enlargements

the supervillain

hey everyone, not quite sure if this is the appropriate thread or not, but here we go.

a customer of mine wants to purchase a digital download of an original copy of one of my images. then she wants it enlarged to fit a custom sized space in her kitchen...

she is taking the original file to her friend who works at a print shop and has done this before. the image in question is 2592x3461 pixels and 240 dpi. and its a jpeg

she wants it resized to about 38.5 x 31 inches

will this turn out bad for my photo, or should it be okay....
help me out please! i want to make sure the customer is going to be ecstatic with her purchase!!

thanks a ton!

Art Scott

Just to be on the safe side why not get a trial version of Genuine Fractals print Pro and in PS cahnge the DPI to 300 and then take it into GF and uprez it to the needed size.........I do this with all of my photos so that I am sure of what a client is getting in the way of resolution.

GF used to give your 20 or 25 uprezes for free and the trial version is a completely functional working copy.....what they do not tell you is if you do not save your uprez it doesnot count against your amount allowed to save.....

Before I decided to up grade my GF 3.....I got a trial version of 4.5 which was the 1st of the 1 step uprezing versions and forgot about it afater I made 2 uprezes (money got short and I decided not to upgrade right then).....almost 8 months later I need to do another and the plug-in still worked.....I was shocked as it was supposed to be a 30 day trial.................

the supervillain

okay, maybe i will try that, i have alien skin blow up which i think is similar! i will play around with it in a bit, just got off a night shift and have to sleep

thanks alot!!

Art Scott

the supervillain wrote:

okay, maybe i will try that, i have alien skin blow up which i think is similar! i will play around with it in a bit, just got off a night shift and have to sleep

thanks alot!!

similar yes..........But GF has been winning all the graphic arts accolades for many years now:D.......I need to get a trial of Blow Up and see how it responds....... Oh I forgot and it is not important for this project but the Print Pro version will also work in CMYK where the standard version will not......that was another reason I went GF Print Pro........

pathfinder

Your desired print size is 38.5 inches.

For a satisfactory print, the lowest resolution you should consider is about 200 pixels per inch.

38.5 x 200 pixels per inch = 7700 total pixels. Your longest file size is 3461 pixels or about half of what you really need. I agree with Art, you will need to uprez this file is some manner, either in Photoshop or Genuine Fractals ( 6 is the current version and will do this nicely ) or a similar program.

the supervillain

thanks! so, should i just increase the dpi to 300?? or adjust the longest side to around 7700 pixels?

pathfinder

dpi does not really matter, it is calculated from the desired image size and dimension. Just total pixels are what really determine the print resolution. So you enter 7700 pixels for the new long dimension of your image when you uprez it. 31 inches at 200 ppi equals 6200 pixels for the short dimension. 7700 x 6200 = 47,740,000 total pixels.


If you want 300 pixels per inch, instead of the 200 ppi that I calculated for, then you need 300 x 38.5 on the long side of your image and that is equal to 11,550. That would be the figure used to plug in to Genuine Fractals for the new long dimension

For a print as big as you are wanting 38.5 inches long, I suspect you will be satisfied with 200 ppi. Remember, for each actual image pixel, an inkjet fine art printer with print anywhere from 2- 10 or 20 dots of ink.

At Marc Muench's print workshop, he uses 180 ppi for large scale prints - say larger than 36 inches or so, as these are usually not going to be studied at a 6 inch viewing distance, but more likely, 2 or 3 feet.