Making TIFF and EPS files from Drawing, Word Processing, PowerPoint and

Graphing Programs

In the worlds of electronic publishing and video production programs, the need for TIFF or EPS
formatted files is a necessity. Unfortunately, most of the imaging work done in research for presen-
tation is done in PowerPoint, and this format simply cannot be used in most situations for these three
ends.

Files can be generally be saved or exported (by using either Save As or Export under File) into TIFF,
PICT or JPEG files from PowerPoint, drawing, word processing and graphing programs—all called
vector programs—but the results are often poor in resolution (in Photoshop these are shown as
having a resolution of 72dpi when opening the Image Size dialogue box: under Image on the menu
select Image Size).

Here are four ways to save as TIFF (generally the way in which image files are saved) or EPS (gen-
erally the way in which files are saved which contain lines or text):

Option 1. Use the Program’s Save As or Export option.

If it exists, use the Export or Save As option in your vector program. This only works well when a
dialogue box appears so that specific values for height, width and resolution can be typed in (as in
the programs Canvas and CorelDraw). Anti-aliasing should be checked. Resolution values of 300
dots per inch or pixels per inch is for images, 600 dpi is for images with text and 1200 dpi is for text,
graphs and drawings. If no dialogue box exists to type in these values, go to option 2 - 4.

Option 2. Scale to 4 times the dimensions, save as PICT or BMP.

1. Make the file 4 times as large as desired in the vector program. For example, if your file is at
page size, arbitrarily enlarge the file to 4 times those dimensions Under File, select Save As or Save.
Look for the option to save as PICT (Macintosh only) or BMP (Windows only). Avoid saving as a
JPEG because the resulting file will have information that is thrown away and some blurring can be
introduced.

2. Open the PICT or BMP file in Photoshop. Now reduce the size of the file to its original dimen-
sions by selecting Image Size under Image and type these values into the Width and Height boxes. If
these are going to a publisher, the width and height of columns can be found on the jouirnal’s in-
structions to the author. Be sure that Resample Image and Constrain Proportions are both checked.
For resolution put in

300 pixels/inch for images

600 pixels/inch for images and text
1200 pixels/inch for text and graphs and drawings

Note: this method may not yield adequate resolution. See page 4 for information on how to evaluate
resolution.
Option 3. Save as Acrobat file, then make a TIFF/EPS file in Photoshop.

If files cannot be saved as PICT, TIFF, EPS or BMP using either option above, or if you wish to
know one means for working with nearly every application (as long as the application has a Print
function), it is worth your while to learn how to convert files to the Acrobat format. This method
will consistently yield the best resolution and the most favorable color matching. See the next page
for information about the use of Acrobat.

Option 4. Print the Screen.

When print functions do not exist on the program and no means is available for high resolution
saving or exporting, the only option is to print the screen. Go into your control panel and set the
screen resolution as high as possible given your display card and monitor limitations. Make the
image fill the screen as much as possible.

On a Macintosh: Hold down the Command (Apple) key, the Shift key and the number 3 key at once.
You may hear a click. Go to your hard disk and look for a file (or several files if you pressed these
keys more than once) named Picture 1, Picture 2, etc. Open these images in Photoshop by first
opening Photoshop, then finding these files (versus the “normal” way of double clicking on the file
itself).

On a PC: Press the Print Screen button. Open Photoshop, under File select New. You will see a
dialogue box. Leave values where they are, but you may want change the Mode at the bottom of the
box to either Grayscale (if it is a grayscale image) or RGB Color.

You will have to crop out extraneous image information using the Crop tool in the toolbar. Outline
the area of interest and double click inside the outlined area to complete the crop. If the image
doesn’t have to be reproduced at larger than a column width, this means can work fairly well. Set
image size to 300dpi for images, 600dpi for text and images and 1200dpi for text, drawings and line
art. Under Image select Image Size to do so.
 MAKING TIFF FILES USING ADOBE ACROBAT
Vector to Image Files. Vector files—such as those generated by graphing programs, Microsoft
Word and PowerPoint—can be converted to high resolution TIFF or EPS files by using Adobe
Acrobat. In order to convert these files, you will need the full version of Adobe Acrobat and NOT
the free version of Acrobat (called Acrobat Reader). You can also download a converter to Acrobat
at the Microsoft website if you are only needing to convert from Word.

If the conversion is done correctly using the steps that follow, lettering on images will be free of
“chunkiness’ or pixelation and images will remain at high resolution.

