Zapp's website says acceptable image file formats are jpeg, jpg, tiff, png. For the purpose of uploading to Zapp, is there a format or formats preferred over the others?
Also, is there any benefit to uploading anything higher than 72 ppi?
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Adobe photoshop is about the easiest way to do this on your own.
Ive done this as well for a couple artists here and their -
Zapplications even has some text on how to do this from their site !
a step by step approach . Not sure of the cost of the soft ware .
but the older versions do not require a yearly membership .
Think mine is like # 6
I have never uploaded an image that wasn't 1920 square with black borders. And I've worked with over 4000 artists and uploaded their images as part of the process.
Larry Berman
Larry, I read your articles Preparing Images for Zapp and Zapp Image Format Problem and I thought I had discovered why the images I uploaded to Zapp in the past looked so crappy - because I had been uploading according to Zapp's instructions (without black borders).
So I edited five of my images to include black borders (1920x1920), uploaded two and then compared them with their respective previous versions. The new ones were even crappier. I'm assuming they look bad because they're being scaled up in my browser.
Is there any way to tell how my images actually look to the jury? I'm not comfortable with how bad they look as I view them on Zapp.
I appreciate all your help!
Email me your zapp images and the originals and give me a call.
larry@bermanart.com
Larry Berman
I've been noticing the same problem on zapp. I am a photographer who does large prints. IN Photoshop I downsized my image to 1920 pixels at 72 ppi and did a save for web with high quality. The file size is 4 mb. I uploaded the image to my portfolio on Zapp and the image looks soft. I then loaded the same saved file back into Photoshop and the picture is nice and sharp. I noticed this phenomenon on most of my uploads, but with different degree of loss of sharpness. Does zapp do something to my photo after I upload it that ruins the quality? I notice that when you do an image upload to Zapp. It will say " Image successfully uploaded," and below that it says "Converting your file." I wonder if their conversion is what is ruining image quality.
Make sure your color space is still being retained in Save for Web. 4 meg file size seems awfully large, usually around 2M is typical, unless your work has a lot of intricate textures. There will be a reduction in sharpness and Save for Web does do a certain amount of sharpening. Try doing a conventional Save using Bicubic Sharper or possibly Nearest Neighbor to preserve hard edges. if your files are for 30x40 images and you're down-ressing for ZAPP, you are going to see a difference.
I re-saved the image at 1.7mb 1920x1920 at 72ppi. Uploaded to zapp and it is still soft looking on the zap website. So I re loaded the file into Photoshop and it looks great. The downsized image also looks perfectly sharp on my website. Its only o the Zapplication.org website that it looks soft. Maybe when Zapp sends the image to the show for jury it might look the way it is supposed to. I don't know.
I do judging on a major midwest art fair, and look at several media besides photography. Only rarely have I seen images that were soft, and usually it was with a new or low-skills artist. If you're doing all the right things, then I wouldn't worry. BTW, no need to spec the image at 72 dpi as the software presents the image at about 80-85% of screen height automatically regardless of dpi setting.
Thanks for the info! If Zap shows the jury the file that I uploaded then I'm fine. Zap does downsize the file for view on their website. I think that is why I see a difference.
Always a JPEG 1920 long dimension if you only apply to monitor juried shows and 1920 square (with black borders) if you apply to projection juried and monitor juried shows.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100
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