I am almost at the point of giving up help please

[Sarah Chandler]

Hi

Help me please...

I have images from old photographs and drawings that I want to enlarge to A3 sent files to printers and they are only 150dpi

Printer ran off 13 proofs (out of 125) for me only 6 of a quality I can just about get away with using !

Is there anyway I can increase DPI on images to achieve 300dpi to give me a clear print

I am now tearing my hair out literally hoping that a wise one will be able to come and save me with thier knowledge before I pull all my hair out.

Fingerscrossed

Sarah

 

[hawkeye]

If you are scanning the photos, a good rule of thumb is to double the resolution for each doubling of the print size. For instance, for a 4X6 photo that you wish to print at 8X12, set your DPI scan to 600.

 

[Sarah Chandler]

Hawkeye

This is confusing me so much - images taken from disk !

Black and White Images DPI seems to have remained the same when enlarged, however still not enough for good print

e.g Dimensions 400 x 603 - 96DPI Enlarged to 1654 x 2493 96DPI

Colour Images DPI has reduced ?

Original Dimensions 451 x 673 300DPI - Enlarged to 1654 x 2493 96DPI

So from what your saying have I got this right increase by double each time ?? setting DPI at 600 until I achieve desired size ??

Can I try this out in trial photo shop before I buy as I have 2200 files to work through

Once (fingercrossed) I get this right the resolution won't change will it when I convert file to PDF to send to printers

 

[hawkeye]

Good quality prints usually require around 250-300 PPI for a normal viewing distance. So for an A3 print, in order to achieve that your pixel dimensions should be 2900 X 4100 minimum. You're nowhere near that, that's why they look bad.

 

[Sarah Chandler]

Hawkeye

So far so good yay resized as instructed then increased to maximum DPI of 1200 and original was 300DPI

It worked now if I save as PDF will it keep its properties ?? and then all I do is hit save as A3 ??

Your a wonder !!!

 

[hawkeye]

Resizing may help but bear in mind that Photoshop, or any software, is just making a guess when it creates new pixels to increase a picture size, as to what those pixels should look like. The more you increase size, the more guessing it has to do.

You can try to increase the size, but you still may not be pleased with the results when you print.

 

[Sarah Chandler]

Hawkeye

It surely has to have improved it somewhat ?? I'll send this one file over to printers so they can check for me I'll use one of the worst images I have !

The print run awaiting is 125 images so you have saved me loads a money and I can get full version now to plough through the rest of the images I have to alter !

I am going to send the printers jpeg files to work from rather than PDF that way avoid any alteration in conversion ?? Will the printer then just have to instruct his printer to copy at A3 like I would a photocopier ???

I'm Smiling now !!!

 

[Sarah Chandler]

Hawkeye

Are you still there ? I amended files as you highlighted and they are showing in Jpeg at dimensions 2900 x 4100 minimum with 1200dpi - sent over to printers who say that they are no different from the previously wrongly sized images with dpi of only 96 ????

This can't be right surley ! although I cannot expect miracles the images must be slightly better ??

Do you not think

 

[hawkeye]

I think you are misunderstanding what I am saying to you. The size I indicated they should be, is what they should have been initially. Altering the size, as I said, may help some but software can only guess when it adds pixels. The photos really need to be scanned at a much higher resolution for any chance of success. If you don't have the originals to do so, it's verfy unlikely that you'll get satisfactory results trying to enlarge them to that degree.