We accept both tif and jpeg files. We prefer to receive jpegs only because they take up less space and transfer faster on their way here and internally around the lab.

It could, but only if you've saved changes to your jpeg more than 10 or 12 times or saved it with a quality level of less than 10. Each time you save changes to a jpeg file, the file is re-compressed which slightly degrades image quality. If it's compressed with a lower quality level, the loss of quality happens much more quickly. Our tests have shown the quality loss is imperceptible until the 10th or 12th time it is compressed, but only when saved at the maximum quality level. If you have a file that will require a lot of work, you should save it internally as a tif or psd and then save it as a jpeg only when it's ready to send to the lab. Jpegs should always be saved at a quality level of 10 or 12.

Our preferred method of submission is KMI ROES. Orders can be sent via the internet; through ROES or dropped directly to our ftp site. We can also accept the orders on CD. If you want to send orders without using ROES, a CD with printed instructions or an enclosed Word document (for electronically submitted orders) works. We also accept film and film processing orders, although they will be scanned and printed digitally.

We use SRGB because it matches the color gamut of Endura papers the best. To keep your workflow simple, we recommend setting your camera, raw converter and Photoshop all to default to the SRGB color space. The recommended Photoshop color settings are shown below. To access this dialog box, go to Edit->Color Settings. The boxes highlighted in yellow are the ones we're most concerned with. If you always work with srgb images, these settings will never be used. But if something isn't set up properly or you get an image in the wrong color space, you will at least know that there may be an issue.

A histogram is a graphical representation of the pixel values in a digital image. The most important use of your camera histogram is to check your exposure. In simple terms, if your histogram touches or extends past the left edge of the graph, your image is underexposed. Conversely, if your histogram touches or extends past the right edge of the graph, your image is overexposed. Depending on scene content, you may have more of your graph to the left (darker pixels) or more to the right (lighter pixels), but as long as it stays between the end lines of the graph, your exposure is good.

A proper white balance is absolutely critical for obtaining a high quality digital print. The proper white balance setting assures a neutral image. When possible, a custom white balance is the most accurate method of neutralizing the color of an exposure. Once your histogram shows you have a proper exposure, you can then perform a custom white balance.

Techniques may vary by camera manufacturer, but the principle is the same. With a proper exposure of either a white or 18% gray card filling the frame, select custom white balance from the menu items in your camera and hit enter. The software automatically adjusts the color to neutralize the exposure. This white balance will be good as long as your lighting stays the same. If anything changes the color of light, a new custom balance needs to be set. In some instances, a custom white balance would be impractical. In these cases, your best bet would be to use one of your camera's preset white balance settings. The auto balance setting is the least accurate method and should be avoided.

The easiest method is to crop in ROES as you're placing orders. You can crop each print size individually without actually changing the image. For odd print sizes or if you just prefer cropping in Photoshop, here's the method we recommend. After selecting the crop tool, type the print width and height in the dialog box, but leave the resolution blank (not zero). Cropping with this method assures your original file will never be interpolated more than once when making multiple sizes from the same image.

Crop your image to the correct proportions using the method explained above. When submitting through ROES, order the closest print size available and explain in the information section what size we actually need to print. Our technicians will fix the order before printing. For paper orders, send the cropped file with a note explaining what print size you'd like.

When you're ready to register your copy of KMI ROES, call 800-362-6678 and we'll assign a username. We'll need your email address for order confirmation at that time.

The first dialog box on the "Review Order" screen is "Order Number", which must be a unique number. When sending orders electronically, this number comes from a sheet of labels supplied by the lab. After entering the number, the label can be affixed to your paper work for reference. If you send the order on CD, you'd use the number from one of our work order forms; and then send one of the copies with the CD. The next box, "Order Name" can be anything you choose to describe your order.

If you're using a properly calibrated, high quality monitor and color correct viewing lights, there's no need to match our printers. We've matched our printers to a calibrated monitor under optimal viewing conditions. Depending on your viewing conditions, you may have to tweak your monitor slightly with the color controls, to match our prints more closely.

You can make your images grayscale in a number of ways. If you are using ROES, you can just click the "Gray Tone" box under Options->Color Tone. There are several methods you can use with Photoshop; the most common are Lab Mode, Desaturate and Convert to Grayscale. Please note that images must be converted back to rgb before sending to the lab if you use one of these methods.

To be safe, use only numbers, letters and underscore "_". Other characters can make filenames invalid in our printing software.

Absolutely! Almost 35% of our customers still use at least some film. We plan to process film as long as we receive enough volume to keep the chemistry in our processors fresh. At this time we plan to process film for a minimum of a couple of years.

Final CDs on all print orders are included at no charge. The only exceptions are studio corrected orders. Because we make no changes to the files, a new CD would just be a duplicate of the one you sent us.

Because we add a small amount of sharpening at our printers, we suggest a very low level or no sharpening in your camera. Each camera can be different and we cannot turn off the sharpening at the printer, so test prints are the only way to be sure you'll get the amount of sharpening you like.

The acronym "ftp" stands for file transfer protocol. FTP offers an easy drag and drop method for transferring files over the internet. For Windows users, we recommend a free download called Smart FTP. If you run a Mac, Cyberduck seems to work well. To get started you'll need our FTP address (209.103.207.115) and a username and password. Please call 800-362-6678 to get help and/or a user ID and password. For ROES users, you can send orders to our FTP site or send them directly through the KMI ROES Client. The ROES method is the least complicated way to handle data transfers.

No! You can open and resend the order without re-creating it. Here's how. In ROES go to "Open & Save" and select "Open an Incomplete Order" to see a list of your orders. After opening the correct order, you'll see the message "Are you sure you want to replace the current order with this one?". Click Yes. After the order opens, you'll get a message stating "This order appears to be a completed order. Do you want to replace the current order with this one? If this order has already been sent,this could result in duplicates". Press "Yes" and you're ready to go.

If you were sending the order via FTP, simply re-open your FTP program, drag the file back to your FTP folder and when asked if you want to re-send or resume, press resume and it will continue from the point where it stopped.

Unfortunately there is no one correct answer to this question. I'll give you some data and opinions and you'll have to decide which method makes the most sense for your skill level and workflow. First, a properly exposed and white balanced raw file and high quality jpeg file will yield identical prints. There is no quality difference. The advantage in shooting raw is that for a less than perfect exposure and white balance, you can make the necessary changes to get that perfect exposure (unless you're more than 1 stop overexposed). Even then, you'll get much better results than trying to fix overexposure in Photoshop.

The disadvantage to shooting in raw is the extra space that the raw files use on your camera cards and hard drives, and the extra time involved in converting each file to a jpeg before sending it to the lab. Conversely, if you shoot in jpeg, more images will fit on your cards and hard drives but you lose the ability to correct mistakes. My opinion is that if you're somewhat new to digital photography, shooting in raw is a must. For everyone else, it just depends on your comfort level and digital expertise.

Yes! Simply choose the product for the size template you'd like to create. Next, select the "Pager" icon to the lower left of your blank canvas. You can now draw text and image nodes on the canvas and add any effects you'd like. For help on using the Pager tools, please call 800-362-6678 and ask for Doug.