Sharpening for printing: what do you do?

zurubi · Feb 21, 2023

Hey printers,

I'd like to poll you on what you do when it comes to sharpening for printing (A3 size and larger). I go back and forth between doing some, and not doing anything. If I print myself straight from LR, then there is the option of doing some sharpening just by selecting an option. I mostly print from PS, and an excellent photographer in town whom I use occasionally for prints always does one pass of sharpening.

I think this also depends on paper: most of my prints are to something like a luster finish so I think I can get away without sharpening. Matte is a different story.

I'm curious what you do, and if you do sharpening, what is your typical workflow.

thanks

njtrout2000 · Feb 21, 2023

I use Qimage Ultimate and let it do the sharpening for me. It has great algorithms for sharpening for printing.

zurubi · Feb 21, 2023

njtrout2000 said:
I use Qimage Ultimate and let it do the sharpening for me. It has great algorithms for sharpening for printing.

I am giving Qimage One a try (i have Macs). It's one more piece of software to buy and maintain though... Thing is, there are so many options for sharpening in PS already.

But I hear you, one print shop here in town is a strong endorser or Qimage.

mujana · Feb 21, 2023

zurubi said:
njtrout2000 said:

I use Qimage Ultimate and let it do the sharpening for me. It has great algorithms for sharpening for printing.

Click to expand...

I am giving Qimage One a try (i have Macs). It's one more piece of software to buy and maintain though... Thing is, there are so many options for sharpening in PS already.

But I hear you, one print shop here in town is a strong endorser or Qimage.

ChicagoRob · Feb 21, 2023

Either high-pass or luminance-channel sharpening in PS.

zurubi · Feb 21, 2023

ChicagoRob said:
Either high-pass or luminance-channel sharpening in PS.

can you say more on #2? Do you convert to lab and apply there on the luminance channel? (and if so what type of NR). I think a denoise package I have does something like that.

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tsinsf · Feb 21, 2023

I use the output sharpening in the Lightroom Print module. LR already knows the paper size and you choose the print resolution, paper type (glossy or matte) and degree of sharpening (low, standard or high) and it does the rest. I've been very pleased with it and it is easy!

wilberforce_1 · Feb 21, 2023

tsinsf said:
I use the output sharpening in the Lightroom Print module. LR already knows the paper size and you choose the print resolution, paper type (glossy or matte) and degree of sharpening (low, standard or high) and it does the rest. I've been very pleased with it and it is easy!

I agree, it seems to usually do a good job without making it look over-sharpened.

Lightroom also has an output sharpening option when exporting a file, both for screen and print.

afaik, Photoshop does not have a similar convenient output sharpening function.

Lightroom's output sharpening is a bit of a mystery what and how much sharpening it is applying (so probably would not appeal to people who like to control and tweak), but I have not been disappointed in the results, and there is nothing quicker than ticking a checkbox.

gscotten · Feb 21, 2023

zurubi said:
I am giving Qimage One a try (i have Macs). It's one more piece of software to buy and maintain though... Thing is, there are so many options for sharpening in PS already.

The problem with sharpening for print is that there are so many variables. You need different amounts of sharpening depending on the image resolution, the type of paper, the output size, the type of printer. I was just getting the hang of it when I discovered Qimage. The Qimage DFS sharpening and fusion interpolation just always does it right.

The old rule of sharpening for print was to make it look a little crunchy on screen. That really isn't very accurate. With Qimage you sharpen for screen and Qimage handles the details of your print. Lightroom does a rather crude version of this as well, but it isn't in the same league as Qimage.

With Photoshop, even if you know how to sharpen for print, you have to have separate versions for screen and for each print size/type. Since I like to play with papers, it used to be a real pain. If you know what you are doing in Photoshop, you can probably achieve similar results as Qimage, but it sure isn't easy. Well worth the few bucks for me.

zurubi · Feb 21, 2023

gscotten said:
zurubi said:

I am giving Qimage One a try (i have Macs). It's one more piece of software to buy and maintain though... Thing is, there are so many options for sharpening in PS already.

