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Interpolating images for print
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Hi All,
Quick question? Do you leave it up to the printers or software to interpolate your images for large print?
By large print i mean anything bigger than A3.Spanks
AliI’m still gonna say to leave it to them, or if you’re really unsure, give them both?
If you were to do it yourself, Genuine Fractals is probably the best option.
Well forgetting what method is used to interpolate upwards, I would definitely always do this myself. I want to have complete control over the image which is being sent to print, so this would include any interpolation/sharpening etc. And as DaveC mentioned, Genuine Fractals is one that comes highly recommended – never used it myself personally though.
If you’re not going massive in terms of interpolation using bicubic in Photoshop will give you as good results as any of the stand alone programs…. If you want to go huge then you might be better off hitting Fractals or something like that.
Ali,
Genuine Fractals is very good if you need it. There’s even a better version out now than the one I have.I regularly up-rez 5mp and 6mp images (A5 ish) to A4 full page bleed in Photoshop for magazines and brochures that I design. This is my method:
1/ Go to ‘Image’ in the menu bar and then scroll down to ‘Image Size’
2/ Make sure ‘Resample Image’ is clicked off.
3/ Make sure the resolution is 300 pixels/inch (for brochures etc)
4/ Now click on ‘Resample Image’
5/ Type in the width or height you want (add 3mm each side to allow for bleed)
6/ Click ‘OK’ – image size is now enlarged
7/ Go to ‘Filter’ in the menu bar then scroll down to ‘Sharpen’ then over to ‘Unsharp Mask’
8/ Click the curser/square over an area of the image you want to keep any eye on
9/ Put a small percentage in the ‘Amount’ (5-20%)
10/ Give a small ‘Radius’ of .5 to 1.5 pixels
11/ Leave the ‘Threshold’ at 0Trick around with ‘Amount’ and ‘Radius’ until you get back a little of the sharpness that up-rezzing loses. I occasionaly get A3 spreads in Magazines with this method. I would never leave it to the printer. If it goes wrong they have a tendency to blame you.
capture3 wrote:
Ali
I use this program none better :D
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/Here’s another vote for QImage. It’s got a bit of a clunky interface, but it does a wonderful job and is excellent value for money.
Personally, I think Genuine Fractals is overrated and overpriced for what it does and it doesn’t stand up very well in comparison tests with other software. I’ve made excellent 30″x20″ prints by implementing the Stair Interpolation method in Photoshop (if you Google Stair Interpolation you’ll find numerous links to the process – look out for the Digital Outback Photo and ePhotozine links on this topic). Works great on 16-bit images too (although you WILL need extra resources in your computer to cope with the large files that will result!).
I’ve always sent the interpolated file to labs for printing – but check with the lab first as some have proprietery software to resize images. Alternatively, do a test using both standard and interpolated files and compare results.
Interesting stuff – not looked into 3rd party progs to do this kind of thing! I need a couple of large prints doing… somewhere in the region of 30cm square… but with images from a Canon G5, I’m not sure the results would be too great, even with such specialised software… would they?
Obviously depends on the type of image too, I know. Hmm. Food for thought anyway!
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