Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Want to print photos but have an issue

Options
  • 19-06-2020 12:25am
    #1
    sallyanne12
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭


    Hi guys so I have an iPhone 6 and it’s full of photos and all my storage space is gone so decided to upload them to laptop. I noticed that some of the images that are completely clear on my iPhone are now blurry on the laptop. Why is this?
    Should I print them from my iPhone to get a clearer image or would the image come out the same printed from laptop usb?


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,707 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    The image should be the same, regardless of what device you view it on. If it's still on the phone, have a look at what information is available (not sure where this is on an iPhone, but should be under a "details" tab or similar). At the very least, that'll allow you to compare the file type and size with what's on the USB key/laptop.

    You can also zoom in on the image on the phone and see if, close up, you are seeing the same blurriness of the same details as on the laptop. If that's the case, then the image quality is not as good as you think, and just looks acceptable on your phone because of the small screen size and the iPhone's ability to display images a best it can. You might be able to clean up a slightly fuzzy image with Photoshop-type software, but otherwise when printed on photo-paper, the image will come out looking more like the one on the laptop regardless of where the file starts its journey.


  • Options
    #3
    sallyanne12
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭sallyanne12


    Thank you so much Celtic rambler. You’re so good replying. I know these kind of questions are boring but you helped me thank you :)


  • Options
    #4
    Kenny Logins
    Registered Users Posts: 9,061 ✭✭✭Kenny Logins


    How are you transferring to the laptop?


  • Options
    #5
    sallyanne12
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭sallyanne12


    Kenny Logins wrote: »
    How are you transferring to the laptop?

    Hi kenny. I’m using the cable that comes with the iPhone and plugging it into the laptop and just downloading to laptop from my phone.
    The image is clear even when zoomed in on the iPhone. But it’s blurry when zoomed on the laptop


  • Options
    #6
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,466 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    are you using windows on you laptop?
    if so, can you right click on the image downloaded to your laptop, select 'properties' at the bottom of the pop up menu
    and then in the window that opens, click the 'details' tab; i'd be interested to see what the field i have highlighted here says:

    517208.png


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #7
    sallyanne12
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭sallyanne12


    magicbastarder wrote: »
    are you using windows on you laptop?
    if so, can you right click on the image downloaded to your laptop, select 'properties' at the bottom of the pop up menu
    and then in the window that opens, click the 'details' tab; i'd be interested to see what the field i have highlighted here says:

    517208.png

    Hi magicbastarder,
    The field you highlighted said
    Dimensions: 3024 x 4032
    Width: 3024 pixels
    Height: 4032 pixels

    (I’m really bad with photos and computers)
    What does this mean?
    Thank you


  • Options
    #8
    magicbastarder
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Arts Moderators, Sports Moderators Posts: 48,466 CMod ✭✭✭✭magicbastarder


    that's 12 megapixels; so it's the full image. i was curious as to whether there was a thumbnail which had been downloaded rather than the full image.


  • Options
    #9
    antix80
    Registered Users Posts: 2,419 ✭✭✭antix80


    I'd say you're just zooming in very close on your pc. It's likely your screen isn't as clear and sharp as your phone's screen, it's a lot bigger and the resolution is lower.
    Zoom out so the photo only takes up half of your screen. If it looks ok, it will probably print ok.


  • Options
    #10
    sallyanne12
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭sallyanne12


    antix80 wrote: »
    I'd say you're just zooming in very close on your pc. It's likely your screen isn't as clear and sharp as your phone's screen, it's a lot bigger and the resolution is lower.
    Zoom out so the photo only takes up half of your screen. If it looks ok, it will probably print ok.

    Yes but when I zoom in completely on my iPhone screen, the image is crystal clear. Then it’s blurred on the computer. Weird..
    Do you guys think it will print the same whether I print from my USB (With the blurry image) or iPhone directly?


  • Options
    #11
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,707 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    sallyanne12 wrote: »
    Yes but when I zoom in completely on my iPhone screen, the image is crystal clear. Then it’s blurred on the computer.

