Julie,
 
Whether you "scale up" or increase resolution (ppi or "dpi") you will be 
increasing the amount of pixels being created.  The one thing you want to focus 
on when scanning is the pixel dimensions.  Everything else will be determined 
from those dimensions.  ppi or dpi is applied to the origianl pixel dimensions. 
 Scalling up the image 200% increases the pixel dimensions.  No matter what 
controls you use while scanning, pixel dimensions determine what your final 
output will be.  If its a 5x7 image you will scan and you want to print it at 
200% of its origianl size at 300ppi, the pixel dimensions will be 3000pixels x  
4200pixesl, allowing you to create a 10x14 @ 300ppi print from the original 
scan without having to interpolate the image up.  With the same scan you can 
print an image at 5x7 @ 600ppi or 3x5 @ 1000ppi.  Of course you would probably 
resize the image down for printing at those dimensions 5x7 @ 300ppi and 3x5 @ 
300ppi.  Depending on the purpose of your larger print, if it were to be a 
poster, you can go larger still by interpolating your original file to produce 
even larger images.  Of course as you interpolate up you begin to loose 
quality, but you can judge at what point you have reached your limit.  No 
matter how you scan the image, if its going to be larger than the original it 
will loose some qualities the original has at its 5x7 size.
 
Hope this helps.  Feel free to contact me.
 
 
 
Mike Rippy
IMA Photographer
mrippy at ima.museum
(317)920-2662 ext.191
 
IMA
4000 Michigan Road
Indianapolis, IN, USA  46208-3326
www.ima.museum

>>> jgrob at uh.edu 11/21/2006 4:32 PM >>>

Hello,

We are about to begin scanning a large group of early 20th century 
negatives. They are about 3.5" square. We will be creating master TIFFs of 
course, but we would like to be able to print larger than 3.5" images. Is 
it better to scale up and scan them at something like 200%, or to increase 
the resolution from 600 dpi to a higher dpi?

Thanks in advance,
Julie Grob


Julie Grob
Digital Projects and Instruction Librarian
Special Collections
114 University Libraries
University of Houston
Houston, TX 77204-2000
(713) 743-9744
jgrob at uh.edu

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