G2 HP printing

pbao said:

Hi,

First time I have tried to print some of my pictures on paper, the
result blow me away at 4x6 and 5x7. Yet at 8x10, I found out that
it a bit grainy. I thought someone mentioned here that he/she got
excellent result at 8x10. Please comment.

I have a HP970 and print on HP photo paper. Image file was in raw
format then converted to TIFF format. Everything saves, as is - no
process.

--Peter

Click to expand...

pbao said:

Hi,

First time I have tried to print some of my pictures on paper, the
result blow me away at 4x6 and 5x7. Yet at 8x10, I found out that
it a bit grainy. I thought someone mentioned here that he/she got
excellent result at 8x10. Please comment.

I have a HP970 and print on HP photo paper. Image file was in raw
format then converted to TIFF format. Everything saves, as is - no
process.

Click to expand...

Martin Eager said:

pbao said:

Hi,

First time I have tried to print some of my pictures on paper, the
result blow me away at 4x6 and 5x7. Yet at 8x10, I found out that
it a bit grainy. I thought someone mentioned here that he/she got
excellent result at 8x10. Please comment.

I have a HP970 and print on HP photo paper. Image file was in raw
format then converted to TIFF format. Everything saves, as is - no
process.

Click to expand...

I also have the HP970 (HP970cxi to be precise) and have
successfully printed right up to 11x8 with EXCELLENT results.

What DPI are you printing at? At this size you need to be printing
at 240dpi minimum. I usually use 300dpi, which means a small
upsampling of the image.

My workflow.

1) Get the image just as I want it in Photoshop, rotated as
appropriate.

2) Copy the whole image into the memory buffer with CTRL-A and CTRL-C

3) Open a new Photoshop image of size 20.3 cm x 28.3 cm. Paste in
the image with CTRL-V

4) The image will now need upsampling to fill the paper. I resize
the image layer to width 20.3 cm, with 'maintain aspect ratio'
checked.

5) I print to HP Premium Photo Paper, Glossy with everything set to
best possible quality.

It's a little convoluted but has produced excellent results for me
so far.

Cheers
Martin
http://phhotos.runic.com

Click to expand...

Martin Eager said:

pbao said:

Hi,

First time I have tried to print some of my pictures on paper, the
result blow me away at 4x6 and 5x7. Yet at 8x10, I found out that
it a bit grainy. I thought someone mentioned here that he/she got
excellent result at 8x10. Please comment.

I have a HP970 and print on HP photo paper. Image file was in raw
format then converted to TIFF format. Everything saves, as is - no
process.

Click to expand...

I also have the HP970 (HP970cxi to be precise) and have
successfully printed right up to 11x8 with EXCELLENT results.

What DPI are you printing at? At this size you need to be printing
at 240dpi minimum. I usually use 300dpi, which means a small
upsampling of the image.

My workflow.

1) Get the image just as I want it in Photoshop, rotated as
appropriate.

2) Copy the whole image into the memory buffer with CTRL-A and CTRL-C

3) Open a new Photoshop image of size 20.3 cm x 28.3 cm. Paste in
the image with CTRL-V

4) The image will now need upsampling to fill the paper. I resize
the image layer to width 20.3 cm, with 'maintain aspect ratio'
checked.

5) I print to HP Premium Photo Paper, Glossy with everything set to
best possible quality.

It's a little convoluted but has produced excellent results for me
so far.

Cheers
Martin
http://phhotos.runic.com

Click to expand...

pbao said:

Martin or whoever knows the subject,

What DPI are you printing at?

Click to expand...

pbao said:

I have no idea, where do I check for
this DPI? In the printer setup?

Click to expand...

pbao said:

All I did was set my HP970 to print
at "best" and resolution is setting at 2400x1200.

Click to expand...

pbao said:

To send the image
to the printer, I use the HP software that come with the printer,
open the file set the size (4x6 or 5x7 or 8x10) and that is it.

Click to expand...

pbao said:

A side question on calibrate the printer and monitor, I have not do
any of these and would like to know how to do it (I might calibrate
the printer already but the monitor I have not. I use win98 so
everything is plug and play). Did query the forum on this subject
but not much successful - more confuse: (

Click to expand...

Martin Eager said:

pbao said:

Martin or whoever knows the subject,

What DPI are you printing at?

Click to expand...

