How to Adjust Photo Sizes With Print Software
Photo sizes in digital photography do not mean just width and height. The key to producing good quality images also depends upon the digital resolution. This is expressed as pixels per inch (or ppi) when the image remains as digital bits, and as dots per inch (or dpi) for the print. In general, the higher the number of pixels per inch or dots per inch, the better the quality of the photo will be.
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Instructions
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To begin, determine the resolution of a digital image from your camera. Most digital cameras will record images with very large width and height measurements and a low resolution. For example, a horizontal image shot in JPEG format might be approximately 42 inches by 28 inches, but have a resolution of only 72 ppi. The manufacturer of the camera sets this up so you can get more images on each memory card. In most cases, you would not expect to print a 42-by-28-inch photograph. If you did, the resolution (or image quality) would be very low. The 72 ppi standard works best for images intended for use on the Internet or other screen-only applications.
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Choose the size of the print you want to make. In most instances, you will not need more than an 8.5-by-11-inch print, and most inkjet printers do not allow printing bigger than this. However, if you have an oversized printer, you can set the dimensions as you wish. In general, you will need to find the image size tool in your photo editing software. In the most popular software, this appears under a menu called “Image” and a submenu called “Image Size.” Here, you can set the width and height of the image you need. Resolution, however, still will set the limits of your final print.
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Set the width and height. In the example mentioned, with 42-by-28 inches for the digital file with a resolution of 72 ppi, you can quite safely reset the width and height to approximately 11-by-8.5 inches. Actually, the ratio will make it 12.784-by-8.5 inches if you want the height to fit the paper and if you can cut off more than a half-inch on each side. If you want it to be 11 inches wide exactly, the height will be 7.314 inches.
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Select the resolution carefully. For a standard-quality print, you need at least 300 ppi resolution. If your original is 42-by-28 inches with a 72 ppi resolution, resetting it to approximately 11-by-8.5 inches and 300 ppi will be a reasonable trade off. The image will change megabyte size from approximately 17.2 mb to 20.7 mb. This is not much, so the print should be high quality.
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Set the resolution for 72 ppi if you plan to use the image only on a computer screen, such as for a website. Next, trim the width and height down to a reasonable size. Using higher resolution and larger dimension images on the Web will slow down the loading rate for the viewer.
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Tips & Warnings
Some print software packages have a setting to help balance any loss from enlargement. This may be called a bicubic smoother or something similar. If you select this setting when you adjust the image size, the software will help compensate for pixel gaps and present a good-quality image.
References
- Photo Credit digital camera age image by Steve Brase from Fotolia.com
