To Resample or not to Resample

MA
Posted By
Mohammed_Ajouz
Oct 19, 2005
Views
163
Replies
1
Status
Closed
I’m scanning old 4×6 photographs at a resolution of 600 on a Canon scanner. They come out in reality at a size 5.8×3.9 as an example but rarely at exactly 4×6. I clean them up, retouch, …

When I’m done, I’d like to get a perfect 4×6 photo and another 5×7 photo for enlargement purposes. My question is whether I need to resample or not resample. If I choose one of the cropping presets in Photoshop, and leave the resolution field blank, does it mean it will not resample? I’m a bit fuzzy about the whole resampling thing and would appreciate any instructions to get a perfect 4×6 and 5×7 without loosing too much quality that I can send out for printing.

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C
chrisjbirchall
Oct 19, 2005
Every time you resample you will lose some quality – so you should only really do it once! Once in Photoshop, that is, because the printer driver will also resample the file to accommodate its dpi resolution.

300 ppi is generally accepted as the norm for good quality printing. In reality, many inkjet printers will work just as well at lower resolutions.

Take your 600ppi image for instance. If you resize it to 4×6 and leave the "resample" box unchecked, you’ll be sending a 500-and-odd ppi file to the printer. Resize it to 7×5 (again with "resample" unchecked) and the ppi value will drop slightly. The printer driver will take care of the resampling.

The only time you would need to resample that particular image in Photoshop would be if you took the dimensions so high that the ppi dropped below 200 or so.

Some commercial laboratories insist on 300 ppi files. My own workflow involves working on and saving files at the generic size (at which they came off the camera). Then when I need a specific size print I crop and resample to 300 ppi and save it out as a copy for printing at that particular size.

Others will advocate different ways of working. The important thing to remember is NOT to resample an image more than once. ALWAYS go back to the master file when a new size is required.

Hope this is of some help.

Chris.

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