disc 2007 guidelines and specifications, 2nd edition

8/7/2019 DISC 2007 Guidelines and Specifications, 2nd Edition

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A SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT TOGRAPHIC ARTS MONTHLY MAY 2007

Guidelines & specifications

DISC 2007 GUIDELINES AND SPECS2ND EDITION


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ce 2007 Guidelines & specifications

Over the past our years, digital photography has caused a revolution in how images are submitted or publication In

this brie time, photographers have shi ted rom providing lm-based images to providing almost 100% images romdigital cameras

The digital photography revolution has not been without problems Many digital imaging challenges still ace agenciesand publishers:

What is the minimum quality level or digital images based upon intended print output?By what standards will images be accepted or rejected?In what ormat should images be submitted?How should images be labeled so they can move directly into my digital workfow?

In 2003, the crisis in the rapid shi t to digital imaging was brought to the ore ront by Kin Wah Lam in his presentationThe Digital Photography Dilemma at the IDEAlliance annual SPECTRUM meeting The session generated suchinterest that it became clear that developing a standard methodology to enable digital photographers to convey intentin the nal printed output was critical As a result the DISC (Digital Imaging Submission Criteria) Working Group wasborn!

Today, digital photography is a reality, not just a promise Imaging technology has advanced ar beyond what weimagined in 2003 And the DISC Working Group is publishing the second version o our speci cations and guidelinesFor the rst time we are including a Best Practices or digital photographers whose target output is print We arealso proud to announce the launch o a new tool, DISC Checker that will enable photographers to quickly and easilyveri y image quality based on intended print output, embed metadata labels into images in a batch mode and evenautomate image submissions over the Internet It is our hope that our new speci cation, best practices and DISCChecker will help standardize digital image submission throughout the industry

DISC Working Group Chairs,

John DoughertyDirector o Digital TechnologyHachette Filipacchi Media

Kin wah LamDirector o Digital DevelopmentTime, Inc

DISC Guidelines & Specifcations 2007

G r a p h i c a r t s M o n t h l y M 2 0 0 7

DISC GUIDELINES & SPECIFICATIONS 2007


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DISC Image Quality Specifcations Image File FormatsDigital cameras can be set to store images in a varietyo ormats such as JPEG or TIF Those images, whendownloaded to a computer, can then be manipulatedby using photo editing so tware and stored in still other

ormats The publishers who participate in the DISCWorking Group have identi ed two delivery ormatsthat they will accept when images are submittedThese delivery ormats provide the image quality thatis required or print reproduction and can automaticallyfow into todays digital production workfows

Originally the rst acceptable digital image le ormatsspeci ed by DISC was DISC JPEG (compressed) DISCJPEG is not a special JPEG ormat Rather the DISCimplies that the JPEG image is stored as JPEG HighQuality 8 Higher JPEG compressions or lower qualityJPEG images are not acceptable according to the DISCSpeci cation

In the rapidly changing world o digital imaging, manyo the newer cameras now capture images in a ormatknown as camera raw or RAW (not an acronym) ARAW capture contains the actual values recorded bythe imaging sensor when the photograph was taken,without any in-camera processing that might lead to aloss o detail or other quality problems But submittingimages in RAW ormat can be problematic as this

ormat is highly proprietary and di ers rom one cameramanu acturer to another, and sometimes betweencameras made by one manu acturer As more camerassupport shooting images in RAW, publishers accepting

digital image submissions must determine which o the

many RAW ormats, i any, they will accept

In 2004, Adobe Systems developed a uni ed rawormat known as the Digital Negative (DNG) To dateew camera manu acturers have embraced the ormat,

although a wide variety o photo production tools seemto be embracing DNG Recently the DISC WorkingGroup has added DNG to the list o acceptable imagesubmission le ormats DNG les are signi cantly largerthan DISC JPEG les, but many publishers believe thequality is worth the increased le size

Note: To be clear, DISC does not recommend usingJPEG as a capture ormat See the best practices

or recommendations on capture ormat DISC onlyrecommends JPEG as a delivery ormat

Today the pre erred delivery le ormats or DISC imagesubmissions are:

JPEG High Quality (level 8);DNG

Other Image Quality ParametersThe rst speci cation developed by DISC was aspeci cation that addressed image quality It seems thetrend is or photographers to submit many more imageswhen shooting with a digital camera than when shootingwith lm The shi t to digital, coupled with a deluge o images, has placed tremendous strain on photo editorialdepartments that were con ronted with sorting hugevolumes o images into those that were usable/printableand those that were not The DISC image qualityspeci cation provides guidelines or both photographer

and photo editors and opened the door to automating

M 2 0 0 7 G r a p h i c a r t s M o n t h l y

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DI S C GUI DE L I NE S & S P E CI F I CAT I ONS 2 0 0 7

What is DISC ?

