printing

[JMC]

i'm sure this has been covered well here and if there's an existing thread that addresses my question please provide the link

i'm a little confused about printing. i have an image file of approx 3MB/3008x2000 pixels/300 resolution. people are telling me i can't print over an 8x12. now i was told with my D70s shooting in RAW and converting to jpeg that poster size (20x30) would look OK. am i missing something?

any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Mr. Pickles]

In theory, you are not missing something.

A lot of people think that you need 300dpi to print. Some printers actually like 240dpi as their "native". Anyway, the more dots per inch, the better, but apparently these pixel people have never tried to figure out where a 20x30 comes from.

Using interpolation, most print service companies (MPix, WHCC, etc.), or if you're doing it at home you can use QImage software (or others), will get you a pretty darn good looking 20x30 if you have a nice clean 2000x3000 pixel image. If you stand 3" from the print, then you'll probably say it is pixelated and "ugly". But do you, or are you suppose to, stand 3" from large images in museums, or billboards? I think not.

Typically, 150dpi will yield pretty nice results. But, if your image isn't really good quality, then the large print won't help it any.

But you can certainly get more than 8x12 out of a D70s image. And a bazillion people have print 13x19's off their home printers with a very similar 6mp image file. 20x30 is pushing it, but it isn't impossible.