Ben Fullerton said:
The way that I read it, IF the image is sent to the printer with a
specified dimension based on printing at anything other than 720ppi, the
printer resamples so that the print dimensions are as specified but with
the ppi now scaled to 720.
Yes, that is correct.
eg. If I edit my image for a 4" x 6" print at 300ppi, then the printer
will have to resample, more than doubling the ppi, to give me a 4" x 6"
print on the final paper image - but if I process for a 2880 x 4320 pixel
image, it will print, *with no further resampling AND better quality, as a
4" x 6" print.
Yes, that is correct.
.... and, if I take that same 2880 x 4320 pixel file to someone who has a
"professional" Epson printer and have it printed as-is (no printer
resampling), I will get a 8" x 12" print.
Not quite. The pro printer driver will maintain the image size, since
you have asked it to print your 2880x4320 pixels at 4x6". In order to
achieve this is must resample the image to 360ppi, creating 1440x2160
pixels from the original data. It will normally do this by nearest
neighbour interpolation - throwing 3/4 of the original data away.
If you tell the professional to print the image at 8x12" then his
printer driver will almost certainly do this without any interpolation.
Changing the topic a bit .....
Any suggestions on the best value per dollar papers? Over the next year or
so, I may want to print a few hundred 8.5 x 11 pages and do not have
unlimited 'disposable income' (BTW, I am in Canada and want to buy from
local suppliers.)
Not really, because so much depends on personal taste and the fact that
the ink and paper are a combination - so 3rd party papers that work well
on my printer may not necessarily work well on yours, with colour
balance, density and bronzing level differences. Many 3rd party papers
are designed for printers that put down much less ink than the Epsons,
so you have to make significant changes to the images to get acceptable
results without the blacks bronzing.
At least with Epson's own papers you can be sure they are compatible
with their printers and inks. Amongst the highest resolution media is
Epson's own Premium Glossy Photo Paper, but it really is horrid for
large display prints, especially if mounted in a glass frame - and it
really needs that glass frame if you use dye based inks (eg. your C-60)
to avoide the dreaded orange plague. I find the Heavyweight Matte Paper
a much better finish for this, which also reduces the orange fading, but
it isn't quite as good under resolution tests. EHMP certainly wouldn't
reproduce 720ppi, which the EPGP will.
