option in there somewhere I would be wrapped to hear about it.

Just percolating on the issue while I type, I'm thinking the outsource idea may have merit. But rather than outsource the printing itself, perhaps I just need to outsource the person who does it. Let the editor do the file however she likes, but then get someone else in the office to monitor the print run directly from the pc while they are doing something else so the too slow issue doesn't get her down...

...yes, I think that's what I'll have to do. Thanks again guys for fronting up for sounding board duty! :)

Best Regards,

Pcal

[ian]

Pcal

Word is a pig of a program — it pretends to be able to do page layouts, but it's only a pretence.
and Publisher is not much better

This first thing I would check is the resolution of the graphics and photos being inserted by the "editor". These should be "resampled" in a photo editer to bring them in line with what the printer/copier can handle.
e.g. if the digital camera generates a 6MB image, the picture probably look OK when printed on a sheet of A3. Inside the newsletter the picture is probably ocupying a space equivalent to an A7 (~105 x 75) or A8 (~75 x 57) or even A9 (~57 x 37) so you only need to keep 1/4 or 1/8 of the original information. (For news letters, I've found 150 dpi is usually good enough, anything more than 200dpi is usually overkill — remember your monitor is almost certainly 76dpi)

if your photocopier has a network connection it's also a laser printer — get the editor to do their drafts through the "copier" and keep the Lexmark for letters
then PRINT your newsletter using Word
The worst thing you can do is print and then copy as you automaticly introduce another level of degradation



ian

[jow104]

PCal, I assumed you would scan the draft from your artistic friend using a scanner and my remarks were to use colour and descreen option.

Microsoft Word does not give you (my version) the option to set scanner settings.
I would save output BMP and use an imaging program to print, Otherwise go the commercial route if quantities are large enough.

[China]

As woodbe said and from my limited knowlege you have to add a screen or some programs I've seen refer to it as pixlating

[Master Splinter]

Silk purse, sow's ear, and that kind of thing...

Do you have the option to print from the file directly to the copier? If you are printing with a laserprinter, and then copying the printed pages, you are in for nothing but heartbreak, tears and aggravation!

There are so many possible areas where things may be going wrong...as someone who has been working with print and design since the days of wax and lettraset, my advice is...

Don't use Word. Really, don't use Word. It bears saying again, don't use Word. Word is a word processor, trying to get it to do other things is like using a hand plane for trimming your fingernails. Yes, you can do it, but eventually, its gunna get messy! Microsoft products are basically spawn of the devil, and Word is one of the worst offenders!

But if you are stuck with it, try this:
Once the design is done, get the self proclaimed designer to measure the size of the photos on the page. Then open the photos in Photoshop (or The GIMP if you want a freebie) and re-size them to the size they appear in the newsletter.

Odds are very good that they are taking a colour pic that is (say) 3456x2304 pixels and sticking it into a box that is only 345x230 pixels large and printed in mono and letting Word do the re-sampling and colour conversion... a recipe for disaster!

Make sure they convert the photos from colour to greyscale - using one or two of the colour channels can be a good way of doing this (you can maximise contrast) rather than just desaturating the photo.

Reduce the photos down to their final size (so Word doesn't have to do anything other than print them) but do a few resolution options as a trial, try 133 dpi and 150 dpi to see what works best with the copier...or dig around in its specifications to see what it likes) and see how that prints.

But some printers just won't handle printing photos - at least not very well so you may be stuck with the output.

So if the designer prompted buying the new copier...and didn't test its ability to print what they were after...whose problem is it?

[Ianab]

But rather than outsource the printing itself, perhaps I just need to outsource the person who does it. Let the editor do the file however she likes, but then get someone else in the office to monitor the print run directly from the pc while they are doing something else so the too slow issue doesn't get her down...


Yes thats probably what you need to do.

What you have been trying is printing a photo on a laser printer, then taking a copy of that and expecting some sort of photo quality. Doomed to fail.

The best result will be printing directly to the copier, which should give you a similar output to the laser printer.

Yes it will probably be slower, although you can try changing the number of copies in the actual printer driver, instead of in Word. Depending on the printer driver it may then download the document to the printer once, and tell it to print X number of copies. If you select the number of copies in Word, then it generates X number of the print job, and sends them all to the printer. Doesn't allways work, but try it.

Ian