Do I have enough megapixels for a print?

[Brad Bohland]

I need 14MP for a 300dpi 11x14 print and my camera is 20MP, but there's a glitch. I'm getting the print from Walgreens (it's cheap and I can do a 4x6 test print for $.25) and they crop, so my 10MB file is going to be smaller and I assume there are less megapixels in the cropped version. I figure the crop probably isn't going to drop it down to 14MP but how do I calculate how many megapixels I have left after they crop the photo?

 

[steephill]

An 11x14 300 dpi print is 3300 by 4200 pixels which is smaller than your sensor pixel numbers. So yes you have enough to make that print. It will be cropped slightly because the aspect ratios of the print and your sensor are different. The 10MB figure isn't really relevant.

 

[69chevy]

I need 14MP for a 300dpi 11x14 print and my camera is 20MP, but there's a glitch. I'm getting the print from Walgreens (it's cheap and I can do a 4x6 test print for $.25) and they crop, so my 10MB file is going to be smaller and I assume there are less megapixels in the cropped version. I figure the crop probably isn't going to drop it down to 14MP but how do I calculate how many megapixels I have left after they crop the photo?

What has you locked in at 300dpi?

Is this something you read, or do you have another reason to be concerned?

 

[carl english]

I need 14MP for a 300dpi 11x14 print and my camera is 20MP, but there's a glitch. I'm getting the print from Walgreens (it's cheap and I can do a 4x6 test print for $.25) and they crop, so my 10MB file is going to be smaller and I assume there are less megapixels in the cropped version. I figure the crop probably isn't going to drop it down to 14MP but how do I calculate how many megapixels I have left after they crop the photo?

What has you locked in at 300dpi?

Is this something you read, or do you have another reason to be concerned?

40 x 32 no problem just dump the 300dpi

 

[Brad Bohland]

Obviously I'm not an expert at this. Yes, I read it. Though some writers say 240 is just as good to the average person's eye. At some point I will experiment with that lower dpi to see for myself but bigger prints are expensive to play with. I've been doing $.25 4x6s for years and they're so cheap it's easy to experiment. But even at Walgreens, an 11x14 is $11! So I tend to want to error on the side of caution. I don't think twice when a 4x6 doesn't turn out, but I can't afford many 11x14 failures.

 

[69chevy]

Obviously I'm not an expert at this. Yes, I read it. Though some writers say 240 is just as good to the average person's eye. At some point I will experiment with that lower dpi to see for myself but bigger prints are expensive to play with. I've been doing $.25 4x6s for years and they're so cheap it's easy to experiment. But even at Walgreens, an 11x14 is $11! So I tend to want to error on the side of caution. I don't think twice when a 4x6 doesn't turn out, but I can't afford many 11x14 failures.

I assure you that you have plenty of MP there to print at a quality you will be thrilled with.

You would need to sit a 200dpi print right next to a 300dpi print and look very carefully to notice the difference.

You likely couldn't tell the two apart.

 

[Brad Bohland]

I may try that some day when I'm feeling wealthy. Thanks. Which of these two shots do you think would make the better test (I think they both have pretty good sharpness and I mostly want prints that are crisp)?

 

[Roy Sletcher]

Obviously I'm not an expert at this. Yes, I read it. Though some writers say 240 is just as good to the average person's eye. At some point I will experiment with that lower dpi to see for myself but bigger prints are expensive to play with. I've been doing $.25 4x6s for years and they're so cheap it's easy to experiment. But even at Walgreens, an 11x14 is $11! So I tend to want to error on the side of caution. I don't think twice when a 4x6 doesn't turn out, but I can't afford many 11x14 failures.

I assure you that you have plenty of MP there to print at a quality you will be thrilled with.

You would need to sit a 200dpi print right next to a 300dpi print and look very carefully to notice the difference.

You likely couldn't tell the two apart.

I make a lot of prints and endorse everything 69chevy says.

Do you have a Costco in your area. Their 11 x 14 are cheaper than the Walgreens figure you quoted, and their quality is pretty good for their prices.

RS

 

[Morris Sullivan]

Obviously I'm not an expert at this. Yes, I read it. Though some writers say 240 is just as good to the average person's eye. At some point I will experiment with that lower dpi to see for myself but bigger prints are expensive to play with. I've been doing $.25 4x6s for years and they're so cheap it's easy to experiment. But even at Walgreens, an 11x14 is $11! So I tend to want to error on the side of caution. I don't think twice when a 4x6 doesn't turn out, but I can't afford many 11x14 failures.

I assure you that you have plenty of MP there to print at a quality you will be thrilled with.

You would need to sit a 200dpi print right next to a 300dpi print and look very carefully to notice the difference.

You likely couldn't tell the two apart.

I make a lot of prints and endorse everything 69chevy says.

Do you have a Costco in your area. Their 11 x 14 are cheaper than the Walgreens figure you quoted, and their quality is pretty good for their prices.

