Would I Like a printer for Panoramas.. ?

[The Hat]

I hear so many guys say that they’d love to do panoramas at home, but most if not all of the Canon printers available can’t handle large size prints.

I have A3+ print capability for years but in all that time I’ve only ever needed to do two A2 photos for public display, thankfully I was able to get them done by a friend with an AO size printer.

Now the reason I brought it up was because just how many of us have the space for very large prints in our homes, A4 size tend to fill up the places I have for displaying photos and prints, and I only have two A3 photos up on the wall.

If I had a printer capable of A2 sized prints, it would be a big waste because its outside the acceptable size that most want to view comfortably at home, the novelty for me would wear off might fast and I’m sure for many others too.

It wasn’t a million years ago that we would have loved to have 8x5” colour enlargement made of our favourite moments, but now some guys imagine they'll need Duvet sized prints, for what ever reason.

The averaged sized A3 printers are huge and are at most big enough for all our needs and wants, but if we ever lose the run of ourselves and need something larger then the local print shop can handle your size expectations with ease, and in the end it will be cheaper that owning your very own A2 printer.

There are lots of guys who need an A2 printer for their arts and crafts and who sell their work commercially, including for some galleries but most of us only dream of printing that size till we realise the huge costs that are involved, then it not a dream but a flaming nightmare.
Don’t wish for something..

 

[Roy Sletcher]

Very good points.

An additional factors is the need to be able to capture and post process a file of panorama size.

A not impossible endeavour but more demanding than the 11 x 14 or similar. I am thinking that for a 30 inch or so print would require a file approx 6,000 pixels on the horizontal dimension. More would be better

rs

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Various point and shoot cameras offer a panoramic mode stitching images directly in camera so it all depends. Being able to print panoramic pictures very much depends on the printer, on the driver settings for a custom format, an option , a limitation which is rarely specified in detail in the technical data, some models let you print meters , some other offer you not just much more length than the standard A format they are made for , and you most likely loose the borderless printing option. If you really want to know before buying a printer you may install the driver of a printer model in question and actually go through the custom length options. And a program like Qimage let you handle easily the printing of non standard formats with your printer.

 

[The Hat]

Very good points.

An additional factors is the need to be able to capture and post process a file of panorama size.

A not impossible endeavour but more demanding than the 11 x 14 or similar. I am thinking that for a 30 inch or so print would require a file approx 6,000 pixels on the horizontal dimension. More would be better
rs

@Roy Sletcher, you shouldn’t get drawn in to taking part in the elusive big game Pixel hunt, it is totally unnecessary, if you want to print big then the average Digital SLR camera is more than capable of handling large print sizes too.

It’s just a myth that you HAVE to have heaps of megabytes to produce good quality biggies, outputting large prints takes the same amount of care as it does with your average sized print.

So if you know how to print good quality then resizing is simple using a larger piece of paper no different, if you want to see the fine detail in a postage stamp you would use a loupe, but with a big print, you simply stand back to take it all in, 75 PPI will look far better that 400 PPI will..

 

[Emulator]

Many years ago I was acquainted with a professional model steam train designer/builder/exhibitor. He produced beautiful models and regularly exhibited.

He would complain about the cost of having long panorama prints, six or seven feet long or more, produced for his exhibits.

When I produced a print, six feet long, of his latest build that was made up of multiple A4 prints, from a single SLR image, (on cheap A4 paper) glued end to end, with 1/4 inch overlaps, he was overjoyed! These were easily produced using Paint Shop Pro software in Print Multiple image mode.