    Do you know the resolution of your screen? If not, and it's a windows system, right click on an empty part of the desktop, select "Screen resolution" and tell us what it says.
    sallyanne12 wrote: »
    Do you guys think it will print the same whether I print from my USB (With the blurry image) or iPhone directly?

    Yes. But ... when you talk about printing, are you talking about taking it to a photo-printing service, a self-service machine, or printing it on a home printer?


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #12
    sallyanne12
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭sallyanne12


    CelticRambler wrote: »
    Do you know the resolution of your screen? If not, and it's a windows system, right click on an empty part of the desktop, select "Screen resolution" and tell us what it says.



    Yes. But ... when you talk about printing, are you talking about taking it to a photo-printing service, a self-service machine, or printing it on a home printer?

    When I went to settings and display, it says display resolution= 1366 x 768

    I’m talking about printing from a photo printing service :)


  • Options
    #13
    Kenny Logins
    Registered Users Posts: 9,061 ✭✭✭Kenny Logins


    sallyanne12 wrote: »
    When I went to settings and display, it says display resolution= 1366 x 768

    I’m talking about printing from a photo printing service :)

    That screen just isn't capable of showing high detail at the same viewing distance as your phone.

    An image that is 4000 pixels wide should print up around 13 inches wide with no noticeable quality loss.


  • Options
    #14
    sallyanne12
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭sallyanne12


    Kenny Logins wrote: »
    That screen just isn't capable of showing high detail at the same viewing distance as your phone.

    An image that is 4000 pixels wide should print up around 13 inches wide with no noticeable quality loss.

    Yea when I view the image it doesn’t show it the size of my screen. It shows it a lot smaller than the screen size of the laptop. Shows about half or a third the size. The laptop isn’t the best it’s an acer. I’m only Using it as a way to transfer all my photos to USB for printing but my worry is if I’m ruining the images by using this bad laptop, or maybe they will in fact be the same no matter where I print from??


  • Options
    #15
    antix80
    Registered Users Posts: 2,419 ✭✭✭antix80


    Your photo is twice the resolution of your screen. Your computer can't display it. Depending on what software you're using to view it, it could appear even worse. It should print fine. Shouldn't make a difference whether you print from the phone or computer.


  • Options
    #16
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,707 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    As long as you're only transferring the files from one device to the other, the image info won't be affected at all. The only way you can ruin the image is by opening it with an editing program*, changing the settings and saving it in the same place and with the same name as the original. Even if you know what you're doing, you shouldn't be doing that! Just copy all the files from the phone onto the USB drive, and that's it, job done.

    * Do make sure that you're using the laptop's image viewer software, not something like MS Paint, to look through the photos when you're selecting which ones to send for printing. MS Paint will sometimes take it upon itself to compress the file you've just looked at, which will result in a loss of detail. You can see if this has happened by looking at the file size of that image compared to the ones you haven't opened (it'll be a lot smaller).


  • Options
    #17
    Heebie
    Registered Users Posts: 1,302 ✭✭✭Heebie


    Something to think about here is the resolution of your monitor vs. the resolution of your phone's screen, as well as the size of the pixels in each display.
    Your phone is probably at least full HD, maybe even 4K, at a small size, so individual pixels are teeny tiny itsy bitsy teeny weeny. The screen resulting you mentioned is lower than 1k, and the individual pixels would be huge.
    It could easily be that sound making it look much less sharp on your screen than on your phone.


  • Options
    #18
    sallyanne12
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭sallyanne12


    CelticRambler wrote: »
    As long as you're only transferring the files from one device to the other, the image info won't be affected at all. The only way you can ruin the image is by opening it with an editing program*, changing the settings and saving it in the same place and with the same name as the original. Even if you know what you're doing, you shouldn't be doing that! Just copy all the files from the phone onto the USB drive, and that's it, job done.

