Comments for How do I print pictures from websites so that they actually look good?

Comment from FeRD on 2009-11-07

2009-11-07T20:50:26Z

The method posted above by Famia, I'm sorry to say, isn't correct in its statement that it "should give you a better resolution in theory". That idea, in fact, is one of the most common mistakes people make regarding issues of digital images, DPI, and output size/resolution.

The basic problem with the method suggested is that it tries to create more detail than the original image contains -- which, as Leo correctly points out in the article, is impossible. Printing out an image and scanning it at high DPI will be no more effective than simply adding false "resolution" by resizing the image in an editing program. Either method will result in a blocky, low-detail image, like the ones Leo showed in his article. In fact, the scanner method is slightly worse, since the scanner is forced to re-interpret the individual pixel dots that make up your image's details.

Now, it's true: sometimes this "worse" can appear better. Re-scanning introduces small variations in the image, which can lessen the boxy "checkerboard" appearance of the resulting scan -- this may produce the appearance of a more detailed image. But all that's been done is to "break up" the visible pixel grid-lines randomly, making them less obvious. You can get the same or better results by simply resizing the image in an app like the Gimp or Photoshop (producing "false" resolution), and then applying a slight blurring filter or other distortion effect to smooth out the image's blockiness. There's no benefit to printing and re-scanning an image that isn't equally obtainable via software.

That's not to say high-resolution scans aren't useful for obtaining detailed images! Scanning even a tiny photo at very high DPI will produce an image with lots of ("true") resolution. That's because the source image CONTAINS at least that level of detail already. You can scan a photo at 800dpi and get great results, because actual (darkroom-)printed photographs have a much higher resolution, potentially into the thousands of DPI. (Slides, even more so -- it's possible to have a slide with detail that's equivalent to 4000 or more DPI!) Even if the image is a digital print from a magazine or photo printer, the source DPI is in the hundreds.

Images for the screen/web, by contrast, are at "screen resolution" -- only a few hundred total pixels in each dimension, because they're meant to be displayed at roughly 96 DPI. So, Leo's 200 pixel fox could be around half an inch wide or so, when printed "actual size" on a consumer 300-600dpi photo printer. And it still won't produce a very detailed scan, no matter how high you set the resolution.

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A comment on: How do I print pictures from websites so that they actually look good?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from Rondi Phillips on 2008-09-23

2008-09-23T19:14:50Z

Great article. I was so disgusted when my husband ordered a copy of the picture of me and my kids out of the newspaper, and my head was cut off just above the eyes. At least now I have a better understanding why that happened.

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A comment on: How do I print pictures from websites so that they actually look good?

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Comment from Famia on 2008-06-23

2008-06-23T09:01:15Z

Here is something you can try if you have a scanner

1.) Print the image as is or save it to your hard disk and print using your image editing software and turn print actual size on. It'll print a very small image on paper.

2.) Scan that image using a high DPI (above 800 dpi). Save it. Most software will allow you to scan only the picture if you print the whole page.

3.) Print that image and this time use scale to paper.

That should give you a better resolution in theory. Have not got a chance to try both as one but I have tried to do it separately, I have scanned a small image to a large dpi and it looks good. and print a webpage to paper and that looks as good as what's in the webpage.

The downside is:
- It involves 3 steps.
- Since you have to print the small image on good paper to obtain good scan of the image you would waste a good quality paper
- The high res image would be >10MB with a slow PC this would be hard to process.

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A comment on: How do I print pictures from websites so that they actually look good?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from Leo on 2008-06-11

2008-06-11T22:48:38Z

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I had a friend point me at Genuine Fractals as well. (A
photoshop plugin,
http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=2 for
those so interested.) It's definitely an improvement over
most stock enlargement algorithms, but still - you can only
go so far taking a 2x2 inch image and enlarging it to 8x8
:-). (As another friend pointed out, that's a factor of 16
larger, if you measure surface area.)

Leo

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A comment on: How do I print pictures from websites so that they actually look good?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from Ron El on 2008-06-10

2008-06-10T19:41:46Z

There are apps such as Genuine Fractals and SmartScale that can increase the pixel densities with amazing results compared to the algorithms used in printers and image editors. Not to the extent depicted in the crime TV shows, of course.

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A comment on: How do I print pictures from websites so that they actually look good?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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Comment from Octav on 2008-06-10

2008-06-10T19:20:09Z

Mrh, I wish this article had existed several months ago. I needed to explain to a tech-scared girlfriend why an image that looks good on the screen won't look very good on paper. Oh, well.

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A comment on: How do I print pictures from websites so that they actually look good?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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