Sorry, in my workflow I didn't explictly mention this. I usually
use 300 dpi. So, stage 3 of my workflow should have read:

"3) Open a new Photoshop image of size 20.3 cm x 28.3 cm at 300dpi".

Martin Eager56124 said:

I have no idea, where do I check for
this DPI? In the printer setup?

Click to expand...

No, Photoshop. Either when you create a new image, or when you use
Image Size you get the opportunity to set / alter the DPI.

Martin Eager56124 said:

All I did was set my HP970 to print
at "best" and resolution is setting at 2400x1200.

Click to expand...

There is a difference between image resolution and print
resolution. There's been a number of threads here recently which
can explain it better than I can, so do a quick search.

Martin Eager56124 said:

To send the image
to the printer, I use the HP software that come with the printer,
open the file set the size (4x6 or 5x7 or 8x10) and that is it.

Click to expand...

I suspect this means you are only printing with an image resolution
of 72 DPI, which probably explains your grainy results.

Martin Eager56124 said:

A side question on calibrate the printer and monitor, I have not do
any of these and would like to know how to do it (I might calibrate
the printer already but the monitor I have not. I use win98 so
everything is plug and play). Did query the forum on this subject
but not much successful - more confuse: (

Click to expand...

If you have Photoshop, full version, there's a utility called Adobe
Gamma which can help calibrate your monitor.

Cheers
Martin
http://photos.runic.com

Click to expand...

pbao said:

One more follow up on the printing subject. For best printing
result at:
4x6 at ?
5x7 at ?
8x11 at 300 dpi (as above)

Click to expand...

Martin Eager said:

pbao said:

Hi,

First time I have tried to print some of my pictures on paper, the
result blow me away at 4x6 and 5x7. Yet at 8x10, I found out that
it a bit grainy. I thought someone mentioned here that he/she got
excellent result at 8x10. Please comment.

I have a HP970 and print on HP photo paper. Image file was in raw
format then converted to TIFF format. Everything saves, as is - no
process.

Click to expand...

I also have the HP970 (HP970cxi to be precise) and have
successfully printed right up to 11x8 with EXCELLENT results.

What DPI are you printing at? At this size you need to be printing
at 240dpi minimum. I usually use 300dpi, which means a small
upsampling of the image.

My workflow.

1) Get the image just as I want it in Photoshop, rotated as
appropriate.

2) Copy the whole image into the memory buffer with CTRL-A and CTRL-C

3) Open a new Photoshop image of size 20.3 cm x 28.3 cm. Paste in
the image with CTRL-V

4) The image will now need upsampling to fill the paper. I resize
the image layer to width 20.3 cm, with 'maintain aspect ratio'
checked.

5) I print to HP Premium Photo Paper, Glossy with everything set to
best possible quality.

It's a little convoluted but has produced excellent results for me
so far.

Cheers
Martin
http://phhotos.runic.com

Click to expand...

binkybarnes said:

martin, what's the difference between doing it your way and simply
cropping your final image in photoshop with the resolution set to
300 dpi? would that save you a few steps or am i missing something?

Click to expand...

Martin Eager said:

binkybarnes said:

martin, what's the difference between doing it your way and simply
cropping your final image in photoshop with the resolution set to
300 dpi? would that save you a few steps or am i missing something?

Click to expand...

You can't crop because the G2's image isn't large enough to print
at 11x8 300dpi, so it needs to be upsampled.

2272x1704 pixels equates to approx a 7x5" at 300dpi. So, if you
want to print at 11x8" (or 10x8") at 300dpi you have to upsample.

Cheers
Martin
http://photos.runic.com

Click to expand...

Louis Lam said:

Thanks & regards,

Louis.

Martin Eager said:

binkybarnes said:

martin, what's the difference between doing it your way and simply
cropping your final image in photoshop with the resolution set to
300 dpi? would that save you a few steps or am i missing something?

Click to expand...

You can't crop because the G2's image isn't large enough to print
at 11x8 300dpi, so it needs to be upsampled.

2272x1704 pixels equates to approx a 7x5" at 300dpi. So, if you
want to print at 11x8" (or 10x8") at 300dpi you have to upsample.

Cheers
Martin
http://photos.runic.com

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Bundit Nilchaigovit said:

Martin,

What is the different between 1440dpi and 300 dpi? I mean we can see
the different or not? And it is better to print more dpi, it is right?

