Help! I'm trying to print this image from Photoshop. I can't get the size right! When I measure the image on screen, it's 7in x 5.5in. But PS thinks it's bigger than this! When I try to print it, the preview dialogue shows that the image does not fit on the page widthwise (portrait layout). I have to reduce the dimensions to about 80% to get the layout that I designed (which is to fit into the lower half of the page with about a half inch margin on each side, since I'm trying to print this as a card.) Then if I print, it comes out all fuzzy and looking like your typical resize job. I also tried opening another couple of images I have done and check their size in the image size dialogue. These have the same problem! Photoshop thinks every image is bigger than it is! What is happening here? Can anyone shed any light on this? I want to print this card for my best friend, I am seeing her tomorrow and won't see her again until after New Year :-(

For printing purposes the resolution should be 300 pixels per inch. Never measure the screen it is irrelevant. In this case to get a nice print simply bump the resolution to 300 you will get an printed image of 2 x 1.5 inches at 300 pixel/in resolution (600 divided by 300).If you are using a little inkjet you can go down to 200 and still get something quite nice which should come out at 3 x 2.25 inches, uncheck resample image and you will get the exact size it will print at.

You can not measure images with a ruler on your monitor. The same size image on a 15" monitor and a 21" monitor are not the same. Those dimmensions shown in that dialog box in Photoshop are based on the DPI number you set. Yours is set at 72dpi. If you uncheck the box there that says "Resample Image" and then change either the dpi setting or simply change the width to what you want it to print at, then Photoshop will print it at that size. It changes the dpi setting to whatever is needed to make it that size. By unchecking the Resample Image checkbox you are telling Photoshop to not do any changes to the actual pixels, only to the information it uses to scale that image for the printer. But be aware, 72 dpi is fine for a monitor but is quite low for a typical printer these days. You may need to render the image at a higher resolution in the first place in order to make it look OK on a printer.

Oh thank you, that helps. Although it means I have to re-render my image layers again at a higher size, to get the correct print size. Damn I wish I had checked on this before I started! LOL Thanks again :)

Thank you too Dave, I think I am getting a grip on this. It's definitely the low DPI which is making the image look manky on paper. Starting a re-rendering job now :) Have to wait until morning to print it though, my husband has gone to bed and the printer is noisy! LOL Cheers ;-)

Actually, the image dimensions are also relevant. 300dpi at 2" x 1.5" is going to print 2" x 1.5". At 300dpi, it is still difficult to enlarge without either losing clarity or getting pixellation (jaggies). I always render big (300dpi and dimensions), and shrink it later. But beware: a 300 dpi image at, say 5" x 4" (or 8" x 6"), will take a long time to render, depending on your computer's resources, and may even crash smaller systems. Save your work before trying to push your machine beyond where it's gone before.... Also: JPG is a very lossy format. When you're done, save it as a TIFF file (the best flat image format), or take it into Illustrator if you have that and save it as an EPS. (This is extreme print advice -- your needs may be smaller, especially if you're just looking to print from your home ink-jet) If you're trying to print something the dimensions shown above (8.3"w x 6.25"h), then the message you were getting also has to do with the margins that Photoshop wants to print at. It wants to keep a maximum printing area of 8" x 10" so you can shrink the image to 8" wide, print in landscape form, or find a way to reset the margins (I haven't found that, myself).

Thank you Chas. Yes, I'm just trying to print from my little inkjet, but I'd like it to be as good quality as possible. Luckily I saved my poser work in progress, so I was able to just open the files and re-render. They took their time, but they rendered ok at 300 DPI and about 2250 width. I was also wise enough to save my PSD file as I went, so I could recreate the postwork (which was just some cleaning up and adding some effects.) I always save out of Poser as .PNG. Does .TIFF have any advantages over .PNG? I usually need an alpha channel. This is all valuable information, thank you :)

TIFF saves an alpha channel. Saving as a PSD does also.

Good luck on your printing project!

Also to think about... What sort of paper are you printing on? Photo Glossy Paper at 300 dpi gives a nice effect even on a tiny Epson. Printing on typing paper or its equivalent yields mud because too much of the ink gets absorbed. Carolly

Hi Carolly, Yes, I have some nice photopaper to print on. I am reprinting it now and it looks much better! I also found I had to mess around with my printer settings. I never printed anything at quality before so this is a real learning journey for me! Thanks for all the help, you guys are the best :-)

"manky"? LOL...don't I LOVE the opportunity to pick up words I've never heard before!

I didn't realise "manky" was such an English word... but now I think about it, I have never heard it on any non-English TV show or film!

I kinda like it. (grin)