Why is it Not OK to Resize, Rotate, and Crop Graphics in a Page Layout Program?

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Question: Why is it Not OK to Resize, Rotate, and Crop Graphics in a Page Layout Program?

Despite the fact that today's desktop publishing software offers graphics manipulation options such as resizing and rotating, in most cases these are tasks best handled in a dedicated graphics software program.

Answer: Resizing, rotating or flipping, and cropping images in a page layout program can create larger files, increase processing time, and cause output problems with the digital file. If manipulated within the page layout program the image data must be recalculated by the software or hardware each time you print the file which uses more processing resources and can cause PostScript errors. Cropping an image in the page layout program only changes the viewable portion of the image but the entire image is still present and makes for a larger file that takes more time and resources to generate.

However, using an image editor for resizing is one of those rules that has exceptions. Resizing graphics in small amounts of 10%-20% or so in either direction may make no noticeable difference when done in the page layout application. You'll also often get better results resizing screen captures and low resolution images if you do it directly in the page layout program.