Printing to increase size without loosing quality?!
 

Could I print a digital picture at some insane DPI and then scan it back in with an even higher DPI to increase size and keep the same quality of a picture… What are my limits? I have a few smaller pictures that I want to make them into larger poster at least 5x their original size any ideas on how to do this.

not possible

you get whatever dpi you start with and that is it, you take (just as an example)

10 dpi and make it 20dpi it is going to be so badly pixelated you probably wont even be able to tell what it is, and you keep increasing it will only get worse.


example below from a Reds game I went to Thursday night 640x480 make it 1280x960 and see how it looks, this is only one size up.


http://www.boomspeed.com/montanaxvi/DSC00004.JPG
is 640



http://www.boomspeed.com/montanaxvi/DSC00004big.jpg
is 1280 i resized from the first one

you can still make out what everything is and it still looks somewhat ok, but with each scan then upsizing will make it break up more and more each time.


might wanna move this to the photo board, some of them guys might be able to help you out more or show a better example.

As far as I know, the only way to blow something up without losing ANY quality is by using vectors. With a digital picture you are out of luck.

yea i was thinking about using vectors but that would mean that I have to completely remake the picture unless there is some sort of program that will turn regular pictures into vectors. But I doubt thre is anything that can do that.

Unless you can get a larger source, your best option is to intentionally distort the picture with something like the Rasterbator.

Actually you can vectorize an image using an app that comes with CorelDraw, but I forget the name now---CorelTrace or something.

Those dots may blur together into a smooth picture to your eye, but to the high-resolution scanner, they're still just dots. You'll end up with nasty pixellation or moire patterns all over it.

You just can't fool graphics like that.

It's a rule of science, what you get out can't be more than you put in...scan in a low res pic you, no matter how hard you try, are going to get a high res pic out. Want better resolution get a higher res camera and take the pic again (no not a picture of the pic but the actual scene).

Mildly on topic, this is why I love cops shows like CSI and Law and Order.
"We have a security tape of the crime"
"Great! I can't see the guys face, but there's his uniform. Can you blow up the symbol that's 30 yds away and at a bad angle?"
"No problem. The laws of physics and computer science mean nothing to me."
And yet I still watch them anyway. :)

Funny you should bring this up. This is kind of work request I get from people in marketing. Constantly. And it doesn't matter how many times we try to explain this concept to them, they always ask. :crazy: