Seeing a print of your fractal is exciting and the larger the print the more you can appreciate a carefully composed fractal as a significant piece of art.  But how do you move from the digital world of UF to a print?  If you read the section Kerry Mitchell and Janet Preslar provided, you'll see that there are many options for making prints.  The information here is intended to tell you the basic steps you will need to take to convert your UF ufr/upr file to a digital file that can be used either by your own printer or handed over to a printing service.

• Calculations
• Exporting and rendering
• Digital services and printers
• Links to additional information

Your first step in converting your fractal to print format is deciding how many pixels per inch (ppi)* will be needed to give you a good, crisp print without producing a digital file of overwhelming size.  Generally, anywhere from 150 to 400 ppi can be used, with 400 ppi virtually guarantying that your print will be of superb quality.   However, most of the printers who specialize in digital printing that I've interviewed  say that anything over 250 ppi will not provide much additional clarity or resolution.  So let's use 250 ppi for an example calculation.  Do the calculation by multiplying 250 ppi times the print dimensions (in inches).  If the print is to be 8 x 10, multiply 250 x 8 and 250 x 10 to get 2000 x 2500.   However, don't stop reading quite yet, because the calculations tell you the FINAL dimensions which will be used for printing.  You may need to render or export your file to a larger size in order to have a nice image.

Exporting and rendering

There is no way to print from within UF. Instead, UF gives you a choice of exporting your file directly to bmp, jpg, png, tsa or psd formats or rendering the file to disk.

Direct Export

To prepare a file for direct export,  click on the image tab in the properties window and enter the ppi numbers in the height and width boxes.  After the image is completed, click on "file/export image" on the main window's toolbar. A window will open which allows you to select the type of file you want to save.   UF's own help utilities give additional information on exporting.

Render to Disk

A direct export cannot be larger than 1600 x 1600 ppi.  In our 8 x 10 print example, we calculated that the final print size should be 2000 x 2500 ppi.  So using the export method will mean making a smaller print or sacrificing print quality.   To get to the 2000 x 2500 size, use UF's "render to disk" feature.  With your image open and active in UF, click on "fractal/render to disk."  A window will open and you will need to fill out information in this order:

1.  Where will the image be saved?  Click on "browse" and select a drive and folder.
2.  Indicate the dimensions of the image.  Enter numbers (in pixels) for height and width....you can render to any size.  UF will provide a warning if there is not enough disk space to render the image, in which case you'll have to either make the height and width of the rendered image smaller or go back to step 1 and select a drive with more space.
3.  Specify anti-aliasing options.  Generally, the defaults provided will give you a good render that doesn't take forever to calculate.  You can opt not to anti-alias your image by turning off the check mark.

Click on "render" to start the process.  Additional information about rendering is under Advanced Topics in UF help.  There is also a batch rendering feature which you can use if you have a number of images you'd like to render sequentially.   A couple of  cautions while rendering is under way.....you can cause your render to crash if you try to use Paint Shop Pro at the same time.  Don't try to open images in PSP or browse through the folder/directory to which your render is going.  Also, a screensaver or power saver may cause a render crash and temporarily disabling these features is a wise precaution.  I haven't personally had any problems, but I always minimize both my render window and the UF main window prior to leaving my render to percolate.

Anti Aliasing

Most images will look better if anti-aliased (see Damien Jones' excellent page for an explanation of anti-aliasing) prior to printing or display on the web.  I've provided a visual demonstration of how the same fractal looks as a direct export versus an anti-aliased render.  The purpose of anti-aliasing is to smooth an image and remove unwanted details.  Sometimes an image is so jagged or uneven looking that multiple doses of anti-aliasing are needed.  While you can change the settings within UF to provide a stronger dose, calculation time may be increased to an unacceptable length.  Instead, the image can be rendered using standard settings but to a larger size than the final dimensions for printing then re-sampled down in a graphics program to the final size.  The re-sampling provides a second "hit" of anti-aliasing.   While there are no cook book answers to how much bigger to make a messy image, I've had good success in rendering my fractals to about 1/3 larger than the final size prior to re-sampling.   I use both Corel Draw 8 and Paint Shop Pro and prefer Corel for re-sampling my images.

Digital services and printers

The advent of the digital camera has resulted in the proliferation of services that provide high quality but inexpensive printing directly from digital files.  Personally, I have used and can recommend Ezprints and Ofoto.  Either service will provide you with a beautiful, glossy, photo quality 8 x 10 print on heavy paper for $3 plus shipping.  Just upload your prepared files to their websites and they mail back your prints in about a week.  Do keep in mind that each service has variations in print color, so the print you get back may or may not look like the image on your monitor.  Prior to uploading your entire collection, I strongly suggest you get a few test prints from the service you select.  Your test prints should have a variety of contrasts and colors so you can see how much the colors are saturated and what details are lost.  If you don't like what you see, you can either try a different service or adjust your images in a graphics program.

For very large prints of museum quality and longevity, both the Durst Lambda and Light Jet Printers will make stunning images directly from digital files.  I use a service local to me here in Los Angeles and my printer has a very nice website that provides a lot of information about printing, printers, file preparation, etc.  My large prints were done using the Light Jet and the results were superb but about 1/3 more costly than prices I've seen for the Durst Lambda.  So shopping around is a good idea.   Your choice of file format will be determined by the print service you use.  Some will handle bmp files but some want tif,  jpg or other formats.  Check their websites or call if you are unsure.  Also, if you are going to make the investment in large prints, and it can be considerable, ask for a test print so you can see how the colors look prior to the print run.  Another consideration in choosing a printer are his post-print services.  My framer was very complimentary about the way the printer mounted my big prints and he noted that it was a good idea for the printer to do the mounting because if there is a problem, he can run another print whereas the framer may be out of luck.  I had my big prints glued to inexpensive foam-core for backing.  The cost was about $12-18 each.

Since my Light Jet Prints look nearly identical (except for size) to those I get from Ezprints, I've started using EZ as a sort of pre-test house to see which fractals look best printed.  There just isn't enough money at Chez Wizzle to print as much as I'd like and I hand the 8 x 10's around to get opinions on what my friends and family consider worth printing.

Links to more information

Prolab Digital - my print service in Los Angeles - they do mail order, are real nice and have competitive prices for Light Jet printing
Printers who belong to the Digital Printing and Imaging Association of America
Luminous Landscape- by Mike Reichmann - discussion of film vs digital, lightjet vs inkjet and other topics (the site is devoted to landscape photography)
Types of printers - general information from an on-line photo course
Cymbolic Science - makers of the Light Jet and other printers
Durst - makers of the Durst Lambda and other printers
Photobition (previously Meteor) Printing - printer in Detroit and Atlanta used by several satisfied UFer's - good prices using the Lambda printer if files are formated according to their specs
Scanner Tips - another website that discusses the relationship between the printed word and the digital world

*Terminology note - you'll often hear people talk about dots per inch (dpi).  This is strictly an inkjet printing term and does not apply to a digital file, which stores and displays in terms of pixels.  The resolution you are seeing on your monitor is determined by the number of pixels per inch...... ain't no stinkin' dots in UF or on the web.

You can email me if you have questions not covered by this tutorial

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