Step by step how to print?

W
Posted By
WendyG
May 29, 2004
Views
470
Replies
5
Status
Closed
Hi,

I’ve recently gone back to PE2 after a very long time away and I realised with horror that I can’t remember how I used to print good photos before.

I’m simply trying to print 6×4 digital photos but they come too small, to large, wrongly orientated, … Looks like I should have written down what I was doing before. 🙁

Anyway, I was wondering could help me get back on the right track by telling me how you print your pictures. For instance, would it be a kind of sequence that you always follow like:

– Fix Lighting (CTRL+SHIFT+L ?)
– Fix red eyes
– Set DPI to xxx (I’d say 300 but I’m aware that everyone needs to find his/her printing sweet spot).
– Crop picture if needed (force 6×4 scale here if not cropping much or does that produce worse results?)
– Additional resizing? Based on resolution, size? With resampling on/off? – Set printing options (anything special here?)
– Print and get a beautiful picture

I’m looking for examples of what works for you because I’m wasting paper and ink here and can’t produce a perfectly sized picture. I must be having one of those moments where the brain simply won’t engage. 🙂

Many thanks,
Wendy
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W
WendyG
May 29, 2004
Also, can anyone explain why I get pictures half or 2/3 the size of my 6×4 photo paper on the screen when I select "PrintSize" in PE2 (and I guess if I were to print them) and do the following:

– Set resolution to 300dpi (no resampling)
– Resize image to 6×4 inches, with bicubic resampling on to keep resolution constant.

I’m confused.

Many thanks for your help,
Wendy
RF
Robert_F_Carruth
May 30, 2004
Wendy,

Since no one more experienced than I has replied let me ask a couple of questions.

First, though, in Elements you are dealing with Pixels Per Inch (PPI) rather than Dots Per Inch (DPI). There is a lot of good information here about PPI/DPI but for now my simplistic definition is that PPI is what your monitor, scanner, camera and file system work with and DPI is what your printer works with.

First, What platform are you working on, PC or MAC?

Second, What printer/paper size combo? Are you using 4×6 paper, 8.5×11 and plan to cut out your pics, or 8.5×11 with 4×6 pre cut targets?

Third, Open a file that hasn’t been modified. Click on Image/Resize/Image Size. What are the pixel dimensions (width and height) and resolution?

With all that said here is what I do:

Open the unaltered JPG. Click Image/Resize/Image Size. (Mine are 1984w by 1488h pixels with a default resolution of 72 which translates to a Document Size of about 22.5 by 20 inches.) With Resample Image unchecked I change the Resolution to 300 since I’m probably going to crop. Now I have a Document Size of about 6.6 by 5 inches but the pixel dimensions and file size remain the same. At this point if I’m dealing with a portrait format I click Image/Rotate/Canvas (left or right). For convenience I then click View/Fit on Screen. Make any necessary improvements with Unsharp Mask as the last step. If I want to crop I use the Rectangular Marquee with Style set to either Constrained Aspect Ratio or Fixed Size set to 6 and 4. (Aspect Ratio if the actual size doesn’t get the part of the picture I want then resize to 6 x 4 still with resample off unless the resulting resolution drops below about 232.) At that point I usually don’t print from Elements. (My HP Printer doesn’t position well from Elements.) I save my work as either PSD or Tiff to preserve the original file and then use the software that came with my camera (Camedia Master) which has all kinds of precise templates and let it do the final resizing. With a 3.0 mp camera I get excellent results up to 8+x10+ on 8.5×11 photo paper.

Sorry for the long winded answer.

Without knowing the printer/paper combo I can’t give a good answer on positioning in Elements (and if it’s not a standard inkjet on standard paper size I’ll have to hope someone with more knowledge chimes in).

Bob
RF
Robert_F_Carruth
May 30, 2004
Wendy,

Should have mentioned that I’m on Elements 1.

Bob
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WendyG
Jun 6, 2004
Hiya Bob,

Many thanks for your reply. To answer your questions:

I’m working on Win XP with Elements 2. The paper I’m using is 6 x 4 photographic paper that I’m printing with borders (ie not ticking the "borderless" option).

Since my camera is a 4mp camera, I get more pixels by default on a picture (2448 * 1632).

However, I followed your technique and the pictures now print fine. So thanks a lot.

I still get pesky "this picture is too large and will be slightly cropped" warnings when printing, but I’m pretty sure that it’s because printing a 6×4 picture on 6×4 photo paper with borders means that some space must be found for the white border by cropping the picture. So nothing to worry about there.

All is well now. Thanks again for your help.

Wendy
RF
Robert_F_Carruth
Jun 6, 2004
Wendy,

Glad it worked even though I have not used anything other than 8.5 by 11. I’ll have to try a pack of 6×4 and see how my HP970 handles it.

With 4mp into 6×4 those must be beautiful prints.

Bob

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