Print size and 'Save' quality basic question

[Stagecoach]

As I never print images a basic question.............

If someone requests one of my images for printing at lets say 4 x 6 for home printing what 'Save Quality' (or rough file size) in PS once downsized and sharpened to 1200 x 1800 px would be ideal?

I'm looking for a simple basic answer to enable me to make up some quick 'actions' and understand some printers are 360dpi.

Note, I'm not providing images for commercial quality printing.

Grahame

[pnodrog]

What you propose (1200x1800 300DPI) is probably what I would do. If they take the file to a photo printing shop/booth it will be straight forward to print.

[Stagecoach]

What you propose (1200x1800 300DPI) is probably what I would do. If they take the file to a photo printing shop/booth it will be straight forward to print.

Thanks Paul, how about 'Save Quality'?

[pnodrog]

Thanks Paul, how about 'Save Quality'?

With LR I export at 95% or set max file size, 300DPI and to sRGB. For your size print 2000K jpeg file size should be more than big enough.

P.S. The file size maybe much less than 2000K - it will depend on content. Some jpg save options are based on 1-10, 1-12 or fine etc. I tend to use the setting just less than the max.

[Stagecoach]

With LR I export at 95% or set max file size, 300DPI and to sRGB. For your size print 2000K jpeg file size should be more than big enough.

Thanks Paul.

[george013]

If you mean with "home printing" directly printing yourself, why saving it as a jpg? Print directly from the program.

George

Correction. Somebody else is printing.

[Manfred M]

1. Resize to the final print size in whatever unit of measure you are looking at; in your example I would downsample to a 4 x 6 (inch?) print and sharpen at 100% after resizing. As I use an Epson photo printer, I set my dpi to 360; but HP and Canon printers are 300 dpi, so that should do fine as a default.

2. As you don't know the colour space people are printing to convert the image to sRGB (which is also what most commercial printers use).

3. Output to jpeg. In Photoshop, I find a quality level of 10 (maximum is 12) is more than adequate for a small prints.

[Stagecoach]

1. Resize to the final print size in whatever unit of measure you are looking at; in your example I would downsample to a 4 x 6 (inch?) print and sharpen at 100% after resizing. As I use an Epson photo printer, I set my dpi to 360; but HP and Canon printers are 300 dpi, so that should do fine as a default.

2. As you don't know the colour space people are printing to convert the image to sRGB (which is also what most commercial printers use).

3. Output to jpeg. In Photoshop, I find a quality level of 10 (maximum is 12) is more than adequate for a small prints.

Thanks Manfred,

The background to this is that I uploaded 600 odd images of a marathon event to my website and sized to 1200px wide to limit upload/browsing time and on previous years the only people that contacted me for hi res copies were commercial entities and it was easy to converse with them.

This year I am getting a number of requests from participants, with such info as, can I get a hi res version for printing and I'm the one with the marathon singlet and blue shorts

So my aim is to ask what size they want to print, e.g. 4x6 and be able to quickly provide an edited version at a quality that will give acceptable IQ at the size.

[ajohnw]

It might depend on what they print on. We have one of those Canon post card printers. The first time I used it I thought be clever. It didn't work out. I found that the only way to get a decent print was to give it what would be a rather large print. Son and wife just give it what ever came out of the camera. I now just pp and print and if I resize I do that to a much much larger size than it should need.

We have a shop around the corner. They used to d&p from film but moved on and do a lot of printing for the general public. In most cases that is going to be jpg's straight out of the camera.If the photo's are good the results seem to be as well.

John
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[IzzieK]

I only use my Epson for pix printing, but hubby has an HP which is used mainly for other stuffs and recipes for dinner. Anyway, for images, I use 360 dpi for my album and giving away to rellies (relatives) and friends. What printer do you have? sRGB is fine ...

[Stagecoach]

It might depend on what they print on.

I'm sure it would John, but from feedback received after following the advice above I had happy customers

We have one of those Canon post card printers. The first time I used it I thought be clever. It didn't work out. I found that the only way to get a decent print was to give it what would be a rather large print. Son and wife just give it what ever came out of the camera. I now just pp and print and if I resize I do that to a much much larger size than it should need.

We have a shop around the corner. They used to d&p from film but moved on and do a lot of printing for the general public. In most cases that is going to be jpg's straight out of the camera.If the photo's are good the results seem to be as well.

I'm sure modern printer technology will print out something that the majority of people are pleased with if the original was ok. I was looking through some images of mine on screen the other day with someone that wanted them for printing and it's quite surprising what some think is acceptable

[miatab]

It is all in the eye of the beholder

[Manfred M]

it's quite surprising what some think is acceptable

Agree 100%! Some of the selfies from various relatives I see on Facebook deserve the "delete" button, but they seem to feel "more is better".

[KennethLi]

1200x1800px at 300dpi is fine. Save as sRGB. With a 4x6in print, you don't even have to save jpeg at 12 maximum quality. 10 is enough. Given that your clients will handle the printing (either on their own or via photo lab), results may differ from one another when taking other factors into account. Nevertheless, what people find as acceptable is different for each person.