Digital BW, The Print

Andrew,

When talking to service bureaus or other companies to have negatives 
scanned they generally are giving you an output resolution at the size 
you want to print at. (make sure you are talking the same size finished 
print!) What you really want to know is the input resolution, which is 
the dpi of at the size of the negative.

In either case 100 output res would not be acceptable. 200 or 300 dpi 
might be okay. I prefer 600 myself.

A 300 dpi output scan for a 12X15 would be equal to a 900dpi input scan 
of the neg.

Some feel that 2000 to 2500dpi at the negative size is adequate to 
capture all of the detail on the film. This would be 667 to 833 dpi 
output res for a 12X15. I have done 2400 dpi sans with my old Howtek 
but the file sizes go into the hundreds of MB which I generally down 
sample prior to printing, but I still have the high res file if I ever 
want to print larger.

I would suggest getting your own scanner so that you have creative 
control at this critical step.

Best,
Martin



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "ag000002002" 
<a.goldberg@...> wrote:
>
> I wish to scan some of my old work and print approximately 12" X 15"
> prints on an Epson Photo 2200.  I can get a drum scan locally at 100
> dpi, 200 dpi and 300 dpi.  Would someone please explain how to
> determine what I need?  Does it depend on the printer or are the ones
> available all about the same?   Soon, I may purchase one of the new
> Epson printers, for example the Epson Photo 2400.  Since the scans are
> expensive, I would like to scan them today with the newer printers in
> mind.  Thanks in advance.
> 
> Andrew.
>