Question: Dpi

[scott99]

Hi, this may sound simple but with computors thats where I am at. So I scan a drawing into Photo Shop clean up the drawing (resize ect) and print it out for transfer. I have been using 300 to 400 DPI for printing and get good results, the question is what DPI is commonly used by others.

I notice the file size gets big real quick so does the processing time. So I don't want to get too big for nothing nor too small to save time. There is the question. Any information will be appreciated.

scott99 :thinking: :hammer:

 

[Andrew Biggs]

Hi Scott

Yes, 300 to 400 dpi is ample for most things. And yes, you are correct, the file sizes get larger with the increase in DPI. And most of the time it's unnecessary.

One of the things that you can do to help keep file sizes down is strip the colour out of them. In Photoshop you just go to the menu bar at the top >Image>Mode>Grayscale and that will do the trick. The chances are that you have scanned and saved it as an RGB file so therefore it's retained more information than you need.

Then you can play with levels to increase/decrease contrast if you need to. Image>adjustments>levels...I would recommend doing that with just about anything.

There's no hard and fast rules or preferences about any of this stuff. It's all about what works for you and what gets you to the finished result.

As an aside, here is another effective way of reducing file sizes.

Lay clear tracing paper over the top of your drawing. Trace over the design with a black steel nibbed technical pen, like Staedlar or Rotring (not a felt tip pen) That way your computer is literally scanning a black and white drawing/image. Then after you have scanned, do the grayscale thing like I said at the top.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[scott99]

Thanks for the info,most of my stuff is black ink to start with but even that is better in grayscale with an additional run thru contrast.

Scott99