my prints look "pixellated"...help

I'm trying to print a photo that I've been working with in PS Elements and it looks "pixellated" (i.e. poor resolution) when printed on paper. On my monitor, it appears perfect (when I do a "fit on screen" view it appears at 50%), but when I print it it sucks.
The image size is 5.32" x 7.25" and 150 pixels/inch resolution. I'm trying to print two 5x7's on the same sheet using picture package, so I think there must be some sort of resizing problem going on.
Any suggestions?

To better help figure out if it is a printer problem, or an image file problem, have you tried printing the shot any where else? A lot of stores have 1 hour processing - some, like the Kodak kiosks are ink-jet, others, like Costco are chemical.

If that determines that the problem is not the image file, then it would be helpful to tell us what Printer / Paper / Ink combination you are using.

Rad

The picture you are trying to print only has a total of 0.86 Megapixels (see note 1). That is definitely going to look pixellated in a 5 x 7 print, unless the printer and its driver are performing some very high class interpolation.

Most cameras being used today have 3 MP and most people on this forum would be using 5 MP and up.

In all probability you have inadvertently thrown away most of your pixels by enabling resampling of the image when you were trying to re-size it for printing. There is no need to resize an image for printing. Furthermore, doing so with resampling enabled is very bad.

In PSCS I use File -> Print with Preview and do whatever offsets and sizing that you need to do (it doesn't even give you the option to resample). Printing two 5x7's on one sheet requires two passes through the printer if you do it the hard way. However, if you search around in Elements you will probably find a tool that lets you specify the two images you want on a single sheet and will let you do the whole thing in one pass.

The key to all this is to never resample downwards, because you are just throwing away detail.

Note 1:
5.32" x 150 ppi = 798 pixels
7.25" x 150 ppi = 1087 pixels
1087 pixels x 798 pixels = 860,000 pixels

Rad & Robert,
Thanks for your replies.

Robert, I think the fact that I'm scanning a slightly larger than 5x7 print and then trying to reproduce it may be 90% of my problem as I've done very little resizing. I may be simply asking too much of the process itself.

However, I've tried printing some smaller pictures of some digital images I have and everytime they come out pixellated. No resizing by me, just using the print package (Picture Package in PS Elements) to fit several on a single page. If I print the "regular" size that comes out of the camera, they're fine. What is going on?

BTW, I print with a Canon ink jet with Canon paper. My regular sized prints look flawless - it's the small ones that suck.

According to your statement above, your image is from a scanner. I have to take that literally. The problem is that you should have more than 150 pixels per inch in order to avoid pixellation on the printer. I would recommend scanning at 300 dpi in order to get good prints, and that assumes that you are scanning at 100% magnification. In other words, the image that you send to the printer should have no less than 1500 x 2100 pixels and if using JPG compression it should be a high quality jpg.

Robert,
Yes, you are correct - I am using a scanner to scan a photo. I don't know how to control what resolution it scans at and can't find any info. in the manual - I just push the "scan" button and select PS Elements as the software to scan it to. It's a Dell (re-labeled LexMark) All-in-One scanner. I'll have to look into it to see what I can find out.

But what about my other photos, the ones I took with my digital camera, that print fine in normal 4x6 prints, but look pixellated when reduced (during printing, not re-sizing)?
Any ideas on that issue?

Thanks again,
Tom

There will be more advanced settings where you can control what DPI you scan at. And sometimes reducing an image to print 4x6 yields what looks like a grid over the whole image - I've had one print that way myself. More often I see it when viewing the image at about 25% of full size on my screen. Not sure how to get around it aside from maybe resizing the image yourself using probably bicubic smoother and see how it looks on the screen.

I'm sorry that I cannot be more helpful with your other photos that are also pixellated, because I don't know your exact work flow. However, there must be resampling downward occurring somewhere - you will just have to look carefully at what number of pixels you have in the image going to the printer and be sure they are the full number that came from the camera.