With my toy Epson, I actually see no difference with anything over 200
ppi. I use 240 full bleed 8.5x11, or 256 ppi for 7.5x10 which fits a
pre-cut 8x10 matt nicely. What printer maufactures call dots per inch
in advertising speek is really squirts per inch and has to do with the
stepping rate of the head rather than the dither screen. They use a
random dither to prevent moire effects you get when you chose a
resolution too close to the lpi of a fixed dither. If they used a fixed
dither screen, the worse thing you could do is use a multiple or
sub-multiple of the dither screen which is what all the "Experts" think
they are telling you to do. Using 360ppi doesn't hurt anything so go
ahead and use it if you feel it works better (almost as good as a rubber
chicken, but I do not think either really replaces live chicken blood).
graywolf
http://www.graywolfphoto.com
"Idiot Proof" <==> "Expert Proof"
-----------------------------------
Bob Shell wrote:
On Dec 4, 2005, at 6:16 PM, Paul Stenquist wrote:
What resolution do you print at Bob? I think you said you print at
300. Why? Why not 100? If it doesn't make any difference, you could
save a lot of disk space.
I picked 200 as the lower limit because one of the tech heads at
Epson told me that was the real upper limit of their printers'
resolution. Below 200 you can see quality drop off. I picked 300
because it is adequate for printing but also meets my archiving
needs. An image sized for 13 X 19 paper at 300 ppi is the right size
for my archives. YMMV
In other words, t's not rubber chicken voodoo. Every printer
performs best at a specific resolution. No one may be able to see
the difference in a slight variation, but it's good to be dialed in.
If no one can see the difference, then why would it be good to be
"dialed in"? Isn't the print the point?
I never knew a really good darkroom printer who didn't recognize the
need for a proper rubber chicken, and when I switched to inkjet I
brought the rubber chicken with me. It's just like the need to have
a bunyo in your gadget bag.
Bob
