A question about resolution/printing/resizing

I’m printing out some user guides (u/g) that are in PDF format. I open each page of the 2-page user guide in PS, with the reso set to 240 (recommended for my Epson printer). The page opens at 17" w x 11" h. I want the printed u/g to be one page, so I need to resize each original page to 8" w x 5" h. I’ve tried it two ways with significantly different results; I’d like to understand what is going on:

First, I did a print preview of the first u/g page at 17" x 11". Of course, it spilled outside the printable area, so I resized it within the print window. I simply chose "8 in" as my width, which fit it nicely on the page, centered. Then I unchecked the "center image" option and moved the image to the top half of the page. Then I printed it out that way (using Epson’s Photo Quality Inkjet Paper). Next I did the second u/g page the same way, positioned it on the bottom of the page, reinsterted the half-printed page into the printer, and printed it out. The result was excellent – exactly what I was looking for. [by the way, this kind of thing looks fantastic on the Epson PQIP paper. I’ve never liked Epson text, especially on regular paper, but using Epson’s own paper makes a tremendous difference – near laser quality at even 6-8 pt fonts)

I’m printing out some user guides (u/g) that are in PDF format. I open

page of the 2-page user guide in PS, with the reso set to 240 (recommended for my Epson printer). The page opens at 17" w x 11" h. I want the

u/g to be one page, so I need to resize each original page to 8" w x 5" h. I’ve tried it two ways with significantly different results; I’d like to understand what is going on:

First, I did a print preview of the first u/g page at 17" x 11". Of

it spilled outside the printable area, so I resized it within the print window. I simply chose "8 in" as my width, which fit it nicely on the

centered. Then I unchecked the "center image" option and moved the image

the top half of the page. Then I printed it out that way (using Epson’s Photo Quality Inkjet Paper). Next I did the second u/g page the same way, positioned it on the bottom of the page, reinsterted the half-printed page into the printer, and printed it out. The result was excellent – exactly what I was looking for. [by the way, this kind of thing looks fantastic on the Epson PQIP paper. I’ve never liked Epson text, especially on regular paper, but using Epson’s own paper makes a tremendous difference – near laser quality at even 6-8 pt fonts)

Next time, wanting to get it all in one print pass, I resized each u/g

using the "image size" option from the PS toolbar. I kept the reso at 240 and told it to maintain proportions. I did a "select all," copy, and

on a new document opened at 240 reso (is that my mistake?), 8.5 x 11 in.

then resized, copied and pasted the 2nd u/g page onto the bottom half of

new document. When I printed out with this method, the result was good,

noticeably less sharp than the first method.

What is going on here?

thank you for input,

jm

In article <cGJHf.97980$>,
"JM" wrote:

I’m printing out some user guides (u/g) that are in PDF format. I open each
page of the 2-page user guide in PS, with the reso set to 240 (recommended
for my Epson printer). The page opens at 17" w x 11" h. I want the printed
u/g to be one page, so I need to resize each original page to 8" w x 5"
h.
I’ve tried it two ways with significantly different results; I’d like to understand what is going on:

First of all, why are you doing this from Photoshop?

You will get better results by printing from Acrobat Reader, because when you bring the PDF into Photoshop, everything (including text) is broken up into pixels. If you print from Acrobat, the line work and text will remain line work and text.

First, I did a print preview of the first u/g page at 17" x 11". Of course,
it spilled outside the printable area, so I resized it within the print window. I simply chose "8 in" as my width, which fit it nicely on the page,
centered. Then I unchecked the "center image" option and moved the image to
the top half of the page. Then I printed it out that way (using Epson’s Photo Quality Inkjet Paper). Next I did the second u/g page the same way,
positioned it on the bottom of the page, reinsterted the half-printed page
into the printer, and printed it out. The result was excellent – exactly what I was looking for. [by the way, this kind of thing looks fantastic on
the Epson PQIP paper. I’ve never liked Epson text, especially on regular paper, but using Epson’s own paper makes a tremendous difference – near laser quality at even 6-8 pt fonts)

This is because when you reduced the page this way, the resolution increased above 240 pixels per inch.

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I’m printing out some user guides (u/g) that are in PDF format. I open

each

page of the 2-page user guide in PS, with the reso set to 240 (recommended
for my Epson printer). The page opens at 17" w x 11" h. I want the

printed

u/g to be one page, so I need to resize each original page to 8" w x 5"
h.
I’ve tried it two ways with significantly different results; I’d like to understand what is going on:

First, I did a print preview of the first u/g page at 17" x 11". Of

course,

it spilled outside the printable area, so I resized it within the print window. I simply chose "8 in" as my width, which fit it nicely on the

page,

centered. Then I unchecked the "center image" option and moved the image

to

the top half of the page. Then I printed it out that way (using Epson’s Photo Quality Inkjet Paper). Next I did the second u/g page the same way,
positioned it on the bottom of the page, reinsterted the half-printed page
into the printer, and printed it out. The result was excellent – exactly what I was looking for. [by the way, this kind of thing looks fantastic on
the Epson PQIP paper. I’ve never liked Epson text, especially on regular paper, but using Epson’s own paper makes a tremendous difference – near laser quality at even 6-8 pt fonts)

Next time, wanting to get it all in one print pass, I resized each u/g

page

using the "image size" option from the PS toolbar. I kept the reso at 240
and told it to maintain proportions. I did a "select all," copy, and

pasted

on a new document opened at 240 reso (is that my mistake?), 8.5 x 11 in.

I

then resized, copied and pasted the 2nd u/g page onto the bottom half of

the

new document. When I printed out with this method, the result was good,

but

noticeably less sharp than the first method.

What is going on here?

thank you for input,

jm

Theoretically what you did sounds correct. However, what I think happened is
this:
Your original image & print job remained vectorized text. The moment you reduced, copied and pasted the pages it became rasterized image.
If I’m correct in my theory, this is a classic example of why photoshop shouldn’t be used to set text other than as a last resort, or other circumstances where the user is aware and can deal with the variances that can occur.

Text should have been set in InDesign or Illustrator (or any number of other
like programs). There could be work-arounds to salvage what you’ve done but
without knowing what applications you have it’s hard to direct you to the appropriate solution. Maybe someone else here has a better plan.
K.

"tacit" wrote in message

In article <cGJHf.97980$>, "JM"
wrote:

I’m printing out some user guides (u/g) that are in PDF format. I open each page of the 2-page user guide in PS, with the reso set to 240 (recommended for my Epson printer). The page opens at 17" w x 11" h. I want the printed u/g to be one page, so I need to resize each original page to 8" w x 5" h. I’ve tried it two ways with significantly different results; I’d like to understand what is going on:

First of all, why are you doing this from Photoshop?

You will get better results by printing from Acrobat Reader, because when you bring the PDF into Photoshop, everything (including text) is broken up into pixels. If you print from Acrobat, the line work and text will remain line work and text.

I will now reveal my ignorance regarding Reader, but my problem is that I want to resize the material to fit on one page. If I open the orginal u/g in Reader, it takes up an entire page, which is not what I want. [..]

So is this saying that resizing from within PS’s print dialog box retains the desired reso, while resizing within PS does not?

Theoretically what you did sounds correct. However, what I think happened is this:
Your original image & print job remained vectorized text. The moment you reduced, copied and pasted the pages it became rasterized image.
If I’m correct in my theory,…