picture problem

[lynn]

greetings!

i'm making a business-card sized document, with a small series of pictures.
the pictures look great on the document, even when i zoom in to 400%. but
when i print them, they are awful!!

i originally just put the pictures in the document straight from the digital
camera memory card and cropped them in publisher, but after the printing, i
opened them in photoshop elements, cropped them, and saved them as a new
file, in maximum quality file size.

they are still blurry. i tried pdf'ing them, and that helps a little, but
not much.

what's causing this problem and how can i fix (and avoid!) it?

thanks in advance.

 

[Mary Sauer]

What format are you using for the pictures? Have you tried resizing/resampling
the images and then cropping them in an editing program? Try saving the pictures
as .png.
If you print the images in a different program, are they still blurry?

 

[lynn]

i have been using jpg. as i stated, i resized them in elements. i don't know
what resampling means. i tried saving as png tonight, no difference. i
printed them in word, and they look much better, but i can't get everything
to line up the way i need it to when i use word. slight difference as a pdf,
as stated.

is word really the better option? why won't they print right in publisher?

thanks in advance again!

 

[John Inzer]

i have been using jpg. as i stated, i resized them in elements. i
don't know what resampling means. i tried saving as png tonight, no
difference. i printed them in word, and they look much better, but i
can't get everything to line up the way i need it to when i use word.
slight difference as a pdf, as stated.

is word really the better option? why won't they print right in
publisher?

thanks in advance again!

=============================
You stated that you originally imported
the full sized images, cropped them in
Publisher and printed the project....
How did the images look when you used
that method?

What is the pixel size of the images
now that you have edited them?

Is your printer driver the most current
available from the support website of
your printer's mfg.?

--

******John Inzer********
**MS Picture It! MVP**

*****Digital Image******
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

*********Notice***********
This is not tech support
........I am a volunteer.......

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you.

Proceed at your own risk.

 

[lynn]

hi john,

they were blurry then, too. that's why i tried cropping them in elements.
i'm not sure how to find out the pixel size...

i also just tried using the graphics manager to link to the photo rather
than embed it. now the picture in the document is exactly the way it prints
out - blurry!

i swear, i'm usually so good at this kind of stuff, but this one completely
baffles me!

 

[lynn]

ps - i'm not sure about the driver. i need to look into that as well. i
really like my printer, but i have a new all-in-one to set up. maybe i should
try that instead! i haven't, because usually my printer is great! no
complaints but this project is frustrating me to no end!

 

[John Inzer]

hi john,

they were blurry then, too. that's why i tried cropping them in
elements. i'm not sure how to find out the pixel size...

i also just tried using the graphics manager to link to the photo
rather than embed it. now the picture in the document is exactly the
way it prints out - blurry!

i swear, i'm usually so good at this kind of stuff, but this one
completely baffles me!

"John Inzer" wrote:

==================================
An easy way to discover the pixel size of an
image is to open the folder it's saved in and
place your pointer on the thumbnail...don't
click...just let the pointer rest on the thumbnail
until a tooltip appears with the Dimensions
(pixel size) and other info.

--

******John Inzer********
**MS Picture It! MVP**

*****Digital Image******
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

*********Notice***********
This is not tech support
........I am a volunteer.......

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you.

Proceed at your own risk.

 

[lynn]

thanks john. the png files (suggested from above) are 825x791. they are the
only ones i have access to until i get home from work.

i would just really like to understand what's going on. i've never had this
problem before, where i could fix it.

 

[Mike Williams]

i tried cropping them in elements.
i'm not sure how to find out the pixel size...

I have a feeling that you're just going about this in completely the wrong
way, but from the information you have provided so far it is difficult to
tell.

Firstly you say that you put the picture into your document and you cropped
it in Publisher. Why, exactly, did you do that? Why did you want to crop the
picture? Was there some parts of the picture you did not like, or did you
want to print just a small portion of the picture, or what?

I've got this feeling that you really wanted to just set the size of the
printed picture, not to actually crop it? If that is the case then you
should load the picture from the original picture file into Publisher in the
usual way (using the menu Insert / Picture From File). That should load the
picture full size. then you simply left click the picture and you drag the
sizing handles until it is the size you require, relative to the page.

I'll tell you what, just to see exactly what you have done without the need
for you to actually explain it all, just add and crop and size and position
your picture in Publisher in the way that you are already doing (the way in
which you say it is printing at poor quality). Then, just before you are
about to print, left click the picture on your Publisher document and use
the menu Format / Scale Picture. What percentage values are shown in the
ScaleWidth and ScaleHeight boxes? Post back with that information.

