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I hate to say it, but the print firm you're using is
full of morons.
> The design firm requested that we send all of our
> screenshots to them as TIFs (CMYK, 24-bit, and
> "uncompressed").
Are you producing full color output? If not, that's
waaaay overkill for printed screenshots. We do
grayscale, and RGB GIFs work fine (at about 5% the
file size of yours, I bet).
> The resolution of the screenshots is
> 92 DPI. The firm had to reduce the size of the
> screenshots to about 60% of their original size to
> fit
> them into the document.
You don't resize screenshots to get them to fit. You
increase the DPI values, thereby maintaining the
integrity of the original graphic but displaying it in
a smaller region. That is, a 96dpi image outputted at
192dpi will display 1/4 the size, but still be crystal
clear, because the same graphical information is being
displayed, only in a tighter-defined cluster, so to
speak.
> They are laying out the
> document in Quark.
Why are THEY doing the layout? Why not give them a
press-ready PDF?
> So the question is this: How do you produce
> screenshots that are "print-ready?"
Define print-ready. We produce 1-color books with
grayscale images. Those images can be RGB color, as
all the info will be translated to grayscale
automatically. No magic involved.
> How can I ensure
> that the screenshots I am delivering to the design
> firm have the adequate resolution to look good in
> offset printing?
Don't resize them. Just change the dpi values.
> I have seen many examples of
> offset-printed manuals with crystal-clear graphics
> (no
> matter how small).
Yup. Your print firm is crawling with morons.
> The firm says that they cannot improve the
> appearance
> of the graphics because of the limitations of
> screenshots in general, and they can offer no
> solution to the problem.
Ditch them. There is no limitation of screenshots that
will result in blurry output. That is the result of
"luser" error.
> That is why I am turning to you for
> your collective expertise. I couldn't find anything
> in
> the archives or on the web, believe it or not.
