Expert: LizaL - 9/28/2005

Question
Is there a way to print a painting made with Corel Photopaint to about 18" x 24" without losing resolution?

Answer
Hi Jim,

It's impossible for me to say, or predict, especially without seeing the image, and knowing its current resolution.

Other factors include the physical size of the image, your goal resolution and goal size for the image, and the kind of paper you plan to use for printing.

The best I can do here is give you some links to Corel tutorials. I don't use Photopaint -- this is a Photoshop forum -- but maybe these links can help.

http://www.pixel2life.com/tutorials/CorelDraw_and_Corel_PhotoPaint/Basic_Help_an...

This photographer's forum discusses Corel Photopaint and resolution:
http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=6013&forum_id=70

This digital camera site also has a decent explanation of dpi and resolution:
http://www.rideau-info.com/genealogy/digital/dpi.html


I can tell you that in any bitmap program, when you increase an image's resolution, you're asking that program to interpolate pixels that aren't there, and very often the printed result is poor. On the other hand, downsampling -- that is, decreasing the number of pixels in an image -- can often improve an image's appearance, depending on the program you're using, and how it's done. But again, I'd have to see the image first before I could conclude how best to resize it. There are too many unknown factors here for me to really give you a certain answer.

This page might help you understand more about photos and resolution; although it's geared more toward Photoshop, the principles remain the same:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/excerpt/PhotoshopCS_chap05/

Hope this helps.