I wish someone here can help me for preparing printing files of my photos.
Recently some people wanted to purchase a number of my photos printed with large size, e.g. as large as 170cm x 135cm. I have got a professional printing lab to do this job for me. They asked me to provide either psd or tiff files of these photos to them.
I tried to understand how to set ppi for these photos, and asked the lab. The lab people said I just provide them the psd or tiff files, and they will do the setting and then printing.
But I still want to understand for printing a photo like 170cm x 135cm, what ppi value is right in order to get the best printing result? Also, in Photoshop CS 5, when I do
"Document Size", I try to set width = 170cm, it seems to indicate PS cannot support pixles over 30,000 (because 170cm width will increase width pixles over 31,000). What should I do?
The dpi for the print resolution depends upon the printer. So, your best bet is to send the files to your lab as instructed. They will size them as needed for their process.
As I understand it, very large images in PS should be saved in the Photoshop large document format: PSB. I don't work with files this large in pixel dimensions, so I don't know if saving as a *.psb file type will work. All you can do is to try it.
You need to set ppi to a lower value if you are trying to up-size the image in Photoshop on your own. You are probably much better off letting the print lab do this for you as they have the experience and know what is acceptable for such an image.
At 2.54 centimeters per inch and a minimum of 180 ppi for acceptable image quality in a large print (assumes the viewer won't be looking at detail from only a few inches away) you need 12,060 pixels on the long side of your image and 9577 pixels on the short side.
PSD is the file format for Photoshop files. Let the lab do it as proper resolution is one aspect. There are specific output sharpening techniques for upscaled images that printers like to follow. And these techniques can vary with each printer.
Discussion
4 repliesRecently some people wanted to purchase a number of my photos printed with large size, e.g. as large as 170cm x 135cm. I have got a professional printing lab to do this job for me. They asked me to provide either psd or tiff files of these photos to them.
I tried to understand how to set ppi for these photos, and asked the lab. The lab people said I just provide them the psd or tiff files, and they will do the setting and then printing.
But I still want to understand for printing a photo like 170cm x 135cm, what ppi value is right in order to get the best printing result? Also, in Photoshop CS 5, when I do
"Document Size", I try to set width = 170cm, it seems to indicate PS cannot support pixles over 30,000 (because 170cm width will increase width pixles over 31,000). What should I do?
Thanks in advance.
The dpi for the print resolution depends upon the printer. So, your best bet is to send the files to your lab as instructed. They will size them as needed for their process.
As I understand it, very large images in PS should be saved in the Photoshop large document format: PSB. I don't work with files this large in pixel dimensions, so I don't know if saving as a *.psb file type will work. All you can do is to try it.
--P
At 2.54 centimeters per inch and a minimum of 180 ppi for acceptable image quality in a large print (assumes the viewer won't be looking at detail from only a few inches away) you need 12,060 pixels on the long side of your image and 9577 pixels on the short side.
Thanks very much for your advice and help. I probably let the lab to re-size the files.
Cheers,
Yan
ME