Optimize Pictures for Poster Printing using Photoshop => A Guide for Poster Printing

Almost all of the computer users own an inkjet printer which will satisfy our daily needs. It prints photo's in A4 format but you are looking for something more impressive than that. Buying an A3 printer for that is really expensive......

Many photo material suppliers, such as snapfish, specialize in large format prints. The rules applied to large format photo prints are different from that used in small photo prints. Only correctly adjusted photos only can give you the best results. Follow the steps which are important while editing a photo of your own.

Color Correcting : Most of the suppliers support the srgb format color scheme. So,it is necessary that you should make use of that while editing the pictures or photos also. For this got to Edit > Color Settings.

Setting Resolution of the Photo : The largest poster size used widely is the 50 x 75 cm format. So the image must have a minimum resolution of about 300 pixels per inch (ppi). If a poster printer prints at resolutions like 1440 dots per inch (dpi), it just means that the print resolution will be stretched due to the raster. You can find out how many ppi a picture of specific size will contain. Go to Image > Image size and remove the tick mark in front of the 'Resample image' and type the desired resolution. Photographic posters can make do with low resolutions. From a viewing distance of about one meter you can hardly spot out any loss in sharpness in a photo of resolution 200 ppi. So, for some large format poster even 100 or 150 ppi is sufficient in some cases for distances more than one meter. A resolution of 300 ppi will make the edges fonts and graphics appear more smoother.

Retouching Photo Errors : Observe your picture very carefully and touch up all the errors in it. I said that you should do this carefully because when printing large pictures these small details like ( pimples,color fringes etc.) will be more noticeable and it affects the overall impression of the photo. Check the histogram.
Lifeless pictures without 'crispness' means without powerful contrasts, it becomes a dull or faded pictures.

Setting the Sharpness : Before doing any thing edit the picture using the ' Unsharp mask ' filter found under Filters > Sharpen. You may apply more sharpness to large sized pictures than small ones. Make sure that you check the sharpness at 100% zoom. Only then you will get an accurate impression of the effect of the selected settings.