Pigment Inkjet Printer Resolution and Large Painter X files.

"I just purchased Maura's m-2 Corel Painter training DVD  - Excellent! And I have a question about resolution and printing... You say that you paint at 300 resolution and the size is small. When you come back to PSD and want to enlarge to say 40x30... how do you resize and what resolution do you use to print?" - LU

QUESTION : Methods to enlarge files and what resolutions should I use for larger files?

We begin painting in Painter X by using a high resolution file for instance a 7x10 inch at 300 dpi file is pretty much our norm. Once we bring our finished Painter File into Photoshop CS 3 for printing, we first go to the Image Size pulldown menu.

Next, we consider the media requirements for the particular substrate that we had decided to print on.  For pigment inkjet printers, these requirements may vary depending upon the media used.

We have found various CANVAS substrates can tolerate printing our paintings at what might be considered "lower" resolutions. For example 120 -150 dpi resolutions can work well for 36 x 24 inch and bigger files.

However, PAPER substrates are a different story and should be tested for the best results.  We find the paper media usually works well at 200-240 dpi for any enlarged pigment inkjet prints of our painted files.

Tip:  If you find that you use only a handful of media types, it should be fairly easy  to test different file resolutions in order to find the optimum combination for your painting style (specifically the amount of sharpness and detail you like in your paintings) and the printer and substrate that you choose.

File Enlargement Techniques for larger prints on canvas:

Step 1: Open your painted file in PSD and check your Image Size and Resolution starting point under | Image | Image Size|.

Step 2: Make a quick change right in this box to see where your sizes land after you have converted the file into a 150 dpi file as shown below:

Be sure to check the Constrain Proportions and Resample Image boxes as shown in above screen capture.  Next, type 150 into your pixels/inches resolution box.  When you do that, your image width and height will automatically change to a larger size. If that change produces the size you are looking for… you are done! 

If this step doesn't get you where you want to go then…continue on for larger sizes.

Step 3: If you still need additional enlargements, you can turn to either Genuine Fractals ($159) software or other enlargement techniques. We use one we developed using the Lab Color Mode in Photoshop . We call it “Uninhibited Resize”. 

Our Uninhibited Resize method has been actionized and included as one of the 7 Workflow Actions on our Textures with Actions v01 disc priced at $69.

Check out examples on our site for the 7 Workflow Actions and 16 Texture Actions : Mama Maura's Textures with Action v01 . 

I find that I often add these textures as surface accents to my finished paintings in Photoshop. Usually adding very subtle layers of these textures adds a rich dimensional feeling to my finished canvases.

If my final art file size is in the 5,000 x 5,000 pixel size range at 300 dpi, then I will add textures to the file at that point. And if I need the file to be larger, I will enlarge textures and file together from there. 

To wrap up:  It is very important to note that whatever resizing / enlargement technique you use…understand that enlarging in incremental steps will give you the best results.  Do not jump from a 7x10 image to a 30x40 image all in one step. We do suggest sneaking up in incremental amounts and repeating this process usually in 3-5 inches at a time.

Also, do use use the “Bicubic Smoother” setting, as shown for enlargements if you find yourself in Photoshop for this task.

Cheers,