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Resizing and Printing

Greg,

I have been using Genuine Fractals and have liked it. But I was at a Photoshop workshop by Jim DiVitale and he told us the same tip that was said earlier. For some reason, which the Adobe gurus don't quite understand, the tip of sizing up by 110% is supposed to work just as well, if not better. DiVitale swears by it and says he threw out his Genuine Fractals. I have used both and the 110% sizing trick does seem to work great.

The trick is to go to Image Size and change either Height OR Width under Document Size to 110% and let the other fall where it will. You can make an action out of this and repeat the sizing until you get the size you want. I usually work with 150 - 250 mg files so I don't need to do much resizing (at least up that is) but try it and you'll be happy with the results.

Guy
 
Thanks for the information regarding Genuine Fractals and the advice regarding re-sizing in Photoshop. I appreciate the member's willingness to share information. This forum has saved me numerous dollars and hours leaving me more time to shoot. Thanks
 
Another PS Q: Typically I do not resize the image down when printing smaller, but rather simply set the size in Print Preview. Everything I've read says that I should not do this, that I should resize down in PS not in the print utility, but it seems to work fine and look good. Am I missing something? Thanks, Will
 
Will,

Very good question. I used to resize my image to small print size before I print. Nowadays, I just click the "fit to page" button in the print option. It works well and I can never tell the differnt, except save me a lot of time. BTW, my images are always in TIFF.

I am wonder if PS or the Epson print driver is doing the resize.

Any comments will be appreciated.

Albert.
 
>>I just click the "fit to page" button in the print option. It works well and I can never tell the difference, except save me a lot of time. BTW, my images are always in TIFF.

Albert,

Glad to hear I'm not alone. Mine are in PSD in part on the theory that doing so helps Photoshop do the resize, but no doubt I reveal myself as a PS novice.

Will
 
Hi Will,

Once again when I want to resize down I go into Image Size and enter the dimensions I want the print to be in Document Size making sure I have Res&ling unchecked. I let the resolution determine itself. I also never sharpen an image until I have it sized so I keep a master final PSD file to always use to size. I end up with several sized files but that's what I have a 120 gig hard drive and a large stack of DVD's for!

Guy
 
You are not going to really discern a improvement in quality by effectively printing with excessively high resolution - in fact its my understanding that you will just be using more ink than is necessary! Generally a res of around 360dpi for printing is regarded as optimal . Steve
 
Steve,

You are only printing at excessively high resolution if you're setting your printer resolution at a high number. If you're talking about "dpi" in your printer configuration 360dpi is very low quality printing. Most good printers can print at least up to 1440 dpi and some, like the Epson 2200 can print up to 2880dpi. In truth, 2880 is a waste of ink. I was taught by two Adobe certified Photoshop instructors that at 1440dpi you will get the maximum quality you can see. I have tested this several times and it's true. There is no visible difference between 1440 and 2880, even on 30x40 prints on an Epson 9600.

If you have a high resolution number "ppi" in the resolution space in the Images Size window your sofware will just throw out any "extra resolution" that is above the max resolution your printer is capable of. Actually, I do adjust resolution size after Image Sizing and I never set it more than 300ppi. 360ppi, if your printer can print at that output is overkill. In fact many pros say anything above 250ppi the eye can't distinguish. I have printed on my Epson 2200 even at 250ppi with excellent results. Try experimenting and check the results for yourself.

Guy
 
Hi all-

Yesterday I purchased the Fred Miranda SI action that was recommended in the Forum and I also used some of the image sizing recommendations that were described by Guy and Paul. The results were fantastic! I blew up 4 treasured shots from the Arizona SCCA races in November to over 40x24 at 300 ppi. I then cropped to 13x19 and printed on a Canon i9100 using Illford smooth pearl paper using manual settings. I showed the output to some of my buds this morning and their jaws dropped. All of the prints are now spoken for!!! Here is where I have questions that others may benefit from a discussion...Can anyone explain to me what the best way is to crop a shot to maintain image quality? I have been using the crop function in Photoshop because I can get the exact size and resolution I want. The FM action Web Presenter will re-size down but only in proportion and at a ppi of its choosing. The Photoshop crop function seems to give me the best flexibility and my untrained eye cannot see a difference in quality. Thanks for the advice and please keep it rolling. This is a very informative thread.
 
Guy , I think you've misunderstood what I said , or perhaps I didnt explain myself well enough! But I think the original poster will now get the point anyway . The only point I would take issue with is about not being able to see the difference between 1440 and 2880dpi prints - as a "black ink only" B&W printer the conventional wisdom is that you will get discernably less "grain"and smoother tones and transitions at the higher dpi value . And yes I also get great prints sometimes at less than 300dpi too! Steve
 
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