AboutScott Valentine Expertise Author, "Real World Compositing with Photoshop CS4 (Peachpit)". Beginning to expert questions for Photoshop CS3 and CS4 Extended, including 3D capabilities. I am also an expert here for Digital Photography. Please - NO questions on Lightroom, Elements, Express or versions earlier than CS2. These questions will be discarded.
Experience Author, "Real World Compositing with Photoshop CS4" (available from Peachpit.com in January, 2009). I have been a professional level user since 1999, and have used Photoshop for photography, fine art, graphic design, web design, and technical image analysis. I have also conducted classes at the college level in both artistic and technical uses. I am currently an Adobe User Group manager.
Organizations National Association of Photoshop Professionals, Los Alamos Multimedia Users Group.
Publications CommunityMX.com, Real World Compositing with Photoshop CS4 (Adobe Press).
Education/Credentials Bachelor's degree, Physics
Awards and Honors Several awards for digital photography.
Question Dear Scott,
A problem I cannot find a solution to. I've reduced some JPEG images with Photoshop, I've decreased the pixels by going to Image/Size, but after printing them they all look "pixelated", losing a lot of quality, and looking quite blurry. I could understand if I had made them bigger, but not smaller. Any suggestions? I'd appreciate your prompt help, as I'm in a hurry. Thanks in advance for your time.
Sincerely,
Marcelo
Answer Hi Marcelo,
Can you provide some more information on your problem? It's not clear if the print itself is pixelated or if the image file is being degraded. These are two different issues...
In the first case, it may be either your print settings from Photoshop or the printer itself. Both can have different settings that will affect quality. If you haven't seen this problem with other images, or it just started happening when you went to Image/Size, then the problem is likely in Photoshop.
Rather than reducing the size, I recommend you simply print smaller - you can do this in the print dialog that comes up in Photoshop. Also be sure to check the quality settings as mentioned above. You will want to choose the appropriate photographic quality in your printer setup, as well as choosing the appropriate 'dpi' from Photoshop (typically either 72 for JPG or web downloads, 240 for standard print directly from Photoshop).
It would help to know more about your images and setup, so if the above doesn't help you, please answer the following questions:
What operating system are you using?
What version of Photoshop are you using?
Why are you reducing the images in Photoshop (e.g., what keeps you from controlling the print size in the Print dialog)?
How are your images starting out? Are they JPGs from a digital camera, or have they already been processed and you are just printing them?
I will be available off and on through the day, but I will try my best to get back to you this evening.
