What PPI do you set for printing?

[Satoshi]

I am trying to learn good photo printing technique with ink jet printer.
I am wondering what PPI do you set to get good pictures.
I currently resize images at 250 ppi for ip4000 printer.
I would like to have your comment.
Satoshi

 

[measekite]

That is good. Anywhere from 200 and up PPI does OK with an IP4000

 

[Frank]

I am trying to learn good photo printing technique with ink jet printer.
I am wondering what PPI do you set to get good pictures.
I currently resize images at 250 ppi for ip4000 printer.
I would like to have your comment.
Satoshi

266 is better.
Frank

 

[Jim]

I am trying to learn good photo printing technique with ink jet printer.
I am wondering what PPI do you set to get good pictures.
I currently resize images at 250 ppi for ip4000 printer.
I would like to have your comment.
Satoshi

Whatever looks the best. I see no difference between 240 ppi and 300.
There is very little difference between 200 and 240.
Jim

 

[Ed Ruf]

I am trying to learn good photo printing technique with ink jet printer.
I am wondering what PPI do you set to get good pictures.
I currently resize images at 250 ppi for ip4000 printer.
I would like to have your comment.

I use Qimage for my printing needs and Qimage will interrogate the
printer driver and determine specifically what the driver itself wants
to optimize the process.
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage

Just a satisfied user for a number of years, give the demo a try.

 

[Satoshi]

Actually, I tried to print at 250 ppi and 400 ppi, I don't see any
difference between two.
But this is what I read from an article:
The article described to set at 200 -300 ppi to get nice pictures.
But here is the quote:

"If you send the equivalent of a 400- or 600-ppi photo to your printer, you
may see weird artifacts and jagged edges.
It's best to say in the 200- 300 ppi range when printing."

What surprised me is that if you print at higher ppi, weird pictures will be
produced. Is that correct?

Regards,

Satoshi

 

[Gary Eickmeier]

I am trying to learn good photo printing technique with ink jet printer.
I am wondering what PPI do you set to get good pictures.
I currently resize images at 250 ppi for ip4000 printer.
I would like to have your comment.
Satoshi

As far as I'm concerned, you don't have to "set" a ppi for printing.
Just keep it at its max that it set itself to after resizing. If you're
doing 4x6 prints, that may be above 400. Who cares, as long as the
printer drivers can handle it?

Gary Eickmeier

 

[John McWilliams]

Actually, I tried to print at 250 ppi and 400 ppi, I don't see any
difference between two.
But this is what I read from an article:
The article described to set at 200 -300 ppi to get nice pictures.
But here is the quote:

"If you send the equivalent of a 400- or 600-ppi photo to your printer, you
may see weird artifacts and jagged edges.
It's best to say in the 200- 300 ppi range when printing."

What surprised me is that if you print at higher ppi, weird pictures will be
produced. Is that correct?

Not in all cases, as you witnessed, although at larger sizes there may
be a difference noticeable.

Once one is past a certain ppi, it's a waste for any specific printer,
and the driver has to throw away information. This can take time, and
introduce oddities in some cases.

I would think there's an optimum ppi for each printer, but it's seldom
talked about. And I don't know why that is so.

 

[Stanley Krute]

Ed Ruf noted wisely:

I use Qimage for my printing needs and Qimage will interrogate the
printer driver and determine specifically what the driver itself wants
to optimize the process.
http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage

Just a satisfied user for a number of years, give the demo a try.

I'm with Ed. Qimage puts out the finest prints I've ever seen, both with
inkjets
and laser-printers.

-- stan

 

[Arthur Entlich]

Standard 4 x 6 "drug store" quality prints are about 200 dpi. A good
lab uses an equivalent to about 300-360 dpi. However, each inkjet
printer uses differing methods and driver software to distribute the
dots, so it is best for you to test and see what looks best to you.

The type of printer, brand, model how many ink colors the printer uses,
all enter into this picture. You are best off to try the same print
with differing resolution and see which ones most appeal to you.

In general, 300 dpi will supply quality results.

Art

 

[Arthur Entlich]

It really depends on the printer driver, and how it spools the image,
what algorithms it uses, and a lot of other factors. A well written
driver will not create artifacts at higher resulution.

Art

 

[John McWilliams]

Standard 4 x 6 "drug store" quality prints are about 200 dpi. A good
lab uses an equivalent to about 300-360 dpi. However, each inkjet
printer uses differing methods and driver software to distribute the
dots, so it is best for you to test and see what looks best to you.

The type of printer, brand, model how many ink colors the printer uses,
all enter into this picture. You are best off to try the same print
with differing resolution and see which ones most appeal to you.

In general, 300 dpi will supply quality results.

Art

Except Satoshi was inquiring about ppi settings. Unless he wasn't.

 

[Hecate]

Except Satoshi was inquiring about ppi settings. Unless he wasn't.

I'm sure he was. Only people who understand the difference between ppi
and dpi usually bother to ask questions about ppi ;-)

--

Hecate - The Real One
(e-mail address removed)
Fashion: Buying things you don't need, with money
you don't have, to impress people you don't like...

 

[Arthur Entlich]

In this case, they are really one in the same.

If, for example, Satoshi is using Photoshop, when he sets the image to
300 ppi, that is the resolution that will be used as the source for the
printer driver to create the raster image. Although in fact, the
printer will sample it at a higher resolution and use many more dots to
reproduce each "pixel" when printed, the end result in terms of the
image resolution will be based upon the ppi resolution selected in the
image software.

There is no need to confuse matters with the fact that Epson, for
instance uses 720 ppi/dpi with their consumer printer drivers to
"sample" the image and then may print in individual color dots of 2880
dpi on the paper to create those colors.

Basically, each ppi is translated into a ppi on the paper via the
printer's drivers.

When I spoke about drug store prints and custom lab prints, those are
really an abstraction, since they are usually not printed in a digital
or dot manner, but instead photographically on silver halide papers, so
we are referring to an apparent resolution if the print were to be tested.

Art