Troubleshooting. You may, however, have some images that “drop out” or become negative im-
ages, or you may get an error message indicating that the file cannot be converted. That’s because
image files have been cut and pasted into your document, or the image file formats in your document
are unreadable by Acrobat. To fix this problem, remove all the images from the document and make
the Adobe Acrobat file and see if everything works. One by one drop the images into Adobe, until
the “corrupt” image is found.

Another problem that could occur is that is that the file structure cannot be recognized due to a
change in platforms (Mac to PC or PC to Mac). To correct this follow the earlier suggested steps to
find the “corrupt” file.

Some things to know about Acrobat:

Only limited editing can take place in Acrobat using what are called “touch up” tools.
It’s best to go back to the program in which the document was originally made to
make changes.

The point of Acrobat is to COMPRESS your file for the web. Thus default settings
may create compressed JPEG files unless these are changed.

All conversions to Acrobat come through the PRINT function (unless dragging to the
Acrobat Printer icon on a Macintosh).

ONLY print one page at a time to Acrobat in PowerPoint and other programs contain-
ing multiple pages of images and text.

GENERAL RULES FOR MAKING ACROBAT FILES

1. Under File in your vector application, choose Print.

2. From Printer drop down, choose Acrobat PDF Writer; or, when that option doesn’t exist, Acrobat
Distiller.
3. Click on Properties, Options, or Settings button to bring up more choices. Look for Adobe PDF
Settings, or Acrobat Settings or something with the word “Settings” in it (dialogue box naming
conventions seem infinitely variable depending upon software and operating system). You may
have to do some searching around. In many circumstances it is CRITICAL to find these settings.
If these don’t exist, then continue on to the next step.

4. Be sure to choose Press when choosing Conversion Settings versus eBook or Web. Again, naming
conventions change: look for a drop down box which gives you the Press selection if such a thing
exists.

5. That should be the only setting you need to choose for turning off compression and maintaining
resolution, but, to be sure, click on a button normally situated in the same dialogue box named
Edit Conversion Settings or Edit Settings, etc. In the Compression dialogue box, uncheck
Downsampling and Compression for all Color and Grayscale Images. Click Okay (you may be
required to save the setting before proceeding).

6. Click Okay buttons to return to Print box and print. It may take a while to generate the file. You
are prompted when it is done, but the dialogue box doesn’t close (so close the box). On the
Macintosh, the prompt lets you know the file has been generated, but the prompt is generally
premature and some indeterminate time needs to pass before the file is REALLY generated.

6. Open these files in Photoshop. You may see a dialogue box asking for width, height and resolu-
tion settings. Leave the width and height the same, but change the resolution to:

300dpi for images

600dpi for color graphs (re-sample as 1200dpi before saving final file AFTER cropping)
1200dpi for text and black and white graphs.

7. If necessary, use the crop tool to outline the graph or image and double click inside the outline to
crop out extraneous white area (the white area is considered by Photoshop to be a part of the
image, not some kind of white page in the background as in Word).

8. Flatten the image: under Layer in the menu select Flatten Image (Photoshop inserts an invisible
layer into both Acrobat and Illustrator files).

9. Re-save as either TIFF or as Photoshop EPS format: the TIFF format is generally intended for
images and it works best with inkjet printers, photographic printers and to publishers; EPS is more
ideal for text and drawings for the laser jet printer and to publishers. These can also be saved as
JPEG for insertion into Word, PowerPoint or for posting on the web.

TO BE SURE FILE HAS BEEN MADE AT HIGH RESOLUTION

Do NOT print to a laser jet printer unless your file is saved in the EPS format.
Do NOT check for pixelation in the image on the computer screen UNLESS zoomed in.
Screen resolution is generally poor for the evaluation of vertical, diagonal and horizontal lines. You must first
zoom way in with the magnifier tool in order to evaluate resolution, or print out on a good ink jet printer.
 THE EXCEL TO PDF GUIDE
This guide is to help you make Adobe Acrobat files from your Excel files. This is useful in
making your graphs into high quality TIFF files for printing. This is written for Windows and
Macintosh platforms, using Excel 2002 and Adobe Acrobat 5 for Windows and Excel 1998 and
Adobe Acrobat 6 for Macintosh.

WINDOWS:

First, you need to open your Excel file and click

on the graph you would like printed. Next, under
File on the menu, select Print.

In the Printer Name box, you should

select the Acrobat PDF writer. Click on
the Properties box.

Now you can set the size of your image, the resolution,
and the scaling. For most purposes, you will want to
have 300 dpi resolution and no scaling (100%).

Under compression, make sure all the compression

options are turned OFF. No boxes should be checked.
If all your setting are too your liking, click OK.

