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12-05-2018, 10:28 AM - 1 Like   #31
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QuoteOriginally posted by BruceBanner Quote
How do you do that? Resample etc?

I think now I'm being a bit thick, but essentially I'd like to know better when to use 600 and when not etc. I get what you're saying how even perhaps portrait work and super high sharpness might even be unflattering perhaps, whereas landscape and architectural work that's more desirable.

How do I know when changing the PPI from 300 (seems default?) to 600 is going to be ok? The 'error' message it gave me about doing that (triangle with ! sign) suggested it was a memory issue I may encounter...

My native resolution changes tho right, with crops and camera choice. KP 24mp, K-1 36mp, they both differ and I'll have my final image cropped indifferently etc. So how do I know what to select in LR? Also paper sizes must factor and matter to right? A3, A4 A5 and so on...

Going forward I am trying to ascertain if what printer I have is up to the task or whether it's better to print at a shop or invest in a better printer. It could be that in 2019 I will be doing a lot of printing and it needs to be at a level of quality that is acceptable, but really I want it to be matching what my camera is capable of. I hate the idea that by not checking a box here or there, or changing a value somewhere in a box I am outputting images that are 'softer' than they could actually be.

Thanks again
No problem in LR as it does all the calculations for you in the print module (you can see the same in PS but IMO LR better). Only when you have more than your printers required PPI at your print images size would you change to the higher value. If you had only 200 PPI just go to 300 PPI for your Canon. Trying the same image and settin 600 PPI is just a voodoo move that may sound good but actually adds nothing to IQ IME.


As I am not seeing too well (minor eye surgery today) I thought that a picture example may be helpful and stop me becoming too wordy

1. Turn on Guides and select Dimensions. You should see that your image size presented along with the PPI for that size
2. In the case here the native pixel dimensions are 643 PPI. No point in trying to bin pixels that may harm IQ.
3. Now as my printer is 720 PPI. Tick Printer Resolution and selct 720 PPI. You will get a warning but so far I never experienced issues with a modest spec PC.
4. Print size now remains the same but image data is closer to optimal.

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Last edited by TonyW; 12-05-2018 at 10:41 AM.
12-06-2018, 01:12 PM   #32
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QuoteOriginally posted by TonyW Quote
No problem in LR as it does all the calculations for you in the print module (you can see the same in PS but IMO LR better). Only when you have more than your printers required PPI at your print images size would you change to the higher value. If you had only 200 PPI just go to 300 PPI for your Canon. Trying the same image and settin 600 PPI is just a voodoo move that may sound good but actually adds nothing to IQ IME.


As I am not seeing too well (minor eye surgery today) I thought that a picture example may be helpful and stop me becoming too wordy

1. Turn on Guides and select Dimensions. You should see that your image size presented along with the PPI for that size
2. In the case here the native pixel dimensions are 643 PPI. No point in trying to bin pixels that may harm IQ.
3. Now as my printer is 720 PPI. Tick Printer Resolution and selct 720 PPI. You will get a warning but so far I never experienced issues with a modest spec PC.
4. Print size now remains the same but image data is closer to optimal.
Thanks, that was helpful indeed.

I'm seeing a couple of recent images I have imported into LR saying PPI 445 or around that mark, so really I should set PPI to higher than 300 for that (if I were to print)? How do I know what my printer is capable of doing PPI wise? Is it just a case of going between two values (300 or 600, or with Epson 300/720?). I'm a little confused by the fact you seem to be able to put any value in that field, does it not make more sense for the PPI box to be a pull down menu with only a choice of 300 or 600 etc (or whatever your printer it can sense attached/selected is capable of)?

My Print Resolution was set to 300 PPI, but when I unticked this and checked Dimensions it says 445PPI (or something like that), should LR not have sensed I should need 600?
12-06-2018, 02:05 PM   #33
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QuoteOriginally posted by BruceBanner Quote
Thanks, that was helpful indeed.

I'm seeing a couple of recent images I have imported into LR saying PPI 445 or around that mark, so really I should set PPI to higher than 300 for that (if I were to print)?
445 ppi is only the result of letting LR inform you that your ppi is 445 at the particular print size and what it will send to the printer if you do not specify another figure. So I am sure I have explained it OK - you know that if you decide to print a larger size then that value will drop and it follows therefore if you decide to print a smaller image then ppi will increase?

