Online Printing

[Jill]

Thanks to all of you for the positive feedback! DJ told me you were a great bunch and she was right
I was wondering what dpi/resolution you (Jeanie and Debbie) send in to get the large size prints coming back great?
Ed, I am looking forward to hearing about your results! I sure have learned a lot from all of you...I may not post a lot but I do jump all around the forum and soak up all you info! Thanks

[Ed_L]

Glad to have you posting Jill. I'm not sure just when I'll get the prints made, but when I do I'll let everyone know what I think.

Ed

[DJ Dubovsky]

Hi Jill,
It depends on what the place I take it too can handle and also what formats they want. One place could only handle up to 22mb and their largest output was 11x14. For places that do larger prints, I have sent 600 dpi and the last one I sent out was a 16x20 at 400 dpi. Whether this was overkill or not I don't know. I asked the printer first what size they wanted and was told the bigger the better. I really can't help too much on this end of things as I haven't had that much experience with outside printers.
DJ

[jeaniesa]

Jill, I haven't actually used Ofoto to order any large prints yet. However, my local lab requests that I give them 300dpi at whatever size I'm requesting. That can be a pretty big file so I have to write it to a CD. I just looked on the Ofoto website and they recommend:

For a 4 x 6" print, the image resolution should be 640 x 480 pixels minimum
For a 5 x 7" print, the image resolution should be 1024 x 768 pixels minimum
For an 8 x 10" print, the image resolution should be 1536 x 1024 pixels minimum
For a 16 x 20" print, the image resolution should be 1600 x 1200 pixels minimum
For a 20 x 30" print, the image resolution should be 1600 x 1200 pixels minimum

Those are pretty darn low resolutions if you ask me, i.e. I would never print out a photo on my printer at that low a resolution. However, they do say that "Although Ofoto will print any of your photos to the size you choose, some photos - depending on the number of pixels in the image - just look better when printed at a specific size." I guess I should test a large print - sending the same photo at the "minimum resolution" and one at 300dpi (which is what I've been told by my local lab to give the best quality on their equipment) and see if I can tell the difference. (I bet I will.)

I'll report back when I've done this, but it might take me a few days to get to it...

Jeanie

[Bob Walden]

Hi all!

Most of the lab people I talk to are using GF so they can get by with less dpi but I would still send the largest file you can. The largest I go is 8x10 so I usually give them a 300-400 tiff on a cd. No problems so far.

[Jill]

Sorry to take so long to respond!
Jeanie...I would love to hear how your compairson works out, and thank you for the resolution recommendations. I think I better pay more attention to the websites and look for that!
Bob....what is GF?
Thanks!

[Bob Walden]

Sorry, my spelling is soooooooo bad I do a lot of abbreviating. The program is called "Genuine Fractals". It uses algorithms to enlarge an image.

Sometimes it works great other times just ok. Its made by Altamira Group. Hope this helps.

Bob

[Nancy]

Hi, this is my first post on this page, so I hope I'm doing this right. Anyhow, what a great web site this is. I'm new to photo restoration but I've quickly become an addict. I've gained a lot of information and ideas from all of you guys.
I found this subject very interesting since I've been looking for ways to get my digital prints done over the web. Have any of you tried ezprints.com? I uploaded some files to them the other day and am (anxiously) waiting to see how they come out.
They sent a couple of 8x10 prints to help me match my moniter to their colors and the paper seemed very good. Supposedly they only output on Kodak paper. Their prices also seemed quite reasonable, 4.95 for an 11x14, 2.95 for an 8x10. I ordered color, b/w, on both glossy and matte.
I'll let you know how they look when I get them.
Nancy

[Jill]

Oh.....I guess I have heard of genuine fractals but have little knowledge about it! (obviously) Thanks for the responce!
Nancy...I will look forward to hearing about your results This is the best group, I have also learned so much from everyone....and people are actually nice to you!

[DJ Dubovsky]

Welcome Nancy
Look forward to your results also. Remember this site is composed of people like yourself who don't have to be an authority on the subject, just eager to share their experiences and learn from others experiences.
DJ

[jeaniesa]

Last Friday my Ofoto 15% off coupon was expiring, so I spent the day uploading photos to finally do my "resolution test." I had a photo of Canyonlands in Utah that I had stitched together from two photos and wanted to see what it would look like in a large size. So, I ordered two 16x20" prints. (The actual photo dimensions are 7x20".)

