I don’t understand all I know about this.
1. There is a large body of “experts” who postulate that the resolution of a file sent to a printer should be some multiple of the printer native resolution (Canon, HP - 300, Epson -360). The argument is that the print driver will resample the file to its native resolution before actually doing the printing, and that a better result is obtained if that resampling is done by the software (LR, etc.) instead of the print driver.
2. The Lightroom opinion from the Lightroom 3.3 Help file:
In the Print module, the Print Resolution setting specifies the pixels per inch (ppi) of the photo for the printer. Lightroom resamples the image data if needed, depending on the print resolution and the print dimensions. The default value of 240 ppi is satisfactory for many print jobs, including high-end inkjet prints. Refer to your printer’s documentation to determine its optimal resolution.
3. Note that the last sentence in 2, above, refers the user to the printer documentation. I use Canon printers and can’t find any such recommendations in those documents.
4. In the Lr 3 videos by Mike and Jeff, the issue was discussed, but I am not able to completely understand this whole thing.
5. Question: What does the print driver do when the resolution of the file is different than the native resolution of the printer. It seems that there are two cases here (1) where the file resolution is a multiple of the printer resolution, and (2) where it isn’t a multiple of the printer resolution.
6. Inquiring minds want to know. Where is the best place to start with resolution sent to the printer?
Thanks!
Wil