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Troubleshooting Photos –

Picture Couldn't Be Printed At The Desired Size

Problem

You took a photo – or someone e-mailed you a photo – that deserves to be printed, but your software or the person in the camera shop tells you either it's "not big enough" or "it doesn't have enough resolution". Instead of the size you wanted, only a much smaller size is available.

How could this be? At 100% magnification on-screen, the picture nearly fills the screen and is much bigger than the print that you want. Why can't you get the print?

The visual metaphor here may not be perfect but it springs from a familiar scene – you have a photo to be printed, and now you're struggling to understand why the technician doesn't want to print it any larger than half the size you asked for.

team shows what the technician is willing to print, enlarged shows what you wanted, and size info shows one way to get the pixel dimensions that help you to decide how to proceed. Ignore the Channel and Resolution information; the first just tells you the file is RGB and the second only tells you the resolution on screen, which is irrelevant to printing.

What should you look for?

Digital photos are composed of pixels, which are points of information that your computer displays on a rectangular grid and that a printer renders as points of colored ink (these blend into a continuous array of color and tone, but they are points). Because each pixel represents a potential change in color and tone, more pixels mean the possibility of more detail in the photo.

If on the other hand, the number of pixels is not sufficient for the size of the photo, there will be less detail than desirable. This may range from a slight insufficiency, often called "softness", through to blurriness and even the point where each pixel has to be so large that the picture looks blocky.

What will happen to your picture when it's enlarged depends on whether your photo is a little below the threshold of acceptability or a lot, and whether the content needs those pixels to make a believable and aesthetically pleasing print (and there is considerable subjectivity here).

So if that's true, why is your picture being summarily rejected? Because a long-term rule of thumb says that photos must have a resolution of 300 pixels per inch (ppi) at the printed size, but that you can maybe get away with 240 ppi. A photo with lower printed resolution sends up warning flags in software and from photo store technicians.

Although people still swear by it, this rule is outdated, too rigid and conservative. It makes sense for professional photographers, who typically are always reaching for maximum quality, and it made sense for amateurs a decade ago, but photo printers have become much better at turning marginal files into handsome prints. For examples, including an extreme example of a print made from a file whose original printed resolution would have been 56 ppi – just one-sixth of the recommended size – see About the Printable Size of Photos.

Before we address your options for your photo, memorize this command: "Always record at maximum resolution". Set your camera to take photos at the largest pixel dimensions and the highest JPEG quality setting. Memory cards are cheap and getting cheaper (see About Photo Equipment for general suggestions). Certainly the price of an extra card is less than the frustration of taking a great printable, framable picture and finding it doesn't have enough information in it to use for much more than e-mail. Similarly, if you are scanning old photos, make sure you are scanning at maximum resolution. Like memory cards, storage costs are low; archive-quality CD-R's now cost just pennies and DVD-R's are only a little more expensive (so they're cheaper per megabyte). If you get a photo in e-mail that you like, immediately ask the sender for the original full-size file; it's probably 2 MB or less, easily e-mailable.

What should you do?

The simplest thing to do is simply print the photo, and see what it looks like. The other option involves a bit of investigation.

Open the photo in your photo-editing application and get the dimensions of the digital picture.

In Photoshop Elements and Photoshop, alt-click or option-click on the file-size information rectangle on the picture's bottom border (see the photo info, above). In Paint Shop Pro, look under View >> Palettes >> Overview >> Info.
Your application will also have a dialog for resizing photos and this will always display the original size. In Photoshop Elements: Image >> Resize >> Image Size. In Photoshop: Image >> Image Size. In Paint Shop Pro, look under Image >> Resize.

team was scanned from a very old slide. Bringing up the dimensions information of the original scan showed that its pixel dimensions were 1240 pixels by 930 pixels. size info shows the pixel dimensions of enlarged, which represents the full-size print you wanted.

How big could we print that original version? The rule of thumb says that dividing the pixel dimensions by 300 will give you everything the photo has to offer and dividing by 200 will give you an acceptable print, so our team of horses can be printed with every detail intact at (1240÷300=) 4.15 inches by (930÷300=) 3.1 inches. If we want to "push" the rule of thumb, we can print the team up to (1240÷200=) 6.2 inches by (930÷200=) 4.6 inches. However, we have demonstrated on this page that 200 ppi will produce a very acceptable print, even if there is considerable detail. If you really want to push the rule, you could probably get an acceptable 5" x 7" print from this file (depending on how fussy you are).

How do you fix it?

If you want a print that pushes the resolution much below 200 ppi, there are several options. If you can go back to the source and increase the pixel dimensions, do so.

For the photo above, it was easy – it's a scan from an old slide, so it's easy to go back to the scanner and select another, higher scanner setting.
If the picture is one that was sent to you (e-mailed or via a photo-sharing site), ask the sender if he or she has a copy with higher pixel dimensions. People typically reduce photo sizes before e-mailing and most photo-sharing sites automatically reduce the file size. Get the original.
If it's a photo that you can re-shoot at a higher pixel count, do this (check the camera manual, then set your camera for the highest pixel dimensions and quality setting).

Unfortunately, many of the pictures we most want to print are special combinations of people and places that can't be easily re-created. If you can't go back and either get a larger file or re-shoot the photo:

Use your image-editing application to resize the photo.
For major enlargements, use a specialized plug-in or standalone application like Genuine Fractals or SizeFixer to enlarge the photo. These are not inexpensive, but may be justified for difficult or important pictures, particularly if the original is less than 50% of the size of the original. Look for personal use versions; they are much less expensive than pro versions and they'll probably do what you want.

Keep in mind that while either of these options will create a much better looking print than printing the photo without increasing its pixel dimensions, there is an important difference between a photo that was originally shot with large pixel dimensions and one that was shot with lesser pixel dimensions – there will be more detail in the larger image. Digital enlargement cannot create detail where none was recorded. Depending on the content, sometimes this matters, sometimes it doesn't.

Resampling the photo up to an appropriate size with an image-editing application. The Photoshop Elements dialog box is shown for original and a new version, enlarged, suitable for printing at approximately 5" x 7". Enlarging was done simply by typing in "5" in the Document Size >> Height box where 3.1 had been. Everything else changes to reflect the dimensions and file size of the new image. Be sure that Constrain Proportions is checked (so Width expands appropriately).

Resample Image must also be checked or the photo won't be enlarged. Several resampling options are offered for enlarging and reducing images. Your options are discussed here: About Resizing Photos I – How and About Resizing Photos II – Why.