Getting your photos printed at Costco is a fantastic and affordable option. But ensuring your images look their best when printed often starts with understanding image resizing. If you’ve ever wondered how to prepare your photos for Costco Prints, especially when exporting from software like Lightroom, this guide is for you. Let’s break down the simplest and most effective ways to get great “costco prints”.
For many, the easiest approach is to avoid resizing altogether when exporting your photos. If you’re using Lightroom, during the export process, you’ll encounter an “image resizing” section. The simplest and often safest method, especially for routine prints at Costco, is to leave this section unchecked. By doing this, you export your photos at their original resolution. Costco’s printing system is equipped to handle images at various resolutions and will automatically upscale or downscale your images as needed to fit their print sizes. This “hands-off” approach is often the most reliable and straightforward for achieving good quality “costco prints” without overcomplicating the process.
However, there might be situations where you prefer to resize your images before sending them for printing. If you decide to resize, Lightroom offers two primary options within the “image resizing” dialog: resizing by pixel dimensions or by inches and DPI.
Option 1: Resizing by Pixel Dimensions
Choosing to resize by pixels is particularly useful when you have a specific pixel width in mind, often for web use or digital displays. When preparing for “costco prints”, you might use this if you know the exact pixel dimensions recommended for a particular print size. To use this method, select “pixels” and input your desired width (or height, depending on your orientation). Remember, when you resize by pixels, the DPI (dots per inch) setting becomes less relevant as you are directly controlling the pixel dimensions of your output.
Option 2: Resizing by Inches and DPI
For precise print sizing, resizing by inches combined with DPI (dots per inch) can be beneficial. Change the resize dropdown to “inches” and specify the desired print dimensions (e.g., 8×10 inches). Then, input your desired DPI in the resolution field. DPI refers to the density of dots per inch in your print, and 240 DPI or 300 DPI are common values for good quality photo prints. Lightroom will then calculate the necessary pixel dimensions by multiplying your specified inches by the DPI. For instance, a 10-inch wide print at 240 DPI will result in an image width of 2400 pixels, which is a suitable size for an 8×10 print.
It’s worth noting that there have been reports of a bug in some versions of Lightroom on Windows that might limit the DPI setting visible in the interface. If you encounter such an issue, a workaround is to directly calculate the desired pixel dimensions based on your inch and DPI requirements and use the “resize to pixel dimensions” method described earlier. For example, for a 10-inch wide print at 240 DPI, you would calculate 10 inches * 240 DPI = 2400 pixels and directly input 2400 pixels as the width when resizing by pixels.
In conclusion, for typical “costco prints”, the simplest and often best approach is to not resize your images during export and allow Costco’s printing system to handle the resizing process. This minimizes potential confusion and ensures your photos are printed effectively. If you have specific resizing needs, understanding the difference between resizing by pixel dimensions and by inches/DPI in Lightroom will empower you to prepare your images optimally for fantastic “costco prints”. For very critical, professional-level printing, advanced users might consider using Photoshop for more refined control over the resizing process.
