[Frank9z]

Hi...


I was wondering about some terms, and things to know about graphic design.

I still can't get a grab on the concept of printing from photoshop. ie. I create a new document let's say 600 DPI (Y? because i was told by you guys on another thread that before anything start working at a higher resolution) The problem then is that my work area becomes really huge and how do you control this space? let's say that i by this point -- paste a picture and it's like 4000 DPI and i resize it to 600 DPI so i can work comfortable at the size of my screen, but then i print and it comes out really small on paper, so i enlarge the size to say 2000 dpi( So by this point i just can't see how you guys keep measurements correctly resizing, guessing and stuff how can i be consistent to measuring when i work in that xxx large size? I hope I'm clear where the problem is at. For me working at 72 DPI which is my screen resolution and sizing the image more simple but that's cause i can't grab the concept of how to make it work the other way. and that's why I'm failing school damn teacher can't explain and i have read books I'm just slow or can't understand.


Can you help me please?
and on the same topic what is input and output?

Anyone have a forum for graphic designers?

Thank you for your time.

[Gort]

If you haven't already, make sure the "Resample Size" option is toggled before making DPI changes.

(Edit): Toggled "on"...checked...

[ May 16, 2002: Message edited by: Tom Carter ]

[Bilbo]

it's not as complex as you might think.
first you must understand the difference between real world units such as inches or centimetres - which have a fixed size, and logical units whose size differs from computer to computer- the pixels. people sometimes say that 72 dpi is the resolution on a computer monitor- but it's not entirely accurate- a pixel on your screen at a given resolution will look bigger on a larger display.
when you are told to create a 4x5" image with 600 dpi, that's exactly what you should do- open photoshop, click NEW , and use these units to input the image's size. do not use pixels, they are of no relevance to you. 600 dpi means that for every inch you define as your image size, there will be 600 pixels..so a 4x5" image would be 2400x3000 pixels in size- which is a very large image when displayed on screen. worry not, for this is entirely normal.. it can be slightly uncomfortable to work at this size, but as long as your computer can handle it (large amounts of ram is the key element here) you should be able to do fine working zoomed out at 50 or 25 percent.
resizing an existing image is also something many people have problems with. notice the checkbox that Tom Carter mentioned here- "resample image". this checkbox is enabled by default, and when enabled it resamples the image when you resize it, changing the number of pixels in the image. on some occasions you might want to resize an image without changing the actual pixels: Say you have an image that you painted, and is now 1000x1000 pixels, but when you print it out it prints as a tiny stamp. you want to make it larger, but you don't want to resample it and add more pixels to it -because it won't add any more detail, and it would be resource heavy. What you do in this case is DISABLE the Resample image checkbox, and enter the new size IN INCHES rather than in pixels. the image will remain exactly the same on screen (same number of pixels), but will be printed at the new defined size.
i hope this helped, feel free to ask if you have any questions.

[Asurfael]

btw, i think this question relates to the topic. If i have a pic that's lets say 300 dpi, and i lessen the size in pixels to half of the given value, then uncheck resample images and put it back to 300 dpi, will it reduce the quality of the print? Hope somebody got the question...

My comp's too slow to handle some 2400x3000 pixel big psds well. So if i make that 4x5" 600 dpi pic a 1200x1500 pixels pic and put the resolution back to 600dpi with resample image off, will the quality of the print be lower?

[jezelf]

Ive done work for print (posters/billboard) and found that 300 is fine. I guess it depends on what you intend to do with the image.

Has anyone actually *needed* to print higher than 300?

[Asurfael]

I don't think so... the basic resolution good printers use is 300 most of the time. and 180 for just normal printers. If it's not that rez the printer will change it to that... It's still better to start out big in case your drawings look horrible in original size, I'd guess.