QuoteQuote:
How do I know what my printer is capable of doing PPI wise? Is it just a case of going between two values (300 or 600, or with Epson 300/720?).
The question should perhaps be how sharp does my printer print and that you will only find by making some tests. There will come a point after which you will not see any improvement in resolution - it may be that you see an improvement going from 300 to 600 ppi but going further to 1200 ppi may add nothing. This is also highly dependent on the nature of the image so sharp capture, camera on tripod, mirror up and delay may help to maximise what your capture system can record - send less than optimal to printer will not result in better images at higher ppi.
Perhaps I confused by stating my Epson resolutions as well as Canon. Your Canon printer I am pretty confident will be effectively 300 ppi output with a higher quality level of 600 ppi (remember do not confuse ppi with dpi - mantra it take many dpi to make 1 ppi)

QuoteQuote:
I'm a little confused by the fact you seem to be able to put any value in that field, does it not make more sense for the PPI box to be a pull down menu with only a choice of 300 or 600 etc (or whatever your printer it can sense attached/selected is capable of)?
No it does not make more sense to make a dropdown box, what prnter would it aim at 300/600 Canon, or 360/720 Epson or higher resolution potential of 1200, 1440 respectively? What about other printers such as some Fuji expecting 400 ppi and others that I am not aware of.? There are some specialised applications out there for printing that have a few more bells and whistles if you want or need the sophistication and added expense and added learning curve

QuoteQuote:
My Print Resolution was set to 300 PPI, but when I unticked this and checked Dimensions it says 445PPI (or something like that), should LR not have sensed I should need 600?
Thereore you had set the Print Res to 300ppi and once you had switched that off LR informed you that at the print size you requested the ppi was actually 445. So you could have just sent data as is 445 ppi, or use your original 300 ppi (you will have binned data though) or upped the rate to what shouild be optimal for your Canon i.e. 600 ppi.

What I can say is that at any of these ppi you should get a very acceptable result and unless your image data cries out for the optimal quality for close up viewing you may not even notice a difference. The type of image and the amount of native data will dictate your treatment of the print. But if your images are below native 300 ppi then it makes some sense to just let LR upsample (you must set the required ppi) similarly if above 300 ppi then upsampling to 700 ppi will not be a waste (you must set in LR and make sure max it high set in print driver)

Rememer in LR you are not spawnig TIFF file after file for different sizes and purpose and thereby generating masses of image data to be stored - a proof print is only a small series of instructions that you may save or delete leaving original data alone.

Dont get too worked up about the highest quality until such time as you have a huge lanscape, architectural or commercial product advertising shot - get your printing colour and luminosity correct matching your monitor if that is your aim.

Last edited by TonyW; 12-06-2018 at 02:20 PM.
12-27-2018, 11:56 PM   #34
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Just stumbled across this thread...very interesting.
Colour management in printing is a tricky area.....until I discovered QIMAGE, a dedicated printing program of which I can not speak highly enough.
My journey in this began some 10 years ago and is ongoing, but I am happy with my outcomes, since QIMAGE.
One thing I have not found out from a quick read of this thread is Bruce ?...are you using windows /PC or Mac ?
I printed a commercial job recently for someone who is using a new Apple Retina laptop to process on and it wasn't until I used the Apple RGB option in QIMAGE that I could get his colours right. I have never had a problem with anything else.....my system is all Windows/PC.
I print on HP Designjet Z3200's (which can profile papers) and use EyeOne for calibration. papers are incredibly important, and I have settled on Ilford as the best and most consistent.
Interested to hear any updates.

12-28-2018, 04:01 AM   #35
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QuoteOriginally posted by Mallee Boy Quote
....
I printed a commercial job recently for someone who is using a new Apple Retina laptop to process on and it wasn't until I used the Apple RGB option in QIMAGE that I could get his colours right. I have never had a problem with anything else.....my system is all Windows/PC.
.....
That sounds very strange and I can only guess that it is the image file you have received that has been incorrectly rendered - possibly on a very poorly set up monitor?

