How to know how foto will look printed?

<p>Hi. I'm having a first attempt at making a book of photos and have got as far as having decided to make them 3000 pixels wide - 8 and half-ish inches. How can I tell how they're going to look without printing a sample?<br>

Viewed in PS at full size, 3000 pixels, they don't look good- at 'fit on screen' or 'print size' they look great.<br>

What's the best way to view them in PS to give the best indication of how they should look printed?<br>

<br />Thanks</p>

<p> </p>

<p>What works for me (but that may very well be personal), is to view on 25% in PS. The reason is that screen resolution is set to 72DPI while print resolution is 300DPI, so approx. a factor 4 larger (hence the 25%). No idea whether this reasoning is correct, but I'm happy with it.<br>

Furthermore calibration is of course very important. You should calibrate your monitor and use a printer profile for on-screen proofing. It's still not exactly the same but it gives an reasonable impression of the printer end-result. <br>

It's also experience. My monitor and printer are not 100% correct calibrated but I know what correction I have to make to the image to get the printed image I want. In my case, the on-screen image has to be a bit darker to get the best printed result. </p>

 

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<p>The reason is that screen resolution is set to 72DPI</p>

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<p>This is not true, almost no screens are 72dpi anymore and it doesn't matter. Screen resolution is irrelevant to the question. Run some test prints at the same size as the book, use a company like mpix and you will get them in a couple days and can see how they look.</p>

3000 pixels wide printed at a normal 300 PPI/DPI would give a 10 inch wide print. To get a 8-1/2 inch wide print they would be printed at 352 PPI/DPI (3000/352 = 8.5) or resized and printed. Take out a ruler and measure what you get on the screen at "print size". If it is 8-1/2 inches then you are seeing what the print will look like. Otherwise adjust the pixel width until you do have one that appears 8-1/2 inches but keep the original that you are going to submit at 3000 pixels wide.

<p>As for color, the only way to get really close is to calibrate the monitor <em>and</em> printer using various thingies and software.</p>

<p>Hi Hugh,<br>

I assume first you are asking for both sharpness and color. Sizing is easy - you should learn the size function well in PS. Most print shops want 300 dpi. Here is a straightforward approach to sizing:<br>

1) select image - image size and deselect "resample image"<br>

2) change resolution to match desired print dpi. In my case its always 300dpi. Hit ok and reopen image/image size. You will now see the exact dimensions your print will print at.<br>

A much more robust and professional method to sizing is to use the cropping tool - it both crops and sets the dpi in one shot. This is much more efficient than doing both manually. You set both dpi and actual print size. It then forces the aspect ratio to match your entered settings as you crop it. <br>

About sharpness: You need to zoom in at 100% and look very critically at the sharpness. If it doesn't look tack sharp at 100% on screen it won't look tack sharp on the print generally. If it's not, there's not much you can do other than sharpening which has it's limits.<br>

About color and overlook contrast/curve: The right answer is to 1) have a calibrated monitor and 2) obtain an ICC profile of the printer AND paper/ink combination from the printshop. For example, <a href="http://www.adoramapix.com">www.adoramapix.com</a> will provide the ICC profiles for all 6 paper types. All they are is just a file for each profile that you save onto your PC. Read the instructions in PS about how to load this ICC profile and proof it in PS. What it does in PS is simulate what the final print will look like, using that ICC profile. It works very well for me. Two things generally happen when turning on the proofing, the black point becomes much lighter (the black of the paper cannot get as black as a good monitor - this looks like a 'haze' was put over the photo), and the color gamet is not as good which shows as slightly muted colors. Then you can tweak/edit the photo to try to bring some of this 'loss' in quality back.<br>

hope this helps,<br>

Vince</p>

<p>I usually use 50% view. If most obvious flaws are gone compared to 100% then it'll be good. This is for "normal" prints up to 8x12 or so. Large prints are a bit different animal.</p>

<p>Thanks, JDM, Vincent, and Kari</p>