General Category > General Discussion
Question about quality?
warmsignal:
I am a newbie to all of this, I have read all of the FAQS and Guides and am still a bit unclear as to what it is I might be doing wrong.
Even though I shouldn't have been, I suppose I was expecting next to original insert quality with these print-outs. To my understand, the quality of the cover ultimately depends on the scan, is that right? Or is it simply that realisticly priced printers can't reproduce that kind of quality in a print? There is also the possibility that I'm not quite doing something right, while the normal result usually is of that quality.
All the scans I can find on the web of a lot of the games I'm looking for are 300dpi, it seems harder to find anything above that. Again, I'm assuming that a higher dpi would mean a clearer, crisper result. I don't know a lot about this stuff.
In my case, I printed out a scan from the site and instantly noticed a couple of things. Maybe I'm too picky, I think I probably am. But two things I noticed were the color being a bit darker than the original (which I could live with), and what really bothered me, the copyright text. It's almost too blurry to read, as where the original is perfectly clear (as long as you have good eyes). I was using Photoshop (as shown in the guide), a $300 Kodak printer, and the highest grade of photopaper.
Is there maybe something I'm not doing right here? With the software? The printer? The paper? Do I need to find a scans with a higher dpi, or am I just expecting too much?
Any information is appreciated.
Doom:
That's something that bothered me too. I hate how blurry/unreadable the copyright text is from a 300dpi retail cover.
Zelimpdna:
It could also depend on the specific cover you're printing.
The quality, especially when it comes to small text, varies greatly depending on whether the cover is using the original scanned text [and also then what sort of condition the original scanned cover was in] or whether it's been re-created, as is the case with most of the custom covers.
All the custom covers I've printed have perfectly clear and readable copyright text, as do most of the retail covers. But some, which had to work with poorer-quality scans, or that I've got from other websites, are unreadable.
The darker issue could be down to a number of things. The cover might just have been made a little darker, either on purpose or accidentally. Or your printer, if it has a darkness/contrast setting, might be set a little too dark.
What cover specifically did you have the problem with?
shenske:
--- Quote from: warmsignal on July 25, 2009, 09:14:04 PM ---In my case, I printed out a scan from the site and instantly noticed a couple of things. Maybe I'm too picky, I think I probably am. But two things I noticed were the color being a bit darker than the original (which I could live with), and what really bothered me, the copyright text. It's almost too blurry to read, as where the original is perfectly clear (as long as you have good eyes). I was using Photoshop (as shown in the guide), a $300 Kodak printer, and the highest grade of photopaper.
--- End quote ---
A lot of the problem with a dark print is most people using photoshop unknowingly use the CYMK colors. Most printers print in RGB colors so the colors are converted resulting in a darker set of colors. There is also the fact that our computer screen is much brighter than what comes out on the print. There are a few covers i have made that have dissappointing results from the print being too dark. Its just one of those win some loose some :-\
tiktektak:
There are also quite some covers on our site which were uploaded prior to our installement of rigorous quality rules.
This means that almost everything is 300dpi but only covers uploaded in the last 2 years have been really really throughly checked. Please also never forget that we are no robots but humans so there can alyways be an bad qual cover uploaded by accident!