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6 2 G R A P H I C S P R O • O C T O B E R 2 0 2 2 G R A P H I C S - P R O. C O M FORMATS THAT MOVE An image format consists of a configuration of data that sup- ports its placement in a software program. Among the 40 that Photoshop opens and the 21 formats that it saves to are the most common and versatile formats specifically designed for prepara- tion for printing and publishing environments. Because of this versatility, Photoshop can be quite useful for opening and con- verting files for placement into specific editing environments. SAVE AS e Save As dialog box enables file conversion on the fly. An image can be opened and saved as a different format by choosing a specific format from the pull-down menu, as shown in Fig. 4. When a format is selected, the dialog box presents checkboxes with the individual characteristics of the document that the format supports. For example, the TIFF format supports layers, but the Layers box will only be checked if the document contains layers; other- wise, it will be grayed out. To flatten the image when saving the file, uncheck the Layers checkbox. When the box is unchecked, the file name will automatically add the word "Copy" to pre- vent discarding the original layered file. Flattening an image destined for print is recommended to reduce processing time. OUTPUT At this point, we've covered the key design and production essentials of the workflow. But what about the final steps – printing multimedia and web publishing? Of course, these steps depend on how the piece is going to ultimately be used. Is it going to be distributed in a magazine, a brochure, a poster, a billboard, or exclusively online? Hopefully, the destination of the piece was determined at the initial stages of the workflow because production is inevitably dependent on numerous fac- tors specific to the type of output. Frequently, during the pro- duction phase, multiple versions of the layout are developed simultaneously that account for the specific characteristics of individual media, including size, resolution, color manage- ment, quality, and distribution. BOTTOM LINE Ultimately the successful integration of type and images gen- erated from multiple software programs and combined into a single publishable document relies on the knowledge of the artist or technician on how best to unite the images, text, and graphics into a cohesive whole. Brilliant design concepts can only be realized if the big picture is taken into account from the start, researching and developing a concept into a tangi- ble composite and engineering documents whose color is syn- chronized and whose formats are compatible. e realization of the many elements of a quality media piece is a combina- tion of aesthetic and technical skills that are acquired through education, practice, and experience. GP Stephen Romaniello is an artist and educator who has taught computer graphics since 1990. He's a certified instructor in Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Premier and the author of various works on the creative use of graphics soft- ware. Stephen is the founder and CEO of GlobalEye Systems, a company that offers training and consulting in graphics software and creative imaging. S I G N A G E & P R I N T I N G S O F T W A R E T I P S & T R I C K S Fig. 3: Color Management Policies in the Color Settings dialog boxes of each program in the suite determine how the files are processed when opened. Fig. 4: The Save As dialog box can determine an image's file format when saved.