6 Replies Latest reply on Mar 19, 2014 12:28 PM by The Cycling Viking

Very confused with image quality.

The Cycling Viking Mar 19, 2014 10:56 AM

Hello all,

I've recently designed a jersey for my cycling club and I was asked to print off the design to make club key rings. This is the red, blue and white jersey in the photograph below. The quality was ok because there was not much detail. I know the text and the logo on the chest are a tad fuzzy but I just assumed that was due to the size of the print.

However, I've since been given a key ring completed by somebody else and the sharpness and the quality of even the smallest details are crystal clear. The jerseys are exactly the same size.

I tried a second design (the blue Garmin jersey) and although the details do not look too bad in this image they are still very fuzzy in comparison, there is no crispness to the images.

I've been producing the images in PS CS5 and saving them as PNG files (the sofware to display the jersey can not open PDS files).

Is this simply a case of these being pixel files and not vector files? the printer perhaps? It has a DPI of 9600 x 2400. Paper issues (using gloss photo paper).

I'm not very clued up when it comes to the Adobe products and choosing what software to use, but from the limited info I have obtained I suspect that the yellow jersey has been designed using Illustrator? If that is the case how has he been able to achieve such results?

Any advice/ info will be very welcome,

Kindest regrds

1. Re: Very confused with image quality.

jdanek Mar 19, 2014 11:13 AM (in response to The Cycling Viking)

Fuzziness could be from the distance from the original, lighting, Fstop, and your hand's slight movement hitting the shutter. I recommend getting a tri-pod and really lighting the sirt up a bit brighter. You do not mention what you are using to photograsph the shirt. That could be another factor.
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2. Re: Very confused with image quality.

The Cycling Viking Mar 19, 2014 11:20 AM (in response to jdanek)

Hi Jdanek,

apologies, it's not with the quality of the captured images, I only enclosed them as examples as to try to highlight my point.

I'm concerned with the quality of the logos/ images once I've printed them out on to the jersey templates. I'm trying to establish how the quality of the logos on the yellow jersey are so much clearer and cleaner than mine (on the blue jersey).
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3. Re: Very confused with image quality.

jdanek Mar 19, 2014 11:42 AM (in response to The Cycling Viking)

It might be anti-aliasing in Photoshop, but I'm not sure what you are asking. I would think a direct export from wherever you create the original, should hold up, especially in a file reduction to a key chain template. It could also be the resolution. I doubt it has anything to do with the printer or the glossy paper.
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4. Re: Very confused with image quality.

davetwo Mar 19, 2014 11:53 AM (in response to The Cycling Viking)

Hi, I imagine the other keyring was produced from vector artwork (using a program like illustrator). Photoshop is really king of 'photographic' images rather than this kind of hard-edge flat-color art. It's possible to create in Photoshop, but you need to be using paths and outputting as pdf.
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5. Re: Very confused with image quality.

The Cycling Viking Mar 19, 2014 12:26 PM (in response to jdanek)

Thanks for your help :) couple of things to google, especially the anti aliasing :)
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6. Re: Very confused with image quality.

The Cycling Viking Mar 19, 2014 12:28 PM (in response to davetwo)

Thank you Dave.

It's taken me weeks to get to grips with the very basics of PS. Looks like I need to switch to Illustrator :)

Such a complex world adobe! :)
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