what res when making image to print?

[srobb]

I think this could be one of my problems as to why some of my images don't come out as good as I would like. Usually I will make an image to save just for printing to a specific size. I will usually run the res up to 200dpi, then adjust the size that I want the image to be printed.

Am I putting too much res in there? I guess my thinking is that more is better. Really need some help from those on here better versed than me. The main reason I am asking is that I plan on getting some post card backs from Photographers Edge and putting some of my images on to sell at a local store.

[another view]

On smaller prints (postcard size included) I would use 300dpi. You are probably fine with 200 but since it's still a small file size I'd use 300 and not have to worry about it.

I'm a little confused about how you're doing it though. In Photoshop CS, I go to "change image size" or whatever it's called and put the dimensions in inches and change the resolution to 300dpi (with the "bicubic" box checked). Click OK and you've done it in one step, and the results are good.

Make sure "constrain proportions" on this page is checked so that you can't change the proportion of the image, which will distort it. It will be very obvious if this happens! If you wind up with a print that's not the right size, then make the size larger on one dimension than you need, and correct on the other. Then crop it to fit. Hope this makes sense... ;)

[srobb]

I suppose that is part of it since I don't have Photoshop. I bought one called Photo Explosion hoping to save a little money. It's good, but does not have some of the neat things you find in Photoshop. Then someone turned me onto a couple of free downloads and I now have Picasa2 and GIMP. For being free, GIMP is the closest thing I have found to Photoshop in it's abilities. I can pretty much do it the way you described, but I was thinking more on Explosion. Guess I just need to start doing it with GIMP.

Thanks for the info.

[another view]

I'm not familiar with those programs, but the idea should be the same. I use Irfanview (another freebie) occasionally for simple stuff because it's such a small program and loads really fast. I can open the program, open an image, resize it and save it as a copy in about the time it takes Photoshop CS to load (OK, slight exaggeration!).

[srobb]

Thanks again for the info, anotherview. I was just wanting to make sure that the product I put out there was going to be the best it could be. I know there is someone else with postcards set up there from a friend that saw them. They told me I needed to do the same since this guy's was not any better than mine. Of course friends can be biased slightly. ;)

[pbr]

Thanks again for the info, anotherview. I was just wanting to make sure that the product I put out there was going to be the best it could be. I know there is someone else with postcards set up there from a friend that saw them. They told me I needed to do the same since this guy's was not any better than mine. Of course friends can be biased slightly. ;)

I would print at the highest resolution you have. 300 dpi is seen as the minimum resolution for print applications. As for photoshop replacements, I can't imagine using any other software for photo editing, but I've always had it. One economic way to get into photoshop (legally) is to take a commmunity college class, and use your student body discount to buy the student version of the software.

[masdog]

For starters, it would probably be a good idea to get a version of photoshop. If you can't, or don't want to, pay the large sums of money for the full-fledged software, you can pick up Photoshop Elements for about 1/4th the cost (if not less).

Second, when I print, I set my DPI to 300 DPI, and the quality is very good. So far, my client hasn't complained about it, and I like how the images look when they come out of the printer.