hi i recently sent some montages for poster printing (bonusprint) who were the cheapest. i'm not happy with the results as they are lifeless and the colours are duller. do you have any tips for recreating your prints at a larger size. firstly the montages are 20"x16" at 72dpi or whatever it is. i've used 4 photo's in rows at top and bottom, with 2 alomost double size photo's in the middle. effectively the smaller photo's are normal size, i may have zoomed in and cropped a little but not enough as to make a difference. my questions are: does a computer screen show the photo's at a better quality than an enlarged print would do? or if the finished montage looks ok at full size in photoshop, should a printer be able to reproduce this quality? bonusprint who did them, only do them in matt finish. is this recommended? does it have any adverse affects with regard to colour/vibrancy loss? as most online printers seem to want them in jpeg form, would i be losing quality when converting them from psd to jpeg? should i expect any loss of quality by having them printed in a larger format? appreciate any help thanks.
Hi lowlife, The only explanation I could suggest is that the brightness of your computer monitor showed up the colours better. This is especially true if you have a CRT (backlit monitor). There would have been no loss in brightness when they where outputted in JPEG format. I think a printer may be able to give you a better appreciation of what they may look like than a computer screen but again this may not be perfect because of variables like quality of printer, ink levels etc. My 2 cents. Hope it helps 8)
When you send pics for enlarging and printing, make sure they are at least 300 dpi. You will lose a bit using jpg, but not enough to make a difference. Good luck.
