Output Sharpening for Print

[Jackie Schuknecht]

I have read as many threads as I could on this site and the article on the capture/selective sharpening/ and output sharpening by Bruce Fraser. My question relates to settings for print. From what I have read a print should look oversharpened if going to a print. Could anyone share with me what they do? I was thinking of a 13 x 19 print 240 res using Velvet Fine Art Paper with an Epson 2400. I also have Genuine Fractals as a plug-in. Any tips or tricks/settings would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Jackie Prints do look better when you over sharpen ... but how much. If you do enough you will get a feel and find the correct settings which will vary according the the size/resolution. My suggestion is to check out PhotoKit Sharpener.

On the printing side the program has settings for different types of paper and resolutions. I use it and have found it to be a great tool. It also has many other uses in capture sharpening, selective sharpening and smoothing. Check it out.

[Chris Starbuck]

The "oversharpened" look (on screen) is certainly necessary for inkjet prints, because the ink bleeds (spreads) a small amount. The more porous the paper surface, the more the spread. (I've read that other printing technologies, such as LightJet, require different/less sharpening; haven't used that yet myself.) VFA has a very porous surface, so it will require more aggressive sharpening than a glossy or luster surface if you want to show the same level of detail. That last bit is important - how much detail do you want to show in the final print? (That's rhetorical - I don't need an answer, but you do.)

How much "oversharpening" is needed? The real answer is try a setting and proof it -- and make sure you let the proof print dry completely (at least several hours) before you evaluate it. The downside is that 13x19 VFA (+ ink) is expensive. My approach would be to size the image for the final print size, crop out one or more key areas of the image for evaluation, paste the full-res cropped portions into a new 8x10 "proof" image file, do a trial sharpening on this proof image, proof print first on Enhanced Matte (cheaper than VFA; but has a different color bias, so don't evaluate color, only sharpening). Repeat as needed on EM until it looks pretty much right, then proof on 8.5x11 VFA. Fine tune as needed, including color, contrast, etc, then make the same adjustments on your full image and make your 13x19 print. John Paul Caponigro has some good thoughts on proofing (near the bottom of the page): http://www.johnpaulcaponigro.com/downloads/technique/technique.php

Regarding Genuine Fractals, I have version 5, but haven't had a chance to actually make a print with it yet. I've been working on a 20D image upsized to 16x24 at 300ppi (>200%) with GF5, and it looks pretty good to me at 100% zoom on screen. IMO GF5 does a better job than Fred Miranda's (much less expensive) camera-model-specific Resize Pro, or the bicubic-smoother-upsize-10%-at-a-time method.

[Maxis Gamez]

Jacky,

I just setup a photo exhibit at the Everglades National Park in Florida. All my images are over sharpened and ALL printed at 720dpi which is ideal for Epson printers. I'm using the R1900 and the results are TERRIFIC!!.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Thanks for all the great information it is just what I was looking for!

[Nancy A Elwood]

Jackie, I use Nik Define 2.0 for my output sharpening and it works great!!! I have an Epson R1900 and use both their lustre and matte papers and just dial it in and it takes all the guess work out of it.