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Print Quality Poorer than Word?

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Print Quality Poorer than Word? bumpkin 10 Jun 03:59
  Print Quality Poorer than Word? Olivier Lecarme 10 Jun 06:45
   Print Quality Poorer than Word? bumpkin 10 Jun 09:31
    Print Quality Poorer than Word? David Gowers 10 Jun 12:38
  Print Quality Poorer than Word? John Culleton 25 Jul 14:35
Print Quality Poorer than Word? Jernej Simon?i? 10 Jun 12:38
  Print Quality Poorer than Word? bumpkin 11 Jun 04:51
2009-06-10 03:59:10 UTC (over 15 years ago)
postings
3

Print Quality Poorer than Word?

The graphics guy sent me our logo as a .jpg so I created a new file with the appropriate dimensions in the lasest GIMP for windows. I imported and scaled down the logo to the appropriate size and placed it at the top, finished adding the text, combined the layers and exported as a .tiff for the printer. The logo and text resolution on the print out was terrible... I tried printing it in the original GIMP format and as jpeg... same quality.

I then tried created the same add in Word 2007 and the image and text quality was excellent :( I am a linux user and was rather frustrated and confused when Word produced better print quality than GIMP. Any explanation or help greatly appreciated. Thanks

-B

Olivier Lecarme
2009-06-10 06:45:05 UTC (over 15 years ago)

Print Quality Poorer than Word?

bumpkin wrote:

The graphics guy sent me our logo as a .jpg so I created a new file with the appropriate dimensions in the lasest GIMP for windows. I imported and scaled down the logo to the appropriate size and placed it at the top, finished adding the text, combined the layers and exported as a .tiff for the printer. The logo and text resolution on the print out was terrible... I tried printing it in the original GIMP format and as jpeg... same quality.

I then tried created the same add in Word 2007 and the image and text quality was excellent :( I am a linux user and was rather frustrated and confused when Word produced better print quality than GIMP. Any explanation or help greatly appreciated. Thanks

Your problem is obviously a problem of resolution, especially when you compare a raster application like GIMP to a vectorial application like Word. What were your "appropriate sizes"? I suspect you appreciated them on your screen at 100 dpi, while your printer needs at least 300 dpi.

2009-06-10 09:31:38 UTC (over 15 years ago)
postings
3

Print Quality Poorer than Word?

bumpkin wrote:

The graphics guy sent me our logo as a .jpg so I created a new file with

the

appropriate dimensions in the lasest GIMP for windows. I imported and

scaled

down the logo to the appropriate size and placed it at the top, finished adding the text, combined the layers and exported as a .tiff for the

printer.

The logo and text resolution on the print out was terrible... I tried

printing

it in the original GIMP format and as jpeg... same quality.

I then tried created the same add in Word 2007 and the image and text

quality

was excellent :( I am a linux user and was rather frustrated and confused

when

Word produced better print quality than GIMP. Any explanation or help

greatly

appreciated. Thanks

Your problem is obviously a problem of resolution, especially when you compare a raster application like GIMP to a vectorial application like Word. What were your "appropriate sizes"? I suspect you appreciated them on your screen at 100 dpi, while your printer needs at least 300 dpi.

Thanks for the reply. First I created a document to be the size of the

entire quarter page ad, 3.75" by 4.75". Then, I opened the .jpeg of the logo and dragged the corner to scale it to be slightly more narrow than the width of the add while maintaining the approximate aspect ratio. I used the same process to recreate the ad in Word 2007 and it printed and the quality I was expecting. Whereas, in GIMP, both the text and logo were printed at a much lower resolution.

David Gowers
2009-06-10 12:38:22 UTC (over 15 years ago)

Print Quality Poorer than Word?

On Wed, Jun 10, 2009 at 5:01 PM, bumpkin wrote:

bumpkin wrote:

The graphics guy sent me our logo as a .jpg so I created a new file with

the

appropriate dimensions in the lasest GIMP for windows. I imported and

scaled

down the logo to the appropriate size and placed it at the top, finished adding the text, combined the layers and exported as a .tiff for the

printer.