Click to expand...

The problem with sharpening for print is that there are so many variables. You need different amounts of sharpening depending on the image resolution, the type of paper, the output size, the type of printer. I was just getting the hang of it when I discovered Qimage. The Qimage DFS sharpening and fusion interpolation just always does it right.

The old rule of sharpening for print was to make it look a little crunchy on screen. That really isn't very accurate. With Qimage you sharpen for screen and Qimage handles the details of your print. Lightroom does a rather crude version of this as well, but it isn't in the same league as Qimage.

With Photoshop, even if you know how to sharpen for print, you have to have separate versions for screen and for each print size/type. Since I like to play with papers, it used to be a real pain. If you know what you are doing in Photoshop, you can probably achieve similar results as Qimage, but it sure isn't easy. Well worth the few bucks for me.

I hear you. I used to do so much of this in PS, so having a package (and not too expensive) do this has appeal.

Photospower · Feb 21, 2023

To OP

By the way.......some very good images in your galleries. Congratualtions

dccberry · Feb 21, 2023

99% of the time, no output sharpening at all when printing. Occasionally I will use the NIK Output Sharpener plugin, and then back it off by 50%

ChicagoRob · Feb 21, 2023

zurubi said:
ChicagoRob said:

Either high-pass or luminance-channel sharpening in PS.

Click to expand...

can you say more on #2? Do you convert to lab and apply there on the luminance channel? (and if so what type of NR). I think a denoise package I have does something like that.

LAB Color > Channels > Lightness > Filter > Unsharp Mask > RGB Color

lithprinter · Feb 21, 2023

I saw this recently and it was quite useful:

zurubi · Feb 21, 2023

Photospower said:
To OP

By the way.......some very good images in your galleries. Congratualtions

Thanks!

rcsilber · Feb 21, 2023

Many good responses from many knowledgeable respondents. For me, I do creative sharpening while editing, then use Qimage to sharpen for print. It handles it well and I no longer worry over crunchiness or over sharpening. Qimage is one more piece of software, but for me it's well worth it. Give it a try. Highly recommend.

Kaj E · Feb 21, 2023

I have used PK sharpener for output sharpening in Photoshop for years. It works as a plug in for photoshop. LrC's print sharpening is based on the PK Sharpener, but you have more options and control in Pk Sharpener. It is part of the PK-Bundle (now free) downloadable here:

http://pixelgenius.com/

PS, look at who the developers are at the bottom of the page. The foremost authorities in Photoshop, ACR , LrC editing and printing knowledge.

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It's about time we started to take photography seriously and treat it as a hobby.- Elliott Erwitt

zurubi · Feb 21, 2023

lithprinter said:
I saw this recently and it was quite useful:

ChuckB · Feb 21, 2023

Another vote for Qimage.

PMB · Feb 21, 2023

Kaj E said:
I have used PK sharpener for output sharpening in Photoshop for years. It works as a plug in for photoshop. LrC's print sharpening is based on the PK Sharpener, but you have more options and control in Pk Sharpener. It is part of the PK-Bundle (now free) downloadable here:

http://pixelgenius.com/

PS, look at who the developers are at the bottom of the page. The foremost authorities in Photoshop, ACR , LrC editing and printing knowledge.

Ah, you stole my thunder ... I was going to say PixelGenius. I'm still learning my way with printing but there is a book by Jeff Schewe and the late Bruce Fraser called Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom, that delves deeply into the subject of (what else) image sharpening. And it does discuss output, or print, sharpening. Jeff (and other well known names) participated in the development of the PK tools, and I have read that Jeff had influence with the Lightroom developers, particularly with the print sharpening algorithms.

One thing I like about the PK sharpening tool is that it drops the sharpening on a separate layer in Photoshop with a layer mask so you cane easily paint out areas where you do not want the extra sharpening, e.g. the sky. Also you can pull down the amount of sharpening by decreasing the layer opacity. All great stuff, and easy to use.

Peter

Sharpening for printing: what do you do?

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