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12 X 12 Photo Printing Problem


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I want to have a professional printing service print our a photo in a 12 x 12 size. I created the layout in a 12 x 12 format and manipulated the photo to fit it. I sent it in to the service and they called and said that it is not very good quality. What do I need to do to fix this so they can print it and have it look sharp. My dpi is 45 and size is 540 x 540. Is this something I need to change? I have done some reading on Scrapgirls but it has only confused me. I have had lo's printed by this service before so I know it is possible but they were not of a 12 x 12 photo but rather photos scrapbooked in a 12 x 12 format. I use the little known Lumapix Fotofusion software to scrapbook. Thanks so much.

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I don't know the specifics pr technicals Cindy but I do know that 45 is really low quality and when printing a large 12x12 it would blur and not look good at all.

 

The layouts we create are usually 300dpi which as Kelly says is good for printing. We scale them down to 72dpi so it is ok for uploading and not too large, but it isn't good for printing.

 

What are you trying to print? Is it a regular type layout? Did you originally make it at 300dpi?

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I'm sorry I don't know much about this Cindy but hopefully someone will come along who does.

Until then, maybe you can tell us what program you use?

And, I'm wondering what photo you used in the layout? I mean was the photo a low-quality dpi one? I don't know if that would matter or make the entire page a lower dpi or why it would change as you've explained.

 

I know that when I import a photo from email it sometimes seems to change.
I'm sorry not to be able to be more help, but hoping someone will come along soon. lindarobin seemes to know a lot about this kind of techinical info and often she comes online later in the day. Fingers crossed for you.

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Hello, Scrapgirlcindy,

 

Your original photo (before any manipulation) must be of very high resolution. High resolution in this case, means millions of pixels.

 

For a good 12x12 print, you need 3600 x 3600 pixels. That's about 13 million pixels. You only had 540 x 540 pixels, which is less than 300,000 pixels. You can't improve the resolution of this by "adding back pixels" because they would only be blank pixels.

 

Right-click the JPG file of your original photo, go to Properties, open the Details tab. Read the Image Dimensions. If it is way under 3600 x 3600, this photo is not high enough resolution for a 12" x 12" print.

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A photo can only have millions of pixels if it was taken with a suitable camera. You've heard of cameras rated as 12 megapixel, 16 megapixel or higher? That's what you'd need to take photos that you want to print really large. (The average cell phone camera doesn't even come close.)

 

Assuming that your photo was taken with a camera on its 12 MP setting, things will be fine as long as you are not going to drastically crop the photo. Cropping is discarding pixels. So taking a photo at a 16 MP setting gives you some "cropping allowance". If you are left with about 12 MP after cropping, you'll get a pretty good print at the size you want.

 

(Not all 16 MP cameras are equal. A really cheapo 16 MP camera creates poor quality pixels.)

 

You also don't want to discard pixels by resampling. I suspect you unwittingly resampled your photo because you said it ended up being 540 x 540 pixels which just happens to be the size of the layouts you uploaded to the Scrapgirls Gallery.

 

Most of us create printable pages by starting with a 3600 x 3600 pixel background paper. Once we complete our layout, we create a RESAMPLED version, often 600 x 600 pixels, for posting here at Scrapgirls. You need to check your settings to ensure you are not creating a resampled JPG for Scrapping Simply.

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I am making this so much harder than it is. What I did was used my photo as the background paper on a 12 x 12 lo and sent it to the printer's that way. Obviously, that does not work. I went back and selected the photo again, it is close to the above suggested 3600 x 3600 and I left it that way. I sent that to the printer and it should be ok and asked them to print it as a 12 x 12. I will let you know if that does not work. Thank you for all your informative posts and help. I am claiming widow's brain on this one. Thank you for your patience.

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What I did was used my photo as the background paper on a 12 x 12 lo and sent it to the printer's that way. Obviously, that does not work.

Yes, this does not work if your 12 x 12 started out as 540 x 540 pixels, or if you resampled down to 540 x 540 pixels.

 

Sending in your original high resolution photo should result in a sharp print. Did you upload your photo into their square template so you could decide how the photo is cropped?

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