Determining Maximum Print Size & Source for Best "Giclee on Canvas" Prints

Hi all,

So a family friend has asked me for advice about getting a print on canvas from a picture she took in France. She used a lil' Panasonic DMC-FH20 point and shoot, which has a sensor of 6.12mmX4.51mm (14MP), producing a JPEG that is 4320x3240.

I'm interested in learning how to determine the optimum or maxium print size that will yield the best resolution and lack of "pixelization".

Additionally, she would like it printed on canvas (it's a picture from Monet's home.. go figure) and I'd love to hear who you guys would recommend for this service. It'd be great if I could support a DPUG/APUG member's business by sending her that-a-way.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Hey Chris,

Like most things I would have to say, it depends.

I would not hesitate to print your typical digital P&S at 11 x 14. If the image is not particularly sharp, that may be too big. Since the print would be on a rough surface, you could go bigger. Some images look better very sharp, others look good soft. So I don't think there is any exact answer.

Prior to buying a photo printer I used Costco for general printing and found the quality to be just fine. I even had a few of what I considered at the time large prints ( 11 x 14 ) done by them and they were good and inexpensive. Many moons ago when I submitted some photos to the county fair I used Bayphoto. A locally owned chain that did quality work for both analog & digital and still do. You probably have a similar shop around your neck of the woods.

Thanks Rob,

I guess I am always looking for some magic formula that tells you exactly the print size for that resolution, but those rarely exist I 'spose. It's an image of a Monet painting, so I think it's fair to say that you could probably go quite big and not loose the effect; since it's all about the colors, as I was told (this is going into some dining room, where it matches the color scheme... women )

This friend is in Illinois, so I was imagining some place with an online presence or better yet, St. Louis, and trying to get a feel for a reasonable price on these canvas prints.

Although I personally have no interest in getting a print of mine on canvas, I'm curious how they do it.

R Shaffer said:

Hey Chris,

Like most things I would have to say, it depends.

I would not hesitate to print your typical digital P&S at 11 x 14. If the image is not particularly sharp, that may be too big. Since the print would be on a rough surface, you could go bigger. Some images look better very sharp, others look good soft. So I don't think there is any exact answer.

Prior to buying a photo printer I used Costco for general printing and found the quality to be just fine. I even had a few of what I considered at the time large prints ( 11 x 14 ) done by them and they were good and inexpensive. Many moons ago when I submitted some photos to the county fair I used Bayphoto. A locally owned chain that did quality work for both analog & digital and still do. You probably have a similar shop around your neck of the woods.

Click to expand...

My local Costco provides a print to Canvas service though they aren't done in store. Most ink jet printing ateliers that print canvas use commercial RIPS that can upscale digital images much better than desktop apps like PS or Genuine Fractals.

But as Rob said, it depends. I would expect a large metro area such as St. Louis to have a shop that provides this service. I would rather deal with someone local than strictly online if possible.

There are other solutions for the home user as well if they have the printer and expertise.

Don

Roughly, divide the pixels by 200 for an average print, 300 for better. With that pixel size your looking at 14 x10 at it's native size.

A good printing service should be able to upsize without lose. Be sure you account for the wrap around of the canvas if your using stretcher rails.

Hi,

IME the sharpest prints will come when you do no resampling, and change only ppi to resize the image. This does not remove or add pixels to the file in order to change it's size. The less you tinker with the locations and numbers of the pixels of the original file, the better.

14 Mpix not resampled will give you a decent-sized print even in inkjet prints made at a high dpi on standard inkjet paper. 360 dpi gives you a 9x12 inch image. If you go down to 240, which is perfectly respectable for an inkjet IME, you get a 13.5x18 inch print. (That is HUGE, considering that it is coming from a subminiature format sensor that has 1/3 the area of a Minox frame.) Canvas surface is less demanding on dpi, so you can go quite large without even having to resample. Ideally you use 240 or 360, but you can go as low as 100 and it will still look "good" on canvas. That would give you a 32x43 inch print. Factor in that most people will view a print that size from relatively far away, and it will look even "better than good."

If you do have the need to upsample the image, there are programs that are better at it than Photoshop, such as Genuine Fractals. It is probably a worthy investment if you will need to upsample frequently.

The only thing I have considered in my response thus far is image size. But there are other factors that are far more important. The technical soundness of the image itself is key. This has to do with technique and the lens, among other things. Just because you can easily make a big print without pixelization does not necessarily mean that it will be sharp.

Gee thanks Don...

A lot of good replies about the size issue, which was my main question here. Thanks everyone.