Working with large digital files

[Martin Grimmer]

Fred,

Photoshop very memory intensive so the more memory the better. You can do a couple of things that might help – increase the maximum computer processor usage for photoshop (check the help files I think), and if you have an external hard drive, set this up as your scratch disk. (Not sure how this quite works, but seems when your normal RAM is used up in the process, it uses a hard drive to write data to – if you use a separate disk drive to the one that photoshop is on, this will speed matters. Someone will have a better explanation than that).

Surprised that the JPEG is that large a file.

You can use separate re-sizing software if you need to re-size in photoshop (rather than use the resampling method) – OnOne software have Pixel Smart Scale – you can get a free download. Have used this before and it is fast.

Is it not easiest and quickest though to simply re-size in your RIP?

Hope helps.

Martin

[Martin Grimmer]

…should say the Pixel Smart Scale free download is only a free trial – not free altogether….

http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=6

Martin

[John Childs]

Fred,

I’m new to this as well and hopefully an expert will be along shortly to educate us both, but 1.3Gb is far to big for a 600 x 800 image. Are you using too high a resolution?

We print at 150 dpi and would expect an image of that size to come in at around 20Mb.

[Fred McLean]

Thanks for the prompt replies,my colleague posted the enquiry.
The file size is actually 130 MB not 1.3 GB!!
We’re using the files for photograghs at the moment so the res. is quite high.The photos we’re using are digital so we assumed if enlarging image size you would up the res. by the same proportion.Or are we being total numpties 😮

[Karl Williams]

At that size 130 is far to high. It’s not a large image so it might be safe to alter the dpi to around 72dpi. if this damages it I would print it out onto photo paper and scan it, again at 72 dpi. If you don’t keep this low you will find before long you’ll have no space on your hard drive left!
If the file needs decal cutting after and this need to be exported to an EPS. you will be there forever trying to get the job done.

[Stephen Morriss]

Like Johns said you only need to use 150dpi even a really good photo print will be fine at that resolution.
If you want to go a little higher 180dpi is the maximum, you’ll not see any improvement after that as image resolution is nothing to do with printer resolution.

Steve

[Fred McLean]

Thanks for all the info and help so far guys

[Fred McLean]

While we’re on the go this might sound a silly question,
is DPI the same as PIXELS PI in photoshop????

[Shane Drew]

quote Marts:

Is it not easiest and quickest though to simply re-size in your RIP?
Martin

I am surprised that these files are even 130mb, unless you have manipulated them, or they have been converted from a RAW file.

I print a lot of my own photos, and if I’ve converted them from RAW, they can be very big.

Usually, I’ll convert them to 4 x the dpi at 25% of the size, then let the RIP enlarge them by 400% at the time of printing. That way your dpi will be the same when it comes to printing.

I’ll print my photos at 300dpi on high quality photo paper, and although you may not see a huge difference from a 150dpi print, you will have less tell tale ‘print’ features like fine print lines, and some people have commented that the colours are more crisp.

That said, if your print media is not designed for higher resolution printing, like canvas for instance, 300 dpi is a waste of time.

I’ll print a large photo, to be viewed from a distance, as low as 72dpi with no problems, but you will see a difference when compared to a 300dpi print up close.

As has been said, compared to Corel Draw, Photoshop is very hungry in terms of memory. So, I’d probably let the RIP to the hard yards instead of waiting for PS to complete the same task.

Just my 2c’s

[Fred McLean]

quote :

Usually, I’ll convert them to 4 x the dpi at 25% of the size, then let the RIP enlarge them by 400% at the time of printing. That way your dpi will be the same when it comes to printing.

Fairly helps when you know what you’re doing!
1.3 gb file down to 4mb, 1/4 size 4 x res resized through the RIP,
cant see any difference!

Shane many thanks for passing on you’re know- how.

We were nearly buying silly computer ram and updating processors 😳

Cheers
Fred McLean

[Martin Pearson]

Fred, I would spend a bit of time getting to know the RIP as the whole point of it is to do the conversions for you. Digital printing is quite a steep learning curve as I am sure you are aware.
You wouldn’t be wasting your money adding extra memory to your system and maybe a larger HDD, if you have a 40GB drive I would suspect you are using a laptop as 40GB drives havent been fitted in desktop machines for quite some time.

[Fred McLean]

40 GB hard drive on desktop computer for a while now

[David Rogers]

A lot of the lag in Photoshop is caused by the saving of the ‘undo file’ especially when manipulating large images.

If you are confident that you want to result you are about to ask for – turn it off when working with BIG stuff.

Another thing to note is that Photoshop seems to work with jpgs in their UNCOMPRESSED data size. So that 150Mb jpg file can really be a 1Gb image in ‘bitmap’ terms.

If you can, and if your motherboard supports it – put in 2 or 3Gb and turn OFF ‘virtual memory’ if you’re not going to be working on anything over 800Mb / 1Gb – fabulous for ‘normal day-to-day stuff’. The speed improvement is phenomenal as the PC no longer accesses the hard drive to store whatever you are working on – it’s all done in ‘real’ memory. Use with care though as although it’s OK if you don’t exceed the RAM limit – if you do the PC will complain bitterly / freeze up… 😕

Dave

[Shane Drew]

quote Fred Mc:

quote :

Usually, I’ll convert them to 4 x the dpi at 25% of the size, then let the RIP enlarge them by 400% at the time of printing. That way your dpi will be the same when it comes to printing.

Fairly helps when you know what you’re doing!
1.3 gb file down to 4mb, 1/4 size 4 x res resized through the RIP,
cant see any difference!

Shane many thanks for passing on you’re know- how.

We were nearly buying silly computer ram and updating processors 😳

Cheers
Fred McLean

Glad I could help Fred. About the one good thing I did that day. Everything else was akin to abject failure 😕

[Fred McLean]

Cheers once again Shane