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Hi, what dpi do you print at? I know the default dpi is 72 for jpeg and I re-ressed them to 300dpi & re-sized them according to print size required. Lots of inkjet printers boast resolutions of 5700 dpi Is it worth having images set to resolutions above 300dpi?
Also - C1 has output options - what dpi output is anything over 300 dpi not realised on an inkjet printer?
Any advice welcome - my head & eyes hurt!
Steve...
I have never printed at anything more than 300dpi Steven, although I admit I was thinking of experimenting to see if there is a visible difference.
I have seen many people saying that 300dpi is the maximum effective, but I'm sure others will their own opinions.
Ian
The problem is with the terms.
PPI - Pixels Per Inch is refering to the number of actual "dots" in the image (no matter what color each "dot" is).
DPI - Dots Per Inch is refering to the maximum number of dots the printer is able to put on the paper, including ALL colors. Therefore, a printer with 1440dpi which incorporates six-color cartridge will print maximum at 240ppi (1440/6=240).
As to the best quality, I never printed more than 300ppi and I can't say I need more. But then again, I'm not a pro...
HTH,
Ilia Kagan.
Agreed.
On the question, I'd say don't worry about what the document "resolution" (PS term) is. Just get all the pixels you can and chuck them at the printer, which will do its own interpolation anyway. Experiment with sharpening (generally over-sharpening on screen) as printers are generally soft.
Some people will say you need to size at 240 pixels per inch, or 300, then sharpen at that and throw at the printer. I tried this every way I could think of and could see no discernable difference. Your mileage may vary, but I don't bother with this.
The size from the raw convertor is a bit different. I don't use C1 but in ACR you can tell the raw convertor to upsample or downsample the image size. Generally you'd want to just take it 1:1 from there, unless you have a specific reason.
One thing, about comparing 300ppi to 72ppi: are you talking about the same "print size" (not the actual size of paper, but what PS is considering as "Document Size" in "Image Size" options box)?
For example: I scan negatives at 3637x2433 pixels. Which give me a resolution of 300ppi if I print on 8x12 inch paper OR 72ppi if I print on 50x33 inch paper(!) (paper sizes are rounded down).
Watch your "Document Size" when looking at the ppi value.
To check how many ppi on a certain print size do the following:
Go to "Image Size" and uncheck the tick-box near "Resample Image:". Then change the "Document Size" values to suit.
HTH,
Ilia Kagan.
(Again - precisely as IIia said).
Quote: surely printing out at 300 ppi is better than 72 - if the image isn't large enough at 300 ppi (eg to print at 10"X8" I resample the image in increments to "grow" the image to fit that size.
Well it's the absolute number of pixels which matters, not how many you tell your computer to render per unit. I guess it's obvious then that you want as many pixels as you can get.
But you're talking about interpolation, and the unstated assumption is that your step-uprezzing will do a better job than the printer at doing this, specifically in the case where you don't have "enough" pixels already. I presume you tried it both ways and I expect you're correct - if nothing else you can selectively sharpen once you've up-rezzed. You might be better off doing it at raw convert time mind (I haven't compared that... I have plenty of pixels).
Quote: Whats ACR Phil?
Sorry; someone mentioned "C1", which is Capture One, a common raw convertor. "ACR" is the raw convertor built into Photoshop CS and CS2, there was an optional add-on for PS7. It stands for Adobe Camera Raw.
Hi all
I think this topic is a common one, is there any way we can have a tutorial or something on this with examples on print quality?
I have been very confused with this myself. I have just sent two pictures of for printing at A2 size, but dont know what the quality will be like.
The company Intelligence direct printing reccomend no less than 100dpi, my pictures from the camera according to photoshop are, 2848 X 2136 at 72dpi, according to them the maximum size to print out at is the resolution/100 so roughly 28" X 21" is the best for my cameras resolution. But this is at 72 dpi, so i convert this to 150dpi to have just a bit more than the minimum recomended, now my image says it will print at roughly 18" x 14", made sure i turned off the image resample.
But what i did before i sent it to them was to change the image to 200dpi with resampling, this made the image 7911 pixels X 5933 pixels at 200 dpi but the image size was showing as 39" x 29", with either size i tell photoshop to view at the print size and to be honest i cannot see any difference at all and the image looks spot on. Then i change the image size to match what i want to print out at, in this case A2 which is 23.4" X 16.5" which is smaller than the resampled image.
So my question is
is this right?
Am i doing it the right way round?
Should i change the dpi to 200 but leave the resizing of the image to the printers?
I have seen similar questions on a lot of forums but never seen a down to earth explanation or review of the quality.
I have also tried the image at 72dpi at its default size of 28" X 21" and printed out on an A4 sheet (although i only get a little bit of the picture) i cannot see anything wrong, looks ok.
Can someone do a decent tutorial on this subject with examples of quality etc, obviously joe public like me cannot as we dont have large format printers.
But i will let you know how my prints come back, quality wise etc
OK, plain and simple:
You want to print A2, which is 23.4"x16.5", at 150dpi.
Lets calculate the pixels. For that we'll only need a calculator (the one comes with windows does a great job):
Long side - 23.4 x 150 = 3510 pixels
Short side - 16.5 x 150 = 2475 pixels
Now you have to bring your image to those dimentions (in pixels), no matter how. It could be by cropping (to have the right ratio of the length and width), adding border via "Canvas Size", resampling image via "Image Size" or what ever.
If you want 150dpi on a A2 print you HAVE to have 3510x2475 pixels image.
HTH,
Ilia Kagan.
Or to put the above another way:
No of Pixels / DPI = Print Size in inches
DPI means dots per inch but you an think of this as pixels per inch. This is the number of pixels from the onscreen image that will go to make up one inch of the printed image. If the width of your pic onscreen is 3000 pixels and you print it at 300 pixels per inch, then the width of your print out will be 10 inches (ie 3000px/300dpi=10in)
If you print it out at 150ppi then your print out will be 20 inches wide.
I work for a publisher and the industry standard for printing books is 300dpi. I've printed out photos at 250dpi and couldn't really notice much difference between that and print at 300dpi.
Iain
I use the fit to page option in Adobe and also get good results.
Yes i understand the pixel bits etc, but what i am on about is actual quality, if i print out at A4 at 72dpi it looks amazing, if i print out at say A1 size, although on a A4 sheet at 72dpi (only get a section of the picture on an A4) I cant really tell much difference in the printout, i think i could easily get away with A0 prints, and these are at 72dpi, 200 would be better i suppose.
I understand too that maybe my printer is doing some work its an epson.
I have downloaded some software to print out on multiple sheets, i have done a printout on A2, which is 4 A4's and it looks amazing, and this is on normal paper not at the photo print out settings, So really are we worrying too much about the dpi? If like me you try it the resaults are quite suprising.
Be nice to know just how big i can go before it gets obviously pixelated.
LOL just converted the image to 300dpi at 46"x35" and it made it 33meg in size from 2.5meg
Anyone else tried it to see what the resault are like, passable etc, i might try an image at A0 next, will wait to see what the A2's are like first.
I suppose for commercial they need to be spot on, i am on about personal prints for home hanging as i know the industry requires 300dpi at 45meg files etc etc.
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