Online printing service settings

[juju]

hi,

anyone know what resolution and dpi i should not go below before i start to lose image quality when printing with an online photo service ie photobox.

i ask because i have nearly 3gb of photos to upload and wanna reduce the file sizes down as much as possible before uploading but i dont want to lose any image quality as some are gonna be fairly large prints 8 x 10 and 20 x 8 panoramics but mainly 12 x 8's

 

[Big Mike]

300 pixels per inch of print, is the usual standard...but many people are content with 240 PPI.

 

[elsaspet]

if you are looking for a "don't go beyond this point" the number is 271. Don't go below that. It's the minimum.

 

[Big Mike]

You can print at 100 or 72 PPI or whatever...if the viewing distance is great enough.

 

[Richard]

if you are looking for a "don't go beyond this point" the number is 271. Don't go below that. It's the minimum.

My D40 shots are 240ppi out of the camera should I be making the image at least 271 or higher in photoshop?

 

[Big Mike]

My D40 shots are 240ppi out of the camera should I be making the image at least 271 or higher in photoshop?

It doesn't really matter...the PPI setting on a digital file is just for the monitor display. The only thing that matters is the number of pixels in the image...which is constant (provided you don't shoot at a smaller setting or change the actual size while editing).

You could have an image that is 2400x3000 pixels...that is set to 300 PPI...or set to 6 PPI...or one million PPI. There would be no difference...except for how big/small the monitor wants to display it.

 

[Richard]

You could have an image that is 2400x3000 pixels...that is set to 300 PPI...or set to 6 PPI...or one million PPI. There would be no difference...except for how big/small the monitor wants to display it.

Ok little confused, I'm pretty sure if I print a 2400x3000 pixel image at 6ppi, that I would end up with a bad print... maybe I'm wrong?

 

[Christina]

hi,

anyone know what resolution and dpi i should not go below before i start to lose image quality when printing with an online photo service ie photobox.

i ask because i have nearly 3gb of photos to upload and wanna reduce the file sizes down as much as possible before uploading but i dont want to lose any image quality as some are gonna be fairly large prints 8 x 10 and 20 x 8 panoramics but mainly 12 x 8's

maybe i dont understand you question but i have an idea.

if you go to ritzpix.com and (attempt to upload photo's, dont actually do it, just go through thr motions, since this is a print site )

it will pull up a window with all of your photo's stored on you computer, it has a bar on each picture that shows green and red

1 green bar means no bigger than 4x6 will look good.
2 green bars mean no bigger than 5x7 will look good,
3 means anything larger than and 8x10 can be printed.

it also reads your info from your pictures and tells you once you hit the16x20 - 20x30 size ranges if its recommended. if it will be cropped,and if it will be recommended in matte, luster or gloss.

this way you know what size and quality you can print by the quality of your photo without ever actually uploading them online or printing them out.

i hope this made sense and i hope it helped.

 

[Big Mike]

Ok little confused, I'm pretty sure if I print a 2400x3000 pixel image at 6ppi, that I would end up with a bad print... maybe I'm wrong?

But you were not talking about printing...you asked about the file out of the camera. PPI is a setting that controls how the image appears on the monitor.

When we say that 300 pixels per inch is needed...that means that 300 pixels will give the printer enough information to print at whatever DPI (dots per inch) that it prints at. It's basically a rule of thumb. You can print larger, when you don't have 300 pixels for every inch of print...but there will be less information for the printer (printer drivers) to pull information from.


And if you printed a 2400x3000 PPI image at 6 PPI...your image would be over 41 feet long...and from a mile away...it might look great.

Everyone always seems to forget about viewing distance. A good test for an 8x10 print is to view it at arm's length. If it looks OK, then that should be good enough. If you are printing larger than that, you surely don't plan to hang it on the wall and press your nose against it, do you?