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having a lab print my digital panorama file
For the first time I'm thinking of having a lab print some digital
files for me. Up till now, I've done them all myself, but now I have some big panoramas that my printer can't handle. The requirements of the lab have me a bit confused, however, and I'm hoping someone here can help. The lab states digital files must be set to the size and resolution you want, along with any borders you want included. They say the easiest way to do this is in Photoshop under "image size." According to their explanation, all they do is open up the file and press "print." I have a panorama file that was scanned at 1200 resolution and is saved as a .tiff file of approximately 75 megabytes. I want my photo printed at 6.3" x 21.1". Does this mean that I need to change my image size to this setting in Photoshop for them to print it at this size? When I do this, it changes my 75 megabyte file into a 553 megabytes giant. This seems a bit excessive, but since I've never sent anything to a lab for printing before, maybe this is typical? Btw, I've sent an e-mail to the lab to ask them this same question, but I haven't heard back yet. That's the reason I'm asking it here. |
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having a lab print my digital panorama file
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#3
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having a lab print my digital panorama file
Try http://www.automatedphototechnology.com/
They have made some panos for me. www.alldigital.fotopic.net |
#4
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having a lab print my digital panorama file
When you say that your file was scanned at 1200 resolution do you mean 1200 dpi? If so, that is a very low resolution scan and may not result in very high print quality. With the file opened in Photoshop you will want to look in the image size dialog box and see how many pixels per inch (that is PPI not dpi) your image contains at its current size. Then with the resample box UNchecked change your long dimension to 21.1" and again look at how many ppi that you have. If, at that length you have 240 ppi or better you probably have sufficient quality to produce an acceptable print. If you are close to but below that figure you can probably check the resample box and insert a higher ppi number and up-sample your image. If you are quite a bit below 240 up-sampling will not be a very satisfactory solution. As far as file size is concerned 553 MB is not all that large for an uncompressed pano file. Chuck Well, I have to admit that I've always been confused by the interchangeability of terms when people refer to DPI and resolution. I should say that when I scanned the negative, I scanned it at "1200 dpi" setting under "resolution." When I opened it up in Photoshop, as you suggested, I find that the pixels per inch is listed as 1200. When I change the long dimension to 21", it changes my pixels per inch to 395.143. It sounds like my quality should be just fine if I'm understanding your e-mail correctly because my ppi is well above 240. My main thing was I just wasn't sure what I had to do to make sure I had the image set up so it would print to the correct size at the lab. I never have to do this when I print at home. I scan a negative (or take an existing digital photograph), open it up in Photoshop, tell Photoshop I've got 8x10 paper loaded, and then drag the picture to whatever size I want on the paper and hit print. This whole idea of pre-sizing a picture for the lab was sort of foreign to me. Now that I know 553 MB is not unusual for an uncompressed pano, I won't worry so much. |
#5
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having a lab print my digital panorama file
William_T wrote:
For the first time I'm thinking of having a lab print some digital files for me. Up till now, I've done them all myself, but now I have some big panoramas that my printer can't handle. The requirements of the lab have me a bit confused, however, and I'm hoping someone here can help. The lab states digital files must be set to the size and resolution you want, along with any borders you want included. They say the easiest way to do this is in Photoshop under "image size." According to their explanation, all they do is open up the file and press "print." I have a panorama file that was scanned at 1200 resolution and is saved as a .tiff file of approximately 75 megabytes. I want my photo printed at 6.3" x 21.1". Does this mean that I need to change my image size to this setting in Photoshop for them to print it at this size? When I do this, it changes my 75 megabyte file into a 553 megabytes giant. This seems a bit excessive, but