Changing resolution for printing

[Marpel]

Hello,

I am a little confused by what I am trying to do and am probably just missing something fairly simple and obvious.

Currently, I have an image that is 6048 x 4032 pixels in size, with 300 ppi showing as it's resolution (so a little over 20 x 13 inches if printed at that resolution). However, I am trying to print the image at 18 inches on the long side, without changing the proportions and while letting the short side fall where it may. Rather than resize/resample to keep the resolution at 300, I also would rather just let the resolution change as well. I want the image to be centred, both directions, on a 13 x 19 sheet of paper. However, I can't seem to figure out the print dialogue so I can just change the long side dimension and both the short side and resolution automatically change. Whilst I could figure out the correct settings with a calculator and enter those numbers in their respective locations, there's got to be a way to do what am I attempting, right in the dialogue. When I change the long dimension, the short and resolution remain as is, apparently regardless of the options I invoke from the drop down boxes. I also took a quick run at the resize dialogue, without success.

Can someone give me some pointers. I tried searching past similar topics in both the forum and the help menu with no luck.

Thanks,

Marv

[Dieter Mayr]

Just enter your fixed dimension (18 inches) in the appropriate field of the printing dialog and let the resolution be what it may be.
The only thing to take care of is when the resolution goes down too far (lets say below 150) so you may want to print in a too big size (or need a bigger distance to watch your picture).
The printer drivers do a excellent job when resizing the image to the desired printing size, so you can let it do the work.

[Marpel]

Dieter,

Thanks for your reply. However, when I try to do as you suggest, the print dialogue does not work the way I expected. After reading your response, I went and tried again, with the following results:

I had previously printed an image that was 7 x 5 inches and when opening the dialogue just now, the same dimensions for that image were in the dialogue. I had opened a 6048 x 4032 image to print that, when checking the properties listed 300 ppi (I realize that, except for printing, this pip doesn't really mean anything). This image (the 6048 x 4032 one) was the only image open when going through the print process. The print dialogue correctly showed the paper size as 19.02 x 12.95, and when I entered 18 in the "Image Width" the height did not change and the preview image actually showed the correct image but a cropped 18 x 5 version. I actually had to enter the second dimension. Some of the images I print are not exactly 2 x 3, 4 x 5 or other common proportions, so I don't off-hand know what various associated dimensions would be (i.e I know 2 x 3 is 12 x 18 etc) and when right clicking the image for properties the image is shown at a particular size (in inches) relative to the pixel dimensions and the native ppi (in this case 300) so the dimensions are not necessarily pertinent to the size I am looking to print. So far, my only option seems to be to take the time to use the calculator or the resize dialogue to determine what that second dimension would be - seemingly unnecessary step as I presumed the print dialogue would auto update the second dimension and ppi. There are four "Scale:" options - three of which the dimensions can't be changed , the fourth is "Custom" but as noted, both dimensions have to be entered. I was hoping there would be an option that would allow a single dimension to be entered and the second dimension and ppi would auto-update. As my images, at 300 ppi, are larger than my printer capacity (13 x 19), I don't wish to crop to fit the printer, but merely wish to print at 18 on the long side with a higher ppi.

Funny thing, when I tried entering the second dimension, to see if the ppi number changed, it did change but to something that didn't seem reasonable. When I entered the second dimension again (to the exact same number), the ppi changed again to something different and when I did it again, the ppi changed to yet another number (224 to 336 to 504), so not sure what's up with that not how to confirm which is the actual ppi at the entered size.

Marv

[Dieter Mayr]

Marv

I am sorry, I did not test it before I wrote, indeed it does not work the easy way.
I normally use a different workflow fo printing, i either go via Album or Layout, with predefined panels of my most used sizes.
In Layout I get then a image that can be printed with actual size (one to one), means it has the correct resolution then (300 ppi, in my case).
I use Album only if there are more images to print, for just one or two I prefer Layout.
If you need a more detailed workflow please let me know, i will go more in detail then.

[Marpel]

Thanks Dieter,

I don't know enough about either Album or Layout to understand if one would be able to do what I am looking for. Part of my problem is, I may occasionally crop off a bit of my original image (which is image dependant, so not the same in all cases) so I lose the "my most used sizes" aspect, as they would not necessarily fit into a template. I was hoping to merely stick in one dimension (in this case 18) and let the other dimension and ppi get automatically changed by the program. As the native file prints bigger than 18 inches (at 300 ppi), the ppi would probably jump up to something like 340, or higher. I figured just letting the resolution increase would be easier than resizing/resampling. If Layout and/or Album do not have this ability, then they would not work for me.

Thanks anyway for trying to help me out. Much appreciated.

Marv