Re: Scanning an illustration...

[Arthur Entlich <artistic-1@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Caren,

Most Royalty Free images come from either website downloads or CD-ROM 
disks.  Often they are in collections for which a set fee is paid for 
unlimited use, although you or he (or both) need to read the licensing 
agreement carefully, as some "Royalty free" images cannot be used in 
commercial endeavors, some cannot be used if the product they appear in 
is to be sold, some cannot be used they will be reproduced over a 
certain quantity, some require a copyright notice from the Royalty free 
company, etc.  You need to know this information, or you could end up 
with a lawsuit.

They can come in all sorts of formats from Kodak PCD to standard TIFF to 
JPEG to proprietary formats.  Some come with readers on the CD-ROM. 
They also come in many resolutions, sometimes depending upon how much is 
paid for the CD-ROM or image download.  So you need to make sure the 
image resolution will be adequate for a large blow up as you are 
discussing.  The reason I know this stuff is because I have sold my work 
to royalty-free photo stock companies.

As to the illustration, there are a number of ways this can be dealt 
with.  Assuming the image is fairly detailed and large, you probably 
want to have it photographed on film, probably negative film, and again 
due to the size of the POP or poster ad, I'd suggest medium (2 1/4 x 2 
1/4") or large format (4x5"), if the illustration itself can handle 
being enlarged without defects in the work showing up.  The reason I say 
this is that if the illustration is small to begin with, there may not 
be an advantage to shooting in a larger format if it is only going to 
show up a bunch of wonky art, bad frisket work, etc.  Then, a 35mm might 
help to soften and hide some of this.  If you are good with Photoshop, 
you can do more clean up with a large format neg once it is scanned, 
which brings us to step two... Make sure you hire a photographer or a 
pre-press guy that knows how to work with flat art.  It's trickier than 
it appears to get square edges, no reflection, even lighting, etc. 
Someone with a large vacuum frame and a copy camera may be the best way. 
  If you can find someone who is working with a high resolution digital 
camera back, you can skip one step by just having the illustration shot 
digitally and the file placed on a CD-R.

If you go the film route, the next step is to get the digital file made. 
  You can consider either a drum scan, or one of the upper end medium 
format scanners.

Be prepared to work with some rather large files for the POP or poster 
sized images, but keep in mind you do not need supper high ppi for large 
posters for this type of purpose, as no one will be reading it at 4" 
away.  If you can get 150 -200 dpi in final format that's as good as you 
will need in most cases.  However, you didn't mention if the poster 
sized images will be printed offset or by some more "one of" process 
like a large carrier inkjet printer.  If it is offset, make sure to 
speak to your printer before you get the work done so you know what the 
final resolution he requires.  Also ask about file format and if he 
prefers to work from RGB or CMYK files, and if he works with postscript 
output and Pantone colors... you probably know this type of stuff from 
previous A.G. jobs.

Some large format inkjet printer companies use software like Genuine 
Fractals to allow the work to be expanded considerably without edge 
definition loss.  Again, try to speak with the company that is making 
the final output prior to all this.

If the print ad is to appear in a magazine, make sure you get the 
guidelines from the magazine publisher or A.G. prior to finalizing the 
ad, they make have certain requirements in terms of standards of line 
screen, contrast, color levels, crop lines, etc.  You want to avoid 
nasty surprises that can become very expensive repairs after the fact.


Good luck with your project,

Art

Ceejay3@aol.com wrote:

> Anyone who has done an ad as a freelancer - I could use your help!
> My client may use a royalty-free photo in which case would come to me already 
> scanned by the stock house (I assume.)
> But now he is thinking of using an illustrator...
> If the illustrator does an acrylic on canvas - how in the world do you scan 
> that??  I can take it to a place - but what do I ask for? i assume it is not 
> a drum scan anymore..?
> Sorry for my ignorance. I am an art director and never had to act like a 
> print producer before now...
> 
> FYI - the scan has to work in an 8.5 x 11 print ad - but also blown up to a 
> 9ft x 9ft trade show banner...
> I am on a Mac if that matters.
> 
> Please help!!
> You can email me directly at ceejay3@aol.com
> Thanks!
> -Caren
> -


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