RS

I second the Costco recommendation. 12x18 is something like $2.99. That's cheap enough to experiment.

 

[69chevy]

I may try that some day when I'm feeling wealthy. Thanks. Which of these two shots do you think would make the better test (I think they both have pretty good sharpness and I mostly want prints that are crisp)?

You have plenty of data there to print either one in a decent looking 20 x 30 size. I wouldn't waste time actually comparing the different dpi prints unless you are on the brink of death from boredom.

My advise is to not even think about the dpi of the print in the future unless you consider exceeding 20" on the long side.

 

[puttin]

$6 for 16x20 $9 for 20x30 .13 for 4x6 at Costco buy you need to be a member. Worth it if you print a lot.

 

[JanePete]

I need 14MP for a 300dpi 11x14 print and my camera is 20MP, but there's a glitch. I'm getting the print from Walgreens (it's cheap and I can do a 4x6 test print for $.25) and they crop, so my 10MB file is going to be smaller and I assume there are less megapixels in the cropped version. I figure the crop probably isn't going to drop it down to 14MP but how do I calculate how many megapixels I have left after they crop the photo?

The bigger the print you get the smaller the crop is in relation to the image. That smaller 4x6 will lose more of the image to cropping.

I wouldn't worry too much about cropping on such a large image, unless you have something critically on the edge of the image you wish to retain. In that case you will have no choice but to run a full size test print to see how much you are losing. Then you could add a white border to try to account for much of that crop, while also considering that cropping is not uniform on each side.

The only way to get no cropping at all is to add on a big enough border so that the print comes back showing the entire uncropped image. Of course you would then have to cut the image out of the paper. That is what I usually do since I hate any cropping whatsoever that I am not in control of.

Don't worry about getting exactly 300ppi. Just try and keep it as high as you can.

 

[57LowRider]

Beware the difference between dpi and ppi. Dots per inch is a printer thing, pixels per inch is a digital image thing. Post-processing and saving a jpg at a compatible dpi to a printer's capability is a good thing; I have fine prints, even at close range, which were outputted at 300 dpi but where the pixel density equals 163 ppi (20x30 from 16MP.). About 150 ppi is considered a lower limit for prints, as a rule of thumb, and I assume that's the minimum for close viewing.

 

[Brad Bohland]

I'll look into CostCo. Thanks. Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't even know what dpi Walgreens uses--I guess I just assumed.

I tried a 12x12 print of a shot I took with a 12MP Nikon P7700 from some online print service that cost about $15 with shipping and the print was very soft in that size but I don't know what dpi they used either (the shot is below if you care to inspect it--it doesn't look all that sharp to me now but I think the print made it look even softer).

 

[Brad Bohland]

I've never heard of that border thing. People have told me you can get uncropped prints but they never mentioned borders. So I could get a Walgreens or CostCo print in say a 16x20 with a (say 1") border and then cut off the border (what's the best way to cut it off?) and end up with something like an uncropped 14x18?

 

[Brad Bohland]

Good to know.

 

[69chevy]

I've never heard of that border thing. People have told me you can get uncropped prints but they never mentioned borders. So I could get a Walgreens or CostCo print in say a 16x20 with a (say 1") border and then cut off the border (what's the best way to cut it off?) and end up with something like an uncropped 14x18?

Nothing in his post made any sense.

I think he is referring to aspect ratio, but crop and print size have no relationship.

If the max resolution of the printer becomes a limiting factor, the printer will abandon some of the pixels in your image, like downsizing it does.

If the printer is a higher resolution than the image, the data used to fill in the blanks will be extrapolated with an algorithm.

There is no reason to ever print with a border other than accounting for a mat in a frame.

Before you believe a word this person says, check his post history.

Trust me.

 

[69chevy]

I'll look into CostCo. Thanks. Now that I'm thinking about it, I don't even know what dpi Walgreens uses--I guess I just assumed.

I tried a 12x12 print of a shot I took with a 12MP Nikon P7700 from some online print service that cost about $15 with shipping and the print was very soft in that size but I don't know what dpi they used either (the shot is below if you care to inspect it--it doesn't look all that sharp to me now but I think the print made it look even softer).

The sharpness of a print is not always proportional to the sharpness of a digital image.

Printer resolution, bleeding of ink, the quality of the paper, and the finish of the paper all play a role.

If you ordered it online, the uploading process may have downsized the image for bandwiths sake.

I know for sure, Walmart will downsize an upload if you don't click the high quality option.

It saves them memory space on their server.

 

[Brad Bohland]

If I order an 8x10 from Walgreens they crop about an inch of width from the picture. If I put a border on the picture and print an 11x14, they're going to crop that too but the border will protect the picture itself from being cropped. I may end up with an odd sized print but it won't be cropped. That's the way I understand it.

 

[Brad Bohland]

I'll be sure to pay attention to that.