Re: Resolution and print quality

[Kennedy McEwen <rkm@kennedym.demon.co.uk>]

In article <a05100313b9200a2deb7e@[143.44.113.94]>, john gale 
<john@smadness.com> writes
>
>Somewhat following up on this Resolution and Banding topic, I have a 
>more general question on getting the maximum print quality from your 
>friend neighborhood Epson.  So far, I've gotten advice that if you 
>print over 720ppi then you should downsample to 720ppi to print, with 
>the possibility that it **might** give you better results.  (hey, it's 
>easy, so why not live with that possibility.)
>
>But what about some more general things that I've heard people refer 
>to, but am not quite sure how they might help / hinder?  In other 
>words, what's the general process that people usually go through to get 
>from a scanned image to a printed image?  Say I get a 4000ppi negative 
>scan, and want to print a 5x7 from it.  This gives me roughly 800ppi, 
>so I should scale it down to 720ppi.  But what about other things that 
>might increase the quality of the print?  Should I sharpen / blur the 
>image?  Should I smart blur to get a more continuous tone?
>
There really isn't an answer to that - it just depends on your image and 
what you are trying to create.  The issue is more aesthetic than 
technical.  Personally, I would never sharpen an 800ppi image (or even a 
720ppi one) since you are well beyond normal eye resolution, so the 
benefit is only obtainable to the marginal viewer.  Sharpening at such 
ppi levels needs to be over several pixels to be physically visible on 
the image, and by that stage noise is often objectionable.  On the other 
hand, blurring certainly will reduce the noise in the image, which can 
be helpful.  At lower resolutions then it is usuall worth unsharp 
masking.

It's a personal choice, not one that is a consequence of the limitations 
of the printer algorithms, and because it is personal YMMV.  ;-)
-- 
Kennedy
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed;
A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed.
Python Philosophers
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