since I've never sent anything to a lab for printing before, maybe this is typical? Btw, I've sent an e-mail to the lab to ask them this same question, but I haven't heard back yet. That's the reason I'm asking it here. I'm not entirely sure I read this correctly but your post seems to indicate your 553 MB file is 6.3"x 21.1" at 1200 dpi. Is that right? If it is, you only need a 300 dpi file for a print lab to return a high quality print. The resize proceedure should be setting the dpi and size to achieve the final file. 1200 dpi is unreadable by most printer's. If you sent that dense a file to your home printer, the driver altered the size before sending to the printer so it would have worked that way but for a lab, only 300 or 350 dpi image. -- www.photosbydouglas.com www.weprint2canvas.com If you really must write,use my name at an above domain. |
#6
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having a lab print my digital panorama file
I'm not entirely sure I read this correctly but your post seems to indicate your 553 MB file is 6.3"x 21.1" at 1200 dpi. Is that right? If it is, you only need a 300 dpi file for a print lab to return a high quality print. The resize proceedure should be setting the dpi and size to achieve the final file. 1200 dpi is unreadable by most printer's. If you sent that dense a file to your home printer, the driver altered the size before sending to the printer so it would have worked that way but for a lab, only 300 or 350 dpi image. As I said in a previous post, I've always been a bit confused by the whole DPI thing, so I apologize if my post didn't make the best sense. My scanner software gives me the option of setting "resolution" listed in "DPI." I've scanned these 2.25" x 7" negatives at 1200 dpi, which gives me a .tif file of approx. 70 MB. The lab tells me I have to set the size I want them to print before I send the file, they tell me to do this in Photoshopimage size. I want them to print the image at 6.3" x 21.1". When I set the image size to these measurements in Photoshop, my file size jumps up to 553 MB and a pixels per inch of about 390. According to one poster, this is a normal size for an uncompressed pano. Hope this all makes sense now. I think I have it figured out in any case. |
#7
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having a lab print my digital panorama file
On Wed, 22 Mar 2006 19:44:10 -0800, William_T
wrote: I'm not entirely sure I read this correctly but your post seems to indicate your 553 MB file is 6.3"x 21.1" at 1200 dpi. Is that right? If it is, you only need a 300 dpi file for a print lab to return a high quality print. The resize proceedure should be setting the dpi and size to achieve the final file. 1200 dpi is unreadable by most printer's. If you sent that dense a file to your home printer, the driver altered the size before sending to the printer so it would have worked that way but for a lab, only 300 or 350 dpi image. As I said in a previous post, I've always been a bit confused by the whole DPI thing, so I apologize if my post didn't make the best sense. My scanner software gives me the option of setting "resolution" listed in "DPI." I've scanned these 2.25" x 7" negatives at 1200 dpi, which gives me a .tif file of approx. 70 MB. The lab tells me I have to set the size I want them to print before I send the file, they tell me to do this in Photoshopimage size. I want them to print the image at 6.3" x 21.1". When I set the image size to these measurements in Photoshop, my file size jumps up to 553 MB and a pixels per inch of about 390. According to one poster, this is a normal size for an uncompressed pano. Hope this all makes sense now. I think I have it figured out in any case. As I understand it, your source negative is 2.25" x 7" and was scanned in at 1200 DPI, for a pixel size of 2700x8400 in the resulting digital file. You want to print it at 6.3"x21.1". I'm assuming you are cropping the image, as a 3x "magnification" of a negative 2.25"x7" would result in a print 6.75"x21", which you could achieve by reducing the resolution (DPI) /3 (from 1200 to 400). So... You don't want or need to actually "resize" this file! Changing only the DPI (and not resizing) to ~398 (398.104265) will make it print out at 21.1" wide without changing the pixels in the fils and thus the FILE SIZE will not change. You will just be changing the encoding in the file that tells the printer what DPI and thus what print size you want these 2700x8400 pixels printed at. You do this in Photoshop by going to: Image - Image Size and then *unchecking* the box that says "Resample Image". You will see that the boxes for changing the pixel size disappears. Then enter the print dimensions, and Photoshop automagically changes the resolution figure to whatever is the correct DPI to spread your pixels out the right amount to produce the print in the desired size. You should only resample a digital image when you don't have enough pixels to produce a good image at the desired size. Anything over 300 is sufficient for prints in the 6"-12" range so the ~398 you get by changing the DPI is plenty for this print. If you wanted to print it out at ~18 inches x ~63 inches, THEN you would want to consider resampling as your un-resampled image would print out at ~133 DPI and that might result in some noticable pixel effects in your print. jc |
