RE: Whinging about Photoshop's Image Size

"LAURIE SOLOMON" <LAURIE@ADVANCENET.NET> · Sun, 19 Aug 2001 13:32:02 -0500

<x-charset iso-8859-1>In light of your views on "pixels," as stated in another post, I understand
part of where you are coming from, although I disagree; and I do not think
that there is any reasonable possibility of our reaching an agreement on
this.  However, none the less, I will attempt to make a few remarks.

>Scale To Fit Media is not in Photoshop 5.0.2. However, I think this feature
>_belongs_ in the Image Size dialog, because that's where you tell Photoshop
>how many pixels there are in an inch. If the Print dialog has a Scale To
Fit
>Media, then it's disobeying the Resolution in the Image Size dialog, and
>that number becomes meaningless, even though it's there and you can set it
>to something.

First, there is a command under the view menu called "View:Print Size" which
does not let you scale to fit the media; but it does furnish a display of
what the document would look like when printed so as to give you an
indication of whether or not it will fit the media and whether or not you
need to go back and rescale the image under the "Image Size" menu item
either with the resampling box checked if you wish to retain the exact same
dpi or  with it unchecked if you are willing to let the dpi changes
proportionately with the new scaling of the image.  In the last case, you
can also go back and rescale the image leaving the dpi to automatically
change proportionate to the rescaling by using the "Edit: Transform: Scale"
or the "Edit: Transform: Numeric" menu items.

Second, if you had a "scale to fit" command in Photoshop ( be it in the
"Image Size" dialog box or elsewhere like the "Print Options" dialog box in
Photoshop 6, it would act in the exact same way as it does anywhere else
such as a  program "Print" menu item dialog box or the printer driver's
dialog box which opens up when you issue the "Print" command or the "Page
Setup" command or as it does from within the Photoshop 6 "Print Options"
dialog box. Namely, it would scale the dimensions of the image to fit the
media allowing the dpi to automatically adjust itself proportionately.  If
the image is reduced by 1/2; the dpi would increase by 1/2; if the scale
increased by 1/2, the dpi would be reduced by 1/2.  Thus, the resolution
setting established in the "Image Size" dialog box would be rendered
literally meaningless and ignored and what one would get would be an
equivalent to the dpi set in the resolution section for the given scaling.

>It sounds like Scale To Fit Media doesn't let me see how many dpi it's
printing at.

You don't really know that anyway if you are printing with an inkjet printer
that uses stochastic dithering; all you really know is what dpi resolution
you are inputting to the printer and not what the printer is doing with it
in terms of the actual dpi that it is  printing out (according to Epson,
some of its printers are taking a 240 dpi file that is inputted to the
printer and using stochastic dithering is printing a 720,14400 or 28800 dpi
equivalent hardcopy).

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-epson-inkjet@leben.com
[mailto:owner-epson-inkjet@leben.com]On Behalf Of Paul D. DeRocco
Sent: Saturday, August 18, 2001 8:46 PM
To: epson-inkjet@leben.com
Subject: RE: Whinging about Photoshop's Image Size

Scale To Fit Media is not in Photoshop 5.0.2. However, I think this feature
_belongs_ in the Image Size dialog, because that's where you tell Photoshop
how many pixels there are in an inch. If the Print dialog has a Scale To Fit
Media, then it's disobeying the Resolution in the Image Size dialog, and
that number becomes meaningless, even though it's there and you can set it
to something.

At least in Windows, even if you're not printing, there's always a printer
selected, and there's always a page size in effect, and Photoshop always
knows what it is, and uses those dimensions when you click on the size in
the status bar to see how the image fits on the page. If you aren't worried
about page size at the time, then you can ignore all those functions
(including a Fit To Page button).

A Fit To Page button in Image Size should do exactly what I do manually by
trial and error, which is to find the smallest dpi that doesn't result in
clipping. Since the number would be displayed in the Resolution box, I'd be
able to read it and decide if it's too low for the quality I want. It sounds
like Scale To Fit Media doesn't let me see how many dpi it's printing at.

Not that any of this has much to do with Epson printers...

--

Ciao,               Paul D. DeRocco
Paul                mailto:pderocco@ix.netcom.com

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