Still a little confused about this...

[e.rose]

I'm dealing with kind of a funny (funny weird, not funny "ha ha") situation right now. I'm editing images that someone else took and I need to e-mail them to the person who took them so they can be printed

So if I have an image that is apparently 27.8MP... it's 2592px Wide and 3872px High...

It's at 300ppi resolution...

How big could this be printed through a pro lab???

PSE8 says that the "document size" is 8.64 inches by 12.907 inches... and I know it got that number by multiplying 300 by the pixel width and height... but is that *actually* the largest it could be printed? 8 x 12 inches?

I know there's something involving dpi and what not, but... I don't know what dpi the lab would be printing at? Is there a set standard???

<------------- confused.

 

[CCericola]

300dpi is the standard. Most professional photo printers can only go up to 600 dpi so anything past that won't make a difference in print quality just make your files larger. If the file is too big to e-mail you can send it to them using yousendit.com. There is a free option for the service I use it all the time. What kind of editing did they ask you to do?

 

[e.rose]

Well, the photos are of my husband's band.

The guitarit's parents are photographers and have a studio and they did a "shoot" in the studio last Saturday. His mother asked me if I wanted to help her out with the editing, so I said sure, and I did a little playing around and the boys loved what I did and wanted me to do it to all of the photos.

But the weird thing is that the guitarist's parents shot in JPEG, not RAW so I've been doing all these edits to JPEGs... and then it just occurred to me that the fact that they're JPEG and smaller files may or may not make a difference as to how large the files can be printed.

They're meeting with their manager on Thursday and they want to have prints to show him, so I'm guessing 8 x 10s at the largest... but I'm not entirely sure yet.

I just want to be able to figure out how large these files can be printed... and I could go through a hosting site if I need to, but if I find out that I can size them down a little bit so that they're still large enough to print at the size they want, but small enough to e-mail, I'd rather just do that because it's easier for me *and* for his mother.

 

[CCericola]

I would say 8x10 is the largest they would use. I have sent 8x12 jpegs at 300 dpi to my printer and they were able to print 16x20's for me using the files with no problem. My files are around 25mb each WAY to big to e-mail. Trust me YouSendIt is a lot easier than waiting for the e-mail to download.

 

[DerekSalem]

Hmm not sure how to attack...

First of all that's only 10Mp. Multiply them together and the total number of pixels is the "Mp" (in metric terms it's millions of pixels - they come out to 10,036,224 pixels, or about 10Mp).

Secondly, the 300dpi is a starter number. If you print with a professional company you can go down to like 180ppi without seeing a bunch of pixels or problems. KmH would definitely have a better explanation of all of it (he could give all the facts), but basically dpi is different from ppi (dots per inch and pixels per inch). 330ppi (what Photoshop reads) shows up as a much higher dpi. With the original Canon 1D (which was a 4Mp camera) you could easily print out 6ft posters without much trouble at all.

 

[e.rose]

Hmm not sure how to attack...

First of all that's only 10Mp. Multiply them together and the total number of pixels is the "Mp" (in metric terms it's millions of pixels - they come out to 10,036,224 pixels, or about 10Mp).

Secondly, the 300dpi is a starter number. If you print with a professional company you can go down to like 180ppi without seeing a bunch of pixels or problems. KmH would definitely have a better explanation of all of it (he could give all the facts), but basically dpi is different from ppi (dots per inch and pixels per inch). 330ppi (what Photoshop reads) shows up as a much higher dpi. With the original Canon 1D (which was a 4Mp camera) you could easily print out 6ft posters without much trouble at all.

Maybe that was the file size then, not MP... It's late, and I got some news right before this so my head is sort of... scattered right now.

In any case... I know that dpi is different from ppi... I just want to know what the math is behind figuring out how large the image could be printed... I guess that's the easiest way to phrase the question. Assuming that they'll print it at 300dpi, if that is the standard.

 

[BekahAura]

I only have a 6 megapixel camera that I got 5 years ago, and when I started really focusing on the work for the past year I was so confused about printing and the ppi. Technically a 6mp camera can't even get an 8x12 print at 300, but I did discover that I can get a 20x30 print at 100ppi with my cameras files. I know that sounds ****ty but my lab suggests 100ppi minimum, and think of it this way: the larger the print the further away the viewer stands to take in the whole image. So if you had to print something large no one will be close enough to the print to see the quality loss.

If none of that helped try this (no math required!):

--Go into Photoshop and open the file.

