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Author Topic: Newbie Question about Printing from Lightroom  (Read 1520 times)

kencameron

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Newbie Question about Printing from Lightroom
« on: February 23, 2012, 03:58:32 am »

I sometimes like to print small images - or, more precisely, I sometimes like to print images small. This means the native resolution is often reported, as, say, 720+, when printing from Lightroom. Is there any reason to downres, or should I  just leave it as it is? I have experimented and can't see much difference, but maybe I am using more ink, or there is some other consideration.
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Ken Cameron

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Re: Newbie Question about Printing from Lightroom
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2012, 04:41:42 am »

The simple answer is just let LR do it's stuff and all will be well.

For more info on changing resolution size have a look at the recent thread here at http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=62609.0
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kencameron

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Re: Newbie Question about Printing from Lightroom
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2012, 05:47:55 pm »

Thanks for this. I found the articles by Jeff Schewe referenced in the linked thread particularly helpful, but I do have a couple of further questions for clarification. By "letting Lightroom do its thing" in cases where the image, printed small, has a very high resolution (720+) I assume you mean leaving "Print Resolution" unticked and sending the image from Lightroom at the very high resolution. Since this is higher than the maximum resolution of my printer  (which I understand to be 300/600 depending on setting), I assume that some "downresing" has to happen somewhere after the image has left Lightroom, (either in the printer pipeline of the OS or in the printer driver?), and that you are saying it is better to let this happen than to make the adjustment in Lightroom.
I repeat that I have tried both and can't actually see any difference, so the question seems academic. But as one of Jeff's articles answers a question about downresing with "a resounding NO", I assume there must be a good reason for taking this approach. Jeff talks about not wasting pixels, but aren't some pixels going to be wasted anyway as a result of the printer's maximum resolution?
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Ken Cameron

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Re: Newbie Question about Printing from Lightroom
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2012, 06:15:01 pm »

The maximum resolution that can be used in an Epson is 720ppi. Go ahead and set LR to downsample to 720ppi and then sharpen. Depending on your printer, the pro line allows setting Finest Detail on. I would suggest doing that. In the case of a Canon or HP, I would set the output resolution to 600ppi and use the highest quality in the print driver.
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Bart_van_der_Wolf

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Re: Newbie Question about Printing from Lightroom
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2012, 06:20:23 pm »

Thanks for this. I found the articles by Jeff Schewe referenced in the linked thread particularly helpful, but I do have a couple of further questions for clarification. By "letting Lightroom do its thing" in cases where the image, printed small, has a very high resolution (720+) I assume you mean leaving "Print Resolution" unticked and sending the image from Lightroom at the very high resolution. Since this is higher than the maximum resolution of my printer  (which I understand to be 300/600 depending on setting), I assume that some "downresing" has to happen somewhere after the image has left Lightroom, (either in the printer pipeline of the OS or in the printer driver?), [/QUOTE\

Hi Ken,

Indeed, downsampling will occur if the printer driver gets supplied with more than 720 (or 600) PPI worth of data. Lightroom 3.6 does a reasonable job in that regard, probably better than the printer driver. So I'd let Lightroom resample down to the maximum that the printer driver can handle. Lightroom can then also sharpen at that native printer resolution.

Quote
But as one of Jeff's articles answers a question about downresing with "a resounding NO", I assume there must be a good reason for taking this approach. Jeff talks about not wasting pixels, but aren't some pixels going to be wasted anyway as a result of the printer's maximum resolution?

I believe he was referring to wasting pixels if the resolution happens to be between 360 (or 300) PPI and 720 (or 600) PPI. Since the printer is able to produce better output when upsampling to 720 (or 600), it would be a waste of the available real data in excess of 360 (or 300) PPI. Data in excess of 720 (or 600) PPI is always wasted, unless used wisely with a good downsampling method.

Cheers,
Bart
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