Help resizing/optimizing for print

Two cents about  resampling:  When you resample PSE uses algorithms to increase the number of pixels.   Very simply: It looks at a pixel, and guessed how to duplicate the pixels around the central pixel. 

Here is a sample algorithm: (it's pretty much 9th grade Algebra)



Your original image contains only so much data:  equate making an image larger (increasing the ppi) to rolling out a ball of pizza dough-- you can only streatch out that 8oz ball  of dough only so much.   

@Barb@Pgh said:  I have read that resample should be unchecked when changing to 300 dpi and then rechecked before
saving. Do you agree with that?

Yes, resampling can change the image quality.

It's a great photo.  Did you take it?

I think this is what I would do:

• Crop the photo to your desired dimension of 40x24 in.  You can set the dimension in the crop tools options.  I presume you intend to cut off the foreground.

• Go to Image>Resize>Image Size and change the resolution to 300 dpi.  (Because of the crop, the dpi will have changed to a different number and the pixel dimensions may be slightly off because of rounding calculations, I think).

• Make your editing changes to the color and
• Sharpen the image for printing.