Why is my computer not printing?

Why does a digital picture look fine on my computer, but fuzzy when uploaded to a printing kiosk?

  • Even when I have the picture at a 8x10 size on my computer, it looks perfectly fine, but it's fuzzy even on a 4x6 at a kiosk. How can I get my picture printed out looking how it does on my computer?

  • Answer:

    Check the resolution of your file. I'm guessing it'll be pretty low - like 72 dpi. If that's the case, you're pretty well hosed! A 72 dpi image simply doesn't have enough pixels in it to make a decent print. The industry standard used by most printing services is at least 240, if not 300 dpi for a "photo quality" print. If you shot it that low in the first place, there's simply no way to make it better. You computer's monitor, by the way, has a pretty low resolution too. So the image might look good there but still be way too low res for a good print. My best suggestion is that in the future you always shoot at the highest resolution your camera is capable of. Sorry I don't have better news for you. But that's just the way it works with digital images. I've got a lot of tips about this kind of stuff on my website. It's all free ... so help yourself to whatever's there.

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Mr.P

The resolution needed to make a clear picture on a computer screen is actually very low. That's why you see it clear there. Shoot in a higher resolution. The highest your camera provides, preferably, will do you. If you're using digital zoom, or cropping your pictures down, that will reduce the size. If you keep opening an image and saving it, over and over, that will reduce it too. Or maybe you just need a better camera.

Terisu

Don't trust a printer to resize your image; it will not preserve the resolution properly. you have to tell it what resolution you want to print at. It sounds like the printer is shrinking the image by removing pixels. We need the printer to shrink the image by printing all of your pixels closer together, not by removing pixels. 1) Using Photoshop, go to Image > Image Size... (In the freeware GIMP, the requisite dialog is Image > Print Size... . Skip to step 3). 2) Uncheck "Resample Image". Leaving this option checked degrades your image quality when you shrink the physical size of the image. 3) Now, simply type into one of the boxes the Width *or* the Height that you want your image to be, but not both. Note that the dpi (dots per inch) increases appropriately. 4) Apply the change (you shouldn't see any physical change in the image. This is just a printer instruction appended to the image file.) and save your image as either a PNG or a BMP. Do not resave your image as another JPEG as this will apply the lossy compression algorithm used by jpegs again, adding color noise to your image. PNGs use lossless compression, while BMPs use no compression whatsoever (leading to rather large file sizes. I recommend PNG).

Ron

When you say kiosk... if you mean like at Wal-mart or some other store with a kodak, alladin, or fuji type kiosk. It may be that the machine wasn't callibrated right. SO you may try a different machine to find out for sure if it's you or the machine.

offreak

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