Preparing Images

Before you upload your images into Cascade, it’s important that they meet best practices for the web, which may require modifying image dimensions and file sizes before putting them into Cascade.

With the McCormick template, you are using for your website, photos should follow the guidelines below and be cropped to the following dimensions prior to uploading into Cascade. Image sizes are measured in pixels (px). See the "Image Size Cheat Sheet"

Resolution of all images should be 72 pixels per inch (ppi). You can adjust the resolution of images in a photo editing program.

All McCormick staff can download the latest version of Adobe Creative Cloud software

(includes Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat, and more). Find instructions and info at http://www.it.northwestern.edu/software/adobeThere are a few important things to keep in mind when preparing images:

• Keep the aspect ratio (the ratio of the width of the image to its height) the same as the original file in order to prevent distortion. No squashed heads!
• Do not increase image dimensions. If you increase an image’s size to something greater than its original dimensions, this will create a pixelated effect. Start with a larger image and size down as necessary.
• If you’re using Photoshop, be sure to select “Save for Web & Devices” when saving your image and adjust the quality to keep the image’s file size under 60 kilobytes (60k) for larger photos.

Generally .jpg and .png file types work well for most images and photos. Use .gifs for smaller images with blocks of color or animations.