Print Quality v Screen Quality

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I have just bought a Casio 3000 and IBM Microdrive. It has taken some superb pictures (SHQ), which look excellent on the screen, and I can zoom in and they contain an amazing amount of detail.

However when I print them on my Epson 1270 (photo paper 1440dpi) the pictures look slightly blurred/fuzzy, and lack detail. They are certainly way short of the quality I have seen of other prints, and resemble the print quality I had from my old camera.

Someone told me that this may be due to there being too much detail for the printer, and that the printer "drops" pixels to print the pictures. Does anyone have any ideas? (I have Photoshop 5.5)

-- David Brown (dbrown@strategics.co.uk), June 20, 2000

Answers

"Someone" told you a complete load of codswallop. You'll actually need to increase the resolution of your pictures before you print them, in order to get the best from your 1440 dpi printer. Use Photoshop's image size function, and set the dpi to 300 or even 400, and then set the image size you want. You'll probably need to apply the sharpen, or unsharp mask filter after changing resolution. Shutting down Photoshop after the image has gone to the print spooler will speed up the printing considerably as well.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), June 20, 2000.

Also, try sending your photos to one of the online photo printing services like www.ofoto.com. Photographic output is far superior to ink jet output in my opinion. A recent batch of ofoto prints surprised me by looking better than the on-screen images. I was shooting low-light without flash, and even careful use of unsharp masking didn't help on- screen. Ink jet prints never look truly photographic to me, but many ofoto prints from my Nikon 950 rival anything I've ever gotten from a 35 mm camera.

-- John Lehet (justme@well.com), June 20, 2000.

Pete pretty much nailed this, but in case you don't have Photoshop I'll take a slightly different approach.

My question is, "At what size did you print them?"

Assuming they were 2048x1536 images, you should be able to print them as large as about 8x10" and get "decent" results. However, jacking the PPI up to about 300 by printing them at 5x7" would probably make them look a lot better. If you're not familiar with this PPI(PixelsPerInch) = Pixels / length(in inches, -could be millimeters or whatever, it's relative.)

Or for a 5x7" 2048 x 1536 image, 2048/7" = about 292 PPI Or for an 8x10" 2048 X 1536 image, 2048/10" = about 205 PPI

Usually the more Pixels per inch, the better the output looks -up to a certain point. For most current printers that point of maximum return is about 240 to 360 PPI. Less PPI and things get blocky and loose detail, more PPI and you just don't get any better image for your trouble.

You might also need to apply a bit of sharpening in an image editing program. Many(most) people seem to feel digicam images require a bit of sharpening to look acceptable when printed. I suppose that the degree of sharpening required is a matter of individual taste, though.

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@francomm.com), June 20, 2000.


Er, I see you said you have Photoshop... Someday, I'll learn to read. :-) I promise...

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@francomm.com), June 20, 2000.

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