First let me thank all who have taken time to answer and help with my feeble questions in the past. Mucho gracious. I have a relative who wants a print of one of my images. I'd like to give it to them framed for a Christmas present. Where do I begin? What kind of printing house should I seek? I once had a professional(?) printer do something for me (oh yes, Mr Gray, we have the finest lazer printers around) My ink jet turned out better copy. Don't want to repeat that experience. I don't know what kind of questions to ask and have no clue of a fair price. What is best format to give to print shop, jpeg, bitmap, etc? I've heard of people presenting color seperated data but I don't know what that is. I just want good color (true to what is on my monitor) no scan lines. About 11X14 inch. PS my HP ink jet duplicates monitor colors extremely well and no settings have been tweaked. But ink jet has visible scan lines especially in darker areas. Oh yes, how big should I render?

Render huge. Many print shops take 150 to 300 dpi TIFF files. Actual DPI will depend on the shop. I'm guessing it should cost less than $30.

You know that digital photo kiosk at wal-mart? It reads jpgs. Off a gazillion different media (medias? medii? mediums?). And is cheap, cheap. No really. I've almost checked to make sure it works, but there's no reason it shouldn't. Just check out a jpg from a digital camera to get an idea for render size and dpi.

Depends a lot on what you are printing onto, how big the image is, and which shop you go to. For an 11x14 print, prices should be around $25-30. In terms of resolution, the bigger the better (in general). I'd suggest a DPI of at least 300, so you're looking at a render of 3300 x 4200 minimum. Of course, it would be best to find out what resolution the print shop wants. If you're in Australia, I can recommend a company, if not, then you'll have to find someone else. Mahray

Of course, I've also achieved quite good results printing photos on my home printer. However, if you're looking for a top quality print, then you'll need top quality paper.

Long time no post :) From 3D, 220 pixels per inch will be fine. To calculate this, multiply the dimensions in inches with 220. For example. an 11x14 print will be (11x220)x(14x220), or 2424x3080 pixels. Always export in tiff format. It is universally supported by any good print house and is lossless. If you are framing the print, you'll want it printed on matte or luster paper. Don't go with high-gloss. THe effect will be lost to the glare and usually gloss papers in print houses are not of as high quality. Stay away from kinkos, I've had bad results there. Try alphagraphics if there's one nearby.

png has lossless too and is smaller and also a standard.

Or you can also try to find someone who will do Iris Glicee' prints, they produce superior quality but can be costly. What max said, 220 ppi should be fine. There are some people who will do Iris prints online.

Over here you can get an A3 photo-quality print for about 5. You HP needs the heads cleaning. If it has heads on the ink carts, pull the carts and clean with a little white-spirit. Either that or get the machine to run its cleaning cycle. (Or buy new carts even..)

Tks everyone. I've something to go on. madmax....... slow posting, yes. This is a hobby and being a single parent of two teenagers, full time job, cooking to feed the two bottomless pits, etc., I just grab what little time I can. I enjoy this forum and looking at the amazing talent on gallery. TheBryster..... Has replaceable cartridge/heads. It's not an ugly problem. The quality is quite excellent. It is just that large dark areas have heavy ink build ups and you can see the passes when printed on glossy paper and viewed at an angle. Viewing straight on is super. Tks for the thoughts.

In the print settings, try to see if there is an option to select the number of passes. By default, most printers are set to four-passes. This is good for the midtones but if there are dark areas you will see the lines. Try selecting 8-pass mode if you can.

Ya,know? I always experiment with my printers. (I have 4 Epsons & 1 Lexmark laser) I get the best photo quality out of my Photo 900 but I try different settings to see what works best. I have a setting called 'ICM' which is pretty damn good for high quality photos, but that doesn't always cut-it. Some printers have so many settings it's often hard to find one that is right for you, but play around a bit and save your settings. It might help in the long run......