Best Settings for A4

[pete_traynor]

Hi there,

I’m new to Painter and was hoping that some of you could point me in the right direction. I bought A Wacom A5 tablet that came with Painter Essentials 3 and I have downloaded a 30 day trail of X. I have just been playing around but now want to start printing things off, so…

What are the best settings (pixels, inches, CM etc) to make the canvas if I want to print out in A4. Also, the image is little blocky at times so If any one could tell me the best resolution to set at, that would be great.

So basically I just want to know how to start the best possible session to eventually print out in A4.

Thanks alot for any help you can offer.

Pete

[Jinny Brown]

Hi Pete,

I'm in the U.S. and haven't memorized A4, etc. size equivalents in inches but my research this morning at Paper Size Conversion - SysCon Technology, Inc. tells me A4 is the equivalent of 8.27 x 11.69 inches. Except for that one, the rest I calculated using Painter's New dialog box and after entering 8.27 x 11.69 inches and a Resolution of 300 ppi, changing the unit of measure to get the rest:

8.27 x 11.69 inches at 300 ppi

2481 x 3507 pixels at 300 ppi

21.006 x 29.693 CM at 300 ppi

49.806 x 70.403 picas at 300 ppi


Since I use inches when I plan to set up a new Canvas for eventual printing, and since 300 ppi is a generally safe Resolution, if I wanted to print at A4 size I'd use:

8.27 x 11.69 inches at 300 ppi

It's not likely I'd want to print at A4, so what I'd probably do is set up my Canvas at:

8.5 x 11 inches at 300 ppi since that's a standard paper size in the U.S.

Or, if I wanted it printed at some other size, I'd set my new Canvas up using those dimensions in inches and set the Resolution to 300 ppi.


If you're going to have your art printed by a print shop, the best thing to do is to talk to their expert before you start to find out what Resolution (PPI or pixels per inch) to use that will work with their print machines and the kind of image you'll be printing.


Jin

[handrawn]

Jinny

should that not be 21.006 x 29.693 CM at 300 ppi [- assuming cm=centimetre]

[Jinny Brown]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for catching that. You're right, and I've edited my post to fix the typo.

If you see any other errors, let me know and if I don't stop by soon enough, feel free to post a big, loud, correction.


Jin

[pete_traynor]

Thanks for that Jin, your info was great! Does it make any difference whether you choose your canvas measurements in Inches, Pixels or CM. Are there advantages and disadvantages for each?

[handrawn]

Hi Pete

I'm not a painter expert like Jinny, but the general principle is the same for other programs too.

There are two prime variables here:

1] Page size
2] The number of pixels you need per unit of measurement to print at sufficient level of detail [print resolution]

It does not matter what units of measurement you choose to use - just so long as you keep to the ratio between page size and pixel size - as defined by the number of pixels needed per unit of measurement.

In order to keep things simple print resolution is usually defined in pixels per inch [ppi]. It therefore makes sense in this case to work either in inches or in pixels.
If resolution were defined as pixels per cm, it would make sense to work in cm or pixels
And so on for other units
I would work in pixels.
It doesn't matter in absolute terms as long as you get the maths right

EDIT:
Once you have sorted the page size and the resolution most programs will work the pixel size out for you - make sure you are using the same units of measurement for both page size and resolution

[pete_traynor]

Cheers for that Steve, I will be trying all of this out later and hopefully it will all work out. Should I run into ant more troubles I’ll post another thread as both you and Jin have been of great help.

[handrawn]

always glad to help good luck

[Jinny Brown]

Steve,

When you open a new Canvas, set the unit of measure to whatever you understand (I understand inches, so that's what I use).

Type the dimensions for Width and Height

Then set the Resolution to 300 ppi. and click the OK button.

Later, if you use Canvas > Resize, you may notice the dimensions have been changed from inches to pixels. If that makes you nervous, change the unit of measure back to inches to make sure nothing's changed which it won't have done on its own.

One way to understand this is to use the following example:

Open a new Canvas 1000 x 1000 pixels at 300 ppi, then click the OK button.

Now use Canvas > Resize and change the unit of measure to inches for Width and Height. You'll see the image will print at 3.33 x 3.33 inches at 300 ppi.

To calculate the number of printed inches based on only the dimensions in pixels and the Resolution of 300 ppi:

Divide 1000 pixels by 300 pixels per inch and you have 3.33 inches.

Maybe you can see why I choose to open my new image using inches as the unit of measure for Width and Height. If not, I'll explain. It's because that's the unit of measure I understand and work with all the time, and it's the actual size I'll want to print the image. Also, I don't have to do any math to figure out what a certain Width and Height measured in pixels divided by 300 ppi will be when printed.


It just seems a lot more straightforward doing it that way.



Jin

[handrawn]

Jinny

Thanks that makes sense.

The reason I tend to work in pixels is I often don't know what size the image is going to be printed at when I make it, if indeed it gets printed at all.

A lot of it is for animation and the software that I use doesn't do print - or inches etc. - at all, so I have to work in pixels there - Ive got used to it.