Recently I received a couple of jpg images digitally for use in a publication. On my Mac in PhotoShop 7 they do not look bad. However, when I import them into a PC system PageMaker 7 they look faded and not very sharp. On closer examination on the PC with PhotoShop 4.5, one of them actually looks like it has been over-sharpened. Since there are 8 images on this particular page these new additions look really out of place.

In the same vein, I have also received some images that look grainy. These came via a CD. Any ideas on what is going on or how I can get some continuity?

Could be one of a couple things going on

The difference between Mac-PC graphics capability or resolution settings.

The difference between Mac-PC color interpretation.

Pagemaker isn't color-managed, and uses proxies for viewing. They'll probably print identically.

Pagemaker is one issue, but viewing the same document in Photoshop will have different resultes Mac vs PC because the two platforms render graphics differently.