Bitmap images (or TIFFs) are those images created with Paint programs such as Adobe Photoshop. A bitmap is a map of pixels and usually represents a continuous tone photographic image. These images are created at a specific resolution that will only be accurate at the original image size. Therefore, any scaling, cropping, or rotating should be done before the image is placed into the page layout program.

Because bitmap images are resolution specific, any scaling in a page layout program, can cause a significant degradation in quality. If a 300 dpi image is enlarged to 200%, the resulting image is 150 dpi. If a bitmap image is rotated in a page layout program, the program tries to re-map the pixels, most often causing rough edges. If a bitmap image is cropped in the page layout program, the file size is larger than necessary and the entire uncropped image will be sent to the imagesetter also increasing output time.

To reduce output time and the amount of possible complications, it is best to do any image editing in an application that is meant to do so.