Printing Expertise Needed :(

[Telusethegoose]

Hi, im looking to start making professional prints for art exhibitions in our general area and would like them to be the best quality possible. Im shooting with a nikon d90 with the 16-85mm dx lens as a first, and a canon 5dmII as a secondary (close friends camera).

I know that printing at 300ppi/CMYK/TIF format is going to give me the best looking prints, but my question is what are the limits of the ppi that are acceptable. a lot of the photos printed are going to be on fine paper with a size of about 11x14 inches, but I would like to make a few large canvas prints as well.

Because the Canvas Printing Paper is textured, would I be able to get away with say a 200PPI resolution to still produce clear photos? Id like to make photos about 2x3 feet or slightly larger/bigger.

any expertise in this would be greatly appreciated.

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[KmH]

Back in the early days of digital, when the top pro cameras had 5 MP image sensors, to make a print from a digital image required 300 PPI to get a print that was equivelent to the more common types of print film.

This is today. More critical is color management, and the PPI needed to make a high quality print varies with the quality of the final image to being printed. In fact one of the final steps of color management is plugging the printing devices ICC profile into your image editing application so you can soft proof the print to make sure the print will meet your standards and/or expectations.

Note also that the PPI specified for a print determines the print size. A digital image that has a resolution of 3000 pixels by 2000 pixels printed at 300 PPI will be 10 inches by 6.66 inches.
3000 pixels divided by 300 PPI (pixels per inch) = 10 inches.

The CMYK color space is pretty much only used in the offset press industry. The sRGB or Adobe sRGB color spaces are what is normally used to make high quality prints from digital image files.

A print made from a JPEG file saved at a high quality setting is virtually indistinguishable from a print made from a TIFF file, but the JPEG file will have a much smaller file size.


Next to lastly, there are 2 printing methods available for making high quality prints:

1. Chromogenic prints (light sensitive paper)
2. Inkjet prints (also known as a giclée print)

Canvas prints aren't made on paper, they are made on canvas. Cheap canvas is actually a plastic material that has neen textured. High Quality canvas is made from cotton.

[Telusethegoose]

Back in the early days of digital, when the top pro cameras had 5 MP image sensors, to make a print from a digital image required 300 PPI to get a print that was equivelent to the more common types of print film.......

Well thank you very much for your help so far!
Im going to be doing a few test prints to get what I want with the canvas but since you seem to be well educated on the topic maybe you can help me get to a good starting point with all of this.

heres a bit more information on what Ill be using:

Photoshop CS5, Lightroom

a 36inch HP Blotter that has a "Canvas Setting" (all I know about it so far, but can definitely get more information on it)

HP Professional Matte Canvas

12.4 mpx nikon d90 on NEF format, and a Canon 5dmII in RAW format


I can attach a photo if needed as well.

Im also curious as to how printers in general read the ppi of an image. do inkjets print in "pixels" or do they transfer that information to some sort of analog format for say amount of ink put down etc?

thanks!