--Go to Image>Image Size (I use CS2 but it should be the same)

--Make sure the "Resample Image" box is unchecked.

--In the Resolution box type in 100 and make sure pixels/ inch is selected to the right.

--The width and height of the largest image you can print at 100ppi will automatically show up.

So for your file an 8 x 12 print will have a resolution of 300ppi... at 100ppi you can get a print that is about 25x38

I hope I helped! =)

 

[BekahAura]

Oh and although Raw is a larger file size than JPEG, this has nothing to do with printing size. Raw files are larger because they hold much more color information so that you can adjust WB and color correct much better. Whether the photos are RAW or JPEG, there will still be the same exact amount of pixels in the image.

 

[sleist]

When I upload my photos to MPIX, they give me a list of sizes they can (are willing to) print based off the size, crop, and resolution of the image. Might give you a ballpark if you convert the file and upload it just to check what they offer.

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

So at 16x24 you could be at 150ppi. Still decent since you most likely will view at a distance. You can also use programs like Genuine Fractals to make very large prints.

 

[KmH]

300dpi is the standard.

300 dpi was a standard for printing early digital photos on offset half-tone printers using a 150-line screen. In any event DPI is a measure of printer resolution. DPI (dots-per-inch) and PPI (pixels per inch) are not interchangeable terms.

To make the print larger than 8.64 inches by 12.907 inches it has to be printed at a lower PPI. At 200 PPI the 2592 px by 3872 px photo will print at 12.96" by 19.36".

If you want the print a specific size, do a little algebra and change the equation so it's - 2592 px divided by 12 inches = 216 PPI.

 

[e.rose]

300dpi is the standard.

300 dpi was a standard for printing early digital photos on offset half-tone printers using a 150-line screen. In any event DPI is a measure of printer resolution. DPI (dots-per-inch) and PPI (pixels per inch) are not interchangeable terms.

To make the print larger than 8.64 inches by 12.907 inches it has to be printed at a lower PPI. At 200 PPI the 2592 px by 3872 px photo will print at 12.96" by 19.36".

If you want the print a specific size, do a little algebra and change the equation so it's - 2592 px divided by 12 inches = 216 PPI.

Thanks... this is more along the lines of what I was looking for, haha.

So is 300dpi, *not* the standard anymore? Or is it? I know you said it was for "early digital photos", but is there a standard now? Or does the lab just change it based on how big you want it?

Just to clarify, because a couple of people have pointed it out to me already... I knew that dpi =/= ppi before posting this... but I had no idea what the formula was for figuring everything out, which is why I posted... because I wanted to know that.

So all it is is the number of pixels that the image currently is, divided by dpi, which will give you the dimension of the largest the image can be printed at in it's current state?

I don't *want* to make it bigger... if anything, I would want to make the image smaller, depending on how big it is able to be printed... I'm just trying to figure out how large it can be printed *now*, as is.

But I can't figure that out without knowing what dpi the lab will print at, can I? Or, again... is that one of those things where you tell the lab what dpi you want it printed at?

 

[KmH]

How big a photo can be printed depends on the image quality of the photo.

Mpix printers max out at 250 ppi. http://mpix.com/support/Help.aspx?id=3

We do not require a maximum resolution for the images you upload. The higher the resolution, the better the picture will be. It's that simple. The Mpix printers output at 250 ppi. However, we are frequently asked what the optimal resolution is for the prints we offer.

 

[e.rose]

How big a photo can be printed depends on the image quality of the photo.

Mpix printers max out at 250 ppi. Mpix.com - Help

We do not require a maximum resolution for the images you upload. The higher the resolution, the better the picture will be. It's that simple. The Mpix printers output at 250 ppi. However, we are frequently asked what the optimal resolution is for the prints we offer.

Gotchya... so I just have to figure out what the printer output for the lab we're using is... Thanks :sillysmi:

 

[GooniesNeverSayDie11]

So is 300dpi, *not* the standard anymore? Or is it? I know you said it was for "early digital photos", but is there a standard now? Or does the lab just change it based on how big you want it?

There is no standard, just a trade off in quality. They recommend certain resolution because obviously they want you to be happy with the prints they sell you, not disappointed because you printed a 4x6 72ppi pic off the net at 10x15. If you are looking to get published, many publishers will require 300ppi or higher but unless its a poster printing company, that doesn't mean it has to be 20x30 @300ppi. ( see Photographers Market ).