Pre-Authoring Preparation

Stills for DVD menus, slide shows and informational pages (biographical info) can all be created in Adobe Photoshop using the guidelines listed below.  If you have any questions, please be sure to contact us.

Note that all values below are for standard definition 4:3 NTSC specifications. Please contact us for information regarding widescreen 16:9, PAL specifications, or motion menus.

Image Size Considerations
Since the DVD format doesn't use square pixels the way computer monitors do, there is a certain amount of vertical distortion when encoding graphics. Due to this, it is necessary to create menu graphics at 72 dpi, 720 x 540 pixels, then, scale them down (unconstrained) to 720 x 480 as the last step.  You can leave this resizing step up to us if you want.

Delivery Format
Preferred still menu graphics file formats are TIFFs (.tif) and Layered Photoshop (.psd) files.  Ideally you can provide both.  TIFFS should be Mac, not PC byte order.  Jpegs as a rule are not usable. 

Color Considerations
All images should be prepared in 24-bit RGB format.  Not CMYK. 

Use NTSC safe colors.  Bright, saturated reds and yellows will bleed on NTSC monitors and some sharp color transitions will create unwanted artifacts at the boundaries where they meet. One way to avoid most of these potential problems is to keep all RGB values below 230 and above 13 (on a scale of 0 to 255).  A Photoshop filter you can use is:  Filter>Video>NTSC Colors.  All graphics should be checked on a calibrated NTSC monitor during the design phase.

Highlights or “Subpictures”
Highlights are 8-bit RBG images and can easily look “jaggy” or crude.  Because of this it’s advisable to stick to simple shapes: triangles, squares, bars, dots, hearts, etc., if possible. In Photoshop, subpictures should be on a separate layer from the background image.  All button highlights can be put on one layer, since they will be separated in the authoring environment.  It is not recommended to use ‘text’ as highlights, because curved letters like “o” or “r” get jagged. 

Title Safe/Action Safe Areas
To compensate for the overscan on television monitors, keep all important information and action within "safe" boundaries to ensure it will be viewed on every monitor. While "action safe" is considered to be 5% from the edge (648 x 432) and "title safe" is considered to be 10% from the edge (576 x 384), a general rule of thumb is to keep all crucial information 70 pixels from the sides and 50 pixels from top and bottom.  If necessary we can send a template for this, but Photoshop has a pre-set for this as well.

Text
In general, using 14 point (or higher) “CRISP” anti-aliased text will create the smoothest, user friendly-type for DVD applications. The smallest type in any design should be 14 point.  Avoid serifs as they can create artifacts due to the horizontal scanning of NTSC.

Horizontal Lines
When viewing in native NTSC resolution (480 horizontal lines), thin horizontal lines can disappear or ‘flicker’ on interlaced TV sets. This is because on tube TV sets (and some plasma, LCD screens), each alternating line of video is being turned of and on at 60 times a second.  To avoid this, please keep all horizontal lines greater than 2 pixels wide.  Computer monitors are progressive displays and don’t have this problem. 

Proofreading
Please TRIPLE CHECK all spelling, capitalization before sending files to us.  Very important!  We cannot be responsible for typographic errors that are submitted by the client.

If you have any questions about these specs, please don’t hesitate to contact us.  You can always email us a JPEG of your menu designs ahead of time to see if they are compliant.