Photoshop Elements Mac - saving images to print?

[mom2triplets04]

It's been since 2012 that I have used photoshop elements so bare with me. I have some questions as I can't remember certain things. Can anyone help.

Question:
1. When designing my page I make the page 12 x 12 in size. But I do remember I had to resize the image to 8 x 8 because that is the size I have my page printed at? Do you save both images 12 x 12, 8 x 8 and also web 600 x 600? Sorry want to get this right before I create many pages and don't know how to get them printed

2. What company do you use to have pages printed at? I'd like it to be in a book format I guess like I did in the past probably 8 x 8 in size

I'm sure I will have more questions but I need to get away from my computer and do other things.

 

[Vicki Robinson]

I'm sure others will chime in with their printing suggestions, but in answer to your Question 2, I use either Shutterfly or Persnickety Prints to print my books.

For Question 1:

I always create and save my PSD file in 12 x 12, 300 ppi, because then I can save in any smaller size that I wish.

When I am ready to print for my book, and after saving my 12 12 12 PSD:

• Go to Image, Image Size, Resize Image and change the dimensions to the size I want to print in — in your case 8x8.
• Then go to File, Save as and choose "JPEG" from the format dropdown options.
• Navigate to where you want to save your file and give it a name - you may want to add something like "for-print" to the end of the name.
• Click the Save button and then, in the JPEG Options box, move the Quality slider all the way to the right (Maximum) and Click OK.
• At this point DO NOT SAVE your PSD again, or you will overwrite the 12 x12. The JPEG file you saved (which will have a .jpg at the end), is what you would upload to a printer.

You only need a 6x6 file if you are going to upload your layout to an online gallery. To do that:

• Start with your saved12 x12 PSD
• Then choose File, Save for Web.
• Under the Preset box, be sure to choose JPEG
• Where it says New Size, enter the width of 600. When you press the Enter/Return key, the Height box should change to 600 as well. If it doesn't type that in
• Notice that the preview boxes on the left will show you the size of the original image on the far left and the new size on the right. You want that right number to be as close to 250 as you can get, without going over. If the number is at 250 to start with, you should be fine. If it's over, type in a number in the Quality box at the top of the screen (or scrubby slide the mouse on the word "quality") until the number gets below 250. Don't worry if the box next to the number changes to "low" or something else, what you care about is that the file size is below 250.
• Click Save and then navigate to where you want to save your file and give it a name. You may want to add something like "for-web" at the end, so you know which file to upload to a gallery.

Let us know if you need more help.