Print Quality

jude · Post by **jude** » Wed May 21, 2008 7:41 pm

When printing a picture from Ulead PhotoImpact 12 and then printing same picture from Irvanview, it produces totally different results.
(Epson inkjet Photo Quality Printer 870)

Print from PhotoImpact-looks like not enough ink is applied. Picture is very grainy.
Irvanview-better quality. More detail.

here's what I do..
In PhotoImact..I open picture from camera card>adjust>resize>resample checked..4"x6"..resolution 180. (I resample because I want more resolution in print). I have tried 360 dpi and 720 dpi settings on my printer. The 720 dpi picture was more washed out than the 360dpi.
I set printer to 'high quality' setting and photo paper.

I used to use PSP 9.0, until my hard drive died and I lost the program. I always followed the same steps and had terrific prints. (As far as I could gather PSP is not available to Canadian users or I would have bought it) After I switched to Ulead PI, I can't recall getting a decent print. I have tried enhancing using Smart Curves and adjusting levels. I just don't think that printing the same picture from two programs should have such different results.

As you can probably tell, I am quite the novice. I just want to load my pictures, resize and get a decent print.
What could I be doing wrong??
jude

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Thu May 22, 2008 12:08 am

Why do you resize? I get excellent prints from PI but never resize for printing. IrfanView might handle your redundant steps of resizing/resampling in a different way to PI.

The print size of a given image is totally dependent on its pixel dimensions and the dpi used for printing. You can print an image with 100 dpi or 1000 dpi (if your printer can handle it) without actually resizing the image. The 1000 dpi image would just print at a much smaller size.

I have never used IrfanView and can't comment on its capabilities but suspect that the print settings are less elaborate.

jude · Post by **jude** » Thu May 22, 2008 4:42 pm

Importing my pictures from digital camera brings the picture in at 22"x18" (approx), so I resize to 4x6 or 5x7.
I resample to apply more ppi for more detail.
I know I am not totally understanding this resolution stuff, but I refer back to the days when I used PSP. When I used this method, after importing my pics, I got outstanding detail in my printouts.
I feel like I'm missing something in PI. (and maybe somewhere else-lol)

Nice to hear from Australia.
Thanks for your comments.
Jude

Clevo · Post by **Clevo** » Thu May 22, 2008 6:17 pm

It's something I have yet to fully understand but it could have something to do with Colour (color) management, found under File menu.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Fri May 23, 2008 3:18 am

jude wrote:Importing my pictures from digital camera brings the picture in at 22"x18" (approx), so I resize to 4x6 or 5x7.
I resample to apply more ppi for more detail.
I know I am not totally understanding this resolution stuff, but I refer back to the days when I used PSP. When I used this method, after importing my pics, I got outstanding detail in my printouts.
I feel like I'm missing something in PI. (and maybe somewhere else-lol)

Nice to hear from Australia.
Thanks for your comments.
Jude

You are spot on there. You don't know or understand one vital point.

A digital image does not have a physical size in cm or inches. All it has is a certain number of pixels along each side. How many of these pixels are now squeezed into an inch on your print depends on the print settings (dpi).

If you don't believe me, try this out:
Open your image in PI, go to the "Resize" menu, you will see something like this, just click on the image below to see a larger view of it:

The dialog box shows your active image size in pixels, the new image size after resampling, your document size (print size) and the resolution.

Now, untick the resampling and set your document size to 6" wide (make sure keep aspect ratio is selected or your image will distort)

What you will see is something like this:

The resolution has changed automatically in order to allow your image to be printed in the requested size. No resampling has taken place (it's greyed out) and your image has not deteriorated. It is still the same pixel size as it was before.

What you are doing with your process is to reduce the pixel count of your image which discards the information held in these pixels. The resolution is very low and, in order to actually now print this image at a decent print resolution, PI has to reinvent missing pixels.

You can also just skip this step altogether and try to print your image from within PI by clicking on the Print Preview icon. If you did not change the size of your image beforehand, PI will tell you that your image is to large to be printed on that page and asks you to increase the resolution to reduce the physical size of your image.

In a nut shell: Never resize your image for printing. Increase its resolution only, with resampling unchecked, to reduce the physical print size, not the image.

If you need to resize an image in order to email it or place it on the internet, do that to a copy of the image, not the original.

jude · Post by **jude** » Fri May 23, 2008 4:25 pm

You went to a lot of trouble to explain this to me and I do appreciate it.

Before you posted, I spent the afternoon experimenting, doing exactly what you suggested in latest post regarding resolution.

Never resize your image for printing. Increase its resolution only, with resampling unchecked, to reduce the physical print size, not the image.

I also tried tweaking my printer settings. My results were improved, but only acceptable.
I would love to get a printout that came out as crisp as PSP, and in earlier years, Adobe Photo Deluxe. I still don't see that happening quite as much with PI, but considering your directions an excellent tool, I shall trudge onward.

Althought, I may not understand one vital point regarding photo editing, that is why we are here. To learn from each other, right?

Jude

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Sat May 24, 2008 3:16 am

You are right there Jude, one never stops learning.

I reject your comment about image quality from PI vs other photo software. If you get inferior results it must be something you do different in PI. There are so many settings one needs to understand before messing with them.

One vital thing is never to save a jpg image to jpg again unless you are finished with it and need jpg as output.

What is the format (jpg, tif, RAW) and size of your source images in pixel x pixel and in Mb. Source image is the one which comes off your camera without any post processing.

What is the size after you are done in PI prior to printing?

For what it is worth, I virtually never print from PI because I usually print border less on custom size paper and use my printer driver for that. My images, usually collages printed on A4 photo paper and prepared in PI come out crisp and clear even after resizing many images in order to fit them to the collage.

jude · Post by **jude** » Mon May 26, 2008 5:16 pm

Hello Heinz,

In answer to your questions:

Source image properties are-2048 ppi x 1536 ppi, 1.09 mb., jpg.

This time, prior to printing, I unchecked re-sampling and reset the width to 6" and the resolution automatically changed to 341 ppi. File size now 459 kb.
(I believe that follows your instructions in prior post.)
I printed image and I can see improvement in quality now.

What I had been doing was, as you know, was changing size by re-sampling. That is really all I was doing different.

I never really have saved and resaved anything as I know you lose quality each time you save.

I appreciate the time you have put in to help my with my prints.
Hopefully, I can give back someday and help someone else.

jude

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue May 27, 2008 3:20 am

jude wrote:Hello Heinz,

In answer to your questions:

Source image properties are-2048 ppi x 1536 ppi, 1.09 mb., jpg. Not quite right, you mean 2048 x 1536 pixels.

This time, prior to printing, I unchecked re-sampling and reset the width to 6" and the resolution automatically changed to 341 ppi. File size now 459 kb.
(I believe that follows your instructions in prior post.)
I printed image and I can see improvement in quality now.

What I had been doing was, as you know, was changing size by re-sampling. That is really all I was doing different. That is exactly where your problem started, resampling either discards or invents pixels in order to make your image the size you want at the given resolution.

I never really have saved and resaved anything as I know you lose quality each time you save.

I appreciate the time you have put in to help my with my prints.
Hopefully, I can give back someday and help someone else.

jude

I'm glad I could help you understand a most difficult subject better.