Images for your book
The print technology allows black and white images to be printed within
the book using our Print on demand technology. Early
in 2007, full colour printing will become possible. What follows is advice
for preparing b/w images.
It helps if you can enhance your pictures. Colour images need some preparatory work. You might have to
scan the photo first. If your file is about
2Mb, it is probably about right.
Be prepared to trim the image so that you
can focus the attention of your reader. If you remove most of the background,
you might find that you have to make fewer compromises with the other
adjustments.
Have a look at a few books and see which images work. Although colour
will be available soon, most images will be black and white. When we say 'black and white' we mean both line drawings where there are no
shades of grey and half-tone images such as photographs.
Then you need to:
Converting to B/W
All image processing packages offer the chance to remove colour and render
the image in shades of grey. It is best to do this first and before you start
performing other adjustments. Some packages offer to convert your picture to a
sepia tone but this still needs to be turned into tones of black and
white.
Enhancing contrast
It is important to distinguish between contrast and brightness. A low
contrast image is grey. A high contrast picture has blacks and whites, and little
in between.
Adjusting brightness
If a photo is too dark or too light, details are lost. You can play with the
contrast and brightness controls to achieve the effects that will work in the
book.
Finally, you might want to use various tools that software provides to
sharpen or frame the image. Always leave these until the end so that you are not
adjusting adjustments!
What you want to end up with is a an image with strong highlights. So the
contrast and brightness will have to be a bit higher than what you would regard
as normal. You can achieve some remarkable results which improve the focus of the
photograph.
PS
It works well to include a b/w image inside, with the caption, but to have
a smaller colour image on the cover.
PPS
Don't forget to check that you have
copyright permission and/or model release
for your images.
Photo libraries
Picture technologies
Print technologies
