heyas; so what's the word on rendering for prints in vue 4? does the dpi setting make much of a difference? if i want to print, say 8x10's and maybe try to shoot for 11x17's, how many pixels we looking at? how many megs? (my hard drives are fast approaching critical mass :/ )

Hi Bloodsong; There was a thread on this below somewhere recently; but essentially, you'd want approximately 250 to 300 DPI. So if you have say 11x17, at 300 dots per inch, that would be 3300x5100. Saved as a bitmap (no compression), I'd guess about 40 megs, but I may be off on that (just a guess). It's so high because monitors, in contrast, are much lower on the resultion, typically 72 or 96 DPI. -Brian

Yep, Brian's right :) Laurie

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I must have said this at least 10 times before. It's not "DPI" or more correctly "PPI" that matters when printing. It's the TOTAL size of the picture, and the type of printer in question that matters! Misconception #1: 1 Dot = 1 Pixel It most definitely does NOT! Think about it. A pixel is a square of solid color...any of 16,777,216 colors to be exact. A dot is a roundish blob of bleeding ink that comes in 4 or 6 different colors. It takes several dots combined together to make the eye think it's seeing the same color square as a pixel. This means that an individual dot must be much smaller than a pixel. That's why you see printers listing DPI resolutions like "2880 x 720 dpi". They NEED those resolutions just to just to mimic pixel resolutions of, say, 150 ppi. What's more, every brand and model of printer will behave differently and have a different way of getting dots to simulate pixels. What's more, a pixel can change sizes, a dot cannot! In addition, the choice of paper or canvas will alter how much the dots spread and therefore how sharp the picture is. There's no reason to create a huge picture, then print it to an 8.5" by 11" sheet of ordinary copier paper. There will be so much bleed all the details will be gone! OK, here's the real clue to HOME printing: THE MORE PIXELS IN THE PICTURE, THE SMOOTHER AND SHARPER THE PICTURE WILL BE, AND THE MORE DOTS PER PIXEL, THE MORE ACCURATELY THE PIXELS WILL BE REPRODUCED! This means, of course, that for good looking printing, you want to have a lot of pixels, you want a printer that uses a lot of dots to simulate each pixel, and you want paper that has as little bleed as possible. My suggestions? 1. Render as many pixels as you have time for. Do you have an hour to complete a render? Then render to a size that takes an hour. Do you have 10 hours...3 days...a week? then render to those sizes. 2. Choose your printer carefully. I have an Epson Color Stylus 3000, because the 3000 is noted as being the defacto printer for large format printing at home. My suggestion to someone getting a new printer would be the Epson Photo 1280. $499 list price, 2880 by 720 dpi, 6 ink colors, borderless (edge to edge) printing, supports 13" by 19" inch paper, and has longer lasting inks. 3. When printing art, use only the best quality media. This is a matter of 3 factors: appearance, durability, and longevity. Glossy "photo" paper will usually give you the best reproduction, but is fairly delicate, and often fades quickly. Use it when you want a great looking, but temporary print. Coated papers don't look quite as good but can stand rougher handling and are cheaper. Use them for draft tests. Coated cloth canvas has a look all its own. Not as sharp as glossy paper because of its texturing, it is never the less the #1 choice for long term prints, because of its durability and fade resistance. There are a number of places in line to get top quality canvas and good recommendations. Prof. Steve :)

MY suggestions when getting something professionally printed: First of all your best bet is to call the place you want to have it printed at and ask them what their specs are. The magazine I work for, for instance, requires 300 dpi for all pixel-based artwork at the size it will be when printed (no less than 266 dpi). You wouldn't believe how many folks we call because of lo-res artwork who proclaim "But it IS 300 dpi!" totally forgetting that they used the image at 150% in Quark XPress. Getting a professional art print will more than likely require a higher dpi resolution (and yes, I'm talking dpi here because most printers speak in dots per inch when referring to ink). Printing on your printer at home is a different story. My best suggestion is to call and ask BEFORE you render...that way you will be certain :). Also, since most of us work in the RGB colorspace, your art will need to be converted to CMYK in most cases. That is changing tho, so you need to ask about that too :). Laurie Allen Production Planner (A leading doll magazine) ;)

all right.... you guys fight it out and just tell me what you decide... do i do 3300xwhatever at 100/72 dpi, or do i do 3300xwhatever at 300 dpi? i know the dpi depends on the number and crap, but you get these programs that let you choose both independantly.....

As long as you import it into a paint program that lets you print out at any size you want, it makes no difference what the dpi settings are in Vue, only the number of total pixels in width and height. 3300 is 3300, no matter how you slice it! -SMT