JayPSC

I want to get a picture blown up to A2/A1 (depending on quality) its b&w 1600x1200 pixels at 300dpi.
What sort of price am I looking at to get 2 glossy photo quality pics blown up?

Thanks
Jay

AlexB

www.photobox.co.uk

Not used them personally, but have heard good things about them.

wiltshire_boy

Try P1CKLE who is quite often to be found in General Technical.

MartinM

If it's 1600x1200 pixels, it's just 1600x1200 pixels. The dpi is irrelevant until you try and print it.

If you print it at 300dpi, you'll get an image 5.33" x 4"

A2 is about 23.5" x 16.5" and you have two issues:
- it's not the same shape as 1600x1200 so you'll end up with a cropped picture
- spreading 1600 pixels across 23.5" is about 68dpi - I'd be looking at around 200 dpi to be happy with, so you've a fair amount of interpolation to do in Paintshop/Photoshop etc. This will probably make a poor image - depending on the subject.

A1 would be an even bigger problem

Some printers will not print an image that will lead not enough dpi, since the customer experience when they see it is low.

Tell us more about the image (a landscape, a portrait, a scooby, a group etc, lots of detail,no great detail etc , or even post the image here and I'm sure we can advise more

IWatkins

You could always increase the resolution, i.e. pixel count (the ppi rather than dpi) before sending it off.

Use something like Photosop CS's image size tool (does a great job compared to earlier versions) or use a plugin in like Genuine Fractals to do the job.

Cheers

Ian

JayPSC

Right, here you go
It's a pic from warcraft that I've edited.
Just wondering how big I can get it really

Cheers
Jay

MartinM

Right....

...because of the subject, I think you have a good chance ... and it's a nice image too!

Ive cropped it to fit an A2 aspect ratio - you lose the height, so I made a judgement to keep the necklace rather than the top of the hair.

I've then resized it to actual A2 size at a resolution of 72dpi (*I think* I'm not backtracking - you can have a physical size and a dpi, but not a pixel size and a dpi - but someone will probably correct me)

72dpi is a good value to choose, because most monitors are 72dpi and that's pretty close to the resolution that you will get on the printed photo if you don't upsize ie. the screen and the print should look very similar

I've kept it as a .bmp (1.91MB) and posted it at
www.milleners.eclipse.co.uk/warcraft.bmp

In fact, it's not a lot different to your full size post above - and that's because your version is 1600x1200 shown at 72dpi (ie monitor resolution)

It looks pretty reasonable to me - providing you can get someone to to print a 1600x1200 on A2 without telling you it will look naff and they won't do it

I tried to fix it up for A1, but it's less sucessful. There's a full size crop, which is how it will look on A1 at:
www.milleners.eclipse.co.uk/warcraft2.bmp
- it's very ragged, and no form of interpolation will make it any better ... but there again, stand 3 feet back from it and it looks OK


[Edited by MartinM - 1/9/2004 9:29:49 PM]

IWatkins

I was just finished having a go when Martin posted.

Oh well, I haven't posted anything up now, mainly as they come out a bit big.

I cropped to A1 aspect ratio (also had to loose the top of the head) and then upscaled to 840mm x 594mm (A1) at 300dpi. This gives an image that is 9921 pixels x 7016 pixels. I used Bicubic resizing. Looks fine on screen just a slight drop in overall quality at 100% view on screen (you wouldn't notice this printed and viewed from 3 foot away).

But it will print out fine at A1 and at 300dpi, no printer will complain.

Only problem ? Even reduced back down to an 8 bit bitmap, the image comes out at 68Mb. Even zipped up it is 16.5Mb

Therefore, best bet is to do it yourself or find a friendly printer who will do it for you.

Cheers

Ian

JayPSC

Ahh thanks a lot guys, I see what you mean about A1 - from a distance you'd never notice, at least I know A1 is possible now. Now I just need to find somewhere to print it to decide what size I can actually afford lol

Cheers
Jay

Edit:£14.99 for a A2 from photo box looks pretty good, have to see if they can do me A1



[Edited by JayPSC - 1/10/2004 1:41:15 AM]

JayPSC

http://www.printdesigns.com/printandfinishingprices.htm

Dirt cheap, anyone used em before?

£12.10 for A1
£7.26 for A2

Jay

IWatkins

Jay,

No, not used them, but their prices look very good. I might even give them a go myself.

Looks like they are using large format inkjets up to A0 size, so you'll still be able to have high resolution printing even up at A1.

Best bet would be to give them a call to see exactly what they recommend as a minimum image size for A1 printing. They may say they can do upscaling for you.

Cheers

Ian

JayPSC

Found some amazing software to enlarge the image with

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/

Download this, leave all the settings as std & whack the res up to 9921 x 7016.

The enlarged image actually has less pixelation around the eyelashes compared with the original. This has been enlarged to 9921 x 7016 300dpi. A lot better than what was possible with Adobe anyway.



Jay

[Edited by JayPSC - 1/10/2004 6:57:51 PM]

IWatkins

QImage did that ? Wow !

I actually have QImage installed. I use it to resize for batch printing of pictures for 5x7 "snaps". Didn't realise it had a good resize engine when it came to scaling up.

I would say that that image gives a result that is probably half as good again as the output I got from Photoshop CS.

Cheers

Ian

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Also maybe worth a go is S-Spline Pro: