How do I save powerpoint slide as a high resolution/300dpi image? (for a photobook)

Question

So, I'm making a photobook but want my own layout - so want to create high resolution pdfs (or jpegs) to put straight into the photobook software.

I'm using powerpoint to put together the pages - and have figured out how to create jpegs - but they are too low in quality.

any tip on getting a higher dpi from the slides? (and yes - I'm using massive photo files within the powerpoint...)

thank you!!!

Answer 1

This is how I achieved it on Mac:

1. I needed to print my visiting cards (3inches x 2inches or 900x600 pixels @300dpi) on a gum sheet of 18 inches x 12 inches, as many as possible.
2. Open a new powerpoint project. Click File>Page Setup and give custom page dimensions in cms. In my case 45.71cms x 30.48cms.
3. Now choose your high resolution image/s (300 dpi) which you need to arrange in your slide. My visiting card was 900x600 pixels at 300 dpi. To import it in slide, click Insert>Picture>Picture from file.
4. Arrange the pictures however you want. In my case, I pasted the same image in a 6x6 grid format, total 36 times on the slide.
5. Now, the hackish part. As you know powerpoint wont allow you to save a picture higher than 2999x1999 resolution, that too at 72 dpi, not suitable for publication. Instead, simply select all images on the slide (Command+A). Open Mac "Preview". In preview, choose File> New from Clipboard. And save this file as jpeg (choose "best" quality).
6. Presto! The new file, for me, was 5400x3600 at 300 dpi, exactly what I wanted.

Answer 2

I just did some experimentation. I am seeing some differences in file sizes using JPEG when I use the don't compress setting, but other formats don't seem to be affected. By far, the best output is when I save as PDF.

And I forgot to mention that when you use File > Save As there's an options button. Click the button to display a PowerPoint preferences dialog. At the bottom of the dialog you can specify how many pixels you want saved. The more pixels you save, the picture is either bigger or more dense (higher resolution) depending on how you want to look at it.

Answer 3

Not relevant to the original question really, but ...

>> GIF and BMP are low-quality formats.

Too broad a (paint)brush, Jim.  ;-)

GIF, yes, because it's restricted to 256 colors.  But a properly made BMP will be the quality equivalent of a PNG, but will generally be bigger because its compression (if applied at all) is less sophisticated.  And an improperly made PNG might be 8-bit rather than 24-bit, so as limited as a GIF of the same image.

But back on track:  PDF first, then PNG?  Right on target.

As you mention later, you can use the Options button to specify the output resolution (in pixels) for PNG and the like.  This lets you go up to 2999 pixels wide by howevermany high.  Seems that both Mac and Windows versions have the same 3000 pixel limit.

Answer 4

thanks for this - yes - the photobook does accept PNG files. However the powerpoint is still decreasing my images. 

How do you set powerpoint to retain the original image size? I've gone to:

File

Reduce File Size

it's automatically set on '200ppi' so I've experimented saving the file using this setting - but also changed it to 'keep current resolution' - neither works - the png file is still woefully small.

and yes - my original image is massive.

any tips? this is driving me nuts. Does anyone know how to create printer-perfect (ie, high resolution) images (pages) from powerpoint?

or should I just buy new graphics software? Wish I had my old Microsoft Publisher at this point!

argh!!!!

Answer 5

Does your Photobook software accept PNG or PDF format as input? Those are the two formats I would go with if possible.

The steps I would normally take to save a presentation as pictures:

1. On the File menu choose Save As
2. In the Format pop-up choose the desired picture format.
3. Click the Save button

Generally, PDF gives you the highest quality output - especially for charts, WordArt, and drawing objects. PNG is my next favorite. JPEG is OK. TIFF is good but makes large files. GIF and BMP are low-quality formats. Try the various formats and see how they look in Photobook.