Resizing An Image

[BlueBeep]

Hi Everyone. I want to take a screenshot and print it under 300 resolution, but everytime I paste it into Photoshop (after I take the screenshot via CONTROL+PRINTSCREEN button), it comes out as 3x2 inches, which is too small. I would like it to be 6x7 inches, but the only way I can think to do that, is if I resize the 3x2 inche image, to 6x7 inches. This makes the image a little blurry, so I sharpen it up a little bit.

Am I doing something wrong? Thanks everyone!

 

[kiddpete]

Assume your captured image is 640 pixels wide by 480 pixels high. When it is displayed on your screen, it is displayed at something like 72 pixels per inch. That means it will be displayed as about 8.9 inches wide by 6.7 inches high. When it is copied into a document which is set to work at 300 pixels per inch, its size, in inches, is reduced because the number of pixels has not changed. It is now 2.1 inches wide and 1.6 inches high. If you want to increase it to 7 inches by 6 inches, you must increase its size by more than 300%. That is what is causing the pixelation you are seeing.

What can you do? Reduce the print pixels per inch to about 150. 150 is about the minimum for a good print. Your image will now be 4.3 inches wide by 3.2 inches high. You will still need to increase its size by 75-100%, but that should look much better than 300%. Increase the size in steps of about 10% until your goal is reached.

 

[BlueBeep]

Gotcha. I thought there'd be a simpler solution than that. =P My publisher is stressing to give them a 300dpi image. I'll see if we can lower that. Thanks again!

 

[jmgalvin]

300 dpi is the MINIMUM quality for commercial printing. At least 600 is better if there is text in the picture - common on a screenshot.

Make sure you go to PS Prefs/General and select Bicubic Smoother under Interpolation - for enlarging.

Copy the screenshot and go to Photoshop/File/New. The new box should give you the size as it is on your clipboard. See what the resolution is and dimensions in inches.

If you're increasing size, you have to increase resolution A LOT. Set the resolution at 600 to 1200 and paste. Do any cropping, etc. Then go to Image menu/Image size, making sure that Constrain proportions is checked and change Print size to what you want. The LESS you up it the better. Make sure that you go to View menu and select Print size so you're working at what will be printed.

If this is for commercial print, make sure to go to Image/Mode and select CMYK for color or Grayscale. Save and run a proof. If you have an inkjet, use highest quality. If laser 600X600 if possible. See how it looks.

Unless printer has given you a format, the most foolproof image type to send is tiff. The file will be huge. If you select the LZW compression on the tiff Save window (don't use any other) make sure you tellthe printer that lzw was used. If you save as jpeg, make sure to use the highest setting possible.

 

[dmacster]

There's a handy plugin for PS called Genuine Fractals - lets you take lo res images, save as their format (stn) and then when you open that image gives you the option to up the resolution and gives a pretty fine interpolation of the pixels. Its a few hundred dollars, but I've found it very useful when I couldn't get the original image and had to get a web resolution file.