JPG PRINT

[angelica_5702]

Does anyone have an extensive experience printing JPG images/files? Does it always print good even if it is JPG as long as the resolution is 300 DPI?

[Bobby Henderson]

What kind of printing is being done and at what physical size? Is the print work output on standard sized sheets of paper or is it something large format? An image with 300ppi resolution would be fine on a printed page. 300ppi would be overkill on big things (banners, vehicle wraps, etc). Viewing distance is an important factor to consider.

A 300ppi setting doesn't say much without knowing how many inches tall and wide the image is at that 300ppi setting. Or the more simple thing is checking the image's actual pixel count, how many pixels tall and how many pixels wide the image contains. The number can be divided according to how big it is scaled in inches to get the PPI value. Apps like Illustrator can display the PPI value in the user interface.

[angelica_5702]

I'm planning to do by ratio for my wall art digital design business. Example, 2:3 ratio, will do 24" x 36" that can be downsized to 8" x 12" in JPG Format, as this is the widely used format in most printers that people are asking for. Mostly large formats, posters, canvas, fine art prints. Any further thoughts to share? Thank you so much! 

[Bobby Henderson · Accepted solution]

Generally speaking, the bigger an image will be printed the lower the ppi level should be. A photo image with 300ppi native resolution is good for standard print pages. A poster, such as a 41" X 27" movie poster "one sheet" can be 150ppi. Things like banners and vehicle wraps can have 72ppi imagery. Billboard faces commonly have photo imagery at 25ppi (or 300ppi at a 1" = 1' scale). These ppi levels I'm mentioning aren't a hard rule. The imagery just needs to be in the neighborhood of those levels.

There is a push and pull balance taking place. Really big images seen at a far distance don't need enormously high resolution levels. A billboard face at 300ppi would have a staggering big file size and put unnecessary demands on the computer hardware.

I have mixed feelings about the use of JPEG as a format to feed to printers. It's certainly lousy as an editing format. If I'm going to edit a raster/pixel-based image or graphic I'll work in either Photoshop PSD or TIFF format since they are data lossless. JPEG is a lossy compressed format. If someone opens a JPEG file, make changes to it and saves it in JPEG again the image is being degraded with another step of lossy data compression.

Another problem with JPEG is it doesn't hold vector graphics. Many large format designs contain a mix of vector-based graphics and pixel-based imagery. Composing those elements in an application like Adobe Illustrator and then saving a copy of it in PDF to print can generate much better looking results. Any vector-based content will print at the maximum resolution of the printer. Sharp, clean and with no visible JPEG compression artifacts.

[angelica_5702]

This is so helpful.  Thank you! 

[angelica_5702]

Hello, 

If JPG is the only option, do you know or have experience when it comes to downsizing the image or file under same ratio like 2:3 ratio, ] 24" x 36"  to 8" x 12". Is there any effect too even resizing to smaller size? Do you recommend downsizing then print directly ? Is downsizing, resaving the file and open again make the quality duller? Any thoughts?

And one last question, if another option for printing large formats/arts is SVG, do you think this works better than JPG or PNG?

[Bobby Henderson · Accepted solution]

If the JPEG image is already existing (and there is nothing I need to change in the image) I'll keep it as is. Enlarging or reducing the image size in Photoshop and re-sampling it to a different amount of pixels can degrade the image. If a JPEG image is simply placed in an Illustrator document the original pixel grid in the image is not going to change if it is scaled up or down in size. It's still going to have the same number of pixels because the image is just being treated like another object. If it is reduced in size the pixel grid will be tightened to a higher ppi level. If it is enlarged the pixel grid gets bigger and ppi gets lower. It's a judgment call on how low a ppi level can be without flaws showing (or the image just being fuzzy or blurry). Large format printers and the RIP software running them have their own bag of tricks they use to try to hide the pixel grid in resolution-challenged images. But the trickery works only so well. There's no substitute for having an original image with high native resolution.

I usually only worry about re-sampling an image in Photoshop if I have to make a faily small, somewhat low resolution image big. Certain things can be done in Photoshop to make a lower resolution less bad when printed big.

I'm not a fan of printing SVG files. The format doesn't natively support CMYK (and the other things that can go with it). I always import the artwork into an application like Illustrator, make any adjustments needed and then print the artwork using PDF.

[angelica_5702]

So helpful, thank you! 

[barbara_a]

Print a vector illustration from Illustrator if at all possible. 

[angelica_5702]

I wish I could but most people are looking for JPG format as this is the most widely used in commercial printers. This is for my wall art designs business. Thinking to do PNG but I'm considering colors as this is in RGB and prints are in CMYK, I want the most accurate colors to show digitally, not sure if converting PNG to CMYK really works.

[Monika Gause]

Are you offering designs for download by the general public who will then print it on their home printer?

Stay with RGB. Desktop Inkjets are optimized for that input.

[angelica_5702 · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the input!

[angelica_5702]

Nope, printing depends on them, either at home or at printer store.