Printing in Photoshop Question

FM
Posted By
Frank_McGorman
May 13, 2005
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513
Replies
2
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Closed
I use Photoshop 7.0. I notice I can resize the image to my full print size, which substantially increases the file size (and slows down Photoshop considerably in the process). For example, I scanned a slide in at 2700 dpi which ended up a 28mb tif file. I edited it in Photoshop, resized it to 6×9 and the PSD file was 720mb and the jpeg (max quality) was 72mb. If I don’t resize it in Photoshop the PSD file remains about 28mb and the jpeg file will be about 6mb. I plan to print this as a 6×9 photo.

The question is do I need to resize this to print it at Costco (they have professional quality printers with published printer profiles – very slick and much better than my HP photosmart will ever be able to do) or do I leave the super small image in photoshop (approx 1.5" x 1") and merely scale it up at print time at Costco? I can’t find anything on this in the FAQs.

Thanks.

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Y
YrbkMgr
May 13, 2005
and merely scale it up at print time at Costco?

Avoid scaling up at all costs. Once you toss out data, it’s harder and more inaccurate to put it back in.

I’d give them the largest file as is practical in terms of file size and let them scale it down. In fact, I wouldn’t, I’d print it myself, but in relation to your question, that’s what I’d do.
DP
Daryl_Pritchard
May 13, 2005
Frank,

While you normally would resize an image to the size desired for printing, you do not need to maintain the original resolution at which the image was scanned. In fact, one reason for a high resolution scanner is to yield enough data so that a larger print size with lower resolution can be created while still maintaining high image quality. Although a lower resolution can be used, the common value you often hear cited for optimum print quality is 300 ppi (some say dpi, but dots and pixels are different…ignore that).

For a 35mm slide, you’ve got a frame size just under 1×1.5 inches, which I’ll use here since the math is easier. That means your image is 2700×4050 pixels. Divide 300 into those dimensions and you’ll see what size of print should be obtainable without any resampling at all… 9×13.5 inches roughly. In other words, you easily have enough image data for your smaller 6×9-inch print.

What you want to do in Photoshop, is open the Image Size dialog and uncheck the resample box at the bottom. Then, in the resolution box, enter a value of 300 and you’ll see the document dimensions automatically recalculated for you. If that is too large, as it will be, then you check the resample box and change your image dimensions to the desired size, leaving the resolution of 300 ppi as is. The result, if you save the modified image to a new file (recommend you keep the original) is a smaller file size since you had more data in your original image that was discarded to produce the smaller image.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Another way to do this, although I don’t recall if PS 7 had the tool…is to use the Crop Tool in the toolbox. With that tool selected, you will see options in your Options palette to specify the crop dimensions and resolution desired….6×9 inches at 300 ppi. Then, you drag the Crop Tool over your image to stretch out a rectangular marquee that maintains the aspect established by the crop dimensions while masking out the area of the image you wish to crop out. Upon executing the crop, the remaining part of your image will be resampled up or down as needed to yield the resolution desired for the chosen dimensions. This is a handy tool that combines an area selection, crop, and image resizing and resampling all into one easy process.

Regards,

Daryl

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