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#1 2003-02-02 12:27 pm
Epson Stylus CX5200 all in one-whats the story?
Epson Stylus CX5200
I am eyeing this all in one machine, and am not very farmilliar with this all in one world, or even the scanner world. What is the quality like for scanning, and overall, is this a good product? Thanks a lot,
david
BTW, how much space would a photoshop-quality 4X6 take up on my harddrive?
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#2 2003-02-02 2:28 pm
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Re: Epson Stylus CX5200 all in one-whats the story?
I'd never tell anyone to get an all in one machine. Though I don't anything about this particular model, usually, these devices incorporate several low end things into one half-ass machine that does many things, but no one thing very well. But, they are a good solution for some people, that's something you'll need to decide that for yourself. I think that the only real good thing about them is the savings in desk space, I can't think of any other advantages.
But, as for your image question, a 4x6 TIFF in CMYK color and at 300ppi takes 8 MB of storage space. You could shave that down in several ways: 1: making it RGB instead of CMYK 2: saving in jpeg format instead of TIFF, and lastly, lowering the resolution. But shrinking that file will invariably reduce the overall quality of an image (actually, if you scan a pic in RGB, saving in RGB will lose no quality.) The same TIFF in RGB would be about 6MB.
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#3 2003-02-03 11:13 am
Re: Epson Stylus CX5200 all in one-whats the story?
Actually, what is the definition of a Photoshop Quality file?
What is your output destination.
If it is Inkjet - do 150 dpi at exact size (4x6) at RGB color (like registered_user said - RGB will save space over CMYK and most inkjets prefer RGB information anyway). Be sure thought that if you save as JPEG, don't set the quality setting out of photoshop to anything less than 10 or you might start damaging the image quality.
If it is for Press - save as CMYK. You could shave a little space by saving it at 240dpi at actual size (4x6), you won't notice a difference between 300dpi and 240dpi when printed and it saves a considerable amount of space. And as usual, the DPI is going to be best when you use the image at actual size. Reducing the image can make it soft, so if you need it smaller, make a copy of it at the size you need. Enlarging will make it pixelated. 300 dpi gives a little better if you need to bump up the size 10% or so, but 240dpi will be downright unforgiving. If you save at 240dpi and need to print bigger you might need to rescan the image at a larger size. For press, don't save as JPEG, save as TIFF. You can save with LZW compression, just be sure to tell the printer that you used it so we can turn it off for final output.
Hopefully I didn't insult your intelligence with that.
Shawn
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