My first file was 300dpi. I wanted to save it as quality 10 JPEG, but the file was too big and after a half dozen attempts to upload the file to Ofoto. I called customer support to ask if there was a limit on file size, had to leave a message and got a call back within 4 hours. I was told that there isn't any limit on file size, but if the site is really busy, sometimes larger files time out. I've got a cable modem, so I don't think the problem was at my end. And since I didn't want to wait until the wee hours of the morning (and risk not being able to use my coupon), I played around with various file sizes by changing the JPEG quality. (The whole purpose of the test was to send a 300dpi and lowest-possible resolution, so I didn't want to play around with resolution.) I found that anything above a quality 7 was larger than 3MB and got an error during loading. The quality 7 file was 2.5MB and loaded without any difficulty. Since I couldn't get any of the larger files to load, I had to use this one as my "high-end" test.

My second file was the lo-res version. Ofoto recommends "at least" 1200x1600 pixels for 16x20" prints. That equates to 80 dpi! And that's what I used. That file was only 500KB and loaded without difficulty.

I ordered the prints Friday evening and got an e-mail Saturday afternoon that the order was complete. (I ordered some other smaller photos as well. The smaller photos (8x10, 5x7, and 4x6) all arrived yesterday.) The larger prints arrived today in a triangular "tube." I'm not sure how else to desribe it, but the photos were loosely rolled with protective paper and put in the triangular mailing tube to ship.

Now the test came - would I be able to tell the difference? At first glance, no. However, on closer inspection, I noticed that the sky looked a bit more mottled on one of them. (Luckily, there's not much sky in the photo.) And on even closer inspection, I noticed that the details in the photo with the mottled sky were a little blurry, i.e., not much detail.

Conclusion: Resolution does make a difference! If you were to look at the two photos side-by-side from across the room, I doubt that you'd be able to tell a difference. However, if you're lke me and like to move in close to see the details of a photo, I'm afraid the lo-res version will be disappointing to you. I did not test an intermediate resolution, so don't know what would be a "minimum acceptable resolution" for me personally. I think I'll just stick with my 300dpi for now.

And if by chance you're interested, I've attached a much smaller version of the photo I used for my test.

Jeanie

[thomasgeorge]

Just wondering--does this business allow you to send TIFF format and do you do RGB or CMYK mode? Can you send your work in on CD?The photo is Awesome!! Gotta love the West--beauty everywhere. Tom

[jeaniesa]

Tom,

They only allow JPG format. (I can't even imagine trying to send a decent-sized TIFF given the trouble I was having uploading a file over 3MB.)

I send RGB and have been very happy with the color. I don't know if they do any "color correction," but just did quick search for RGB on the site and came up with the following:

Question: Do you use RGB Print Format?

Answer: We print in RGB, our imaging engineer recommends BruceRGB for editing:

Whitepoint=6500k
Gamma=2.2
red xy =0.6400 0.3300
green xy= 0.2800 0.6500
blue xy=0.1500 0.0600

You may change these settings by going to the File menu, down to Color Settings, and choosing RGB Setup. Once you've set the Whitepoint and Gamma, go to the Primaries pull-down and select Custom. This will bring up a pop-up that will allow you to change the red xy, green xy, and blue xy.

I never knew this info before, so thanks for asking the question!

As far as whether you can send your files on a CD, I did another search. (Thanks for helping me find this info. I've discovered a search on Ofoto searches through an archive of past questions that people have sent in via e-mail. A veritable treasure trove of information!)

Sending any type of storage medias (i.e. floppy, CD, Memory Cards, etc.) for uploading photos to your account is a service we don't currently offer. As we develop and provide new services, you will be notified once they become available. Your patience is greatly appreciated.

Instead, please upload with OfotoNow or through your browser at Ofoto.

Jeanie

[thomasgeorge]

Great info! Thanks much--I owe you one! Tom

[DJ Dubovsky]

Jeanie
Beautiful picture! What a breath taking view.
Thanks for the great summary of your experiences with the online photo place. It was very complete and an excellent experiment.
We will all benifit by your efforts and Jill's.
DJ