I agree that Qimage is a great printer application with more control than LR for instance.

Not had huge experience with Qimage but I cannot see exactly where you would change to the Apple RGB option or why this should work as Apple RGB is a synthetic editing working space

Changing the Display Profile to Apple RGB would make no sense as you are now totally disregarding your monitor calibration and profile.
Changing the media type other than to glossy or matt etc. also does not appear to make sense in changing colours too much

Changing the Printer Profile to your particular profile is the only one that makes sense and I do not believe that you can actually alter that to anything other than a paper profile (so no Apple RGB or Adobe RGB available)
On these images what is the embedded profile? If it happens to be Apple RGB have you tried converting it to Adobe RGB first then importing to Qimage and selecting the correct paper profile?


The HP printer is very well regarded and as long as you are getting good paper profiles (seem to be the case with Ilford) and other prints are fine it does to me at least strongly indictate the possiblilty of bad data in the particular images editied on the Apple Retina display
12-28-2018, 02:09 PM   #36
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QuoteOriginally posted by TonyW Quote
That sounds very strange and I can only guess that it is the image file you have received that has been incorrectly rendered - possibly on a very poorly set up monitor?

I agree that Qimage is a great printer application with more control than LR for instance.

Not had huge experience with Qimage but I cannot see exactly where you would change to the Apple RGB option or why this should work as Apple RGB is a synthetic editing working space

Changing the Display Profile to Apple RGB would make no sense as you are now totally disregarding your monitor calibration and profile.
Changing the media type other than to glossy or matt etc. also does not appear to make sense in changing colours too much

Changing the Printer Profile to your particular profile is the only one that makes sense and I do not believe that you can actually alter that to anything other than a paper profile (so no Apple RGB or Adobe RGB available)
On these images what is the embedded profile? If it happens to be Apple RGB have you tried converting it to Adobe RGB first then importing to Qimage and selecting the correct paper profile?


The HP printer is very well regarded and as long as you are getting good paper profiles (seem to be the case with Ilford) and other prints are fine it does to me at least strongly indictate the possiblilty of bad data in the particular images editied on the Apple Retina display
It was strange in the extreme. I have printed thousands of images on these machines and never an issue (beyond the one standing in front of it ), I guess to be fair to the client, it was a new laptop, so perhaps he had not calibrated it or was doing something in his processing, as you point out. I had printed work for him from his old laptop with no problems, in fact he was thrilled with the colours, said it was the best result he had ever had...and sold those images.

The issue I had to deal with was a faint pale blue cast where white should have been. For example an image with a white border was printing with a pale blue border. Challenging. Without the white border it was barely perceptible.
Tried saving the images as all sorts of things, tried printing direct from LR, standing on my head, nothing was working, until I stumbled across this Apple RGB option in QIMAGE, problem instantly solved....just got to remember to turn it off again. Issue still ongoing from this client.
12-28-2018, 07:55 PM   #37
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QuoteOriginally posted by Mallee Boy Quote
Just stumbled across this thread...very interesting.
Colour management in printing is a tricky area.....until I discovered QIMAGE, a dedicated printing program of which I can not speak highly enough.
My journey in this began some 10 years ago and is ongoing, but I am happy with my outcomes, since QIMAGE.
One thing I have not found out from a quick read of this thread is Bruce ?...are you using windows /PC or Mac ?
I printed a commercial job recently for someone who is using a new Apple Retina laptop to process on and it wasn't until I used the Apple RGB option in QIMAGE that I could get his colours right. I have never had a problem with anything else.....my system is all Windows/PC.
I print on HP Designjet Z3200's (which can profile papers) and use EyeOne for calibration. papers are incredibly important, and I have settled on Ilford as the best and most consistent.
Interested to hear any updates.
I use windows.

I haven't had to do any more printing yet. After the screw up at the printers for the calendars I did I'm kinda keen to perhaps take full control over that process next year and do my own. Just not sure how to 'build' it all, and I haven't got any specialist equipment to help make stuff like photo books or calendars (don't even have a guillotine) but I'm just one of those people that tends to like to control everything. I hate actually clicking the 'send' button or whatever and not getting a preview and handing $$ over lol.

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