Inkscape

Enlarge while preserving image quality

Asked by John McManus

I just got a 4.84 MB JPEG of my spiritual teacher sent to me from India. It is my favorite photo ever. I want to enlarge and print it at poster size (@ 48" x 36") without losing image quality. The store ("FedEx Office" in the U.S.) that will do the printing can only work with PDFs for some reason. So my basic question is how I can create the highest quality (most densely-pixilated) PDF from Inkster (?). I'm obviously not very graphics smart--just downloaded Inkster to do this one thing based on a post I saw--so pretty clear instructions for a dummy would be great:

1. Import image to Inkster.
2. Etc.
3. Etc.

Thanks in advance to the smart, kind soul who can help me.

John McManus
Washington, DC
202-680-8552

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Solved by:
Oleg Koptev
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Revision history for this message
Best Oleg Koptev (koptev-oleg) said : 		#1

Hello John

Obviously Inkscape is 'vector' editor - i.e. it used primarily for clipart
design. In your case you have 'raster' photo - for handling with those
obviously used raster editors, like Photoshop, GIMP and so on, cause it have
much more power for dealing with photos.

So you need to open your photo in any raster editor (give a try to Paint.NET
or GIMP - they're both free), then choose Resize. Here you need to decide -
which resolution you need. Let's count it - for example we choose resolution
as 150 dpi - I think for such size it will be enough. So we have -
150dpi*48"=7200 px - for width and 5400 px for height.

In the options I advise you to choose Lancos or Bicubic interpolation - give
a try to both and choose more suit result image.
Well the final stage - if PDF is so critical - you could print with PDF
printer (give Google a try - http://bit.ly/aYAacn )

Hope something will help you.

Cheers, Oleg

Revision history for this message
John McManus (mcmanusj) said : 		#2

Thanks, Oleg. GIMP worked perfectly. (Someone gave me bad information about needing to have an SVG editor in order to enhance an image. Also, since this isn't true, I did not need a PDF printer--which was necessary only because most shops with large printers can't print .svg files. Of course, they can print JPEG files!)

Thanks.
~JM

Revision history for this message
Oleg Koptev (koptev-oleg) said : 		#3

I'm happy that you solve your problem:)

Cheers, Oleg

Revision history for this message
John McManus (mcmanusj) said : 		#4

=)

www.mooji.org or YouTube search on "Mooji".

-----Original Message-----
>From: Oleg Koptev <email address hidden>
>Sent: Mar 30, 2010 1:36 PM
>To: <email address hidden>
>Subject: Re: [Question #105962]: Enlarge while preserving image quality
>
>Your question #105962 on Inkscape changed:
>https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/105962
>
>Oleg Koptev posted a new comment:
>I'm happy that you solve your problem:)
>
>Cheers, Oleg
>
>--
>You received this question notification because you are a direct
>subscriber of the question.

Revision history for this message
John McManus (mcmanusj) said : 		#5

-----Original Message-----
>From: Oleg Koptev <email address hidden>
>Sent: Mar 30, 2010 1:36 PM
>To: <email address hidden>
>Subject: Re: [Question #105962]: Enlarge while preserving image quality
>
>Your question #105962 on Inkscape changed:
>https://answers.launchpad.net/inkscape/+question/105962
>
>Oleg Koptev posted a new comment:
>I'm happy that you solve your problem:)
>
>Cheers, Oleg
>
>--
>You received this question notification because you are a direct
>subscriber of the question.