Hardware required to make the largest screenshot possible.

[screener]

My goal is to print a screenshot in 72 dpi (yes, 72 - I don't need anything higher for this purpose)

I can take screenshots using my standard samsung syncmaster b2030, and my geforce 9500 GT, which gives me a max of 1600 x 900 resolution - which when I drop into photoshop, i have an image 22.2 inches x 12.5inches at 72ppi

Now I want the largest possible image in inches (aiming for 36"x36"), without resampling since enlarging via photoshop always makes the image blur.

Question: what do I need? do i just need a graphics card that can support more resolution? or is it a monitor? or a monitor-card combination? Should I be thinking about a TV card and a TV?
or am I going about this the wrong way because there is software solution?

thanks

 

[nukemaster]

You are limited to the screen resolution you are using at the time. The higher, the screen resolution, the bigger the image is.

Many video cards let you select a bigger screen resolution and enable panning(i remember this from the old days, my single link DVI is limited to 1200 x 1920), but check to ensure this is enabled. If it is not, the screen will go out of range and just not display anything.

EDIT
Looks like it is not on Vista/7. If you are on that, best you will get is with a real high resolution screen.

This image will give you an idea of size, you have to view it in full size.
Green = you
Dark Blue = Average 24 inch screen
Lighter Blue = bigger badder screens

I am not embedding this image since it is 2560 x 1600, but only 3 colors Make sure you zoom in or save the image if you want to see it at full size.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/3047/screenres.png

That said, you can work with large images just fine at your screen res and there used to be ways to capture them, but they seem to be not in the latest drivers.

What are you capturing for anyway?

 

[careybrown]

for 36" wide at 72dpi you'll need a pixel width of 2592 which is not quite double the resolution you have. Yes, you'll need to up-sample. Up-sampling line art will give you soft edges if you use linear or bi-cubic interpolation but if you use nearest-neighbor you'll probably get better results. On the other hand, if you are up-sampling a photo then use bi-cubic interpolation and do it in several steps of approx. 10% each, then use un-sharp-mask to sharpen it. This will be better but you're really not starting off with enough resolution for a 36" image.

 

[screener]

800x600 would be a smaller print area.

my goal is something in the 2600x2600 resolution, which would give me around 36 inches square at 72ppi.

is there any hardware/software that can do this?

 

[wolfram23]

Well a screenshot is a shot of your screen - so you're stuck with whatever resolution screen you have.

The only thing to do to get a native image that size is to specifically render a scene at that size, but in that case you'd probably need a creation kit for whatever it is you're trying to get an image of, and then set a custom camera and render the output.

Some games with console commands, if you're taking an in game screen, might allow you to set a custom resolution to render for a screenshot but I'm not sure.

 

[nukemaster]

I just edit above, what are you trying to take screens of?

 

[screener]

@nukemaster - I am taking screen shots of many things - whatever people find memorable - game screens - high scores, or could be photos. the goal is to make a poster using a screenshot and I want to start with as big a data file as possible. Likely I will need to enlarge the photo in photoshop, but starting with the largest amount of data is always best.
thanks @careybrown for the photoshop tips - I hadn't thought about doing it in 10% increments - makes sense.
thanks nukemaster regarding your point on limitations of DVI cable - didn't know that either

But I am still wondering, are there highend vid cards out there that I could buy, put into my desktop and maybe use HDMI to connect to my HD TV to make a screenshot that has more pixels in it than my regular monitor?
I 'think' if I connect my computer to my TV via VGA cable, it is limited to something like 1280x720. But what device is limiting this? is it the TV? the vid card? the VGA cable?
but if my TV is a 42" LCD , does the size of the resulting screenshot at 1024x900 become bigger than one on a smaller monitor? (I haven't tried this yet - would it work? would I get a bigger file?)
I *sort of* understand all these differences in resolution and dimension, but I think I could be missing some fundamental concepts.

@wolfram - I now need to google "creation kit" to figure out what you are talking about - thanks it sounds smart

 

[nukemaster]

The DVI limit is only for a single link cable, a dual link will do higher resolution.

You can only work with what you have, that said save your images in PNG(for game screens) and NOT JPG when working since jpg will have lots of loss. For game shots, make sure AA is on since the jaggy edges will show more when an image is blown up.

The size of the screen has nothing to do with it. It is all about resolution. So a TV with 720P will have less image size then your current screen.

One more thing for game screens, Sometimes you will get something more usable for your self with the screen sideways.

An example of a game @ 1200 x 1920 and not 1920 x 1200. Almost gives more of a height feeling...