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used larger format when setting up poster than needed

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
July 5, 2018
3 replies
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I accidentally set up everything to the poster preset format (18x24) inches and 300 ppi but now realised that I need it at A3 (european, 297x420 mm) and 72 ppi, there are pixel images in the document, is there anything I can do to correct the format without losing a lot of the quality?

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Correct answer D Fosse

Open Image Size and uncheck "resample image". Set ppi to 300, which will change print size without affecting the file itself.

Lots of beginners get confused over resolution and pixels per inch (ppi), but it's a lot simpler than you think. The file is just pixels, and the pixels per inch value determines how big those pixels print on paper. The file is the same (again, as long as resample is unchecked!).

Just stop and consider what pixels per inch means. Read it literally, it means exactly what it says. No hidden meaning.

discardedroseAuthor

Participating Frequently

I just exported it as a png and changed the size, I am not knowledgeable enough to know whether this truly solved the problem but the size looks about right now and the resolution is great.

D Fosse

Correct answer

Community Expert

Open Image Size and uncheck "resample image". Set ppi to 300, which will change print size without affecting the file itself.

Lots of beginners get confused over resolution and pixels per inch (ppi), but it's a lot simpler than you think. The file is just pixels, and the pixels per inch value determines how big those pixels print on paper. The file is the same (again, as long as resample is unchecked!).

Just stop and consider what pixels per inch means. Read it literally, it means exactly what it says. No hidden meaning.

D Fosse

Community Expert

https://forums.adobe.com/people/D+Fosse wrote
Open Image Size and uncheck "resample image". Set ppi to 300 72 , which will change print size without affecting the file itself.

Oops, corrected my own typo.

This is effectively what the OP did, and found that the reduced ppi increased the print size to what he needed.

discardedroseAuthor

Participating Frequently

I did use Smart Objects, sadly it's a requirement for a school and I don't have a say in the matter.

I've tried to resize the document and scale accordingly but it looked terrible, I also tried to combine all the layers into one Smart Object and drag and drop it into an opened document with the right format to see if scaling it it there would make any difference, it didn't.

I'm a complete amateur and don't know what else I could do.

After a google search I tried scaling only one image from the document after turning it into a Smart Object and the quality seemed to be fine but for some reason that doesn't work out if I try to drop it into the correctly formatted document.

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

I've tried to resize the document and scale accordingly but it looked terrible, I also tried to combine all the layers into one Smart Object and drag and drop it into an opened document with the right format to see if scaling it it there would make any difference, it didn't.
I'm a complete amateur and don't know what else I could do.
After a google search I tried scaling only one image from the document after turning it into a Smart Object and the quality seemed to be fine but for some reason that doesn't work out if I try to drop it into the correctly formatted document.

Those descriptions are not exactly useful when not accompanied by meaningful screenshots (taken at View > 100%) and clear indications of the various involved images pixel dimensions.

I just exported it as a png and changed the size,

Why png? What was this supposed to achieve?

discardedroseAuthor

Participating Frequently

Next time I have a question I will make sure to add screenshots but the result of my attempts is good enough for me right now.

Exporting to PNG allowed me to change the dimensions of all of the elements combined to the A3 format without the previous issue of loss of quality or elements remaining higher in resolution and therefore losing the layout set up I created (previously only a small portion of a single one of the elements would remain visible in the smaller dimensions). I am sure this is not the most proficient way of doing what I was trying to achieve but it worked for me.

c.pfaffenbichler

Community Expert

Did you use Smart Objects?

Why don’t you just stick with the higher resolution?

It should usually not be a problem for the printer and if necessary you can still downsample a flattened copy (and sharpen that if you want to).

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