Hi everyone.

I'm have trouble with getting a decent quality out of the eqsl system. I've tried all sorts of resolutions and uploaded, but the result is always poor an pixelated.

I am sizing the qsl card image to 5.5 X 3.5 inches and using a variety of pixels per inch from 96 ppi to 300ppi. I can compress to jpeg and arrive at a file size of 40 to 95 k. After the upload I find that the result is horrid and the ppi has been dropped to 1 dpi. Surely that cant be right.

Any help appreciated.

John

2M0CDD

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2M0CDD John D'Hunt

You don't say what software you're using for image generation, but that shouldn't really matter. Instead of sizing the picture to x by y inches, use the pixel dimensions stated on the QSL design first page. That's what I did using Corel PhotoPaint and it worked without problem.

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What?!? You're still killing trees and wasting time and money sending QSL cards via Snail Mail? Whatever for? Go Unpostal!

Hi Doug,

I use photoshop cs5. Agreed, it should matter at all. I think I did try pix dimensions before. But I'll try it again latter and report back.

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2M0CDD John D'Hunt

Just tried sizing to the pixel dimensions. Marginal improvement. What I have noticed, is that when a card is downloaded for printing, the image has been re compressed to 1 PPI. That seems a very aggressive compression setting at the web server end. If I up-size in photoshop, I can get a marginal improvement, but its way short of acceptable.

BTW, It's not just my own cards, it is everyone else's cards that I print as well. Print drivers and settings checked and correct.

Thanks for your help

John

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2M0CDD John D'Hunt

I think I understand your complaint a little better, but I'm no closer to being able to propose a solution. Instead, I'll describe what I just did using WinXPPro SP3, FireFox 3.6.13, Corel PhotoPaint 12, and my venerable HP LaserJet 4000. My computer is a Dell GX-620SFF with a 1280x1024 LCD display of the same vintage, i.e., both about 8 yrs old.

I went into my eQSL archive and displayed two different cards that I received recently. The first I copied and pasted into PhotoPaint. The second I printed directly from the popup browser window. Both cards were eQSL Style 1 http://eqsl.cc/QSLCard/ChooseCardStyle.cfm and in both cases the ops had uploaded a scanned copy of their printed qsl cards into the area provided for the custom image which I'll describe loosely as the top left corner of the eQSL card.

The image I copied was pasted into a new image window at 150dpi resolution. The one I printed directly from the browser window looks to have been closer to 72dpi. The first is a little cleaner along the edges of the printing generated by eQSL, but both are perfectly legible.

From this and the information you provided I'm going to conclude that you have a driver problem, either the printer or the display. What I suggest is downloading current versions of both and re-installing the drivers. One other test you can perform is to try to download and print from a completely different computer, say one that belongs to a friend if you don't have another at your disposal.

Good luck getting to the bottom of this.

73, Doug, W5DET

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What?!? You're still killing trees and wasting time and money sending QSL cards via Snail Mail? Whatever for? Go Unpostal!

Yup, did a reinstall of the latest drivers. Interestingly, I printed an original card onto 6X4 (ie not downloaded from eqsl) it looked horrid. BUT, if I printed the same card onto A4 at the 6X4 size (or 5.5 X3.5), no problem at all. I tend to agree with you about a driver/display problem.

OS is Windows 7 (64bit), photoshop CS5, Iiyama 24 inch HD widescreen monitor and Spyder Pro color calibration (although that is the first to be disabled and no color management, just to eliminate a possible problem area). Printer: Canon i9950.

I'll keep working away at this, browsers are so complex these days, it could even be that. If, or rather when I get the fix, I'll post back here.

Thanks for you help

73...John

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2M0CDD John D'Hunt

I understand the "limitations" of QSL cards (bandwidth, etc.) on eQSL. However, wouldn't it be a nice feature if eQSL allowed members to "link" to a high quality image located "outside" eQSL? In otherwords, their would be a option to display your card (located on a member's server) in the same spot (in place of) that eQSL currently displays your "low resolution" card.

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KE3W Nevins "Frank" Frankel

96 dpi is the correct size for eQSL, however, whatever you set the DPI in photoshop, the file must be 528x336 pixels. If the picture is not 528x336, it will be resized on upload, or rejected on upload. I use photoshop for my cards, so I know it works here :) Make sure you are not setting an abnormally low quality when you "Save As..." or "Save for web/device..."

That doesn't give you a lot of real-estate for a picture and at 96 dpi you're not going to get a good, professional-quality print that you're probably used to if you are a Photoshop user. It will look decent on-screen, however. Although it has been raised many times that 180 dpi would be the minimum to get a good quality print, there's just no convincing people.

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VE3OIJ P. Darin Cowan