The old chestnut – Image resolution for best print

JJ
Posted By
John_Joslin
Jul 23, 2004
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323
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4
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There does not seem to be a consensus in the forum over what ppi to set an image to for an optimum print on an inkjet.

One camp says that, regardless of the nominal resolution of the printer, 150 ppi is all you need: any more data will needlessly clog or block the spooler. Then there are various shades of opinion up to the point where they say give it all the pixels you can.

I just got an Epson Perfection 4870, which can scan the electrons on a Silver Halide molecule, so I have been playing with results from different scans on a Photo 1290 printer.

To my untrained eye there is no difference between a print from a 150 ppi image and one at 300. I note that Silverfast defaults to 150 for "Standard print" and 300 for "Photo print" but at 10×8 I can’t see the difference.

Any comment?
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MM
Mac_McDougald
Jul 23, 2004
If you can’t perceive diff, then obviously it’s fine (if no one else can either, although you might want to show couple examples around, don’t tell which is which). I assume that the 300ppi one was actually SCANNED at 300 and not upsampled from the smaller one, eh?

I can see improvement all the way up to right around 300ppi with my HP printer.

Mac
MA
Mark_Allen
Jul 23, 2004
My 1290 puts out good prints from the Canon10D from 200DPI(ppi) although I haven’t tried any lower but i stick around 250 for comfort only.

PS John, the 1290 tells you’re either from the UK or Australia ‘cos it’s 1270 in the USA XD (My favourite)

Regards

Mark
J
Jim
Jul 23, 2004
wrote in message
There does not seem to be a consensus in the forum over what ppi to set an
image to for an optimum print on an inkjet.
The answer really depends on what you mean by "optimal". It also depends on what the intended usage for the print.

I usually make either an 8×10, 11×14, or 11×17 print which I intend to view from about 10 feet. At these sizes, on my Epson 1280, I can’t tell the difference between 240 dpi and 300 dpi. There is a slight difference between 180 dpi and 240 dpi, but without side by side comparisons, most people would accept the 180. There is a noticeable difference between 180 dpi and 120 dpi. I have never tested 150 dpi; therefore, I can’t say anything about that.
Jim
GH
Gary_Hummell
Jul 24, 2004
For an accurate discussion of scanning resolution see:
<http://www.scantips.com/>
As for a particular inkjet, it varies with the type of image. Some images don’t look just right at 240 ppi but perk up at 300 ppi. Most of the time I observe a 240 ppi minimum on my Canon i9100 and everything looks great. One obvious exception is print. If I have print in an image I don’t bother to try anything less than 300 ppi.

Gary

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