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Whether you’re in Hollywood, Politics, or Business your image in the public arena is critical to your success. So why wouldn’t the images in your documents need to have the same impact?Think about this from Tom Cruise’s perspective. Here is a guy who is constantly in the media lime light and highly visible, yet when it came to publishing images of his new born child, he decided to bring in specific TV hosts and photographers so those first pics made an impact.
I see poor quality images everywhere I go and you probably notice them too. Here are some real easy places to spot them — see if you can.
- Placemat at a diner or restaurant
- Ads in a magazine
- Logos in the newspaper
Although it is becoming more commonplace, do you really want someone’s first impression of your work to be one of a high school amateur?
So what does make a good image, and how do I know what will work best?
There is a one word answer: resolution. No, not the New Year’s kind, but you will need more diligence than you did for that “all asparagus, lose 20 lbs over night” diet from last year, if you’re going to show your best work.
What is resolution? In short, it can be summed up as how many little dots, called pixels, are being shown. Okay — if you look close enough, they are actually squares, but I trust we all know our shapes by now.
Think about this from your middle or high school art class. Ever hear of a painting style called pointillism, like paintings by Georges-Pierre Seurat? (There is a link to a Wikipedia article included in the blog so you can see examples.) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges-Pierre_Seurat
Resolution is determined by the count of how many little dots there are to make up the picture you are viewing. Sometimes this is referred to as DPI or Dots Per Inch.
Depending on the medium that you use to view the image, the resolution can make a huge impact. For instance, let’s say you have bought one of those new fangled HDTV’s. You probably noticed that some of your old TV stations look a little wonky on them while other stations do not. The reason is resolution. Your basic TV set saw pictures at 640 by 480 dots per inch (or 480i) and most HDTV’s see them at 1980 by 1080 (or 1080p).
So here is a little test for you to try to illustrate what I am talking about. Get a magnifying glass, or, if you’re like me and have 20 pairs of those grandpa reading glasses lying around, grab a pair of those. Now hold it near your TV. What do you see? You should see are the little squares that, from a distance, blend together to make the image. The more you magnify or zoom in, the bigger they become and the fuzzier the image appears.
So how does this really apply to your files?
There are certain resolutions that are better suited for different tasks. First, you need to decide how the image will be displayed; will it be on a website, in a presentation, printed for customers or friends, or on sticker paper to be used to create a third eye on your forehead?
Good resolutions for screen displays (like presentations or websites) are between 72dpi and 96dpi. In fact, if you have ever had a really large file size for PowerPoint, your image size is likely the culprit. You can easily shrink the file size by right-clicking on one of your pictures in the file and choosing Format Picture; in that window, there is in option to Compress Pictures, which gives you various resolution choices. If you’re in version 2007, then all you need to do is select any picture and click on the option from the ribbon labeled “Compress Pictures”.
A general rule of thumb for files that will be printed is:
300dpi for most printers or 600dpi for professional printing.
Now that you have some basic understanding of resolution, you can move on to this week’s tips on images. Included this week are:
- Inserting an Image
- Changing How Much of Your Picture is in Your File
- Text Wrapping and Images
- Creating Images from Your Slides for Use in Other Applications
- Saving Drawings as Images
- and Fixing the Color of an Image
Once you have these basics under your belt, you can jump up and down excitedly while showing your friends. Just do us a favor and don’t act like Tom Cruise on Oprah. Our listeners have a little more dignity than that.
Don’t forget: you can find more than just these tips by visiting us on the web at www.productiveupodcast.com, where you can find more tips or sign up for the expanded edition of our tips and tricks newsletter.
Thanks for stopping by!
Music courtesy of Clayton & Fulcrum