The Digital Image Submission Criteria (DISC) WorkingGroup was ormed as an IDEAlliance Working Group underthe leadership o Kin wah Lam o Time Inc., and MichaelMacNamara, Popular Photography & Imaging. Themission o DISC is to develop a set o speci cations or use

by creative pro essionals, including photographers and illustrators, to standardizeimage ormat or submission to publications. DISC speci cations will allow ormaximum reproduction print quality while expediting the production workfow.The digital speci cations or image submission address relevant key issuesincluding size, resolution, compression, color space, image ormat and metadata.


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quality determination as images come in the door

It turns out that there are a host o actors a ectingimage quality The most critical actors or imagereproduction quality can best be measured by the linescreen ruling and dots per inch or dpi Line screen

ruling, also known as lpi, or lines per inch, is themeasure o the requency o the hal tone screen used toprint an image on a printing press or laser printer

When printing with new alternate screening, such asstochastic, line screen ruling becomes meaninglessHence or general application DISC 2 0 bases itscategories on dpi

Image resolution also a ects quality The resolutiono a digital image is de ned as the number o pixelsit contains A example o 2 megapixel image is 1734pixels wide and 1156 pixels high and has a resolution o 2,004,504 pixels, rounded o to 2 million pixels or 2 MPThe DISC recommendations are based on megapixels

Example image resolutions or digital cameras areshown below:

2 MP = 1734 x 1156 7 5 MP = 3354 x 22363 MP = 2124 x 1416 8 MP = 3462 x 23084 MP = 2454 x 1636 12 MP = 4242 x 28286 MP = 3000 x 2000 16 MP = 4902 x 3268

Image quality may also be a ected by the ISO ratingThe ISO rating indicates the level o sensitivity o thecamera to light Higher ISO ratings are associated withnoisier images Improvements in sensor technologyare steadily reducing the noise levels at higher ISOs,especially on higher-end cameras ISO is a actor inimage quality

DISC CategoriesThe DISC Working Group has developed a CategoryTable as a tool or publishers to communicaterequirements to photographers This table de nescategories or the digital images submitted to apublication Each category is based on the dots perinch, dpi, o the intended print image Publishers willuse this table to select the image quality category thatwork best or their publication and will use this categorydesignation when communicating requirements tophotographers

The 3 categories are:

Category A = 300 dpi (or 150 line screen or hal tone

screening)

Category B = 250 dpi (or 125 line screen or hal tonescreening)Category C = 200 dpi (or 100 line screen or hal tonescreening)

A speci c dpi range is recommended based on the

paper stock being used or the quality o the publicationDISC categories are roughly equivalent to monthly(commercial), weekly (publication), and daily (news)publications with the corresponding grades o paperstock Category A is the highest print quality andCategory C is the lowest

Note: Photographers speak o images in pixels per inchor ppi The pixels o a digital image are converted todots when the image is printed The number o pixelsper inch in an image has a 1-to-1 relationship to thenumber o dots per inch in the printed image

Previous DISC CategoriesIn DISC 1 0, our (4) key image settings were providedas guidelines to quality reproduction rom digital imagesThese parameters included pixel resolution, cameramegapixel rating, color space setting and minimumimage quality setting (jpeg) In addition DISC providedin ormation back to the photographer based on thesettings This in ormation included the Compressed andUncompressed File Size and the maximum print size orthe image

DISC 2007 CategoriesSince DISC was rst developed in 2003, digitalphotography has seen signi cant technologicaladvances These advances have lead to a redesign

or the DISC Categories and recommendations Forexample because digital cameras are so much morepower ul today, DISC 2 0 evaluates image resolution inmegapixels (1,000,000 pixels or MP) rather in pixelsCamera megapixel ratings used to be technicallycalculated as a ratio o 1024 Today camera megapixelratings are commonly calculated as a ratio o 1000So DISC camera megapixel ratings are now calculatedusing the modern 1000 ratio

DISC 2007 Category TableImageSize

ImageMeasurement

Category A 300 dpi

Category B250 dpi

Category C200 dpi

spread 11 x 17 16 MP 12 MP 7.5 MP

full page 8.5 x 11 8 MP 6 MP 4 MP

half page 5.5 x 8.5 4 MP 3 MP 2 MP




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To use the DISC tables:

1 First determine your Category, i you do not knowwhich one to use, then select Category A (since this isthe highest possible quality);

