My digital shop doors opened just yesterday and I already had a bunch of questions regarding the size and resolution of the storyboard templates. So naturally I figured this topic would make an interesting and helpful blog post!
The templates I sell generally come in 300dpi and in large sizes, so they can be printed (even on big canvases) or used online (which requires re-sizing).
Let's take this template, for example, that I named "Jane" after my favorite author.
At the moment it has the following dimensions:
You can easily get to this menu by clicking the IMAGE tab and then choosing IMAGE SIZE. When you open it, yours might look a little different, because Photoshop lets you see the dimensions in inches, pixels, centimeters, and so on. By clicking the little arrows on the side you can make your selection. Let's go with pixels and inches for now. So now we have the width and height in inches, the resolution in pixels per inch, and the width and height in pixels, which is based on the resolution. If you change the resolution, the amount of pixels will change as well.
Before splitting up the process for printing and online sharing, let me mention the three options at the bottom. When re-sizing your image or template, you definitely want all three selected and therefore the chain image visible next to the width and height. Why? Because you want to keep the proportion of your image/template:
That means that a 4x6 image should always have the same ratio. It can be 2x3, 1x1.5, 8x12, but you can't turn it into an 8x10 without cropping (which will be a totally different blog post). So for now let's just agree that we want to keep the proportions and re-sample the image, and therefore keep the three options in the menu selected.
Printing
If you want to print your photography templates (which may or may not be purchased from me) or images in general, you definitely want to check your image size. High-Quality photographic images should be printed at 300 pixels per inch (often abbreviated with ppi or dpi - dots per inch, which is more or less the same). 240 if you absolutely have to, but no less. Once you are finished adjusting you resolution (if you have to), check your dimensions. If the image is now only 4x6 inches, that's the biggest you can print. If the image is now 16x20 inches, you can print it in that size or smaller. You don't have to change the size for printing smaller at all, the lab will do that for you. But you can if you like. For practice, let's make the image 4x6 inches. Click OK. See what happens? The entire image and every layer (if you have any) have been re-sized while maintaining all proportions.
Online Sharing
If you want people to be able to download your high resolution image, then follow the PRINTING instructions. If you want to share your image online and want to make sure no one can steal and then print it without paying you or getting your permission, then you're in the right place!
First of all, let's protect your image by lowering the resolution to 72, which is the maximum screen resolution. You won't notice a difference even if the resolution is any higher. Higher resolution images are just bigger, take longer to up-/download and therefore cause a webpage to load slower. Once you have done that, let's look at the dimensions of the image.
My computer screen at the moment is 1366x768pixels. So you don't need to post images any bigger than that, people can't see beyond their screen anyway and bigger sizes mean better quality (well, usually) and more risk to have your image stolen. If the longer side of the image is 960pixels, then that is plenty. So look at your Image Size menu. How many pixels are there, width and height? Pick the larger number and replace it with 960 (or a smaller number if you like). Click OK and you're done! Your image might seem tiny now, but it's just zoomed out. Zoom it in to 100% and you'll see that it is still big enough.
Saving
When you are ready to save your image, make sure you don't override your original template/image file. Click on FILE and then SAVE AS. If you want to keep working on the file later, save as a psd file to keep the layers. If you are ready to upload or print, save as a jpeg (which flattens the image and makes one layer out of many).
There is ONE MORE THING I'd like to mention. Let's say you just opened a template and you added an image, but it looks like this:
What now? Well, the template is obviously way bigger than the image. Unless you have a higher quality version of the image, you need to take the image out and re-size the template before using it. Right now, the template is 16x20 inches. You can re-size it using the methods explained above. 8x10 inches would be a good idea in this case, because it's still a standard print size. Or already re-size it for use online. When you are done, place the image again and now it should fit!
Does all of this sound very complicated and like a long process? Do it a couple of times and it will take all but 10 seconds. Promise.
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