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Posted on 25/10/05 7:18:42 PM |
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ollie
* Posts: 12 Reply  |
Printing from Photoshop: How to correlate photoshop with your printer?!
I have a PSD that is (supposedly) A4 sized, it has a width of 8910 pixels (29.7cm) by 6300 pixels (21cm). However when i go to print it on A4 paper it always goes off the edge of the page, it is a greetings card and i have the rulers out in PS with a blue guide marking the EXACT spot in the middle of the document where I imagined the crease occurs on the greeting card photo paper i keep feeding into the printer, yet EVERY time the image comes out either clipped if I choose not to "scale to fit media" or incorrectly placed if I do. The printed image keeps printing approx 10px to the left on the paper, in contrast to where the guide in PS claims is the point exact for the middle of the document (4455px), how the hell do i marry the two up? what is the problem here?! What is the discrepancy between what photoshop claims are the dimensions and page setup of the document, and the information the printer is recieving. Cos the two are poles apart at present! I've tried all the printing preferences options for my HP printer and also all options in photoshop, i.e. the scale to fit option etc., and the two setups mirror each other...so, i am at a loss.  |
Posted on 25/10/05 9:50:52 PM |
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rufus
Destructive Demon Posts: 243 Reply  |
Re: Printing from Photoshop: How to correlate photoshop with your printer?!
I think that you are using the wrong resolution, the setting that gives those dimensions is 300 pixels/cm. People normally quote resolution in pixels/inch. If you double click on the zoom tool you will see what a difference that makes. The comparable file sizes are 160.6M and 24.9M. There is absolutely no point in such high resolution for printed images. This may well explain why your computer appears to be running so slow!!! Having said that my printer will print A4 at either setting using scale to fit media, with a small gutter around the edge. I don't know if you can get rid of that. |
Posted on 26/10/05 09:19:48 AM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7047 Reply  |
Re: Printing from Photoshop: How to correlate photoshop with your printer?!
Rufus is exactly right - you're using way too high a resolution. Having said that, it won't make any difference to the placement of images when printed. Nearly all printers have to have a margin around the edge, where the paper is gripped; yours is obviously offsetting the image by that much. Here's what I suggest you do: make up a simple numbered grid in Photoshop, and print it out. See where the fold is, and use this grid as a template to position your greetings card. |
Posted on 26/10/05 1:03:09 PM |
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ollie
* Posts: 12 Reply |
Re: Printing from Photoshop: How to correlate photoshop with your printer?!
I'll do that, thankyou steve. I'm just concerned as its not so much the edge that bothers me, which, obviously is a fact of printing, its the fact that the image isn't centred. When I go to frame digital art (as i plan to sell prints/photography) in order to make it more marketable i wish to sign the image on the white border and number it "1 of 100" etc. before the mounting/framing process. I cant do this if there's a masive margin to the left, a sliver of white to the right and the whole thing is lopsided. I'd love to do my own printing from home and dont really want to farm the work out to a high street printers. just got a lot of troubleshooting to do first before i realise that goal! (p.s. the reason I had an A4 image at 300dpi was because I thought it needed to be that size if i intended for it to be suitable for printing from CD and scaling up to A2 or even A0?) |
Posted on 26/10/05 3:04:39 PM |
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ollie
* Posts: 12 Reply |
Re: Printing from Photoshop: How to correlate photoshop with your printer?!
sorry, that last statement was a bit vague, I was told by a friend that if i wanted to send a PSD to a printers on a CD with the potential to be scaled up to an A0 print then it'd have to be at least A4 and 300dpi else it'd become pixelated when blown up to those dimensions. |
Posted on 26/10/05 3:44:29 PM |
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Steve Caplin
Administrator Posts: 7047 Reply |
Re: Printing from Photoshop: How to correlate photoshop with your printer?!
300dpi is fine - but you had it at 300 dots per centimetre - way higher! |
Posted on 27/10/05 12:45:26 PM |
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rufus
Destructive Demon Posts: 243 Reply |
Re: Printing from Photoshop: How to correlate photoshop with your printer?!
I've done a little more digging on the best resolution suitable for printed output. For a continuous tone output (such as photos) the absolute maximum resolution should be 300 pix/in. There is a commercial standard of 267pix/in as apparently it is imposible to detect any difference between this and higher resolutions. For line art a resolution of 600 to 1200 pix/in is recommended. If your selling images that you print yourself I suggest that you do some research on the longevity of the paper and inks that you use if you don't want to have them returned after a couple of years because they have faded. Many don't last very long and this may be a good reason to have them produced commercially. As an aside, you may have noticed that when you view an image on screen as "Print Size", with the hand or zoom tool selected, it does not match the real print size (take a ruler and check). This is because Photoshop assumes your screen resolution to be 72 pix/in. These days most monitors are about 100 pix/in and Photoshop can be set to match this by using Edit/Preferences/Units & Rulers. I have set my preference to be 96.5 pix/in and my on screen and "real" rulers now agree. |
Posted on 27/10/05 10:37:19 PM |
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ollie
* Posts: 12 Reply |
Re: Printing from Photoshop: How to correlate photoshop with your printer?!
Aha...that may very well explain a lot about my current printing nightmare, i must say you're the man with all the answers, d'you fancy calibrating my monitor for me? 
Thank you for your comments, you've been a great help, and methodical. |