Aaron2004 Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Hey all, I'm making some renderings for display on a wall, and I was curious if I was making at 1024x768 3d max rendering and then taking it into photoshop at 72 dpi, about how big of a print should I expect to get out of this? Thanks! Aaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Warner Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 at a decent quality, you'd get 8.5 x 11 at best. Do a search for print resolution or similar on this site, you'll find tons of discussions about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 how big do you want to get? thats a pretty small size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Saunders Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 at a decent quality, you'd get 8.5 x 11 at best. QUOTE] what kind of printer do you use? i have NEVER heard of 1024x768 being a printable size. with most printers (inkjet or laser) the lowest rez i have ever heard of running is 200dpi, which means to even have a quality 8.5x11 you need 2200x1700 or 1650x1275 (for 150dpi) at the lowest. this is for photo quality though. with our color plotter i don't see much difference between 75dpi and 200dpi. kind of sucks. it's a brand new plotter and is suposed to be one of the better color plotters out there. so with that in mind i only render 3000x2000. it all depends on the plotter. it sounds like you are having someone else do the prints fr you right? if so, ask them what resolution they need for best results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron2004 Posted August 16, 2005 Author Share Posted August 16, 2005 Well, when I render out 3d studio, I can of course change the size, but is there a way to change the resolution from the default 72? I know I can change it in Photoshop, but if I change it during post processing, then it will of course loose some quality. I know what the difference is between size and resolution, but I'm still trying to comprehend it and be able to use both to my advantage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Warner Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Here you go. From the master himself: http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/showthread.php?t=5759&highlight=print+resolution Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Hey all, I'm making some renderings for display on a wall, and I was curious if I was making at 1024x768 3d max rendering and then taking it into photoshop at 72 dpi, about how big of a print should I expect to get out of this? Thanks! Aaron Doing exactly as you said, you will get a 14.222 x 10.667 inch print. This will be without resizing your image at all. If you want that image to be nice and sharp, you'll want the resolution (PPI - Pixels Per Inch) to be 225 ppi or more. So, at 225 you'll get a 4.551 x 3.413 inch print. If you want to go even higher to a crisp 300 ppi, you'll get a 3.413 x 2.56 inch print. What you need to do is figure the final output size that you're shooting for. For example, if you want a 5 foot by 3 foot poster, you'll probably want to stick with 150ppi or higher. So, for 150ppi, you'll need to set Max to render out at 9000 x 5400. For a poster, you may be able to get away with a lower resolution of 72 ppi since posters are generally viewed from further back. However, even at screen resolution, you will still need to render your image out to a size of 4320 x 2592 for a 36x60 inch print. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Also, it is worth mentioning that DPI and PPI are totally different things. DPI refers to the number of drops of ink per inch that a printer applies to the paper. It has nothing to do with the resolution of the image on the computer. The more dots per inch of ink, the more clarity of the final print. However, even with a 1440 dpi printer, you'll only have a really sharp looking low quality image if your image is only printing at 72 pixels per inch. Likewise, if you have a 300 ppi image, printed at the printers draft mode (much less than 1440 dots of ink per inch), you'll simply have a crappy print as the printer didn't lay down enough ink to fully convey the detail that was available in the digital image. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron2004 Posted August 16, 2005 Author Share Posted August 16, 2005 Well, right now I am rendering out at 3000x2000...but my resolution in photoshop is still 72. The image size is 40x26inches according to photoshop, but according Jeff Mottles tutorial, if I want a 36" print, I will need a 21600px wide render (36x600). This seems horribly large. Is this going to look bad coming out as is? Thanks! Aaron PS, Lukily I found out that my renders rigt now only has to be the size of a sheet of paper, but soon I believe I will be doing poster size prints and I want to understand this before I tackle this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 Okay, your resolution in Photoshop showing at 72 is fine. That doesn't really mean anything - you can change it without actually resampling the image. It's just defaulting to 72 because that's the screen resolution and Max encodes the 72 ppi into the image file. All you need to do is some simple math. If you know you want a certain size final print, such as 24x36 inches, then you need to determine your minimum pixel resolution. Jeff's suggestion of 600ppi will give you outstanding, mind blowing resolution. However, unless you're printing on the best printers that money can buy, 600ppi is extreme overkill in my opinion. I once read a book that showed an image printed at 225ppi next to an image printed at 300ppi, and you honestly could not tell a difference. Your image that you're rendering at 3000x2000, printed at 24x36, will give you a printed resolution of 83.333 ppi. Not great, but not bad. What you can do is print out you image on 8.5x11 plain paper from photoshop at 100%. Go into Image Size, disable "Resample Image", and set the document size to 24x36, or whatever size you want your poster at, and it will show you your resolution in pixels/inch. Yours should be 83.333 ppi. Then, hit okay, and go to File, Print with Preview, disable "Scale to Fit Media" and make sure it says 100%, turn off Center Image, and pan around to find a good area to test print. Then hit Print when your settings are good, and see how it looks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad Warner Posted August 16, 2005 Share Posted August 16, 2005 you wouldn't need to go above 300 dpi for a poster. Even that might be a bit overkill. I generally render a 24x36 image at 150 dpi, so a 3600x5400 pixel image. All images by default will come into photoshop at 72 dpi. Just choose "image" then "image size", and resize as necessary, making sure that "resample image" is unchecked. (this makes sure that all you are doing is changing the dimensions of the image, not the amount of pixels) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron2004 Posted August 17, 2005 Author Share Posted August 17, 2005 Thanks for the advice guys, It's all making since...I'll put it to practice when I get to work tomorrow morning. Aaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STRAT Posted August 17, 2005 Share Posted August 17, 2005 understanding resolution, pixel size and dpi relationships can be a sod to get ur head round when you first start off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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