How to prepare your photos

In this topic:

• How to prepare your files for printing
• What is the optimal resolution for printing?
• Why would 8-Bit color images print better than 16-Bit ones?
• Why sRGB color space?
• Will I lose quality by sending a JPEG over a Tiff?
• How do I size my file?
• What is aspect ratio?
• Exact Sizing
• How to order custom size prints
• Are ICC profiles available for soft proofing?

Please save your files in sRGB color space in 8-bit color, not 16-bit, to achieve the best print results. Also, please do NOT embed any profiles. Please - no CMYK, Grayscale, RAW, PSD or LZW compressed files, and if you work in layers, be sure to flatten the file and remove any extra channels before sending. We print from JPEG format files. Lossless or highest quality JPEG compressions are more than adequate for high quality printing. In the early days of digital that wasn't always the case; however, the compression algorithms have become very sophisticated and it is nearly impossible to distinguish a JPEG print from a TIFF print with the naked eye.

We do not require a maximum resolution for the images you upload. The higher the resolution, the better the picture will be. It's that simple. The Mpix printers output at 250 ppi. However, we are frequently asked what the optimal resolution is for the prints we offer.

Optimal resolutions:

	Optimal	Minimum
Mini	438x625	150x250
Wallets	625x875	250x350
3.5x5"	875x1250	350x500
4x5"	1000x1250	400x500
4x6"	1000x1500	400x600
5x5"	1250x1250	500x500
5x7"	1250x1750	500x700
6x9"	1500x2250	600x900
8x8"	2000x2000	800x800
5x15"	1250x3750	500x1500
8x10"	2000x2500	800x1000
8.5x11"	2125x2750	850x1100
8x12"	2000x3000	800x1200
10x10"	2500x2500	1000x1000
9x12"	2250x3000	900x1200
10x13"	2500x3250	1000x1300
12x12"	3000x3000	1200x1200
10x15"	2500x3750	1000x1500
5x30"	1250x7500	500x3000
11x14"	2750x3500	1100x1400
10x20"	2500x5000	1000x2000
12x18"	3000x4500	1200x1800
12x24"	3000x6000	1200x2400
16x20"	4000x5000	1600x2000
16x24"	4000x6000	1600x2400
20x24"	5000x6000	2000x2400
20x30"	5000x7500	2000x3000

From a purely theoretical standpoint editing in 16-bit space is better than 8-bit space. A higher bit depth means you have finer steps to adjust; however, from a practical standpoint, there is no difference. This is due to the fact that photographic printing equipment is calibrated and optimized for 8-bits per channel. 8-bits is adequate for the dynamic range of the media, thus using a higher bit depth would not yield better results. For that reason, before images are sent to a printer, they must be in 8-bit space.

sRGB is the working space for all our photographic printers. Consequently, working in a larger color space does not offer any advantage from a printing standpoint. It's a similar question to the one above about bit depth. A larger color space, in theory, allows a greater range of colors and dynamic range to be captured and manipulated. We suggest sRGB as the working space because that is the color space that the printers require. Before images are printed here they must be converted to sRGB. By suggesting that clients use sRGB as their working space, they are insuring that what they see will be what they get as much as possible.

The JPEG compression format is a very efficient, lossy image compression algorithm designed specifically for saving photographic images. It takes advantage of how humans see color versus brightness to only save information needed to reproduce the image for people to view. Image data is lost during compression, but at high levels of quality you will not see a difference between a JPEG and a TIFF printed to photographic paper. JPEG compression is perfect for sending files to the lab for printing, but avoid using the compression as a working file type.

