Higher Resolution for Print

One serious option for very high resolutions is to use a good tool for increasing resolution. These programs work well for doubling resolution.

Looking at examples for photo zoom pro 4, for example, the results are pretty good (bear in mind the purpose isn't to sharpen the image but to provide meaningless detail for pixel peepers — from a sensible viewpoint, the image looks the same).

Ken Rockwell (the opinioned photographer) suggests saving all photos as max quality JPEG at a fixed resolution and if a client asks for a higher resolution tiff or whatever you simply convert it using photoshop, because no-one can really tell the difference. I believe in keeping as much data as you have, but I think he's pretty much correct.
 
Thanks for the info pod. That may also be an option in the future. Of course having the option to do higher res built in would be better. Everything is in-house here, so they'll know where to find me if I skimp on the resolution and it prints badly. ;)

"...I believe in keeping as much data as you have, but I think he's pretty much correct."

I couldn't agree with this more. My graphic design teachers always said you could down sample info, but you can never truly up sample it. You're just adding noise at that point anyway to fake it when you do. It probably doesn't matter when up scaling slightly, but would certainly be a problem when going from inches to feet.
 
Any news about render resolution

...wonder if there is any news about this feauture? Higher resolution render would be great and/or a kind of tile camera as work-around... :smile:
 
Along with higher resolutions, it would be desirable to split larger, single still renders, into strips, and have each strip rendered via a networked render farm. The final high res image should then be stitched by the render manager.
 
Printing art for sale in galleries

A 5000 limit on renders is a REAL PAIN! I am going to try sectional renders or learn cycles rendering in Blender.
 
A 5000 limit on renders is a REAL PAIN! I am going to try sectional renders or learn cycles rendering in Blender.

In a previous life - I worked in the Print world for over 10 years and also output to Giclée on occasion. The 300dpi most printers request is over-kill. 200dpi will get you where you want to go with headroom, 150dpi is your basement and is typically still very adequate, I've printed a number of large format Giclées with 150dpi files and was exceptionally pleased with the detail and result.

With 5,000 pixel limit and 150dpi - that gets you 33 inches square with no enlargement.

Ok, say you want to go BIGGER. My recommendation is to use a specialized enlargement program. My personal favorite is Alien Skin "Blow Up 3" and completely leaves Photoshop's image resize feature in the dust (I've done a lot of comparison personally). Remember, this was designed to work with modest size images and blow them up with great "interpolated" (no jaggies) results - A 5,000 pixel square image has TONs of data in it as a starting point - doing a 200-300% increase (with Blow Up 3) on a 5,000px image will create fabulous results.

So, now we're at almost 6-9ft square without breathing hard or inventing a new rendering technique or suffering render times of multiple days. No jaggies and no discernible "loss" in clarity.

Also remember, when printing this large, your typical viewer will not be examining your Art at a few inches distance - the clarity is completely present at the right viewing distance - AND - even if the viewer/buyer get's very close - NO digital image "jaggies" will be present.

5,000 is plenty. And an additional $99 bucks for some enlarging software to save you literally days of computer/render time per image is a no brainer.
 
The 300dpi most printers request is over-kill. 200dpi will get you where you want to go with headroom, 150dpi is your basement and is typically still very adequate

Exactly. Back in the good old days 150dpi was considered the requirement for glossy magazines. Standards have definitely improved, but you can fake your way to 300dpi to meet a printer's requirement. A lot of stuff comes down to viewing distance.
 
In a previous life - I worked in the Print world for over 10 years and also output to Giclée on occasion.

Thank you for your words of wisdom Rene, I couldn't have summed it up any better.

Remember proofing with laminated match prints?


 
Remember proofing with laminated match prints?

Oh Yes - those match prints really revealed how off your old CRT monitor was. I remember attempting fine color adjustments on a tired monitor after an entire match print came back with a drift towards magenta. It was like using the FORCE sometimes - making it "wrong" on the screen so it was "right" on the match print - LoL
 
Thanks, I'll look into it.

I make large prints of my 3D work to sell in galleries and would love to have twice the 5k limit! Here is a link to some things I've done recently, not all of them are for sale. https://www.facebook.com/Wowzaworks/photos_albums

My personal favorite is Alien Skin "Blow Up 3" and completely leaves Photoshop's image resize feature in the dust

Thanks for the info.
 
I don't like putting pointer to other programs here but if you need the high resolution so bad - Shade3D Pro goes to 22528 x 22528. I recommend doing the poly modelling in Cheetah though ;) Ah and get MANY big macs as rendering at such resolution takes AGES.
 
Thank you, I will look into it

I don't like putting pointer to other programs here but if you need the high resolution so bad - Shade3D Pro goes to 22528 x 22528. I recommend doing the poly modelling in Cheetah though ;) Ah and get MANY big macs as rendering at such resolution takes AGES.

I generally do my modelling in Blender, Hexagon, or Wings, each has their own features. Thanks again.
 
+1 to higher output. I am a print designer and often do large format for feature walls and other close up products. I don't mind using low res for things like billboards as they are not meant to be seen up close. But when prints are also viewed up close doing this looks cheap and nasty.

… I suppose I could use another application. But it would be nice not to. Cheetah 3D is such a good program already and fills 99% of my design requirements.
 
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