Although I don’t use ‘Print Size’ much, I do use ‘Fit to Screen’ a lot. For both of these, I then use Cntl+ or Cntrl- to go to a nearby magnification that’s an even divisor of 100%, ie, 25%, 33%, or 50%, but not 66%.
Since 100% is the only real accurate size, I’ll often get up and view that from across the room.
Joanna,
I’ve always been of the impression that the viewing at print size does nothing more than give one an approximate view of the size that an image would be printed. For those who don’t quite understand the concept of how the document resolution relates to the pixel dimensions of an image, the View Print Size option clearly illustrates it. But, as far as I know, it does nothing more than set a more precise zoom level. So, in effect, one could nearly get the same result by just manually zooming their image out. The smaller the image appears, the more sharp it is perceived to be.
I think it’s a fallacy to say that viewing an image at print size is "reliable" to pre-judge the output. Why? Because much detail will still be missed relative to what the final print would show. When the image is reduced on screen, you’re still dealing with a 1 for 1 image pixel to screen pixel rendering. To scale the image down to "print size" on screen means that Photoshop is temporarily downsampling the extra data to show the image at a smaller size. For example, a 300ppi image of 1200×1500 pixels would print at 4×5 inches. Most high-quality monitors these days are closer to 100ppi resolution than 72ppi, so that means the image would need to be displayed at 400×500 pixels to appear "print size" on screen. Well, that means 89% of the image data has been "given up" to show the image at that smaller size. I don’t know that I can judge the nuances in the image at the smaller size as well as I could at a larger screen size. If the image was printed and held up alongside the smaller screen image, I’m certain much more detail would be apparent in the print.
So, if I’m wondering how I’ll like the looks of a final printed image, I will generally view the image file at a larger than print size on the monitor. Seeing more of the subtleties in the image, if I like what I see I’ll go ahead and print it.
Regards,
Daryl
Thank you both for the help. I’m working on a 30×40 (250 resolution) portrait and wasn’t real comfortable as to whether or not I had it sharp enough. This problem comes up from time to time and zooming in on something this big at 100% confuses me when it looks do different at the "print size" view. Guess I’ll do what has worked before and just print a small section as a test before I do a final print. That will maybe save some money if not time in the long run.
Thanks again!
Joanna
Joanna,
For what you’re doing, I think your approach is easily the best idea.
Daryl