There are several approaches you can take when sizing your files for print. One is not necessarily better than another. Much depends on your particular workflow. The approach you take should be the simplest and most effective for your operation. The simplest method is to crop the file for the subject composition and leave the file's resolution unchanged. This method crops your file without changing the resolution of the file, saving you time and preserving the original pixels. This can be done with either the selection tool or the cropping tool. In the case of the cropping tool, enter the width and height dimensions; however, leave the image resolution area blank. This will remove the unwanted pixels from the image without altering the file resolution (dpi). Our printing equipment will resize the files as needed when they are printed. Like sharpening an image, re-sampling and interpolation is very much dependent upon the particular printer being used and the print size being created. Interpolating an image without knowing the specific characteristics of a printer can be counterproductive. Re-sampling and interpolating images take time, time that is better spent on the creative aspects of your photography. It is not an effective use of your time to resample images to higher resolutions than the original camera files. This interpolation will take place on our end, at a higher quality and much quicker than it will on your end using your computer. This saves you time creating the image files and saves you space and time when saving the images to hard drive and CD. Please keep in mind that even the highest resolution professional cameras have file sizes that are limited to under 50MB. Interpolating images to resolutions higher than the original camera image is time wasted. Not only is it wasting your valuable time and storage space but also you may actually be compromising the image quality. Think of the camera image as your negative. Would you ever consider cutting or reshaping a negative or slide? The pixels that were captured when the shutter was clicked are the best pixels (image) to print. Each time you interpolate, resample or sharpen you are introducing artifacts into the image. Each of these functions is best left to the printing device itself.

One of the major differences when shooting digitally as opposed to shooting with film concerns the aspect ratio of the captured image. For the most part, digital cameras shoot with an aspect ratio that is similar to that of a 4x6 rather than the 8x10 or ideal format that was more common with film. Our printing systems print by what we call "center crop." This means that if the aspect ratio of the image file is different than the aspect ratio of the print size ordered, the image will be placed on the print such that the entire print area is covered with image, with any excess being cropped off from the center outward. It is very important that you keep this fact in mind when shooting. By shooting subjects with this in mind, you can save yourself the unnecessary step of manually cropping each individual image. Simply allow yourself room on the image file to allow for the ideal cropping from the center of the image. This will allow you to order various print sizes without having to manually crop.

Digital printers have what is called over sizing. Over sizing is a process in which the image being developed onto the photo paper is magnified by a certain percentage to counteract paper shift within the printer. Photographic paper is loaded into the printers in rolls. As the paper travels from the roll through the machine it can drift up to 1/8 of an inch by the time it reaches the lasers that expose the paper with the image. No amount of calibration on the paper path can prevent this drift. A 1/8 of an inch is about half the radius of the pen or pencil on your desk. The over sizing that is applied to each image runs between 1.5% -1.7%; we generally quote the percentage at 2% for a round number to work with. How can you use this information? Well the over sizing is so minimal, that 99% of your orders will not be effected by it. However, in certain instances where you may have images butted up against the outer edge like in a collage, text, or a pin stripe around an image's perimeter, you will want to take this 2% value into consideration. In most cases you can do very simple math to calculate the expected over sizing. Our message is to add the 2% additional space to the perimeter of any potentially affected image. For regular prints, such as an 8x10, the additional leeway you need to provide is 1/16 of an inch in the 8-inch dimension and 1/5 of an inch in the 10-inch dimension. Of course, the larger the print dimensions, the more image space effected by over sizing, thus the more padding that is needed.

Our printers will only print to the aspect ratio of our standard print sizes. You will need to crop your image to our standard sizes before uploading to ensure the correct cropping is done. If you have images that are not sized to our standard print sizes, you will need to place them on a canvas in Adobe Photoshop to get the desired size. Example: a 14x30 image would be placed on a 20x30 canvas (white border) in Photoshop to get the custom print size. Please use the text tool in Photoshop and write in the white border "please trim print" to alert our technicians to trim the image for you. Trimming is only available on print sizes 12x18 and larger.

ICC profiles are available, but should only be used by those familiar with soft proofing. The profiles are for our E-Surface and Metallic papers. Included is a PDF of installation instructions. PLEASE NOTE: **You should never convert to the ICC printing profile or embed them in your files. For information on ICC profile install locations, please review the enclosed Help file.**
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