Shrinking photos (maintaining resolution)

[Centurion07]

Is there any way to do it?

Say I have an image 9" wide and want to shrink it down to 2", is there any way to do this whilst maintaining some semblance of resolution?

I know with logos and text etc that a vector file is the ideal way of dealing with this issue but not sure if there is something similar for photos?

I currently work with Paint Shop Pro (5 possibly? It's about 20yrs old!).

[singlecoil]

Shrink it in what way? Digital pictures don't have a fixed width except in pixels. If you want to reduce the number of pixels then you'll reduce the resolution.

[Centurion07]

For printing purposes.

That was exactly what I thought regarding resizing.

[Mr E]

I really don’t understand the question I’m afraid.

[The Moose]

Let me try to understand the question.

You have an image on your computer that is printing out 9” in width/length but you really want to print it 2” wide/long while still maintaining the detail in the image. Is that right?

[Lucas CAV]

Just use the scale or resizing function

[SpamDisco]

Does it look ok on the screen, but prints poorly?

Have you checked if the printer is capable of printing the resolution you need?

[Centurion07]

The Moose said:

Let me try to understand the question.

You have an image on your computer that is printing out 9” in width/length but you really want to print it 2” wide/long while still maintaining the detail in the image. Is that right?

This^.

[Centurion07]

SpamDisco said:

Does it look ok on the screen, but prints poorly?

Have you checked if the printer is capable of printing the resolution you need?

Images are absolutely fine onscreen. I would like to print them so they're about 2" wide instead of the original 9".

I don't think the printer is the issue as when I resize them on screen the loss of resolution is already there due to the limitations of the file.

[The Moose]

If you want to email it to me, I’ll make the change? PM me on here.

Alternatively does your program not have the ability to determine a print size? Maybe using a DPI number or similar?

[Centurion07]

Yep. Messed about with print size, resolution settings etc etc. I just think dropping to a 2" print size is too small...?

[Simpo Two]

If your 9" wide print came from a 300ppi image then you have 2700 pixels across to play with.

If you reduce the print to 2" wide then you have 1,350ppi - more than any printer can print, let alone what the eye can see (about 100ppi). So I don't see what the problem is.

One thing - if you are simply resizing in PS etc, then you will need to apply sharpening. Strange but true.

[Centurion07]

I would like to be able to print this (along with similar) in a size roughly 2" across.



Now matter how I shrink it down, either just resizing the "actual/print size" or setting a pixels per inch size etc etc what come out the other end is an image nowhere near that sharp. Sharpening up an image that has basically been shrunk to a quarter of it's original size just brings out a bunch of jagged lines.

If you shrink this page down to 25% in your browser settings and look at the pic, that looks reasonably sharp and detailed i.e. not the quite blurry and detail-less image I get out of the printer.

Edited by Centurion07 on Friday 10th April 14:15

[Simpo Two]

When I'm on the main PC I might have a go and send it over.

One quick fix is to open a Word doc, draw a text box the size you want, set the margins to 0 and lines to 'none', then insert the image and print the page. Worth a punt!

[Centurion07]

All sorted now with some help from Moose.

I was resizing each individual image and then copying them onto a virtual piece of A4 ready to print.

I didn't have that virtual A4 set at the same resolution I was resizing the images to and whilst not as super pinsharp as I would ideally like them to be, they are fit for purpose.

[singlecoil]

Do you have a bigger version of the picture?

[TonyRPH]

As far as free software goes, Irfanview is pretty good for doing what you want I think.

I use it quite a lot. If saving as a jpg, you just need to set the quality option to 100% instead of the default 80%.

Irfanview also has some good plugins, as well as a simple (but effective) directory browser.

You can also fiddle with the DPI in some cases.

[SCEtoAUX]

The right answer as mentioned above is to change the DPI setting of the image, the choose "actual size" when sending to the printer.

Getting your head around the fact that digital images don't have any physical size is key here. They have pixels, it's all they have, they don't have feet/inches/centimetres.

[Centurion07]

Centurion07 said:

All sorted now with some help from Moose.

I was resizing each individual image and then copying them onto a virtual piece of A4 ready to print.

I didn't have that virtual A4 set at the same resolution I was resizing the images to and whilst not as super pinsharp as I would ideally like them to be, they are fit for purpose.

If I'd just been trying to print an individual image I doubt there would have been a problem, but what I failed to mention (as it didn't seem relevant, hence the confusion) was that I was copying several images onto a virtual blank A4 so they would all print on the same page. I hadn't set that virtual page to the same resolution as the shrunken images I was pasting.