Finest+Quality

=What Print Settings Produce the Finest Quality?=

Marc Almont: I had little luck finding information specific to the iPF5000 in the forums so I took time to do a little testing and although the observations are subjective I am pleased with the results. All tests were done with the following constant. 17"x22" Ilford smooth gloss, 16 bit 600ppi, 8.5x11" file.


 * 1) Printed with the Canon windows print driver, Qimage and the Canon 16 bit plug in (16 bit, high accuracy, 16pass 2400dpi); the 16 bit plugin was superior.
 * 2) Used canon profiles and custom profiles (Cathy's Profiles); The custom profiles were superior.
 * 3) Sent the 16 bit plugin a 300 ppi 17"x22" file, a 600ppi 8.5"x11" file (let the plugin size to fit) and sent the plugin a 600ppi 17"x22" file upsized twice in CS2 using bicubic smoother; the latter was superior.

Summary: Use the plugin, a custom profile, upsize the file in photoshop to 600ppi resolution and actual print size using Bicubic Smoother. The difference between the drivers, rendering intent and profiles was more than subtle, the difference in upsizing method was slight but noticeable. My conclusion is sending the printer 12 bits of data makes a difference.

John Hollenberg initially confirmed Marc's findings, but after viewing the Luminous Landscape Tutorial From Camera to Print went back and re-tested. He now believes that if the PPI will be between 180 and 480, no resampling should be done in Photoshop, and the file should be set to 600 PPI (without resampling) and then re-sampled in the Photoshop Export plugin using Bicubic. Detailed steps follow, starting with a duplicate of master file:


 * 1) Capture sharpen with EasyS from Outback Photo (I usually use Low with Halo Control, and may set the opacity of the sharpening layer to 50-90% depending on how much sharpening has been done by the raw converter)
 * 2) Flatten the image
 * 3) Resize to my desired output size without resample (let the PPI float)
 * 4) Output sharpen with Photokit Sharpener for the proper media and using the proper PPI (e.g., Inkjet glossy 180 PPI)
 * 5) Resize to 600 PPI without resample (let the size float)
 * 6) Print from PS Export plugin using 600 PPI, highest number of passes, unidirectional, proper media type, and resample to desired size (same as in step 3) using bicubic in the plugin.

For more details, see [|this Forum thread] and [|this Luminous Landscape thread].