Printing with the Epson 2200 and Photoshop, continued

Version 1.1, ©2003 by Dale Cotton, all rights reserved.

Fig 1. Image Size dialogue

• 2. Image->Image Size... dialogue (see Fig 1) to set the pixels per inch such that the image fits within the dimensions of the paper you've chosen. Leave Resample image: unchecked and change the value in the Resolution: box until you get the Width and Height you want. If the number in the Resolution: box is 240 or greater, click OK. Otherwise check Resample image: then change the Resolution: value to 240.

Example A: I'm printing to A3 paper (16.5" x 11.7") and I want 1" margins - an image size of 15.5" by 10.7". My image dimensions are 5688 by 3841. As a starting point, I plug 360 into the Resolution: box, which shows the width and height to be 15.8 and 10.669. The height is perfect, but the width is a tad too large. If it is important to have the full 1" margin, I experiment with Resolution values higher than 360 and find that 367 gives me 15.499 by 10.466, which gives me the 1" width margins and a bit more than 1" height margins.

Fig 2. Image Size dialogue

Example B: I'm printing to 7" by 5" paper and I want 0.5" margins - an image size of 6.5" by 4.5". My image dimensions are 1200 by 825. Knowing the image is small, I plug 240 into the Resolution: box, which shows the width and height to be 5 and 3.438. Clearly, I'll need a Resolution value much lower than 240 to get up to 6.5" by 4.5". So I check Resample image:, verify that my Resolution is 240, type 6.5 into the Width: box, verify that the Height: is 4.5" or less, then click OK. This will cause Photoshop to enlarge the image to the specified dimensions.

Advanced tip: If you have plenty of time and plenty of RAM and want the very sharpest print your printer is capable of, resample up to 720 ppi using Bicubic. This is the native resolution of the Epson printer driver according to Mike Chaney, developer of QImage. Print at 2880 dpi. I was sceptical until I tried it myself.