Maureen

 

[lynn]

hi maureen,

i actually need to crop the photo. it's a picture of two people and i only
want them, not the background.

scale width & height are both 100%.

 

[Mike Williams]

i actually need to crop the photo. it's a picture of two
people and i only want them, not the background.
scale width & height are both 100%.

Right. Judging by the fact that the Scale Width and Scale Height are both
100% you are printing the picture (or at least the cropped part of the
picture) at its full logical size (which on most Windows machines is 96
pixels per logical inch). That is simply not enough for a high quality
printout. To achieve high printed quality you need something in the region
of 300 pixels per printed inch. What is the pixel size of the orginal photo
file, and how much (roughly) of that photo does the cropped area represent?
There are methods that slightly improve apparent qaulity, but basically you
can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear ;-)

Can you take another photo of your subjects?

Mike

 

[Mike Williams]

.. . . just to expand slightly on what I said in my previous response, in
order to get a high quality printed output you need to print a picture at
such a printed output size that there are at least 300 "original photo
pixels" for ach inch of the printed output. You can often get away with
slightly lower values than that (perhaps 200 original photo pixels per
printed inch) but when you get down to values in the region of 96 original
photo pixels per printed inch you are going to get a very poor printed
output. So, if for example you have an original photo that is 1600 x 1200
pixels you should print that photo so that the printed output measures about
5 x 4 inches or less. You will get away with printing it at a slightly
larger size than that (perhaps 8 x 6 inches) but you will lose some quality.
What you are doing is printing that full 1600 x 1200 pixel picture at a size
of a bit more than 16 x 12 inches, which is going to give very poor printed
output quality. Okay, I know you are only printing part of the full picture,
but you are effectively printing that part at a size which would cause the
entire picture to be 16 x 12 inches so the result is the same (poor printed
output). If you want your cropped portion to print at a better quality then
you need to print it at a smaller size. Otherwise, you need to find a higher
quality (higher pixel size) original.

By the way, is there any chance that you have at some time accidentally
reduced the pixel size of the original pixel size. It is easy to
accidentally do such a thing if you resize an image in a photo application
and choose the wrong settings (resample for example). Do you still have the
original photo on your camera? If so then load it onto your computer and
check the pixel size. There are lots of ways to do this, but one very simple
way is to drag the photo onto your desktop and then just "hover" the mouse
pointer over it and after a second or so WinXP will pop up a little box with
some information about that image. What does it say for "Dimensions" (1600 x
1200, 800 x 600 or whatever)? And what does it say for "Size" (300K, 743K or
whatever)? And also what does it say for "Type" (Jpeg Image or whatever)?
Then insert the picture into a Publisher document and adjust the view so
that you can see the entire picture. How wide is the "portion you wish to
crop and print" with respect to the total width of the picture? Also, what
is the actual measured printed width of the "cropped images" you have so far
printed (the images you originally printed which show just the cropped part
of the original picture and which caused you to ask these questions about
image quality)?

Maureen

 

[John Inzer]

thanks john. the png files (suggested from above) are 825x791. they
are the only ones i have access to until i get home from work.

i would just really like to understand what's going on. i've never
had this problem before, where i could fix it.

"John Inzer" wrote:

=================================
I'm thinking the problem is caused by a
low resolution image. If you had a higher
resolution image file and imported it
into Publisher, I don't think you would be
having these problems.

You originally stated that you downloaded
these images from your camera....how many
megapixels is the camera and do you have
it set to take best quality images?

Just as an experiment....copy the image at
the following link to your hard drive and insert
it in your Publisher Document....

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2003_reviews/a60/samples/IMG_0134.JPG

It's from a 2 MP Canon camera and the size
is 1600x1200. You can resize it in Publisher
by dragging the corner handles.

Here's another example from a 5 MP Canon
camera...the size is 2592x1944

http://www.steves-digicams.com/2005_reviews/s2is/samples/IMG_0023.JPG

Let me know if these images appear to be
blurry in your Publisher project.

--

******John Inzer********
**MS Picture It! MVP**

*****Digital Image******
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

*********Notice***********
This is not tech support
........I am a volunteer.......

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you.

Proceed at your own risk.

 

[lynn]

i have the original photos at home, so i can't wait to get there and check
all of your suggestions. and let you know!

i swear i'm usually really good at this sort of thing. i don't know what i
did differently this time... i really appreciate everyone's help!