    * Do make sure that you're using the laptop's image viewer software, not something like MS Paint, to look through the photos when you're selecting which ones to send for printing. MS Paint will sometimes take it upon itself to compress the file you've just looked at, which will result in a loss of detail. You can see if this has happened by looking at the file size of that image compared to the ones you haven't opened (it'll be a lot smaller).

    Well I have them saved to a yellow folder in my laptop desktop. Think it’s in documents. Is it ok to now transfer to USB? Thanks


  • Options
    #19
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,707 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    If it's an iPhone using Retina, it doesn't even use real pixels to display the image (well it does, sort of ... only the ones in the image aren't the same as the ones displayed - all kinds of Apple Magic happens in between - but I think we'd be heading outside of the OP's technical comfort zone if we went too far down that discussion path! :) )

    @sallyanne12: if you have any doubts about the quality of the image, you could always copy one file onto a USB key and take it to a self-service photo machine, print a single image on photo-quality paper and see if you're happy with the result before sending a job lot to the photo printing service.


  • Options
    #20
    antix80
    Registered Users Posts: 2,419 ✭✭✭antix80


    sallyanne12 wrote: »
    Well I have them saved to a yellow folder in my laptop desktop. Think it’s in documents. Is it ok to now transfer to USB? Thanks

    Yes


  • Options
    #21
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,707 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    sallyanne12 wrote: »
    Well I have them saved to a yellow folder in my laptop desktop. Think it’s in documents. Is it ok to now transfer to USB? Thanks


    Should be.

    Did you use the Windows dialogue "import photos from device ..." to copy them (or similar)? If you did, then it's very unlikely anything happened to them during the transfer process.


  • Advertisement
  • Options
    #22
    sallyanne12
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭sallyanne12


    So to download the photos I went into “file explorer” and then “this pc” And then “Apple iPhone” and then “internal storage” and then “DCIM” and then there were 7 folders “100cloud” + “101 Apple” + “102 Apple” + “103 Apple” + “104 Apple” + “105 Apple” + “106 Apple”
    And then I copied the “DCIM” folder and pasted it and saved it as a folder on desktop. Is this ok or would I have been better doing it a different way?


  • Options
    #23
    antix80
    Registered Users Posts: 2,419 ✭✭✭antix80


    sallyanne12 wrote: »
    So to download the photos I went into “file explorer” and then “this pc” And then “Apple iPhone” and then “internal storage” and then “DCIM” and then there were 7 folders “100cloud” + “101 Apple” + “102 Apple” + “103 Apple” + “104 Apple” + “105 Apple” + “106 Apple”
    And then I copied the “DCIM” folder and pasted it and saved it as a folder on desktop. Is this ok or would I have been better doing it a different way?

    That's how to do it.


  • Options
    #24
    sallyanne12
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭sallyanne12


    CelticRambler wrote: »
    Should be.

    Did you use the Windows dialogue "import photos from device ..." to copy them (or similar)? If you did, then it's very unlikely anything happened to them during the transfer process.

    Is the way I copied and pasted the files to save them unlikely to make them blurred? Is it just a good a way to do it as importing from iPhone?
    Thanks so much and also some of the photos are less blurred than others. Thanks again


  • Options
    #25
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,707 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    sallyanne12 wrote: »
    Is the way I copied and pasted the files to save them unlikely to make them blurred?

    It definitely won't affect the quality of the image in any way. That's the way Windows was designed to copy files (the import dialog came later; it works just as well, but what you've done is more "traditional" ... nothing wrong with it - that's how I transfer my files all the time).

    You've made exact copies of the original files, so if the picture doesn't look the same, it's due to differences in the two screens and the software that runs them, as described above. However, if you're seeing that some images are blurry and others aren't, then I think they probably are poorer quality shots and the Apple software has "fixed" them to a certain extent.


  • Options
    #26
    sallyanne12
    Registered Users Posts: 259 ✭✭sallyanne12


    Thank you so much Celtic rambler and to all who commented. I’m more relaxed now that I know. I wish I was better with photography like you guys :-)
    Take care of yourselves thanks again, sallyanne


Advertisement