Print size question

eoren1

Quick question. How large can a 4256x2832 photo be printed without resorting to fancy enlargement software (ie genuine fractals or PS enlarging)?
Thanks,
E

Edit: found the answer - 14x9 at 300dpi larger with minimal sacrifice of print quality

pathfinder

Actually, I think you might be able to go bigger, if you pixels are first rate to begin with.

While 300 ppi is the usual recommendation for pixels per inch in a large print, you might print some images of yours and find that you can use 200 ppi, or even possibly, 140 ppi. Print some sections of your image at various ppi numbers and see if you can actually identify which are which. You may be surprised.

At 200 ppi your print will be over 21 inches long.

Remember, PPI is not how many dots of color per inch will be one the page, since modern ink jet printers print 5-15 dots of ink for each pixel. And larger prints are not usually examined as closely as smaller ones.

We did this exercise at one of Marc's print workshops, and nice images can be printed at 180-200 ppi. Depends a bit on the image and its initial quality too.

eoren1

Thanks Pathfinder. It was actually a quick question for a friend who just received his wedding photos as JPGs and asked me about printing them. They come from a D3 so I'm sure he can blow them up to at least 200dpi and maybe even 150 without any loss of quality.
Thanks for the detailed post.
E

pathfinder

Your welcome.

I suspect portraits will tolerate this much better than landscape with fine detailed leaf structures in the image too.