How big can I print 3MP picture?
 

I have some 3 megapixel pictures that I took with my Sony DSC-P100/P120. I was wondering, what is the largest I can print these without losing quality? 8x10 photo? Can I do a poster?

Are you planning on printing them or are you planning on having a lab do it? I'll assume a lab since you mentioned poster sized.

My opinion is that you really shouldn't try to go bigger than an 11x14. Anything above that and you'll really start being dependant on the quality of the RIP software being used by the lab. Even at 11x14 it wouldn't surprise me if you'd see slight pixelization in a print from an el-cheapo lab.

I start to see pixelation at 42x30cm (16x12.5) using 6MP images, so I think Billiam is probably right on. Anything more than 8x10 might start looking wonky because you're going to be lower than 200dpi.

I posted this spreadsheet a litte while ago:
https://static.flickr.com/52/108157725_a43c17bade_o.jpg

Here's the original post: https://acurazine.com/forums/showpos...5&postcount=58

No offense, but I don't like your question.

A picture of the same size will be sharper if the original source has more megapixels. Likewise, for a particular image, the larger you print it, the less sharp it is. That's pretty much a fact of life.

The exception is if you print so small that the printer can't print at that high of density. But you see my point.


Let me rephrase your question to make it more useful:
"How big can I print a 3 meg jpeg, and still have people go say 'hey, great picture' versus 'wow, is that made out of legos?'

To give you some food for thought, I have three 8x10 pictures that I like to show people at work. Almost all the time, the reaction is, 'wow, great picture. What resolution is this camera? 5 MP? 6?'. I smirk and happily say - those were taken with my Olympus 2020 - a 2.2 meg camera.

So you can print much larger than you'd expect. I have a friend who has a couple of very nice 2 meg pictures blown up to 16x20. They are framed in her husband's office, next to a couple of 16x20 pictures shot with a 6 meg camera. I would bet money very few people realize they were shot with different cameras.

Keep these two things in mind:

1) The bigger the picture, the further back people will stand to look at it.
Imho, Most people rarely glance at a picture for more than a few seconds. They're not going to stand right next to it and pixel peep. So even though you blow something up large, and the pixels are bigger, people will generally stand further back anyway, which makes it less of a problem.

2) Certain pictures blow up better than others. Landscapes and single object pictures (like say, your dog, or a sunset), work well. Given a single object, people will generally stand far enough back to view the entire object. If it's a group photo of many people, you have slightly less leeway because they will start looking at each person, focusing on tighter area. One of my 8x10s is this one:
http://wizardsworks.org/chod/oz/11-08/Pb080039-md.html but people are still surprised when I tell them it's a digital picture.

So just print out one or two at different sizes, and see how you like them. I printed out my 8x10s as a joke - I was SO SURE they'd be crap. Instead, I was so happy with them I hang them up on my wall. Are they razor sharp? Of course not. Are they nice enough that everyone who sees it is happy with it? You bet.

as mentioned. basically, u can still print big, but u just need to stand futher to the image.

but to answer ur question in the simplest term. 8x10 is prob the biggest u can go b4
it started to get pixilated.