Sensor Type and Size (megapixels) for Fine Art Printing

When deciding which photographic camera to choose, many questions arise: What type of camera best suits my style? What type of sensor should I choose? APS-C, Full Frame or Medium Format? What camera size is right for my needs? How many megapixels do I really need?, among others.

I think the best way to answer all these questions is to put them in relation to the fine art printing process and the requirements for achieving the best results. Fine Art Print represents the highest expression of printing, as it allows printing at resolutions of up to 2400 × 1200 dots per inch if the source image provided has been produced correctly from a technical standpoint.

At ArtMedia Studio, since the late 1990s, we have explored how to fully leverage plotter resolution in relation to the optimal resolution of a digital image. When plotters were limited to 1440 × 720 dots per inch, we were already generating images at final print size with a resolution of 360 dpi.

Today, thanks to modern printhead technology, 400 dpi is the resolution we recommend, as what you see on screen at 100% corresponds exactly to what you see through a thread counter on the printed piece. This situation raises a fundamental challenge: how to produce technically correct images  to achieve this level of quality.

Technology has moving along significantly in this field. Just as in professional digitization systems (high-end scanners), where parameters can be adjusted to control image quality, color, and size, there is no image processor more advanced than Capture One by Phase One in the world of digital cameras.

This software incorporates digital processing tools equivalent to those used in professional scanners and, in addition, allows optical and highly controlled enlargement of RAW files, depending on the sensor type and size (the number of megapixels).