Howdy folks, I’m running Windows and can’t use the darktable print utility (to the best of my knowledge).
I’ve always just exported from dt to local storage after processing, then opened the file in GIMP to set the print size, and then print my photo (much simplified for brevity).
I’ve recently acquired a larger A3+ printer and was wondering if I would have to change dt export settings regarding “print size”, as I’ve always exported to my local storage at a setting of 8 x 10 @ 300dpi?
If I process a photo that I’d like to create a larger print with, should I change the “print size” export setting, or will the change of “page size” in GIMP work just fine?
I did try to look this up in the dt 4.6 manual, but didn’t find much for this specific concern.
You should export large enough for your print. The data you lose during downsampling can never be restored. Why not export at full size, and deal with any downscaling as part of printing?
We’ve had printing threads recently, e.g.
Thanks @kofa , I’ll make some time to go through those threads.
Print size is am arbitrary setting with digital images, the settings I pay attention to are always making sure I don’t degrade the image quality/downsample pixel count. You could export as 32bit Tiff (my recommendation when exporting from RawTherapee) with a “print size” of 6metersx10meters, but if you use one of the more common processes to get your image ready for print (I create blank images at the sizes I most commonly print at, with pixels per inch set as closely to what my full frame cameras can potentially create, and the colorspace/calibration pre-selected for the printer I, or the print shop is using).
I import the image, set my crop to the same (h)x(w) as the template (8"x10" for example), and then Ctrl-C the image, go to the blank template, Ctrl-V on the blank template, I always put a small border around the image, 1cm or 1.5cm, but that’s just a personal preference (I often use department store print shops like Walmart and OfficeMax, so I like having the option to trim the image if they leave fingerprints, nicks, or it isn’t quite centered when they print).
Once you have the image, and the colorspace looking correct, go to the Image dropdown menu, select “print size” and if done correctly, the original settings you used to create the template should still be there. If you’re happy with what you see, go back to the image dropdown, select “flatten image”, and export in whichever flavor (png(my preference),tiff, jpg, etc.) and usually printers work better with “save color profile” active, but different formats, and printers, do their magic in different ways. The “print size” dialog is also a very good sanity check to make sure you didn’t degrade the image quality by mistake. If the X/Y resolution numbers don’t look right (I’ve definitely caught images with sub-100px per sqIn because I messed up somewhere in the editing/exporting/cropping/etc. It was a lot easier to catch when computers were a lot slower, but these days, even a 500MB+ Tiff file is handled quite quickly on the xeon workstations I’ve used the past decade or so.
If this works well for you then my experience is not too relevant to you. For years I have found that I prefer to open the image in the software supplied by the printer manufacturer and have obtained the best control of the output in this way. I am also on a Windows computer. Previously I abandoned trying to print from Photoshop and Lightroom as getting the output to match the input was at times challenging to say the least.
Maybe: Image size in Gimp