Output Sharpening

[kpdesigns492]

I create photobooks in InDesign and have them printed on an HP Indigo at an online printer. But I'm unsure about a good workflow and how to involve output sharpening.

So far my process has been:

1. Edit images in Lightroom (color correction and capture sharpening)

2. Output full sized tiffs (no output sharpening) to a folder and then import them into my Indesign layout

3. Once finalized, I make a high res PDF and then rasterize the PDF and save it out as a high quality JPG.

I realize Output sharpening needs to get involved in this somewhere. Here are the two options I was toying with:

Option 1: After finalizing my InDesign doc, I can go back into lightroom and re-export all the tiffs at the proper size with output sharpening applied. Then just update them in my InDesign doc and follow through with my 3rd step above. (Only issue with that is I have 100s of images in my book and this would be very time intensive and not automated at all.)

Option 2: Instead of output sharpening each individual image, I could output sharpen the entire page. In step 3 above, I would make a PDF of the indesign pages, then rasterize them into tiffs, then output sharpen each page. Only problem with this is the fact that I have text on each page, and I'm concerned the text will not fair well with the output sharpening.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[digitaldog]

You could export (unfortunately) just a JPEG with LR’s output sharpening which is based on ink jet (not ideal).
You could output sharpen each image to the correct output size in Photoshop using something like PhotoKit Sharpener (for halftone output), then just link them in ID.
Sharpening the entire page? Don’t see that being a viable option.

[JeanMichel]

Hi,

Your printer should be able to print from either a "high quality print" or "press" pdf from your InDesign document. That is what I do.
Do your output sharpening in either Lightroom or PS before bringing in the images into your InDesign document. Make sure the images are sized for the design. Do not use InDesign to scale up or down your images, doing so kinda nullifies your sharpening work.
Jean-Michel

[irvweiner]

I just purchased "Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw and Lightroom" by Fraser & Schewe from Amazon, $25.50, free shpg. Came on Mon. and have been skimming it vigorously. Even after decades of photo activity I found the book a potent resource.  I did read the reviews (pro & con) about the book and made my choice and suggest you get a copy. From what you were discussing, there are many timing saving routines available to you.

good luck   irv weiner

[JeanMichel]

I just purchased "Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw and Lightroom" by Fraser & Schewe from Amazon, $25.50, free shpg. Came on Mon. and have been skimming it vigorously. Even after decades of photo activity I found the book a potent resource.  I did read the reviews (pro & con) about the book and made my choice and suggest you get a copy. From what you were discussing, there are many timing saving routines available to you.

good luck   irv weiner

Ditto!
And the LR tutorial video by Reichmann and Schewe  (from this site) is also very valuable.
Jean-Michel