I've been thinking of having prints made of some of my Vue 7 scenes, and I was wondering; are there any specific settings I should be using in Vue to optimize them for printing? I'm planning on 11 by 14 inch prints, and using a photo printing service. 

Also, I was planning on using Wal-Mart's photo service.  Should I consider using a more expensive service, or all they pretty much all the same?

Lets see...

In vue, render at a DPI of 150 or higher - OR, to get the size you need, do a little math - typical resolution is 72DPI (due to monitors on windows set that way)... ok, so i stink at math, which is why i just change the DPI.  grins

Ok - to change DPI, its under "Picture Size and Resolution" on your render options.

Otherwise, render at as high a quality as you can.  I would NOT use Vue's preset render quality options - tweak your own user settings... much more efficient =D

Save as BMP (or another lossless type), do your postwork and then SAVE the final file output the way the printer you chooses wants it saved.  Some have special color profiles you must use, others require only TIFF files, others allow jpg or gifs.

Ok - walmart versus other printing services.

Walmart makes great photo-quality prints from photo-quality images.  They make crappy quality photos from crappy-quality images.  They won't do much, if anything, to "assist" your image between YOUR computer and their paper.  You literally pay for what you get - usually high school kids who were trained in how to use the photo processor for a week if that.  In other words - if YOUR  image is great, it should be ok through walmart.  Now, until a little over a year ago, I woulda gone the Walmart route for everything printing related...

Then I discovered the hole-in-the-wall (mom&pop style) home printing businesses...

You DO pay extra.. but the difference is AMAZING.  The one I went to offered numerous options for my two pieces I was having printed.  He sat there with me and we worked on tweaking the colors so they would end up more vibrant when printed.  They ended up something like 14x20, printed on a specialty watercolor paper.  Printing ran 60$ for two (i also had them use special ink).

Ok - differences - Walmart is great for say, photos, casual printing needs, even some of the other cool options they have such as creating your own greeting cards, etc.  They are NOT great for anything you want to say - hang in an art exhibit.... or frame as a nice piece of artwork.  Walmart is limited by paper choice.  on the pro side for Walmart - they are CHEAP =D

So... my suggestion on that...

CALL AROUND =D

let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages or google 411 or whatever.  Look up printing places... and another place that may seem unusual....

Look for a government agency called Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (or Dept).... call them, and ask if they've had any clients go through their program who ended up running their own printing business or has been set up in one nearby.  If you do this, and you find a printer through DVR - you will be supporting the efforts of disabled individuals to get off "the system" and be financially self-supportive

And actually, calling DVR for local business services for almost anything is a good idea.... I know the one here has a finger on the pulse of Fairbanks and the outlying communities.   They may have to get back with you - depending on the state, their caseloads can be rather large, but "shopping local" is good for your town/city economy.

anyways, hope this helps some - i'm sure others with more experience have better ideas and more details =D  This is just what I've found =D