I need some help understanding these things as I have no educational background or training in digital media. I just like to draw and I want to be sure I have it right. :) "Acceptable file types include: CMYK Photoshop TIFF or Photoshop EPS- minimum of 300 pixels/inch resolution; Illustrator (10 or 11.0) or Illustrator EPS files." Does this mean in Photoshop when I chose file NEW and fill in my width/height, I chose CMYK Color for the mode and should make resolution 300 pixels/inch ? or is there some other way to do this? When saving my document as a TFF I get option of Byte Order of IBM PC or Macintosh. I chose IBM PC ...but should I check off LZW Compression ? I'm not sure what is for. Printable color I assume is taken care of by setting it to CMYK, please correct me if I am wrong. What is a 'professional file construction' considered to be? I usually save my drawings as jpgs and psd file to preserve all layers if I want to go back and change something. I noticed when I saved as TIFF it flattened all my layers. Maybe I did something wrong? Thank you in advance to anyone who could shed some light on these for me. I greatly appreciate it. Mari

Actually, what it means is that, when you output the image, the resolution should be 300 PPI MINIMUM... you can change the >Mode< on your toolbar, whatever the original image is... you could import a .bmp image, and convert it to cmyk just by changing the mode. Compression is only if there's a need for it,,, Photoshop doesn't know where the image is going to go, and Mac is very popular, so that is offered. Printable colour CAN be RGB, that is a matter of what the printer/publisher wants... size... that's also a matter between you and your printer/publisher... some will want small, some will want large... the downside is, that the larger your image, the more "space" your image is going to take, be it for manipulating it, or saving it to your Hard Drive. As for what happens when you save in tiff.. The assumption is that the image is going to be sent somewhere, and it needs to be compressed... saving all the layer info multiplies the size of it drastically, so it automatically flattens your layers. One way to avoid the image going wierd on you, is to save first in psd, then >Merge Layers< before saving in tiff... flattening will sometimes have the effect of making the image "dull", and this works, for me at least, as a means of getting around that... I rarely flatten an image I'm working on. I'm sure you will have questions, and I'm sure I'll think of something else... ask when you have questions.. nobody here minds, and it's how you'll find out things. Lou.

I can not answer all your questions, give it some time and someone else will, I'm sure of it. In the mean while, here's what I can tell u; 'Does this mean in Photoshop when I chose file NEW and fill in my width/height, I chose CMYK Color for the mode and should make resolution 300 pixels/inch ? or is there some other way to do this?' CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black-using 'B' would make things confusing since B stands for Blue, so K seamed obvious, don't ask why) is what they use for printing indeed. I often start of in RGB (Red, Green and Blue-screen colors) becouse it offers more freedom, especialy in Illustrator. You can always adjust the color mode afterwards in Image; Mode; CMYK. 300 pixels per inch (or dots per inch) is like standard for printing. You can sometimes get away with 150dpi, but only if your file is very, very large with 300dpi. Again, this can be adjusted afterwards in Image; Image Size. 'When saving my document as a TFF I get option of Byte Order of IBM PC or Macintosh. I chose IBM PC ...but should I check off LZW Compression ? I'm not sure what is for.' A TIFF saved in Mac (Motorola/IBM) order should open more quickly on the Mac.?A PC byteordered file will need to be byteswapped first which is an extra step.?Similarly if you save a TIFF in PC byte order on the Mac it will require more work than if you chose Mac byte order. So there isn't that much of a difference. LZW (Lempel-Zif-Welch) is used as a Giff-compression. Editing your file in a program like Imageready will make this option usefull. If you don't want to make 'giffing' easier, just leave it alone... 'I usually save my drawings as jpgs and psd file to preserve all layers if I want to go back and change something. I noticed when I saved as TIFF it flattened all my layers. Maybe I did something wrong?' When saving as tiff you can check Layers (under Alpha Channels), that way you keep your Layers. Hope you get the rest of your questions answerd, Mike