desperate for answers!!!!

[jemmy]

Hi guys. I have an issue...This week I have been trying to get a business card done up over the net. Anyway to cut a long story short, I said my main concern was getting my photo as sharp as possible on the card. She commented that it looked pixelated after I prepared it in Paint Shop Pro. She then asked me to check my 'image size' in photoshop. The measurements were 2304x3456pixels with resolution of 180pixels/inch. She said that the resolution should be 300!!?? I'm totally confused because they print beautifully, but would they print far better at a resolution of 300 - and why wouldn't the resolution be set at 300 to begin with???? I shoot raw, then convert to TIFF and photoshop before converting to JPEG. Is there a reason for why my settings are like this and is there a way I can automatically set the resolution to 300??? I shoot with a Canon350D/ Digital Rebel XT which is a 8 mp camera if that is of significance???? Replies appreciated as I am somewhat confused and need to sort out this issue asap?????? x jemma

 

[omeletteman]

Your photos should probably be at 300dpi to start off with. Its possible if you cropped the photos or changed the image size in some way that the dpi would change. You should make sure you're at 300dpi for printing.

Hope that helped.

 

[dsp921]

I think the image is a bit big for a business card. Try to set the resolution to 300 and set the desired print dimensions. 2304x3456 at 180 is big. Might be that when it gets compressed to print the size you need it gets pixelated.
A business card is 3.5 inches x 2 inches. You should provide an image that is 1050x600 pixels at a resolution of 300 to cover the whole card, adjust size if the image is only in a smaller section of the card. At least I think that's what you're looking for. Hopefully, I understand the question and have my math right....

 

[Digital Matt]

For whatever reason, Canon has the DPI of jpgs that come out of the camera set to 180 dpi. The same is default if you render them from raw files in DPP. You can change this setting to 300, so when you convert your raw files, they come out at 300 dpi. If I were you, I would design the card myself, and decide where I wanted the picture, and how big, then crop it myself.

 

[Philip Weir]

Jemmy, Jemmy, Jemmy, you always seem so desparate for answers, have you had your weekly checkup [only kidding as usual] The answers above seem to cover your problem more than sufficiently.

 

[markc]

Argh! I hate pro shops that keep propagating that confusion. 300 dpi is a good guidline for knowing if your digital file is too small for the size you want to print at, but other than that, it has no effect. Mainly because it's really PPI, pixels per inch, and a single pixel can be printed with many dots from the printer. Image DPI (really PPI) and a printer's DPI are different.

Image DPI does not stand alone. It is connect to image size in pixels and the resulting print size. Heck, a 300x600 image can be printed at 300 dpi, but it's only going to be 1"x2" big.

Basically, leave pixel size alone. Set your print size in inches, like 8"x10". The DPI will change automatically. If it's 300+, you should get a great print. If it's less than 150, it will probably have issues and you'll want to use a smaller print size. If it's between 150 and 300, it will depend on what's in the image and your eye as to if it's accetable.

In this case, I would leave the pixels alone and size the image to 2"x3.5". You'll need to crop or add white space because the image doesn't match the card size. That will give you a DPI of around 1000 DPI. You should get a great print from that.

If you are inserting the image into the card using some card-making software, then setting the image print size in PSP will have no effect. The card software is controlling that. At any rate, if a 2304x3456 is looking pixelate, there's something wrong with the software somewhere along the line.

The myth of DPI