The logo and text resolution on the print out was terrible... I tried

printing

it in the original GIMP format and as jpeg... same quality.

I then tried created the same add in Word 2007 and the image and text

quality

was excellent :( I am a linux user and was rather frustrated and confused

when

Word produced better print quality than GIMP. Any explanation or help

greatly

appreciated. Thanks

Your problem is obviously a problem of resolution, especially when you compare a raster application like GIMP to a vectorial application like Word. What were your "appropriate sizes"? I suspect you appreciated them on your screen at 100 dpi, while your printer needs at least 300 dpi.

Thanks for the reply. First I created a document to be the size of the

entire quarter page ad, 3.75" by 4.75".

That size is only meaningful in the context of the dpi used. at 100 dpi, that would be only 375x475 pixels, which is indeed very chunky. Whereas at 300 dpi, it would be 1125x1425.

To be honest, it confuses me that you would use a raster editing application like GIMP to perform a task that is essentially vector-based, instead of choosing to use a vector-based application like Inkscape or Scribus. Personally, I would use Inkscape for such a task.
However, you can certainly achieve what you want with good quality in GIMP, through applying improved understanding of the raster medium (eg the meaning and use of dpi/ppi)

David

Jernej Simon?i?
2009-06-10 12:38:25 UTC (over 15 years ago)

Print Quality Poorer than Word?

On Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:31:38 +0200 (CEST), bumpkin wrote:

Thanks for the reply. First I created a document to be the size of the

entire quarter page ad, 3.75" by 4.75".

What DPI did you set? 3,75in at 72 DPI will look fine on screen, but terrible printed, while at 300 DPI it'll look somewhat large on screen, but will print fine.

2009-06-11 04:51:21 UTC (over 15 years ago)
postings
3

Print Quality Poorer than Word?

On Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:31:38 +0200 (CEST), bumpkin wrote:

Thanks for the reply. First I created a document to be the size of the

entire quarter page ad, 3.75" by 4.75".

What DPI did you set? 3,75in at 72 DPI will look fine on screen, but terrible printed, while at 300 DPI it'll look somewhat large on screen, but will print fine.

I didn't set any dpi, just assumed it wouldn't degrade the quality. I will

look for this setting in the print options and see if it solves the issue. Thanks for the help folks.

John Culleton
2009-07-25 14:35:59 UTC (over 15 years ago)

Print Quality Poorer than Word?

On Tuesday 09 June 2009 09:59:10 pm bumpkin wrote:

The graphics guy sent me our logo as a .jpg so I created a new file with the appropriate dimensions in the lasest GIMP for windows. I imported and scaled down the logo to the appropriate size and placed it at the top, finished adding the text, combined the layers and exported as a .tiff for the printer. The logo and text resolution on the print out was terrible... I tried printing it in the original GIMP format and as jpeg... same quality.

I then tried created the same add in Word 2007 and the image and text quality was excellent :( I am a linux user and was rather frustrated and confused when Word produced better print quality than GIMP. Any explanation or help greatly appreciated. Thanks

-B

As my father would say, there are horses for courses.

Although Gimp has some nice type effects it is not really a typesetting engine. In a book or an ad small type is vector in nature. Gimp is basically bitmap in nature.

I find that using a combination of tools works best. For example you could create your ad in Gimp except for the small type. Import that image into Scribus and set the type there overlaying the graphic art. You could use TeX also (particularly the Context variant) but that is a lot more trouble.

For examples of Gimp/Scribus combination images please visit http://wexfordpress.net/illos.html. Look at the Loon Lake Legacy romantic novel example in particular. The main title type is from a Gimp logo with some layers supressed. The spine and the back cover type is set by Scribus. This particular book cover image is created at 72 DPI for web use. For a real book I would use 300 DPI.