Re: [Gimp-user] How to shrink photo, retain quality?? Business card design

[Richard <strata_ranger hotmail com>]

> Date: Fri, 12 Feb 2016 19:59:59 +0100
> From: forums gimpusers com
> To: gimp-user-list gnome org
> CC: notifications gimpusers com
> Subject: [Gimp-user] How to shrink photo,     retain quality?? Business card design
>
> Hi guys!
>
> I'm an amateur photo-editor, and have a decent understanding of Gimp basics.
>
> I am designing a business card for myself to be uploaded to gotprint.com
>
> I am using a 2.5inx3.5in. vertical layout. In the past I have used the basic
> online editor provided by gotprint to design a logo, this time I wanted to do it
> on Gimp to leave myself more options for editing.
>
> I need to include a photo of myself on the card....

Short, witty answer: Your image canvas is too small, you need to think bigger.

Long answer:

Since this is a project that will ultimately be put onto physical media (i.e. business cards), you need to 
think about your image less in terms of its raw pixels (as shown in GIMP) and more in terms of its physical 
printed size.  An important thing to note is that the preferred "dots per inch" setting (the conversion 
between image pixels and real world) is generally MUCH higher for print processes than computer displays -- a 
computer monitor might have a resolution of, say, 72 pixels per inch (hold a ruler up to your screen if you 
want to measure it yourself), but printing processes demand a resolution like 300 or 600 dpi, which is at 
least four times larger.

So if you want to create your business card as a GIMP image, the FIRST thing you need to do is set your DPI.  
You can check (and change) the dpi setting on your GIMP image from the Image > "Print Size..." menu option.  
Keep in mind this doesn't actually change the raw 'pixel size' of the image (i.e. how it appears displayed in 
GIMP), it only calibrates how the pixel size translates to physical size.  You can also set an image's DPI 
setting from the Image > "Resize..." command, however, to truly resize an image to a specific resolution you 
will also need to ensure the target size shown in that dialog is displayed in physical units (not percent or 
pixels!) .

To reduce some of the work ... if your business card will be 2.5x3.5" (portrait) and you need a print 
resolution of 300dpi, your whole image must be 750x1050 pixels; if you want a print resolution of 600dpi then 
your whole image must be 1500x2100 pixels.  Then zoom out until the entire image canvas fits in the GIMP 
display.  NOW you can begin drawing what the card looks like, add your photo to it (as a layer, of course), 
and worry about resizing the photo to match the rest of the card.  Try to keep the number of resizes on the 
photo layer to a minimum -- i.e. if you resized the photo layer but didn't like the result, Undo the resize 
before you try again.

Alternately, if you want to create a business card without having to worry about specifying a fixed print 
resolution (dpi), you should probably be drawing it in a different app, like the vector editor Inkscape.  
Vector editors have the advantage of being able to freely scale elements placed on the canvas without losing 
detail (vector elements are geometric, not pixel based), but the tradeoff is you probably can't submit the 
vector file directly for the final processing step (you'll need to do a rasterization/bitmap export for that 
purpose -- which involves specifying the desired target size, either in terms of pixel dimensions or dpi).

-- Stratadrake
strata_ranger hotmail com
--------------------
Numbers may not lie, but neither do they tell the whole truth.