Quality Check Tips

[loucee]

Hi Ladies, I have put a few basic quality check screen shots together for you just in case you need any help with checking your entries for quality.

Elements



















Papers








Hope this helps some of you

[kimberkatt]

That is awesome Lou! Well done & Thank you!!

[Lara's Digi World]

Well done Lou! I´m sure it helps a lot!

[browneyedsusan]

excellent advice. Hadn't read one of them. Thanks!!

[jilbert]

great advice ... I hadn't thought about the size part ... definitely going to have to keep that in mind! Thank you!!!!

[Jilbs]

Thanks Lou! This is excellent!

[SnickerdoodleDesigns]

Great tips, Lou, and wonderful samples!

[Janet-B]

Wonderful examples, Lou!

[NancyP]

Wow! What a great help. Thank you!

[jusmedigital]

fantastic tut, Lou!! great information here!

[kookycatdesigns]

These are great tips! I sometimes struggle with the size thing because I like to keep things big in case someone wants to use a graphic for a hybrid project, you can always go smaller but not larger, kwim. I think I'm getting better at that, I look back on some of my older stuff and things were always huge!

[loucee]

I am very much a hybrid project person and I do tend to save my doodle style elements larger for the very same reason :0)

[Gabri]

Thank you so much for the wonderful check tips!

[NancyP]

This thread has been a great help, but I do have some questions. For you PSE users, what is the difference between FIT TO SCREEN - ACTUAL PIXELS and PRINT SIZE . If I were putting an element in a kit, which one would I use to check the size that the person would see when she downloads it. What would I use if I were saving it to send through an email to someone----for example, a recipe exchange card.
Also, I know that you save papers at 300ppi in jpeg but is it the same for elements?
Then, on the pink paper that shows the sharpness---also the flower. What can I do to be sure to get this sharpness?
And I don't know anything about the Magic Wand Tool. What does this tool do to correct an element?
Thanks for all your help!!

[kimberkatt]

great questions Nancy!

ACTUAL PIXELS - this will show your element/paper at 100% detail, meaning this is how it will look when printed full-size. This is how you check for strays/jaggies and blurriness

PRINT SIZE - this will show you how big/small your element/paper will print. example: if you are working on a flower and hit print size and it's larger than your PSE working screen, it's going to be too big for print! Another way you can check the size of an element is by copying the element into a new 12X12, 300dpi document to determine proportion size... if the flower covers almost the entire 12X12, then you need to size it down because it's too big

FIT TO SCREEN - this is used to fit the image to the PSE working background, it's not really a determination of size/quality, just for working purposes

300dpi - yes, all papers and elements should be saved at 300dpi for optimal print quality

Sharpness - this is tricky, if your paper/element is blurry at 100% detail, it's tough to get rid of it! Most of the time, it's impossible to remove all the blur, a reason why so many Commercial Resources are unusable in Scrap Products. You can try to run the "Sharpen" filter, but be careful not to run it too high/low as it can mess with the effect you're trying to achieve, hence the reason it's so tricky to remove blur. Someone else who's more experienced in designing might be able to answer this better

Magic Wand - this is a selection tool. I use it most often to select inside/outside of an element to get rid of shadows or to select certain parts of an element/paper for recoloring. There are other uses, but, again, I'm not that advanced

Saving - The actual pixels/fit to screen/print size features have nothing to do with saving the image. You need to check your image size and resolution for save purposes. I almost always open a new 12X12, 300dpi document, then copy/paste my elements into that to work on them, then, once I have what I want, I do "Trim" to trim the extra blank space around the element, then "Save As" either Jpeg or PNG - if saving a jpeg, I always choose 10 quality or higher, this way it's saved at the highest quality for printing.

If Saving to post in the gallery, I choose "Save For Web", change the 3600X3600 at the bottom to 600X600 and quality at the top to around 55-60 - this is the best and easiest way to save for posting to the web without creating a blurry image.

hope this helps some!

[mama4bears]

Wow, Kimberly! You really put a lot of answers in one post. Thanks for being so willing to help!

[msbrad]

Super examples.
m

[avalon4]

This is a super thread you started LouCee. I think it will immensely help some of the newer designers. I wish I had this when I first started, but luckily I come from a graphics background so some of it I already knew. I know I may have voted for a few more minis submitted had the quality been a bit better. I'm sure this is going to help so many "newbies". Great idea

[kimberkatt]

Originally Posted by mama4bears

Wow, Kimberly! You really put a lot of answers in one post. Thanks for being so willing to help!

You all are very welcome, "help" is my middle name If I know the answer, I'll gladly share! Everyone helped me tremendously when I wanted to start designing, and this is my way of showing my appreciation! Without those willing to share their info, we'd all be lost!

[loucee]

Originally Posted by mama4bears

Wow, Kimberly! You really put a lot of answers in one post. Thanks for being so willing to help!

Okay, can I come from behind the tree now haha! I'm glad Kimberley put the explanations up, That was a lot of questions that Nancy asked!

Thanks Kim, you're a star!