#8
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having a lab print my digital panorama file
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#9
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having a lab print my digital panorama file
On Thu, 23 Mar 2006 01:12:41 -0800, JC Dill wrote:
As I understand it, your source negative is 2.25" x 7" and was scanned in at 1200 DPI, for a pixel size of 2700x8400 in the resulting digital file. You want to print it at 6.3"x21.1". I'm assuming you are cropping the image, as a 3x "magnification" of a negative 2.25"x7" would result in a print 6.75"x21", which you could achieve by reducing the resolution (DPI) /3 (from 1200 to 400). So... You don't want or need to actually "resize" this file! snip Thanks for taking the time to explain this in a way I can understand! I'm actually not cropping, I was just pulling the approximate size from my head. I guess "resize" is another term I probably don't know how to use correctly. I used it because the lab said I needed to make sure the photo was "set" to whatever size I wanted it printed at. I just knew that when I went to the "image size" selection, it told me my 59.4 MB file was 6.9" x 1.9" (or something like that). When I changed it to 21" x 6.75", my file size jumped up to 500 MB+. I figured this meant I was actually resizing since my file size changed by so much. Anyway, again, thanks for taking the time to help me understand what I was doing. |
#10
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having a lab print my digital panorama file
On Thu, 23 Mar 2006 05:53:57 -0800, William_T
wrote: On Thu, 23 Mar 2006 01:12:41 -0800, JC Dill wrote: As I understand it, your source negative is 2.25" x 7" and was scanned in at 1200 DPI, for a pixel size of 2700x8400 in the resulting digital file. You want to print it at 6.3"x21.1". I'm assuming you are cropping the image, as a 3x "magnification" of a negative 2.25"x7" would result in a print 6.75"x21", which you could achieve by reducing the resolution (DPI) /3 (from 1200 to 400). So... You don't want or need to actually "resize" this file! snip Thanks for taking the time to explain this in a way I can understand! You are very welcome! I'm actually not cropping, I was just pulling the approximate size from my head. The math is really easy if we assume you want the final image printed 21 inches wide and that you aren't cropping. All you need to do is change the resolution to tell the printer that instead of printing it a 2.25" x 7" at 1200 DPI it should print the image as 6.75" x 21" at 400 DPI. The actual *file size* won't change at all. You could also tell the printer you want it printed at 9" x 28" at 300 DPI. Again, the actual file size doesn't change, just the resolution instructions to the printer. I guess "resize" is another term I probably don't know how to use correctly. It doesn't help that photoshop uses "resize" to do two totally different functions which can be very confusing if you don't understand how these functions act. One function changes the file size (that's what happens when "resample image" is checked). The other function just changes how the printer is told to print the image (changing the print size). I used it because the lab said I needed to make sure the photo was "set" to whatever size I wanted it printed at. I just knew that when I went to the "image size" selection, it told me my 59.4 MB file was 6.9" x 1.9" (or something like that). When I changed it to 21" x 6.75", my file size jumped up to 500 MB+. I figured this meant I was actually resizing since my file size changed by so much. If the file size changes you ARE resizing. But you don't NEED to resize. You just need to reset the DPI, which changes the "effective print size" without changing the actual "file size". If you change the actual file size you will be degrading the image. If you change the DPI you aren't touching the image pixels themselves, just changing the instructions for the printer software about how closely to print them. Anyway, again, thanks for taking the time to help me understand what I was doing. Good luck! jc |
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