Printing Specific Sizes

[coco_lisa]

I recently purchased a Canon Pixma Pro-100 photo inkjet printer, but have had issues figuring out how to resize images so that they print with certain dimensions. For example, I desired to print an image on an 8.5 x11" paper so that the photograph was 8 x 10" on the sheet. I have recently noticed that when printing in Photoshop there is the option to scale the print to certain sizes, but I am unsure if this will cause resolution distortions or any type of stretching. Any suggestions or advice on how to print specific sizes or custom sizes is very much appreciated!

[vinny]

go to IMAGE and make the canvas size the size of the paper. Then in the printer settings, choose borderless printing. That's how I do it with this new piece of shit epson I've got.

[djdister]

For best results, resize the image to exactly what you intend to print it at, in terms of pixels per inch and overall size. Allowing the printer to downsize the image by scaling it in the printing process can result in some pixel distortion, which is especially noticeable in fine, straight lines. This effect will be even more pronounced in oversharpened images that are scaled down in size by the printer.

[Lenny Eiger]

In image size, check resample off. The size of your image should depend on its current dimensions.

You probably will sere little difference at 8x10, but it does degrade the image some to check the resample checkbox.

I would first crop the image to what you want to see. Then fit it on the paper. There is no need to be exactly 8x10, or to have exact 1/4 inch all around.

According to the latest research, printers don't care what dpi you send to the printer... it doesn't have to be 300 or 360 dpi.

Quoting Digital Dog, Jeff Schewe, etc...

[djdister]

In image size, check resample off. The size of your image should depend on its current dimensions.

You probably will sere little difference at 8x10, but it does degrade the image some to check the resample checkbox.

I would first crop the image to what you want to see. Then fit it on the paper. There is no need to be exactly 8x10, or to have exact 1/4 inch all around.

According to the latest research, printers don't care what dpi you send to the printer... it doesn't have to be 300 or 360 dpi.

Quoting Digital Dog, Jeff Schewe, etc...

I'm not sure what Mr. Schewe is referring to, but it does matter what the DPI is when you send a file to the printer, and I have a very real, concrete example. I've taken a 20mp image at 360 DPI and when printed at those exact dimensions, the image looks fine. When I send that same file to the printer and tell Photoshop to scale it down to a 4x6 print size, what had been fine, straight lines turn into jaggy, pixelated lines. Allowing the printer process to down sample it resulted in an image where the straight lines are hideously distorted. This may be an extreme example, but it proved to me that allowing the printer to down sample and scale the image to a much smaller size destroyed fine line and edge detail.

[coco_lisa]

Thank you all for the great feedback, advice, and precautions! It's great to have some examples of how the Photoshop scaling can affect the image quality, so I will make sure to try altering the pixel dimensions and the borderless printing option.

[Lenny Eiger]

I'm not sure what Mr. Schewe is referring to, but it does matter what the DPI is when you send a file to the printer, and I have a very real, concrete example. I've taken a 20mp image at 360 DPI and when printed at those exact dimensions, the image looks fine. When I send that same file to the printer and tell Photoshop to scale it down to a 4x6 print size, what had been fine, straight lines turn into jaggy, pixelated lines. Allowing the printer process to down sample it resulted in an image where the straight lines are hideously distorted. This may be an extreme example, but it proved to me that allowing the printer to down sample and scale the image to a much smaller size destroyed fine line and edge detail.

I am actually discussing something else. My printer doesn't care whether I send it 360 or 400, or 417. I actually send over a 1000 often and let the printer and th eRIP figure it out.

That example is way too extreme, there are lots of other factors in play...

Lenny