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How can I get a
picture into a newsletter?
Digital cameras, scanners or photo CDs all work
fine as a source for your photos. You will need a design or publishing
program (software that is made to integrate photos and text together) for
best results. You can use a word-processing program, but most of them tend
to be harder to use for newsletters and similar things than
design/publishing programs. Here are the steps: Select your photo and get
it into digital form onto your hard drive (scan it, use a digital camera
file or copy it from a disk). Open it in an image-processing program to
make sure the picture is the right size. You’ll want to have a photo file
that gives you approximately the size you expect to use, for example,
4x5-inches, at 300 dpi (a safe setting that works with all inkjet
printers). You can resize your image later if you decide to make it bigger
or smaller in the actual newsletter. Be sure you resize larger photos down
if you use them smaller or you will bog down your computer with excess
data to deal with. You’ll need to get a bigger photo (rescan or a
different file) if you decide to make a picture larger. If you just make a
photo in your newsletter bigger without the right size file to support it,
it will never look its best.
Save
your photo in the right type of file. All design/publishing programs will
recognize and import TIFF or JPEG files. Open your design/publishing
program. Use the tool that allows you to draw in a photo box to mark a
place for your photo. Import the photo into the box. Sometimes you can
double click on the photo box or it will be in the menu. Find your file
and bring it in. Size it carefully in your newsletter and note the size.
Be sure that final size is close to the size of the image as it came from
the image processing program. Don’t make your photos too small. A big
mistake in many newsletters is that too many photos are crammed on a page.
That makes them hard to read and understand for the reader. A thin black
line for a border can make lighter photos stand out better on the page and
often gives a picture a classy look.
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