I am no expert at this, but this is how I understand it:

You need to know the desired print resolution *first* before you start making the image. You can't add detail (resolution) to the image after you've made it. When it comes to resolution, it is best to have too much and scale it down later than too little and be stuck with an image that looks good on a monitor but ugly on paper.

Go to manual.gimp.org. The on-line manual requires Javascript. Go to Part IV Chapter 14 on pre-press. This will explain the issues well.

Read it before you start your project.

I can't remember how to get gimp to show you the image at "life size". I'll let you know if I find out.

On Thu, Apr 24, 2003 at 11:19:41AM -0400, Narramore wrote:

I am starting to work on designing my book cover and I want the image on my computer screen to be 5.5 by 8.5 like the book will actually be.

I set the GIMP image resolution to the same as my display resolution is in my Linux settings and then set the new image size to 5.5 x 8.5 but the image on the screen is much smaller than it should be.

What is the key here? I think I have read something about this but don't remember where.

When it comes to actually making an image for the printing company I think I have to find out what their print resolution will be. Is that correct?

Does anyone know of a book or tutorial that covers all these details, step-by-step?

Thanks,

Matt

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