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I am making posters at 20"x30" for my photo business, and have made a template of this size. I have added photos (large files) and some graphics, and now my computer runs very slow. New Dell Laptop with Vista, 1gb of memory. My questions is, should I resize the template down to a 10x15, or 5x7.5 so that it is not as large, then resize it up to the 20x30. WIll I lose print quality. Just looking to have the computer run faster in my design. Any help would be great. Thanks.
Rob
With a poster this size, I'm sure you're pushing the limits of your images as far as maintaining quality. My guess is that you should work with the originals. You wont be able to upscale the images (after resizing) and retain quality. However, if your graphics are vector based, they would be fine.
I personally think you're stuck with the slowness if you want to maintain quality.
What type of image files are you working with ?
My images are large, and can reprint at a 20x30 by themselves, as I shoot professionally, in a RAW format, then convert them to a JPG. They can be 7-8MB. SO quality of the images are fine,but large, it just the running of my laptop. I took a look yesterday, and with 1gb of ram, the computer runin gwindows Vista before I open any programs, is using 50% of this Ram. When I open my poster, with 4 images on it, it is using 94-95% of the available RAM, thus I can see my slow problems. My current poster file is 37MB...wow. That is why I am wondering if I start at a 10x15, then increase the size for print that I would be okay. The graphics are vector based.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crypto
I'm thinking I will have to purchase another 1GB of Ram, or find a way to have my computer not use the RAM memory like it does, when I go to work in Paint Shop Pro.
I remember the End It All program, but looks like they do not have that for Vista. Anybody have any ideas, or a link I can go to, to temp shut off services/processes, or how to gain Ram, when I am just going to be working on these posters? Trying to work on them right away for customers, but I think I am going to have to look for additional RAM also in the near future.
Thanks for your help, and if you, or any others can give me an idea how to free up RAM, wow 50% just sitting waiting to be used, that would be great.
Rob
Shutting off services would really only save you processor cycles. Probably not much memory, if any. About the only thing you can do is add more RAM and make sure you don't have any other programs open while working.
You could try to figure out the image size needed for your printed poster. Once the poster is printed, Will they be 8X10, 4X6? If you can figure that out, resize them.
Not knowing what your process is to create the images on your poster, If you copy and paste these large images, you may want to clear the clip board often. Also, under program preferences, I think you can limit the number of steps it saves to undo.
Most of these image processing tools are memory intensive, especially working with 10-12 Megapixel images.
Thanks for the info. I do resize the images, so I have that covered. How do I clear my clipboard? Each time I shut down PSP, it will tell me I have alot of items on my clipboard, and ask me if I want to save them for next time, or something to that effect. I always click no, but how would I clear the clipboard will I am working on my poster? That may help me for this, and other projects I am working on. I really apprieciate you responding to my posts.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crypto
No problem. Like you, I also shoot hi-res images and had to add 2GB's of RAM to help me out.
The "Empty Clipboard" option is under "EDIT". Not sure if it's in every version, but it should be. I have XI
Are you using layers to add each photo, or just adding every photo to the same background? When I do this, I create a new layer for every image.
I Have not been in here for a bit but this might help. As you are starting with Raw images chances are that they are 16 bits per channel reducing to 8 bits will save a lot of ram. Unless the images are badly exposed and you need the 16 bits of space to correct them nothing will be lost by changing to 8 bits after all its what the monitor and printer use.
The next bit is print resolution. 200 ppi means the smallest detail in the image will be 1/200th of an inch If your eyes can see better than that by all means use more res. otherwise its just using more memory
Producing a smaller image and then resizing up by means of inpolaration, the art of manufacturing pixels by guess work, will produce low quality.
Trev