non-printable web only

Im trying to make images to send by email size 640x480. I want them to look ok but if printed not very good or if put on web to look ok what do I need to do. When I crop then use the resize they still come out looking good enough for most people when printed. I want them web usable only. Any ideas I'm lost.

What are you trying to prevent, or force? Are you trying to force a print purchase from you vs. printing whatever you posted on the web?

If you want to just 'ruin' the photo, then watermark them strongly along one edge so that they can see the photo but if they printed it they'd have to crop it so heavily it wouldn't be the same.

EDIT: removed bad NFO; doh!

Im selling them for web use. To be used on Facebook or just viewing on their own computer.

HammerCope wrote in post #11933766
Im selling them for web use. To be used on Facebook or just viewing on their own computer.

For Web use, you have to understand that monitors will vary in how images look. For a "quick" approach, just get something that looks good on your monitor. For something more "solid" (advanced/complicated) look at the stickies in this section at color problems/color management.

S.Horton wrote in post #11933703
What are you trying to prevent, or force? Are you trying to force a print purchase from you vs. printing whatever you posted on the web?

In either case, what software are you generating the jPGs with?

Generally speaking, if I wanted to make sure they could play on Facebook but not print, I'd render them at 72 dpi. At 96 dpi, they could get printed, but not very large.

Sam, pal, the "ppi" resolution means nothing to digital images and Web display. The Web displays an image at 100%, meaning that the image displays at "full bore", meaning you have to display an image on the Web that has been sized so that a full-sized image will display "normally", not huge.

Dpi means nothing, the tag can be changed in ten seconds and the image size will remain the same. Pixels is the only thing that counts.

OP - Other than putting a semi-transparent watermark over the image there is nothing you can do. 480 x 640 (or 720) pixels is probably the smallest you can post for reasonable viewing and there will be people who will print them at 4x6 inches on plain paper and a cheap office printer and be entirely satisfied. If they want to spend a little money almost any lab will resample them from 120 ppi to 240 ppi or 300 ppi and sell them a print.

I'll tell you a little story: Last week I sent off a file to my regular lab to be printed at 20x30. I usually drive over to them and take my photos on a usb key, but this time I uploaded it through the 'net after preparing it at 6000x9000 pixels (300 ppi). The upload took about 15 minutes and when it completed I got an automated announcement, "Your file can be printed at any size up to 200 x 300 inches." They were willing to accept a 30 ppi image!

tonylong wrote in post #11934606
For Web use, you have to understand that monitors will vary in how images look. For a "quick" approach, just get something that looks good on your monitor. For something more "solid" (advanced/complicated) look at the stickies in this section at color problems/color management.



Sam, pal, the "ppi" resolution means nothing to digital images and Web display. The Web displays an image at 100%, meaning that the image displays at "full bore", meaning you have to display an image on the Web that has been sized so that a full-sized image will display "normally", not huge.

...except for the case of HTML having the browser render it differently, correct? Great story, so, I'm re-dacted. (thx)

I am using CS3.

Use a watermark, and accept that the quality of web images will be good enough (for some people) to print them.

Maybe also use a Flash website, so your images can't be captured with a simple mouse click action?

ChasP505 wrote in post #11935305
Maybe also use a Flash website, so your images can't be captured with a simple mouse click action?

Good idea.

René Damkot wrote in post #11935066
Use a watermark, and accept that the quality of web images will be good enough (for some people) to print them.

I agree. I've had people tell me that they took a 600px 80KB web image & made a "Great looking!" 8X10" print from it! I tell them to please tell people that I didn't make it for them.

A BIG watermark with © & maybe the text underneath saying "This image was stolen from..." probably wouldn't make much difference, either.

I'm selling it the right to them to be used on a FB page or personal at home viewing. It will have a copyright mark on it. I just don't want them to be able to make a good print at home.