2 Re erence the size/measurement o the image, move

across the chart and determine the proper megapixelsettings rom your digital camera to determinewhether you can create an image that will reproducewell at the target size;

3 Remember to adjust your camera parameters so thatthe COLORSPACE (a k a ColorMode or ColorMatrix)is set or ADOBE RGB 1998 The sRGB or CMYKcolorspace is not acceptable or submission tomagazines

Note About DISC RecommendationsAn image that does not meet minimum DISCrecommendations may still be acceptable Forexample, an image below the minimum recommendedmegapixels rom a higher quality camera system mayactually provide a superior image Or the only availableimage may not meet the ideal specs

DISC Image Metadata Specifcation What is Metadata and Why is it Important?Integrating digital images into the digital workfow isa leading priority or publishers Standards or imagequality and image le ormat certainly support thisintegration Another component, however, is the abilityo the publisher to easily sort, le, and access imagesThey key to this is metadata You can think o metadataas a set o digital labels that can be attached to theimage These labels identi y who shot the image, whereit was taken, when it was taken and what is pictured inthe image

DISC Metadata Fields and ValuesDISC has de ned standard metadata elds to beattached to digital images or submission to magazines

or publication These standard metadata elds are anaggregate o the requirements o magazine publishersparticipating in the DISC e ort All magazine publishersdo not require all elds Rather, these elds are options

rom which each publisher may select their own eldrequirements

DISC has based its metadata elds on existing metadatastandards such as Dublin Core, IPTC and PRISM TheDISC metadata elds are documented in the ollowingsections

City Defnition: Name o the city pictured This elementis at the third level o a top-down geographicalhierarchyValue: Text eldExample: New York City

Copyright NoticeDefnition: Contains any necessary copyright notice

or claiming the intellectual property or this image andshould identi y the current owner o the copyright orthe imageValue: Text eldExample: Jane Smith/SIGMA

Country

Defnition: The ull name o the country pictured inthe photograph This eld is at the rst level o a top-down geographical hierarchy The ull name should beexpressed as a verbal name and not as a codeValue: Text FieldExample: United States

Creator

Defnition: This eld should contain the name o the person who created the photograph I it is notappropriate to add the name o the photographer ( orexample, i the identity o the photographer needs tobe protected) the name o a company or organizationcan also be used Once saved, this eld shouldnot be changed by anyone Note: This eld doesnot support the use o commas or semi-colons asseparatorValue: Text string that is a proper name ( rst name,surname with quali ers)Example: Eric Q Van Horne Jr

Creator Contact Info

Defnition: Photographer contact in ormation is ageneric structure providing a basic set o in ormationto get in contact with any person, in this case thephotographerValue: This value may be made up o nestedmetadata elds that make up a set o contactin ormation elds or Adobe Photoshop CS2 withXMP or be limited to a single text eld or other toolsExample: vanhorne@ericq com


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Date Created Defnition: Designates the date and optionally thetime the intellectual content o the image was createdrather than the date o the creation o the physicalrepresentation I you use a digital camera, you canlook at the EXIF data or the date stamp

Value: Date/time in ormat accepted by the tool usedto embed metadataExample: 05/12/2003

DescriptionDefnition: A textual description o the image,including captionsThe Description eld, o ten re erred to as a captionis used to describe the who, what and why o whatis happening in the photograph I there is a person orpeople in the image, this caption might include theirnames, and/or their role in the action that is takingplace I the image is o a location, then it should givein ormation regarding the locationValue: Text eldExample: George W Bush addressing Congress

Headline

Defnition: A brie publishable synopsis/summary o the contents o the photograph This is not the sameas the titleValue: Text eldExample: Coast o Spain or Tomatoes

Instructions

Defnition: The Instructions eld is a simple texteld that can be used to include any o a number

o instructions rom the provider or creator to thereceiver o the photograph Any o the ollowing couldbe included: embargoes (News Magazines OUT) andother restrictions not covered by the Rights UsageTerms eld; in ormation regarding the original meanso capture (scanning notes, colorspace in o) or otherspeci c text in ormation that the user may need oraccurate reproduction; additional permissions orcredits required when publishingValue: Text eldExample: Do not crop; ull page

Job ID

Defnition: A number or identi er that was createdor issued or the purpose o improving workfowhandling and image tracking This ID should beadded by the creator or provider or transmissionand routing purposes only and should have nosigni cance or archivingValue: Text eld

