Pictorial Directory photo size

[prentz]

Hi. We are planning to print our own pictorial directory. We will take our own photos and upload into Powerchurch. Our version is 10.4. We will then either send to a book publisher or a local printing company. I am wondering what resolution of photos works best for this type of project. It appears that I will have to save the directory as a PDF. Is there another option? I've uploaded some photos into members household and some don't look too good (almost pixely or grainy looking). Is there a certain resolution that works best, especially if I will save as a PDF and then send. I don't know what all my options are yet. Any advice would be appreciated.

[NeilZ]

Hi. We are planning to print our own pictorial directory. We will take our own photos and upload into Powerchurch. Our version is 10.4. We will then either send to a book publisher or a local printing company. I am wondering what resolution of photos works best for this type of project. It appears that I will have to save the directory as a PDF. Is there another option? I've uploaded some photos into members household and some don't look too good (almost pixely or grainy looking). Is there a certain resolution that works best, especially if I will save as a PDF and then send. I don't know what all my options are yet. Any advice would be appreciated.

I forget if this is available in v10.4 or not, but in v11 you do have the option to use higher resolution photos. In any case, you should use the highest resolution possible. Many digital SLRs have setting that allow you to select what they call a medium size photo with a resolution of 2256x1496. I would try with that size of photo.

Also, do not use camera phones, or even small 'digital' cameras, I've found the resolutions on those items to be abysmal.

Finally, this is another good reason to look at upgrading to v11.55, better photo integration with individual photos being able to be included on the personal profile as well as a group photo on the mailing list profile.

Another good reason: v10.4 is no longer being supported by upgrades/maintenance releases.

[prentz]

Thank you so much. A lot of these were taken with camera phones and tablets just to get a photo (and prior to us thinking about a doing a directory). I'll take these suggestions to our staff who will be taking photos and hopefully some folks have some good quality cameras. Thank you again.

[Jeff]

when you import a picture into PowerChurch, even in the higher resolution mode, it is down sampled to 800 x 600. This is normally enough resolution to print a 2x3 picture. Which is usually large enough for database type reports. We have done lots of work to make pictures look better in the built in reports. I don't remember right off if those changes go back to 10.4 or not. It is generally better for the pictures if you use a pdf printer driver than export the report to PDF out of PowerChurch. The built in export compresses the pictures to keep the PDF file small. If you a PDF printer you will have more control of the quality of the PDF file.