I’m betting you’ll get perfectly acceptable prints at 240 or 288ppi. Test a partial print to save paper and ink and see for yourself.
Yeah, this is true, i have tested one at 300, its fine. But my question is , are there artifact issues asscoiated with downsampling?
I would also love it if some one could confirm this ‘pixel limit’ thing is CS – i don’t understand it – why won’t the fiel print? what IS the pixel limit? answers please!
The pixel limit is a function of 32 bit processor and the OS-it’s in the math-that’s the upper limit until full 64 bit processing arrives.
Down sampling will be fine, it’s upping or extreme downing that can hurt. Stick with a ppi that is evenly divisable into your output res, 2880 or 1440 is divisable by 240, 288 and 360.
1. will i get artifacts downsampling 400ppi to 300ppi? whats the best
way to do this if so ?
Artifacts are not created by changing the resolution of your image. You will loose some detail however (wether that detail shows up on you print or not is another story.
2. why, and what is the actual pixel limit for printing from CS? is there a way round this with other file formats?
The pixels limit of older versions of PS is 30 000 pixels. Photoshop CS has upped that to 300 000 pixels, but the print drivers have not followed suit so far.
AFAIK, the only way around it is to use a third party RIP (something like ONYX’s Posterworks)
3. i read the other res threads, and people say 360 is a desirable upper limit. trouble is, this file won’t SEND to the printer at this size.. epson support say its the pixel limit in CS..is this true?
That 360 resolution refers to small format ink jets. for a print the size you mention, somethin in the range of 120 to 200 ppi should do the job just fine.
see, thanks for that, thats very interesting. james
Rene, you say 120 tp 220ppi? will i notice no difference at 300? you say its for the size i mention, do bigger prints need les res? this seems very odd to me( novice as i am)
just read that indesign can handle very long prints -is this soemthing you’d recommned?
Rene, you say 120 tp 220ppi? will i notice no difference at 300? you say its for the size i mention, do bigger prints need les res? this seems very odd to me( novice as i am)
Think of it this way:
8×10" at 300 ppi is 2400 by 3000 pixels
37×75" at 100 ppi is 3700 by 7500 pixels
You have a larger print and more pixels, but the number of pixels in any given inch is much less than for the smaller image.
You can get away with a lower resolution for larger prints because they usually will be viewed from further away. ie: Most billboard you see on the side of highways look awful up close, but really great as you zoom by at 100km/h
You can print large format from ID, but again, you need a third party RIP to do so.
If you walk right up to it you will probably see a difference. I suspect that the viewing distance of this large of a print won’t be that close so a difference won’t be noted. Billboards look fine and sharp at even 5 or 10 ppi but they would not if you got close.
see…why do i need a RIP to print thru indesign? it doesn’t support large file formats either?
Hello James,
I’m one of those freaks printing over 30 000 pixel-sided pictures, and I print my high-res files at 720 ppi.: for what I do the difference with a 360 ppi output is outstanding. Direct output from CS is impossible : you can build the picture, since the side limit is now 300 000 pîxel, but printing output is still limited to 30 000 px, (though in fact it should theoretically be 32 768 px) : yes, this is a 32 bit limit.
So here is the way to it : you have to prepare and save the picture in tif or eps, quit PS8, and then switch to a postcript application like XPress or InDesign + a third party RIP. There is no problem printing, and there is a huge side-effect advantage : you can for exactly the same output quality prepare your file with rectangular pixels 1×2, and print 720 dpi in width and ask for a 200% vertical redimensionning. Since your Epson 9600 is performing 2880 dpi in the width and 1440 dpi in the height, this enables you to print a file half the weight for exactly the same result.
Hi Henri,
thanks for the info..to clarify, your files are at 360ppi? and you say this makes a big difference over what exactly? its a little unclear, sorry! are you saying 720 DPI or PPI? you say ppi , but surely 720 ppi is very high?
what is your preferred res for the photoshop file? i was working at 400ppi, i have been told this is not needed, and 300 is fine. do you agree?
cheers
james
Hello James,
Here is my constant experience :
– If you are making general purpose pictures, where speed and cashflow are relevant, if you make large prints like 43" wide on your 9600, well 180 ppi (pixels per inch) files are really good considering expected viewing distance, and you can set the output to 720 dpi (dots of ink per inch) on your Epson.
– If you are dealing with delicate pictures, and quality is your motivation, 360 ppi (pixels per inch) files are definitely far far better, and you then fix the output to 1440 dpi (dots of ink per inch). Using other resolutions than multiples of 180 may cause banding, a terrible effect you will mostly encounter on beautifull smooth gradients, that may jump.
– If you need the top of the top, sorry but best quality IS 720 ppi (pixels per inch) files. Here you get the best of what the 9600 can do, you set the output to 2880 dpi (dots of ink per inch). Huge files, its slow, but the result is definitely there – of course under the condition your original files do have that information : useless to res up to 720 ppi if your original scan or capture is around 360. But if you have the approprate original, I can vouch this is the best : you can count hair, feel the inkstrokes on a painting reproduction, touch velvet, looking nose distance on a 42" print. Amazing.
Hope this helps.
why do i need a RIP to print thru indesign?
In Design like most layout softwares will generate a PostScript file when printing and send that to the printer. Now a PostScript files needs to be interpreted (RIPed) in order to be printed. Most laser printers and the like have a built in PostScript interpreter, but this is prohibitive for wide format printers and so you have RIP software that will process the Postscript file and convert the data into a format that the printer can use.
The standard workflow for wide format printing goes something like this:
1) Create a PostScript file
2) Run it through the RIP
3) Print to the device of your choice
