?flatten layers before printing photos?

S
Posted By
scottbjones
Jun 11, 2004
Views
1002
Replies
8
Status
Closed
Good Evening:

I am just starting to print photos with my new Epson R800 printer and a question has come up for me. Is it necessary or desirable to flatten images that I have used adjustment layers on before printing? I printed some without flattening and they look good, but I recently read that for printing the layers should be flattened. Thoughts??

Scott
Related Tags
flatten layer print

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.

CC
Chris_Cox
Jun 11, 2004
You don’t have to — the printing process prints the flattened data anyway.
SM
Sandie_Mullins
Jun 11, 2004
I always keep my documents in a non-flattened state for adjustments later if necessary. However, if you need to send a pic somewhere or prefer to flatten, make a duplicate copy and flatten that one.
L
Lucky13
Jun 11, 2004
A flat image will print much faster than a layered image. If you are working with very large 300+ dpi images it is always a good idea to save a flattened copy before printing at home but not necessary.
PA
Peter Aitken
Jun 11, 2004
wrote in message
I always keep my documents in a non-flattened state for adjustments later
if necessary. However, if you need to send a pic somewhere or prefer to flatten, make a duplicate copy and flatten that one.

Waste of time – the printing process flattens automatically. Ever see a printer with layers? Me neither!

—
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Jun 12, 2004
Here’s an interesting consideration: If you have a number of layers that are making fairly large adjustments, I find that, if I am going to scale the image down, if I flatten first then reduce, I have less problems with posterising than if I flatten after re sizing. I ran an experiment once and did find that flattening then residing (down of course) produced a seamless histogram whereas down sizing then flattening preserved the dropouts in the histogram.

Why is this important? Because the program will flatten to print, so you may as well optimize that step first. You will want to make a copy first, but if you forget, you can always go back to unflattened in history.

This doesn’t always work perfectly,but even if you are left with a jagged histogram, it is still smoother than not.
MO
Mike_Ornellas
Jun 12, 2004
You don’t have to — the printing process prints the flattened data anyway.

but you may want to.

Some blending modes shift when flattening.
GM
Glenn_Mitchell
Jun 12, 2004
I flatten my output images.

The reason is that I use PSD files with all of the channels and layers intact as I edit the image.

My master is a flattened TIFF. That gives me more options besides Photoshop for the image.

Similarly, my output files for the printer are also flattened TIFFs. The intermediate file that is cropped, resized, sharpened, etc. is a PSD file. Using a TIFF for the output gives me more options, like using ImagePrint, the RIP I use, for printing.

If you save TIFFs, I recommend you flatten them and remove the alpha channels. Those you have to delete yourself. Flettening does not remove alpha channels. Lots of software cannot handle TIFFs properly that have layers or alpha channels. ImagePrint, for example.

Cheers,

Mitch
LH
Lawrence_Hudetz
Jun 12, 2004
I found that out the hard way, Mitch! I just couldn’t figure out why some Tiffs were opening, and others weren’t!

MacBook Pro 16” Mockups 🔥

– in 4 materials (clay versions included)

– 12 scenes

– 48 MacBook Pro 16″ mockups

– 6000 x 4500 px

Related Discussion Topics

Nice and short text about related topics in discussion sections