Scanning to get a large size print..

bbam

Hi folks..
Just wanted to pick your brains on something..

I have this Canon scaner
http://www.canon-europe.com/For_Home/Product_Finder/Scanners/Flatbed/canoscan_lide_110/

It states it scans at 1200*4800 dpi
At maximum scanning resolution will this be sufficient to scan a regular photo (5*7 or 8*10) and reproduce it up to A1 size..

Effects

There's only so much detail that the scanner can take from a print. I read somewhere recently that scanning prints any higher than 600dpi won't produce any better results. I'm not sure how accurate that is though. I'd say Daire Q might know a bit more about this.

Effects

This site here actually says it's 300dpi.
"But enlarged 35 mm color photo prints effectively stop yielding additional detail when scanned at more than about 300 dpi. This is a problem when trying to scale them larger, to still have sufficient detail to print well. The only reason I dwell on this so much is because everyone wants to scan a 4x5 inch color print, and print it to be 8x10 inch photo quality, and there is this complication involved. You can do it of course, it is good up to a point, but your greatly enlarged image won't have all of the detail you might desire or imagine, and I am trying to explain why. "

bbam

Thanks so much.
So a higher resolution scanner will make no difference.
I should scan at the highest resolution this scanner has and then see how big the print still looks good at.

ScumLord

300dpi would make sense as that's the resolution the magazines print at so your hardly going to get more information than is actually there.

Most large prints look pretty bad up close but they're intended to be seen from a distance so it doesn't matter.

It can all depend on what you want the output for, if you want a nice high quality print at that size it probably won't happen, scanners introduce noise as well. If you want a large print that people will glance at or only be able to see from a bit of distance you won't need a very high quality print.

Snowie

260 or 300 dpi, it really depends what size you want them printed to.
Tho pre printing you need to really put some time in preparing the digital copy before going to print. To get the best out of your picture..

If you just scan it and send it of it'le look awfull also depends who you get it printed bye.

chisel

Your best option for a large print is to scan the negative on a decent film scanner.