online printing - pic size?

[robphelan]

I'm going to send a few hundred shots to snapfish etc... for some 4x6 prints.

what size should the pics be? original size for each is about 3.5mb... but I have converted them down to about 250-300k.

is that good enough for 4x6 prints?

 

[kyzen]

file size doesnt matter (sort of; I'm going to be corrected, I'm sure 😉). What you want to be concerned with is resolution.

Ideally, for 4x6 prints, you want them to measure 1800 pixels on the long side, by 1200 pixels on the sort side.

 

[robphelan]

ok, i guess that makes sense since the size is 4x6.. but for clarity's sake, i'm sure the higher the resolution the better, but i wonder at what point does it not matter anymore?

 

[kyzen]

Well, from what I understand (again, any pros please step in) 300 dots (pixels) per inch is what's largely considered to be ideal printing resolution. At larger size prints that's sometimes not possible to achieve.

I personally haven't printed anything below 200 DPI; most of mine are around 240-260, and I try to get 300 on the pictures I really love.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Why don't you want to send in the original sizes?

300 dpi is what's considered standard for printing resolution. Printing down to 240 dpi isn't bad.

But if you send in the original sizes you don't have to worry about any of this; the printer will automatically do all this for you. You have the added benefit of having high res photos already in their system should you decide to print some enlargements. You won't have to hassle with uploading a higher res version of a photo you've already uploaded to their system, or worse, ordering a print and getting it only to find that you accidentally made a large print from your low res photo.

 

[robphelan]

normally I would have uploaded the hi-res but i was ordering 388 photos - all at about 3.5mb each.

So, that may have taken forever and a day to finish

 

[Fardringle]

Would you prefer to get (potentially) bad prints quickly, or wait a little while to get good prints?