Printing dpi

I come from a wet darkroom background so this question is aimed to those who

have experience with the new digital printers. I was finding out this morning

the final final dpi I would obtain if I used a service that could print my

20X20 inch picture files. They would receive a file that was set up for 300

dpi (at 20x20 inch) and all pre production work was completed and received on a

CD rom. It appears that for that size of print they would only print at

300dpi. Is this the norm and if so surely the wet darkroom (B&W) still has a

huge advantage in quality over the machine manufactured print.

 

with thanks

 

Brian

300 is considered the standard for hi-res printing. Most with experience advise against

printing at a higher res because you won't notice any difference and it'll just waste ink.

Actually the limiting factor is not dpi, it's going to be grain, dust and scratches (if you have

your negs scanned) or megapixel size and noise (if you use a digital camera). Lens

abberations will also show up at 20x20. If you have a clean hi-res image then 300 dpi will be

fine.

 

I used to have a darkroom, but I've found the control over the image in photoshop is like a

tweezer vs. a baseball bat for darkroom.

Brian: Trust me, you will learn a lot that you need to know by going to http://www.scantips.com/ and spend an hour or so reading.

<I>Is this the norm and if so surely the wet darkroom (B&W) still has a huge advantage in quality over the machine manufactured print. </i><P>Yes, it's the norm, and if your wet darkroom print is so much better why don't you go back there?<P>A meticulously printed conventional optical 8x10 print from film will defeat your typical 300dpi mini-lab Frontier print if you squint at it. However, the digital print isn't prone to the problems optical prints are the bigger you get, and I'll take a 300dpi LightJet print over an optical 20x20 from 35mm anyday. I should know, I've got walls full of emfrom every possible format, and the 300dpi digital prints look better.<P>Printing B&W images onto color paper is going to be the problem, not resolution.

Sending a higher dpi/ppi to my printers wont waste any more ink or toner, it just creates bull dung bloaded files that clog the printers rip.

Well, the proof is in the pudding. Give it a shot, see how you like the result. If you're printing B&W pictures, be sure that your service is equipped to print B&W.

 

If the level of detail on a 300dpi 20 inch print is a concern, I have to assume that you're printing from at least 6x6 MF. Even then, you're looking at a 9x enlargement, and it's not totally clear that the print will be the limiting factor in that case. Even then, you'll need good eyes and you'll need to watch from about 10 inches away for 300dpi to start to be a limiting factor. And if your film really has that much more detail, just create larger prints, they'll have more impact.

 

I personally commonly print 18x24 pictures at 160 dpi and I'm very satisfied with the results. I'm confident that at that size I can actually see all the details that my camera captures, while still having enough detail for the prints to not look overenlarged.

In DOS with engineering bond copiers folks were using 400 dpi before Windows came out, and about 150 dpi for inkjet 36" wide color printers.

"Printing B&W images onto color paper is going to be the problem, not resolution."

 

This is true. Digital color printers sometimes have a slight, variable color cast that is

noticeable on monochrome prints but not color prints. One way to minimize this effect is

to add digital toning to the B&W image which can overwhelm the color cast.

 

I have had quite a few B&W images (on color film) printed on a Chromira using Fuji paper,

and only once have I had to have the print re-done. I like Chromira, because its dmax is

huge. Identical prints on an Epson 9800 seem slightly washed out in comparison.

The trick to making b&w prints without a color cast is not to use color inks. Think about it.

Brian,

 

If you need quality b&w digital printing, check these guys out:

 

http://www.diallophotography.com/digitalprintmaking/index.html

 

http://www.coneeditions.com/

"The trick to making b&w prints without a color cast is not to use color inks."

 

That is certainly one way to do it. But Chromira B&W prints are absolutely gorgeous, and

the Chromira is a color printer. With a single exception, I have been exceedingly pleased

with the results.