I have a question about how much to sharpen. I am going to get some digital files printed at 9x6. The pixel size of the files is 2700x1800. Now how much should I sharpen them by? Do I sharpen the same amount as I would small pictures destined for the web or do I sharpen the more because they are bigger? Meredith

Attached Link: http://graphicssoft.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nikmultimedia.com%2Finde

A quick Google search will uncover lots of techniques and theories. As I understabnd it, one should sharpen "more" for something that is going to be printed, than for something that is to be viewed on a screen. I do not do much printing... maybe Donald can help? There are products out there that work very well. [Donald has tested all of them. He has a LOT of spare time!] I did find one (expensive) tool out there that claims to optimize for different outputs. One would think one would not need an expensive tool for this? Also: http://www.normankoren.com/Tutorials/MTF.html http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/focussharpentools/

Ooooh, dodgy subject this sharpening mullarky.

Now me, I still prefer to use a hobby knife to sharpen, some people like those olde-fashioned metal ones, some prefer the little square "school-type" metal ones that are hell on the fingers, while the high-flyer in his office will either have an electric one or a secretary to sharpen his.

If you ain't sure which to go for, try a mechanical pencil. Less messy, no shavings in the bin.

Hope this helps!

(",) Oh, bugger - just realised I didn't actually answer the question of how much to sharpen! Told you, bloody minefield this subject! Once again it's personal choice, but just leave a little bit of lead for finework, but sharpen further back with a knife for shading. Don't try shading with the mechanical pencil. Cheers!

Message edited on: 10/09/2004 17:24

lmao at JA's reply! and he's quite right as well. also he forgot to mention that one shouldn't try to sharpen the mechanical pencil. just a "heads up" you understand. as for sharpening the digital images...printing them as a 9x6 with that resolution shouldn't really require sharpening at all. i do a large amount of printing and can easily go up to 24x32 using a digital image that is 2816x2120 pixels. this is being done on a high end plotter using photo grade stock but it really depends on the software you're printing with. i use PSP 8 and it's quite good with the control it offers you. i dislike PS so i'm not sure what it's like in this department. i do know both have plug-ins which allow for some really great enhancements. i don't use them but one is a "fractal plug-in" which my son uses religously. i've found my biggest concern when printing to be contrast. i notice that my images at least, tend to muddy up a bit when printing them. in PSP, i throw a 10 contrast on the image and that seems to do the trick. another thing you want to look out for is pixelation. this isn't necessarily caused by the actual pixel count either. background noise will ruin an otherwise great image when printing it. Noiseware makes a great little app for free that handles background noise quite nicely. it's best used for web display but also enhances a print. my question to you is: are you printing these yourself or is it being sent to a commercial concern? if it's a commercial firm, i'd recommend they be a company who does custom work. it'll be more expensive but i think you'll like the end results better than someplace like Wall-Mart, etc. they take the time to adjust color balance, contrast, etc. if you request it. hope some of this helped! :-)

How much you sharpen depends on what your output device is. Meaning, is it for the web, for an inkjet printer, laser printer, Frontier printer, etc. Then you have to throw in the variable of how good the output device is. In my experience, there are two sharpening packages worth using. Nik Sharpener and FocalBlade. Nik Multimedia's Sharpener is a good program, but they insanely overpriced this product. $80 for the home version and around $330 for the pro version. FocalBlade, on the other hand, has far more control over the sharpening with settings tailored for print or monitor and the ability to compensate for white and black halos, account for the amount of detail, use masks ... etc. It's a fantastic sharpening package with an insane amount of control if you need it and only costs $30. If you want to sharpen in Photoshop alone, then I'd suggest a Luminosity-Unsharp Mask sharpen. It's what I use when I'm not using FocalBlade. It's fast, doesn't create halos unless you really punch the sharpening up and it's easy. Simply put, copy the image you want to sharpen, change its blending mode to Luminosity and then apply your sharpening there. You normally use a lot more unsharp mask there than you normally would (for web size images, I find myself usually in the AMOUNT=150%, RADIUS=0.4, THRESHOLD=0 area). FOr printing to inkjet with a larger file those would tend to go up to around 175-250%, 0.8-1.0, 0-1. -=>Donald

I will be having my pictures printed on a Frontier machine. Thanks for the sharpening suggestions. I will go and play and see what happens.