Expert: Neal Ziring - 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
Jim,

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

Well, that depends on how the painting was made.
An image only has a certain amount of information
when it is created; for example, my camera generates
images with a resolution of 2206x1720 pixels.  If
I try to print that 22"x17", then I only get 100
pixels per inch.  I can blow up the image as big
as I want, but there are AT MOST 2206x1720 pixels
of information in there.

So, if you are creating a painting in Corel Photopaint,
then you should start with a pretty large image and a
fairly high resolution.  If you want the painting to
look good at 18"x24" on a typical color printer, you
should start with 18"x24" at no less than 150 pixels
per inch (ppi or dpi).  200ppi would probably be better.
So, that will be 3600x4800 pixels.  That is pretty big,
but Corel PhotoPaint will have no problem handling it,
although some operations might be a little slow.

If you are scanning a painting into PhotoPaint, use
200dpi or 300dpi, no less.  Use more if the painting
is very small.

Now, if your image is just too small and it doesn't look
good printed at 18"x24", there are some tricks you can use
to make it look a little better.  For example, you can
resample it to a higher resolution, and then apply some
smoothing (Image->resample, then Effects->Blur->Smooth).
When you print it, the hardcopy shouldn't look as blocky.

There is a good tutorial called "Understanding Resolution"
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/understanding-series/und_resolution....
that may help you these issues.

Hope this helps...

...nz