What resolution is appropriate for certain size printout?

CL
Posted By
Charlie Lj
May 5, 2004
Views
430
Replies
10
Status
Closed
Can anyone tell me or point me to some articles that talks about the appropriate resolutions (DPI) for printing certain size of pictures within photoshop CS? Because the majority of my digital photos are in raw data and photoshop cs file browser allow me to specify the resolution and size when opening, I like to know what the appropriate resolution that I should be consider, let’s say I want to print a 4×6 photo. Should I always specify the highest resolution possible even if I tend to print a 4×6 photo?

Any suggestion is appreciated.

Charlie

How to Improve Photoshop Performance

Learn how to optimize Photoshop for maximum speed, troubleshoot common issues, and keep your projects organized so that you can work faster than ever before!

TD
Thee_DarkOverLord
May 5, 2004
300dpi upto 1400dpi, IMHO i think 300dpi will be enough for most of you needs.
CL
Charlie Lj
May 5, 2004
Thanks for the response. The reason why I am asking is that it seemed that the picture when printed out doesn’t look too sharp. I believed this could be because the resolution is too high…making the image size too big in photoshop…and when printed out in say 4×6 photo, it makes the picture blurry as compare to what’s on the monitor…if when zoom to 80%. You can even see this blurry effect if you zoom out to say 15% on a 200MB size photo with 300 or 400DPI photo. The picture certainly don’t look as sharp as when you zoom in to say 50% or 75%. Is my concern legitimate or is it something that I just don’t understand how it works?

Charlie
TD
Thee_DarkOverLord
May 5, 2004
A high resolution will never cause your image to lose quality.

I shouldn’t let what you see on screen worry you to much, but creating or saving the file at 4×6 3oo dpi, as long as you are not up scaling will give you good results, if you want to preview the image, use only 100% magnification.
CL
Charlie Lj
May 5, 2004
Okay. I feel much better. One other question. When using the file browser to open a raw data image, choosing a bigger size means up scalling the image, right? What about entering a bigger number for the resolution, is this also consider up scaling or this is different? What is the normal?

Charlie
TD
Thee_DarkOverLord
May 5, 2004
I dont use the file browser, so cant answer your question sorry, as long as you dont increase the res more than the origanal file, you are safe.

er and i dont mean to confuse you any further, but I should have said sampling not scalling.
CL
Charlie Lj
May 5, 2004
Thanks!

Charlie
L
LenHewitt
May 5, 2004
LJC,

What determines the image resolution required is the output device NOT the image size. The image dimensions determine how MANY PIXELS are required to achieve that image resolution.

Printing to a desktop inkjet you should be aiming for around 200 – 240 ppi AT THE FINAL PRINTED SIZE. More than that will give you no gain in visual quality, will take longer to print and grossly excessive high image rez CAN actually cause the image to print with less quality.

T_D_O,

A high resolution will never cause your image to lose quality.<<

Actually it CAN. If you feed an output device with more data than it can use, it has to throw some away, and although that rarely produces noticeable effects, in some circumstances it can. .

Far better not to create that situation in the first place
TD
Thee_DarkOverLord
May 5, 2004
Actually it CAN

ok, i stand corrected.
J
Jim
May 5, 2004
You should always use the entire file to print whatever size of image you need. If, for example, you have an image of a 35mm slide that is 1×1.5 at 2900 dpi that you want to print at 4×6, then you tell PS to resize the image to 4×6 and interpolation the dpi to 300 while keeping the image constraints the same.

However, sometimes you don’t want the entire image to be printed. In that case, you display the image in PS at 300 dpi. In the above case, the image size will be about 8×10, but the number of pixels remains constant. Pixel count is all that matters.

Now select whatever area you wish to print from the display, and crop to the size. Note that the pixel count will reduce, but the pixels per inch will remain at 300.

With this crop you should be able to get a good print.

Jim
wrote in message
Thanks for the response. The reason why I am asking is that it seemed that
the picture when printed out doesn’t look too sharp. I believed this could be because the resolution is too high…making the image size too big in photoshop…and when printed out in say 4×6 photo, it makes the picture blurry as compare to what’s on the monitor…if when zoom to 80%. You can even see this blurry effect if you zoom out to say 15% on a 200MB size photo with 300 or 400DPI photo. The picture certainly don’t look as sharp as when you zoom in to say 50% or 75%. Is my concern legitimate or is it something that I just don’t understand how it works?
Charlie
CL
Charlie Lj
May 5, 2004
Again, thank you for your remarks. I learned something new.

Charlie

Master Retouching Hair

Learn how to rescue details, remove flyaways, add volume, and enhance the definition of hair in any photo. We break down every tool and technique in Photoshop to get picture-perfect hair, every time.

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections