3.1 MP good enough to print A3?


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David

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I've heard some people saying that good A3 photo quality printouts can be had with 3 MP images. Is that true?

So far I've been printing on A4. Am toying with the idea to get an A3 printer now. But I did a quick calculation and it seems at least 4-5 MP should be desired for a minimal printing of an image at 150ppi. (Though books would recommend 250-300ppi!!!)

Anyone care to share his/her experience? Thanks.


P.S. I'm using a Canon D30.
 

David said:
I've heard some people saying that good A3 photo quality printouts can be had with 3 MP images. Is that true?

So far I've been printing on A4. Am toying with the idea to get an A3 printer now. But I did a quick calculation and it seems at least 4-5 MP should be desired for a minimal printing of an image at 150ppi. (Though books would recommend 250-300ppi!!!)

Anyone care to share his/her experience? Thanks.


P.S. I'm using a Canon D30.

I would like to know the answer too!!! Where are the digi-guru or those who has already own or have printed A3 size from a A3 printer???

Same question goes to using a 6MP DSLR or a slide scanned at 2900dpi, can I print A3 size too? If yes, at what dpi is best or the minimum dpi required for A3 printing?

Appreciate any reply, thanks in advance.
 

I have printed 13"x19" (inkjet) from 4MP JPEG-FINE, and 20"x30" (inkjet) from 4MP RAW. All at 300dpi. Some post-processing was done. Results are excellent.

For 300dpi, 13"x19" equates 3900x5700 pixels ~ 22.3MP
For 300dpi, 20"x30" equates 6000x9000 pixels ~ 54.0MP

A3-size is approximately 11.5"x16.5". Do your own maths. :)
 

AJ23 said:
I have printed 13"x19" (inkjet) from 4MP JPEG-FINE, and 20"x30" (inkjet) from 4MP RAW. All at 300dpi. Some post-processing was done. Results are excellent.

For 300dpi, 13"x19" equates 3900x5700 pixels ~ 22.3MP
For 300dpi, 20"x30" equates 6000x9000 pixels ~ 54.0MP

A3-size is approximately 11.5"x16.5". Do your own maths. :)

hi, I suppose you interpolated your 4MP file to generate files of that size (22.3MP and 54MP), right?

If so, what software do you use?
 

bgat said:
hi, I suppose you interpolated your 4MP file to generate files of that size (22.3MP and 54MP), right?

If so, what software do you use?

I'm just using Photoshop 5.5's bicubic "interpolation". :)
 

Normally A3 home printers print with 3MP photos could produce a decent quality print. As you won't probably view the entire print from a 5cm distance.
 

The magic word here is viewing distance... :)

Don't believe? Try this... print your image in A4 size at 72 dpi (yes... you didn't read wrongly). Now... hold it one arms-length away...

I don't know about you guys... but I can't see the pixelation more than 30cm away. I found out when I forgot to resize the image once before printing. It was taken on a 6MP digital SLR and printed on my Canon S9000.
 

A3 is 29.7cm by 42cm ie = 11.9" x 16.8" ie = approximately 12" x 17"
 

No problem.. I printed 30" x 20" landscape from my D30 before. Up close yes you can see the interpolation, but from a normal viewing distance (you wouldn't stand so close to 30x20 anyway), it looks perfectly acceptable (to me). YMMV.

The trick is to upsize to 150% more than you require using your best interpolation algorithm (gen fractals, bicubic, whatever), sharpen for that size, then resample down to your desired resolution. You will get better results this way than resampling it up to the actual resolution in one pass.
 

Hiee.....

In Adobe photoshop, you probably want to change the image settings for print to be 300dpi for print not leaving it at 72dpi. Not forgetting specifying the right print size too. (lock aspect ratio)

Depends on your printer, this will also influence the final resolution.

rgds,
sulhan
 

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