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Archive 2015 · Resolution too high to print?

  
 
Jon Joshua
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Resolution too high to print?


I sent some images to Adoramapix to print.

As an example, one of the images was 2400x3600. Plenty of resolution.

Images printed 8x10 looked great. Everything was sharp.

Images printed 4x6 did not look very good. Details were soft and muddled.

The images are, supposedly, printed at 300dpi.

Is it possible that I'm sending files that are too large and that too much detail is being lost in the downres during the printing process? Would it be better to let LR reduce the resolution of the file before uploading it, thinking that it will optimize the image better for the size?

All of my research says that I should be creating the largest size file that I can but the results say otherwise.

Or, is it possible that Adoriamapix just messed up the prints due to some misalignment in the equipment or something like that?

Apologies if my terminology is not 100% correct here.



Jan 14, 2015 at 11:16 PM
bjornssh
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Resolution too high to print?


Each printer has an optimal image resolution - usually 300 dpi. Check with the printer regarding resolution (DPI) for optimal printing.


Jan 15, 2015 at 12:24 AM
Mr Mouse
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Resolution too high to print?


Jon Joshua wrote:
I sent some images to Adoramapix to print.
As an example, one of the images was 2400x3600. Plenty of resolution.
Images printed 8x10 looked great. Everything was sharp.
Images printed 4x6 did not look very good. Details were soft and muddled.


Plenty of Pixels and those pixels print at a 300DPI pixel size the print would be 8"x12" a 2:3 aspect ratio

Since a 8" x 10" image has a 4:5 aspect ratio at 300DPI that would be 2400x3000pixels so an areas totaling 600x2400 pixels were cropped away cutting an inch off image across the top and bottom. 1,440,000 pixess were discarded.

A 4"x6" image has a 2:3 so no cropping is needed the 2400x3600pixels could be printed at a 600DPI resolution. Inkjet printers have no problem doing that the image should be sharp the human eye will not be able to resolve all the detail in the image.

If the 4" x 6" image was printed at 300DPI that means the original 2400x3600 pixeled were interpolated down to 1200x1800pixels 1/4 the number of pixels you started with, Much detail was discarded however if they used a good interpolation method the image should be sharp. You started with 8,640,000 pixel image and wound up printing a image with 2,160,000 pixels.

IMO they just did a bad job.


Edited on Jan 15, 2015 at 03:14 PM · View previous versions



Jan 15, 2015 at 01:21 AM
gdanmitchell
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Resolution too high to print?


If you end up at 300 ppi resolution, you should get a sharp photograph at the smaller size. There is no such thing as too much resolution in the file resulting in a softer image. Possible explanations:

1. As mentioned above, in order to get to the different aspect ratios, one of the images was reinterpolated. (Frankly, if that resulted in a softer file, that's not the fault of your file or of interpolation, but of the process used for interpolation.)

2. It is actually harder to accurately reproduce the very finest details on the smaller print at a given resolution, as they can approach the ppi resolution. If you looked very closely you might see the effect of this, but you shouldn't notice it without extremely close inspection.

3. There is something in the printer's process that is causing an issue. I'm grasping at straws here, but if their printer is (not likely!) set to put too much ink on the paper, or the paper is one that allows more of it, dot gain (or ink spread) could mute details.

The point that details are lost when you interpolate is correct, but... the amount of detail lost should be negligible, and since your print resolution is so high that detail would be at scales smaller than what you would see. That said, there is one philosophy of printing (that I've used from time to time) that suggests not interpolating when making a smaller print, since higher resolutions are actually more important with smaller prints rather than larger ones given how we view them.

Dan



Jan 15, 2015 at 08:56 AM
Mr Mouse
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Resolution too high to print?


bjornssh wrote:
Each printer has an optimal image resolution - usually 300 dpi. Check with the printer regarding resolution (DPI) for optimal printing.


Printer resolution setting is not image resolution it is a quality setting. Printers do not print images a pixel at a time. Printer use many small droplets of different color inks to paint in your images larger pixels. There are no square drops.....




Jan 15, 2015 at 03:27 PM





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