Example: K1267D

Keywords

Defnition: Keywords to express the subject o thecontent Keywords may be ree text and dont haveto be taken rom a controlled vocabularyValue: Multiple text elds with one keyword per eld

or a single delimited text eld depending on the toolExample: president/Congress/

LocationDefnition: Name o a location the content is

ocusing on or the location shown in the image Thislocation name could either be the name o a sub-location to a city or the name o a well known locationor (natural) monument outside a city This locationname could be the name o a speci c area within acity (Manhattan) or the name o a well-known location(Pyramids o Giza) or (natural) monument outside acity (Grand Canyon)Value: Text eldExample: Times Square

Original File Name

Defnition: The original image le name as submittedby photographer or provider The intent is to preservethe le name upon submission to assist with trackinglater in the workfow in the case that the image lewas renamedValue: Text eldExample: QZO20040517a jpg

Provider

Defnition: Identi es the provider o the image, whois not necessarily the owner/creator (o cial photocredit as it will appear in publication)Value: Text eldExample: Jane Smith/SIGMA

Province State

Defnition: Name o the subregion o a country --either called province or state or anything else thecontent is ocusing on -- either the subregion shownin visual media or re erenced by text or audio mediaThis element is at the second level o a top-downgeographical hierarchyValue: Text eldExample: Illinois

Source

Defnition: Identi es the original owner o thecopyright or the intellectual content o the imageThis could be an agency, a member o an agency oran individual Source could be di erent rom Creator

and rom the entities in the CopyrightNotice




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Value: Text eldExample: Rexie Pictures Agency/25 GreenwichStreet, New York, NY 10021

Complete documentation about the intended meaningo these metadata elds and tools you can use to in use

metadata into digital images can be ound in the DISCMetadata Speci cation on the DISC website ( wwwdisc-in o org )

Embedding DISC Metadata into Imagesusing XMPAdobes Extensible Metadata Plat orm (XMP) is alabeling technology that provides photographerswith an easy way to embed metadata into the imageusing Adobe Photoshop CS While Adobe providesa metadata entry inter ace or standard Photoshopmetadata elds, XMP also provides a mechanism toembed standard metadata elds such as those de nedby the DISC Working Group To enable the capability o embedding DISC metadata elds into digital images, aDISC custom panel or DISC user inter ace is requiredIDEAlliance sta worked closely with technical sta romAdobe to develop the DISC custom inter ace You candownload the DISC inter ace rom www disc-in oorg/resources

To use the DISC inter ace you must download it romthe DISC website and ollow the directions The XMPinter ace or embedding DISC metadata into an imageis shown below Simply ll in the orm, click OK andsave the le and DISC metadata has been added

DISC Photographers Best Practices Why We need Best PracticesThe DISC speci cations tell us what size, resolution,compression, color space, image ormat and metadatais required or image submission when the target output

is print But how do photographers go about providingimages that meet these quality standards? Only byproviding auxiliary guidelines or photographers to ollowcan we expect them to delivery what publishers requireThe DISC Photographers Best Practices were designedto meet this industry requirement

DISC and UPDIGAn excellent set o Guidelines or digital photographerscan be ound at www updig org UPDIG (UniversalPhotographic Digital Image Guidelines) is an ad-hocindustry consortium UPDIG is made up o digitalimaging pro essionals, manu acturers and allied tradegroups that are dedicated to promoting worldwidestandards in the commercial application o digitalimaging IDEAlliance is one o the allied trade groupsThe mission is to bring the creators, distributor,customers and other vendors in the imaging tradestogether to identi y and promote imaging standards Asthe UPDIG guidelines largely refect a photographersperspective and represent guidelines or many imageuses beyond print, the DISC Working Group hascoordinated its own print-speci c recommendationswith those rom DISC to develop the best practicespublished here

Photographers Best Practices forPrint MediaColor Management for Digital ImagesThe UPDIG Guidelines state, As the oundation o theimage supply chain, it is essential that photographersestablish and adhere to the best practices o colormanagement

Following this philosophy, digital photographersshould:

Use ICC Pro les and always preserve embeddedpro les as you work For publication printing werecommend using the new SWOP or GRACoL pro lesthat can be downloaded rom www swop org/resources and www gracol org/resources

Regularly calibrate your monitors and printers;

To determine how the image will print, DISCrecommends using a color temperature o D55 (5500K),

a gamma o 1 8 and a luminance o a minimum 130


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candelas per square meter or both MAC and Windowssystems;

DISC strongly recommends that you use a high qualityLCD monitor as a pre erred display device

Note: Standard calibration targets are currently beingdetermined by the DISC Working Group

Setup for the Shoot Several setup steps can assure quality or images thewill be printed These steps include:Determine the intended print line screen and imagesize i possible Then determine your cameramegapixel rating is adequate using the DISCCategory tables Always use the maximum pixelresolution your camera has to o erDISC recommends that photographs intended orprint should be captured Adobe RGB 1998, a wide-gamut space when intended or printFor highest quality, capture images as RAW

