Evil Nemesis

Just scanned an image at 600dpi resolution, is it ok for printing a 2' x 1' image from a studio ? or should I go for high resolution ? + There is some dust at that resolution so how can I get rid of it ?Thanx waiting for your replies. TC [honesty]

Sark

There's no need to print above 300DPI, you gain nothing. Scanning at higher than 300DPI is fine, it can maximise the detail you capture from an image but.... a 2ft X 1ft image is clearly larger than your scanner, unless you have a very large scanner. If the image was originally smaller than 2ft X 1ft you are going to lose image quality when you print. Scanning at high DPI settings will not enable you to retain the original print quality at higher physical dimensions than the original, at best it will only equal the quality of the original when printed at the same size as the original.

The answer to your question is, you can print at any size you want, but the quality you achieve is mainly dependant on the size of the original image. Scanning at very high resolutions has only a small effect on quality when printed at 300DPI.

Sark

Evil Nemesis

thanx 4 your reply, got it
So plz tell me how can I enlarge a digital image (1024x768) , Later I want to frame it and hang it into my room. What's the best way to do this ? Or should I go for new photo shoot through non-digital camera ? \:/

Sark

I find I can retain very good quality at 225DPI if I print on Photo Matte paper, but even at 225DPI you are only going to produce a print that is approx 5 x 4 inches. Upsampling effects quality and more so at lower DPI settings.

My advice would be yes, shoot again on film, or a higher res digital camera. Depending on the image you might like to try converting it to a vector. You won't get the same Photo quality, but the effect can sometimes be pleasing. Below is my reply, on another forum, to a post relating to this method and the image created. It doesn't work on all subject matter, but worth considering. Note, the vector program I used was Vector Eye. A google search will send you to a trial version that lets you save the results. You will need a vector app to convert from svg to a bitmap format.

I have a 2MP image of my parent's retriever Benson, shot with my Canon compact. With a little re-sampling and editing in PS, it prints a nice 8" x 6" at 245dpi. Because I wanted a larger 16" x 12" print of this image to gift to my parents, I decided to vectorize the image.

The original image was adjusted and down-sampled in PS, to increase sharpness, before converting to a vector. I can now have a 16" x 12" printed at 300dpi. I haven't uploaded a full 16" x 12" here because even at 72dpi it's a little too large. However, you can still see the image takes on a painterly look that is not displeasing close up. At the distance it is likely to be viewed when framed and hung on a wall, the photo-like quality becomes apparent.

At 16" x 12" at 300dpi the image is 16 mega pixels. No way could I have up-sampled the original 2 mega pixel image by this degree and got anything that would have been pleasing to the eye (at any distance). Even at 20" x 16" at 300dpi (28 mega pixels) a vector version looks pleasing when displayed at print size on my screen, and at 5 to 6 feet away looks very photo-like. Just goes to show what you can achieve by vectorizing a bitmap.

Evil Nemesis

Thanx for replying in detail. Love ya ;\