Now, you have an Adobe Acrobat file that you can

open up. Once you have opened your Acrobat file,
under File on the menu, choose Export>Extract as
TIFF.
 Again, under settings, you should choose no
compression. You now have a high-quality TIFF
image to work with, which makes life much
easier.

MACINTOSH:

First, you need to open your Excel file and

click on the graph you would like printed.
Next, under File on the menu, select Print.

A Print screen will appear. This screen may vary

for different versions of Excel. Under Printer:
you will want to select Create Adobe PDF if
possible, if this does not show up, such as in the
example shown, you simply choose Acrobat PDF
as the Format:. (Note: this method will only
work if you choose a LaserJet (Postscript) Printer.
Make sure the Destination: is File. Make sure
that no compression or downsample options are
checked. There may be a option entitled After
PDF creation: you can choose Launch Nothing,
(unless you would like Acrobat to open automati-
cally after your file is created, in which case you
would choose Launch Adobe Acrobat.) If there is
an option entitled Job Options, choose Press, do
not choose Ebook. After going through all of
these options, click Save to create your PDF file.

Once your PDF file is created, open it. Now you

can save your image as a TIFF file. To do this, go
to File>Export>Extract images>TIFF Files.
 POWERPOINT TO PDF GUIDE
This guide is to help you make PDF files from Powerpoint files. The reason you might want
to do this is so that you can make your Powerpoint slide, poster, image or whatever into a high
quality TIFF file for printing. This is written for both Macintosh and Windows platforms, using
Powerpoint 2000 and Adobe Acrobat 5.0 for Windows, and 4.0 for Macintosh. You must have both
Powerpoint and Acrobat to use this method, and while it is recommended to use the latest versions
of both programs, this guide will still be generally helpful for earlier versions as well.

WINDOWS:
First, you need to open a saved Powerpoint file. Then, if
everything looks good, you can proceed. Under File on the
menu, select Print. There is another way to do this, using the
“acrobat” menu, but this method seems to be more reliable.

Assuming you have Acrobat installed, in the Printer

Name box, you should select the Acrobat Distiller
option. Note: Do not check the “print to file” box.
Don’t need to worry about any of the other stuff in the
print dialogue box either, as none of it has to do with
PDF options. Once you have Acrobat Distiller selected,
click on the box marked Properties.

First you need to select your paper size. It is best if

you select the same size you eventually want to print
on. You also need to select whether it is portrait or
landscape orientation. If the paper size options it gives
work for you, great. Otherwise, scroll to the right, and
select the Custom option. A button marked Custom
will appear below. Click on this to set the paper size.

Put in the width and height of your document. Note

that if you’re making multi-page PDFs, say from a
series of slides, the width and heighth will be the same
for all of them. If you need different sizes/orientations
for various slides, you should do them individually.
Click ok, and go next to the Graphics tab. For most
purposes, 300 dpi is quite good resolution. You can
use 600 dpi if you need to, but remember it will create
a much bigger file size. You can change the scaling if
you need to.

Under the next tab, Postscript, you should choose

“postscript optimize for speed.”

Don’t worry about the Watermarks tab.

Under the Adobe PDF Setting tab, you should

choose the Print setting, as it gives you the best
image quality for file size.
Also, deselect View Result in Acrobat unless you
want Acrobat to immediately open every file right
after you save it.

You can click on “edit conversion settings” if you

want. You shouldn’t actually need to change
anything here though unless you want to. If you
change anything, click ok, if not, click cancel.

If everything else is ok, click OK, which takes you

back to your print menu, and then click Print. You
will be prompted to enter a filename and location
to save with, and then it will make a PDF of your
Powerpoint file.

Once you have your PDF file, you can open it in

Photoshop and save it as a high-quality TIFF. This
may seem like a lot of work but believe us, it’s
worth it.
MACINTOSH:
First you should open a saved Powerpoint file. Then,
if everything looks good, you can proceed. Under
the File on the menu, select Print. Note that not all
print windows have the PDF option. You probably
have to choose a laserjet printer in your Chooser.
Once in the print window, you must select “file” as
the destination.

Then, under settings (where it says General), go to the

“Save as File” option.

From the Format list, Choose Acrobat PDF.

At the bottom, you should select the appropriate

setting depending on whether your image is black
and white, grayscale, or color. Then, you should
deselect the compress text and line art, as well as the
zip/jpeg compression. For most purposes you can
leave downsample on, only you should change the
resolution to 300 dpi. For grayscale images you can
go as high as 600 dpi if you wish.

Then, hit save. You will be prompted to enter a name

and choose a location to save your file. It may take a
while, and your computer may seem very slow, but
eventually you will get a PDF file.