What size for prints.

[John D]

Originally Posted by Kayleigh

The elements print set up lets you see the what the final print will look like and if I resize the image to 800x533 then it fits with a small border.

Printing at such a 'low' resolution Kayleigh will only produce a very small quality print.
At such a low resolution the print size would be 3.33" x 2.22" at 240dpi or 4.0" x 2.66" at 200dpi.

Have I misunderstood what you are saying??

John D
Zenfolio | John's Wild World

[Geoff F]

Resizing is something to watch carefully when making adjustments, Kayleigh. Many auto resizing programmes produce this sort of thing. You adjust one item and that affects others. And you don't notice until it is too late.

I get caught out in the same manner if I alter the settings in the wrong order. It is just a case of always do a second check. Another thing which can catch me out is adjusting the image size in ins or mm when I think I am actually working in pixels. So I try to set a size of 800 cm instead of 800 pixels!

So what size would I set here, assuming my maths are correct.

A4 is 11.75 x 8.25 and if we want a border of 1 ins, which is actually 0.25 ins hidden behind the frame, we get a finished visible border of 0.75 ins.

So that means an actual print size of 9.75 x 6.25 allowing for the all round border. Therefore we need an image size of 1950 x 1250 pixels at 200 ppi; or 2925 x 1875 pixels at 300 ppi.

The other complicated part is this isn't now exactly 3 x 2 ratio so a little bit of cropping will be required for perfect results.

I usually resize to the smaller side then crop a little from the other edge. Exactly how you set your crop depends on your software. Some allow cropping by pixel numbers while others need inch or cm sizes. And the resolution (ie 200 ppi) may need to be taken into account.

This is actually much easier than it sounds. It just needs a clear head to think it through for the first time. Thereafter, I simply keep a record of my required crop size settings for future use.

[Kayleigh]

I have a HP PhotosmartC700series(copy1) printer and elements 8 photshop.
There is a drop down menu on the print page Quality is set to 1200 dpi I cant change this, these are the options I don;t really know what I am doing.
Print size..
Actual size (depending on the shot) this is on my uncropped original version..
167.44cm x 111.76cm. this leaves no border as it takes up all the page and seems to crop the outer edge itself.
the other options are.
10.2cm x 15.2cm
12.7cm x 17.8cm
5.3cm x 7.1cm
8.9cm X 12.7cm
These vary the size of the border.
I think it chooses the DPI its self..

I normally crop the shots manually by dragging the dotted line round the edge and selecting crop.
then resize the image manually to a small size for websites around 1000ish this allows for quick uploads.
This is all complicated I cant seem to change the resolution to
72 dpi = screen resolution
300 dpi = print resolution

Yes aDm, I could have googled this but I thought if I was having problems then others might too and google cant answer questions.
This site has photographic editing section and lots of knowledgeable and helpful people who print all the time I thought I would ask here..

Luckily the prints so far look OK but obviously I want to get the best I can.

[Geoff F]

This now brings up a number of other issues.

Firstly the easy bit. Printer dpi (dots per inch) controls the size of ink droplets sprayed onto the paper and has nothing to do with image ppi (pixels per inch).

Printer dpi varies between 360 and 2880 dpi depending on the paper used. Therefore at 1200 dpi you have a fixed average setting.

Now things start to get a bit more complicated. Are you sure about 167.44 cm print size? That is somewhere around 5 ft! But if we are talking about that size at 72 ppi resolution it would make a lot more sense at say 200 ppi.

Are the other sizes print or paper sizes? Possibly that printer only prints at A4 and simply auto sets other sizes to print centred on A4. I don't know anything about that printer. Have you read the printer instructions/help files?

In which case you won't be able to do any of the 'clever stuff' and personally select the print area or border sizes to suit your own preferences.

And if this is correct it probably auto resizes the image dimensions and resolution (ppi) as required. Maybe we have been expecting too much from it. I am working along the lines that it operates in a similar fashion to my own rather complicated, and more expensive, printer.

In which case, as long as your images have sufficient pixels, that is all you can do.

For example, 12.7 x 17.8 cm equals 5 x 7 inches so an image starting size of at least 1500 x 2100 pixels would be sufficient and allow for a print having an image resolution of 300 ppi.

But, and a big but too. When you mention Print size are you talking about a menu under the Printer Options or do you mean Image Size Options which comes under the Image Menu of your software. The two are totally different and this is important.

And even with that, I may still be 'barking up the wrong tree'. Are you actually looking at the Crop Size preset options?

For example (although I don't use Elements 8) when I try to crop an image with my software I get a number of options. The initial image size, which would tally with that large size which you mentioned, particularly if your software automatically resizes to 72 ppi.

Then I get a number of crop alternative sizes, from the dropdown menu. For example 4 x 6, 5 x 3, 5 x 7 ins, which is similar to what you mentioned.

If we are now on the correct track. Forget about these options; and also much of what I have previously written in this answer!

If you click the Image Menu from the top toolbar, and then Image Size do you then get an Image Size box with little boxes containing adjustable numbers? That is if you click with the I mouse pointer and drag to select a box.

If this is the case, we are starting to get somewhere. This is where you can change the image resolution and width x height.

Also, check if when you select the Crop Tool there are a couple of little boxes on the top toolbar which contain numbers which can also be changed either as exact dimensions or width x height ratios.

If this now starts to make sense to you, we are getting somewhere and you can start to do some clever things with your printing.

However, I will wait for your reply before going into more details.

And if anybody else is actually using, or has used, Elements 8 and done precise editing for printing they may be able to give specific help. I'm mostly guessing based on CS5 which I now use and a non Photoshop programme which I previously used.

It may take a little bit longer but I suspect we will be able to work this out soon.

[JennyS]

72 dpi = screen resolution, 300 dpi = print resolution

Sorry, I wrote dpi but meant ppi!

[Kayleigh]

Right I am not looking at the actual printer settings all I am using is the editing software in elements and printing from there.
I tried using the windows one on the computer where I upload my photos to from the camera and this cant see the printer for some reason so I tried elements and this worked, I don't know how to get it to print from the printer its a very good quality printer giving a professional looking printed image so obviously it can do more than I know how to do.
Yes I can edit in elements using the size chart you mentioned but this only works on cropped images.
I need to read up on how do do this as its not as straight forward as thought it would be but al least it works so far.

[Jim Ford]

I used to resize and change the dpi resolution in PS CS2 for printing, but don't bother now. I just let PS scale the image, and can't see any difference.

Jim

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by Jim Ford

I used to resize and change the dpi resolution in PS CS2 for printing, but don't bother now. I just let PS scale the image, and can't see any difference.

Jim

Cheers Jim, I have been reading the photo shop for dummies and is talks about celebrating the printer with the computer a lot of reading up to be done.
Until I get to grips with it I will let elements choose.

[artdemole]

"Celebrating" Will be done.So much to learn with printers.Not an easy job with all the updates possible.So many.Plus all the different free programes that do this and that with printing of Images.

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by artdemole

"Celebrating" Will be done.So much to learn with printers.Not an easy job with all the updates possible.So many.Plus all the different free programes that do this and that with printing of Images.

hahaha...calibrating..was the word I was thinking of..