P: Allow UI to specify resolution above 10,000+ DPI

[mike117]

I am becoming very frustrated by the lack of response or rationale for a very simple problem we have with the later versions of Photoshop. We are an R&D firm out of Colorado that works with multinational central banks and press companies to supply trial graphics for currency and anti-counterfeiting purposes. Recently we have started using a resolution that exceeds 10,000 DPI to design for their presses, as such resolution is needed and used in currency to give the sharpest images possible (and thus deter counterfeiting).

Given the advances in printing technology, it seems counterintuitive for Adobe to cap resolution settings for the user when before it was never done. Why the change? We legitimately need the extra pixels for mapping and design purposes for machines that support this. Microprinting will lead to resolutions that easily surpass 10,000 DPI in the very near future so I'm not sure why Adobe thinks it's necessary to take a step backwards. If it is not possible to reintroduce a cap more in like with past versions (I believe it's like 170k DPI from CS5 and earlier), we are forced to step backwards to older versions of CS5 and before.

Please make a note of this problem and take action to fix it as I see no detriment to re-introducing a higher resolution cap that has been present on other versions of Photoshop for years.

[J453]

Hi Mike,

I just tried this with CS1, CS3, CS5 and they all have a 9999.999 cap as well. It appears to be a limitation going back some time.

It's possibly something we could tackle as a feature request.

[mike117]

Hi Jeff. Thank you for your prompt response.

OK, that seems odd. Are your versions all separately installed without an upgrade serial key? Because we have our versions of CS 3 and CS 5 in the office (no upgrades) and we have never had an issue picking the res we want. So, imagine our disappointment when we find CS 6 and later are not working for us.

I even used a CS5 trial version (downloaded from Adobe last month with my ID), and I had no resolution cap with working above 10,000 DPI. I luckily got my files out to our client before the trial expired.

I will attach some screen shots showing us working with a few of our high-res files in CS5.

Regardless of whether it's a capped resolution or not across all versions, we hope to have this limit lifted (or raised significantly) to accommodate future images that can be micro printed at such high numbers. Please take this into consideration. We are a growing company and would like to use the latest software versions instead of hunting for vendors on the internet. This is risky and time consuming. Thank you.

[J453]

I see you have CM selected for your units - which I think is triggering a bug in the File>New dialog (it should force the PPI to 9999.999 in that case). If you select Image>Image Size... after the document is created, what does it report for dimensions and resolution? I'm getting a wacked out 1in, 1in 1PPI in the Image Size dialog.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Looks like that limit has been there a very long time. But you can open some file formats that have a resolution value and inherit a value higher than the Photoshop UI allows.

What resolution limit do you need/want?

[mike117]

Jeff and Chris,

I am not sure what limits you are encountering, but I am having no trouble working with the resolutions above 10,000 as needed on CS5 installed on our Mac Pro, nor on the trial version I downloaded last week.

You are correct than when working with CS6 and ask for a higher res than 10,000 DPI, you get a window prompt:



However, regardless of our image settings in pixels, inches or centimeters on CS5 we get the image we need. Screenshots below:





The only indication of possible issues was this compatibility prompt, saying images greater than 30,000 pixels could lead to issues with older versions of PS. We have swapped TIFF files between CS3, CS5, and Macs new and old and never had compatibility issues. We always work with TIFF files.



Lastly, the version of CS5 all these screenshots were from; downloaded from your servers 2 days ago on another one of our Macs. Chris, I see your name ;)



Again not sure how you're getting your limits from all versions. I recommend downloading a CS5 trial fresh and trying for yourself. But even our old versions from DVD copies have never bugged out on us or kept us from making any resolution we want.

Keep in mind, these images are for currency, so we will never have an image larger than say, 10 x 10 centimeters or so. Perhaps after you get to larger sizes, a high-res file wants to 'resize' itself to a bigger image with a lower res because it doesn't see the need for 10,000 plus on something that large. We have never tried something like 10 by 20 inches.

-Mike

[mike117]

Chris,

Resolutions vary by press. One of the resolutions needed is 10160 which is metric friendly, not pixels per INCH. Hence the centimeters.

Another application for a micro-press we are working with calls for 12400 DPI. But again, not sure why PS wants to dictate my desired resolution if that's how we need to work. There is even a commercial press out there from HP that as a resolution of 812.8 DPI, and we need files to be that exact resolution to avoid scaling pixel 'jumps' (reset lines in an image) when these files are output on a press.

-Mike

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Photoshop has to have some numerical limits to avoid overflowing the values used to store resolution, and to avoid errors in calculations involving the resolution. That's just basic UI coding.

You just happen to want a limit higher than the current limit.

BTW: 812.8 ppi == 320 ppcm
and 10160 ppcm == 25806.4 ppi

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

The total size doesn't matter. It's the resolution value that matters here, and the limits needed to avoid overflows and other errors in calculations.

[mike117]

Chris,

OK, so there is an intended limit set in the UI. I assume this is the 9999.999DPI number.

If so, why am I able to surpass this number and not have errors or problems on CS5 and earlier?

I still am very curious to know if you can recreate this on the download trial of CS5. My guess is yes. Regardless of whether there is an intended limit set at 10,000 DPI that you all have put in place to avoid potential calculation errors, we would like to go above that value as we have become accustomed to using it on older CS versions. How can we expect this problem to be resolved, if at all?

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

Looking at the code, CS5 was a bit lax on enforcing some of the limits, and had higher limits in a few places (aka inconsistent limits) which led to errors later (due to overflows in math). In later versions of Photoshop, those UI bugs were fixed. But it is possible that the current limit is lower than it could be -- so I'm asking what limits you really need.

[mike117]

Chris,

Given our development pace currently, we would probably like a cap of 25,000 DPI. This gives us wiggle room for any advancements in our partners' micro print capabilities for the near future. But we absolutely must have up to 10,160 for our current project. We also had dabbled with that 12,400 number I mentioned.

So yes, if possible, we'd like to see a 25k resolution cap. Thanks.

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

OK, I'll have to review the previous bug reports to see at what point we have overflow issues, and see if we can extend the ppi UI limit that far.

[mike117]

Thank you very much Chris! Let me know when you have any updates! Much appreciated.

[J453]

Current versions of Photoshop should now support documents up to 29999.999ppi