Fine Art Printing Resolution

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I have Adobe Camera Raw set to output a 16 bit 300 dpi Pro Photo RGB file. Back in the day I would set the print size and let Photoshop determine the dpi accordingly. For my typical 44 inch wide print this worked out to about 150 dpi. Now I let the printing utility supplied with my large format Canon printer (Pro 4100) do the resizing automatically. FWIW I'm pretty fussy and am unable to tell the difference in sharpness and detail when comparing the old and new prints. Others' results may varry......
 
I had a schedule zoom call with a specialist at WHCC, She recommended using the PS crop tool and type in the correct size. Or just send it the way it is. No need to use super resolution or Topaz.
She said, after cropping to zoom in the photo at least 50% on screen, 75% is better, 100% is a little hard to judge, and that would show more realistically how the print would look
 
Here is what I have done in the past when I worked at a photo lab (and would still do for a big print now). I upsized it to 300dpi in Photoshop (though I now own Gigapixel and would probably use that). Then, I take that new file, say I have it set to print 40x60 inches, and I crop out an 8x10 inch section of the larger image and order an 8x10 print, which is very inexpensive. If it looks good (which it usually does) then I go ahead and order the 40x60. BTW my first digital SLR was a Canon 5D2 at 21MP and I upsized prints as large as 40x60 and they looked good.
 
I had a schedule zoom call with a specialist at WHCC, She recommended using the PS crop tool and type in the correct size. Or just send it the way it is. No need to use super resolution or Topaz.
She said, after cropping to zoom in the photo at least 50% on screen, 75% is better, 100% is a little hard to judge, and that would show more realistically how the print would look

I'm not saying they are wrong but I personally think it is better to use the crop tool only to get the aspect ratio I wanted. You don't get a choice of upsizing methods if I recall when using the crop tool to resample. There is a drop down with common ratios or one can just type in 5 by 4 or 3 by 2 or anything else. So if you want 24 by 36 you could type that in, or use 2 by 3. To resize the pixels dimensions do that in image/image size. If you want 24 by 36 at 300 ppi then choose inches from the dropdown and type the 24 and it will insert the 36 for you. Enter 300 in box and choose a method from the dropdown.

If you go to the view menu and view actual size and look at it at arms length you can judge if you want to add any output sharpening.
 
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