For most uses in print, its best to sharpen little or noneduring image capture Set the camera accordingly

Preparing and Delivering ImagesSeveral steps in preparing and delivering can assurehigh quality or images that will be printed

Resolution o digital images is described by threenumbers: height, width and ppi (pixels per inch)Determine required resolution or the image by lookingup the resolution in the appropriate DISC Category table

or the intended print line screen and image size

Metadata elds embedded in the images enable theimages to be easily merged into a digital productionworkfow at the magazine DISC de nes an aggregateo 16 metadata elds that publishers may requireCheck with the publisher to determine which metadata

elds are required At a minimum you should includeyour name and contact in ormation as well as a brie description on the image and the Job ID or transmissionID number provided by the publisher

DISC allows image delivery in the DNG ormat or asDISC JPEG To be DISC-compliant you must adjust theJPEG quality setting to High Quality 8 A lower qualitysetting will be unusable A higher setting will increase the

le size unnecessarily

Deliver images as Adobe RGB 1998 Never convertimages to CMYK unless directed to do so by the print

buyer

Most publishers pre er that digital images not be colorcorrected, resized, retouched, cropped or sharpened bythe photographer You should check with the magazineto veri y their standards on photographer image editsBecause alterations that photographers make to TIF orJPEG images cannot be easily detected, the unalterable

DNG ormat is gaining acceptance as a pre erred imagesubmission le ormat

Follow the instructions o the magazine as to imagedelivery media Typically images or print are deliveredby CD-Rs or DVD-Rs or via FTP I les are delivered onCD-R, the standard disc ormatting is ISO 9660 or MacOS extended and PC (Hybrid) CD When deliveringimages on a DVD-R, make sure the recipient can readthe chosen ormat, since there are multiple standardsO ten speed and convenience require you to deliver theimages rom your computer to a host computer by FileTrans er Protocol (FTP)

Introducing DISC Checker Digital ImageSubmission ToolA critical actor in the adoption o any technologyspeci cation is the availability o tools to en orce thespeci cation and to make implementation o thespeci cation easy and a ordable DISC is no exception

In an e ort to advance a standardized methodologyo digital image submission across the publishingindustry and in order to make a DISC tool available,IDEAlliance has ormed a public/private partnershipwith Media Beacon, Inc DISC Checker, is being jointlydesigned, built and distributed to enable adoption o theIDEAlliance DISC Speci cations

DISC Checker for PhotographersThere are two implementations o DISC Checker Alow-cost, light-weight photographers version will runon either a MAC or PC plat orm This version providesthe photographer basic quality checking or acceptableimage ormats and color space as well as veri ying size,resolution and compression based on the intendedprint output It also provides or batch insertion o XMPmetadata or all 16 possible DISC metadata elds

Finally it provides the photographer with a way to submit



DISC Checker is a trademark o IDEAlliance


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images using an FTP based on the URL, password andlogin that is entered

DISC Checker for Agencies and PublisherThe second version o DISC Checker is more robustand is designed or use by the agency or publisher at

the time o a photo assignment This version o the toolenables those making photo assignments to customizeDISC Checker based on their criteria For example, i the publisher will only accept images in the DNG ormat,only that ormat is allowed or submission The publishercan also customize the metadata elds that they requirebased on their speci c digital workfow The publishercan also include their own contract terms that must beaccepted be ore images are submitted, thus assuring anaudit trail or publishers rights to publish

Acquiring DISC Checker

DISC Checker is currently in beta testing I you area photographer looking or an inexpensive qualityassurance tool, or an agency or publisher that wants atool to ensure digital image submission to your in-houseDISC speci cations just link to www disc-in o org tolearn more about availability


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Gunar Penikus, Adobe Systems

Penny Ann Dolin, ASU

Diane Pesce, Conde Naste

Dennis Dunbar, Dunbar Digital

Amre Yousse , Factiva/Dow Jones

Larry Warter, Fuji lm Graphic Systems

Chris Gri n, Gri n Consulting

John Dougherty, Hachette Filipacchi Media

Dianne Kennedy, IDEAlliance

Nadar Anvari, Kodak Graphic Communications

Gerry Gerlach, Integrity Graphics

Jason Bright, Media Beacon

Mark Kozlowski, Quad/Photo, Inc

David Riecks, David Riecks Photography

Chris Smyth, Rogers Publishing

Kin wah Lam, Time, Inc

DISC Committee Members

disc 2007 guidelines and specifications, 2nd edition

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