Need help with resizing and printing photos onto a color printer

Teri Posted: Dec 30, 2003 05:51 PM

Need help with resizing and printing photos onto a color printer

I've had the worst time with this! Santa gave me a color photo printer for Xmas, so I've been attempting to print out scanned and digital pics taken from my wedding.

But no matter how large it's scanned into the computer or uploaded from my camera, it prints out to a 3x4 size picture! (the one time I did get it to print out a large pic it was so blurry)

I figured the larger the pixel size, the larger the print out - I'm setting my printer to print on 4x6 film, but I want it to be sized exactly to the pic.

Can anyone help me?!

yabbobay Posted: Dec 31, 2003 12:15 AM

Re: Need help with resizing and printing photos onto a color printer

is it one of those mini printers? not sure about those...but I actually use Printshop to print out pictures...or MS Word...they are the most user friendly....IMO

RichsBride Posted: Dec 31, 2003 07:51 AM

Re: Need help with resizing and printing photos onto a color printer

I use the 'my pictures' program in windows xp.
It allows you to preview the size & layout before you print. I have the printer with the small photo paper try & regular tray, if you want to print on the small paper you need to change your preferences when you get ready to print.
I'm not real good @ explaining I'm such a computer dummy.

Teri Posted: Dec 31, 2003 09:39 AM

Re: Need help with resizing and printing photos onto a color printer

Thanks ladies.....

It's a regular size Canon i960. It has 2 cartridges - one for 4x6 and one for larger (8x11) sheets.

I use PhotoStudio to edit my pics and I have a preview option but it's not true to size, so I don't know for sure til I print and then waste all the ink and photo paper

Maybe I just have to play around some more since each computer is different.

But by the time I figure it out I'll be done with my wedding scrapbook!

RichsBride Posted: Dec 31, 2003 09:42 AM

Re: Need help with resizing and printing photos onto a color printer

I have no patience for the whole printing thing-so I just order all my scrapbbok pics through shutterfly. They come in like 3 days & they are pretty cheap.

Teri Posted: Dec 31, 2003 11:03 AM

Re: Need help with resizing and printing photos onto a color printer

I wasn't too impressed with Shutterfly - I've placed two orders with them and most of the pics were blurry Maybe that was just me though, but I'm clueless on setting resolution when scanning, resizing, etc.

When I ordered digital pics from Shutterfly, they came out better.

Maybe it's my scanner?! It seems to work fine but maybe it's a piece of crap!

Do you scan your pics in when using Shutterfly?

RichsBride Posted: Dec 31, 2003 11:22 AM

Re: Need help with resizing and printing photos onto a color printer

yes, I scanned alot-but I also have a lot of digi pics-I've always been happy with them, once or twice I got a blurry pic but they sent a note saying the pics had low resolution-I don't know why.

stacedz Posted: Jan 02, 2004 11:42 AM

Re: Need help with resizing and printing photos onto a color printer

Teri, scan your photos at AT LEAST 150-200 dpi, when those are uploaded to Shutterfly, they come out well. I have never had any problem with blurry pics on Shutterfly unless I cropped them weird or my digital didn't take a clear pic.

I don't know anything about those printers with exact paper for your photo, my SIL has one.

Sonicstef Posted: Jan 04, 2004 08:15 PM

Re: Need help with resizing and printing photos onto a color printer

What resolution are you scanning your photos in at? I scan at a min of 300dpi for the size I want to print. (So if i want a 4x6, I print at a 4x6 size with a 300dpi resolution). Shutterfly isnt the best but it should print clear prints if you upload at a high enough resolution.

Teri Posted: Jan 04, 2004 08:34 PM

Re: Need help with resizing and printing photos onto a color printer

thanks everyone....

My previous scans were all 150 dpi but I've since changed the resolution to 300. Any higher and my scanner takes forever and it always crashes.

So if I scan an image at 300 I shouldn't have to worry about the size (inches) of my image as well?
After the scan, I resize to a larger pic and that's when is starts to get blurry.