Click to expand...

Martin Eager said:

Bundit Nilchaigovit said:

Martin,

What is the different between 1440dpi and 300 dpi? I mean we can see
the different or not? And it is better to print more dpi, it is right?

Click to expand...

Well, there's often confusion between PPI (pixels per inch) which
is what digital camera images and computer screens are measured in
and DPI (dots per inch) which is what printers are measured in, and
I haven't helped!!

My apologies for muddying the water - I knew what I was meaning but
didn't explain it at all well. If you read back over what I've
posted in this thread about Photoshop resolutions in this thread, I
should have been talking about PPI. So where I say 300 DPI in
Photoshop, I really mean a resolution of 300 PPI - Pixels Per Inch.

A 300 PPI Photoshop image is not the same as printing at 300 DPI.
300 pixels per inch resolution in Photoshop is above photo quality
(240 PPI is usually recognised as the minimum for photo quality and
pretty good results should be possible at only 180 PPI). When you
open your G2 image in Photoshop it usually starts life at 72 PPI
which is screen resolution UNLESS you already upped the PPI during
the RAW conversion process (Breezebrowser lets you do this).

On your printer you'll want to print at the highest native
resolution in DPI dots per inch) that your printer can manage (e.g.
1440 DPI).

So, to recap. In Photoshop set your Pixels Per Inch (PPI)
resolution to at least 240, preferably 300 PPI. Then print at the
highest Dots Per Inch (DPI) that your printer can manage (which
will be something like 720, 1440 or 2880).

There was another thread on this issue recently:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=1754980

And also an excellent article here:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/understanding_resolution.htm

Sorry for giving everyone the runaround on this

Cheers
Martin
http://photos.runic.com

Click to expand...

Martin Eager said:

binkybarnes said:

martin, what's the difference between doing it your way and simply
cropping your final image in photoshop with the resolution set to
300 dpi? would that save you a few steps or am i missing something?

Click to expand...

You can't crop because the G2's image isn't large enough to print
at 11x8 300dpi, so it needs to be upsampled.

2272x1704 pixels equates to approx a 7x5" at 300dpi. So, if you
want to print at 11x8" (or 10x8") at 300dpi you have to upsample.

Cheers
Martin
http://photos.runic.com

Click to expand...

pbao said:

Martin Eager said:

Bundit Nilchaigovit said:

Martin,

What is the different between 1440dpi and 300 dpi? I mean we can see
the different or not? And it is better to print more dpi, it is right?

Click to expand...

Well, there's often confusion between PPI (pixels per inch) which
is what digital camera images and computer screens are measured in
and DPI (dots per inch) which is what printers are measured in, and
I haven't helped!!

My apologies for muddying the water - I knew what I was meaning but
didn't explain it at all well. If you read back over what I've
posted in this thread about Photoshop resolutions in this thread, I
should have been talking about PPI. So where I say 300 DPI in
Photoshop, I really mean a resolution of 300 PPI - Pixels Per Inch.

A 300 PPI Photoshop image is not the same as printing at 300 DPI.
300 pixels per inch resolution in Photoshop is above photo quality
(240 PPI is usually recognised as the minimum for photo quality and
pretty good results should be possible at only 180 PPI). When you
open your G2 image in Photoshop it usually starts life at 72 PPI
which is screen resolution UNLESS you already upped the PPI during
the RAW conversion process (Breezebrowser lets you do this).

On your printer you'll want to print at the highest native
resolution in DPI dots per inch) that your printer can manage (e.g.
1440 DPI).

So, to recap. In Photoshop set your Pixels Per Inch (PPI)
resolution to at least 240, preferably 300 PPI. Then print at the
highest Dots Per Inch (DPI) that your printer can manage (which
will be something like 720, 1440 or 2880).

There was another thread on this issue recently:

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1010&message=1754980

And also an excellent article here:

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/understanding_resolution.htm

Sorry for giving everyone the runaround on this

Cheers
Martin
http://photos.runic.com

Click to expand...

Guys,

I was confused about PPI, DPI and where to set what? That is why I
posted this message and after reading Martin replied and the
"luminous-landscape" page, it is all clear to me as night and day.
I highly recommend people to read that page, it will show you how
your camera and how your printer construct.

Happy shooting and happy printing

--Peter

Click to expand...