Print vs Screen Noise and Sharpness

I have always noticed that my prints always show much less noise, and look sharper, than what I see on the computer screen. I've never really figured out why this is. Maybe even my nice, fairly high resolution monitor can't match the quality of a high quality print? Does anyone out there have some insight?

Yes I agree. This is one reason I'm trying (note the word trying) not to follow the pixel race. I've printed gorgeous 20x24" prints from my 12 Mp D700.

I can't explain why thought, but the guy that prints for me mentioned it might have something to do with the inks dots just bleeding into each others at microscopic levels....

Woodyg3 said:

I have always noticed that my prints always show much less noise, and look sharper, than what I see on the computer screen. I've never really figured out why this is. Maybe even my nice, fairly high resolution monitor can't match the quality of a high quality print? Does anyone out there have some insight?

Click to expand...

Perhaps your monitor isn't 600 dpi or even 300 dpi? High resolution hides noise and makes things look sharp.

I believe a lot of noise is lost in the texture of the paper when not printing glossy.

Marcel said:

Yes I agree. This is one reason I'm trying (note the word trying) not to follow the pixel race. I've printed gorgeous 20x24" prints from my 12 Mp D700.

I can't explain why thought, but the guy that prints for me mentioned it might have something to do with the inks dots just bleeding into each others at microscopic levels....

Click to expand...

I have wondered if there isn't a tiny "smoothing" from ink dots. Even in a very glossy print, the dark areas and sky look much better to me than they ever do on any computer screen.

pforsell said:

Perhaps your monitor isn't 600 dpi or even 300 dpi? High resolution hides noise and makes things look sharp.

Click to expand...

Maybe you are confusing printer dpi figures with monitor ppi? A top of the line 5K 27" display, for instance, is around 210 ppi. Even an Apple cell phone with Retina display is only 300 dpi. My monitor is around 150ppi. At 2-3 feet viewing distance, that should be plenty sharp.

It is possible I am confusing everything. High quality glossy print where individual pigment droplets can fuse into another at 600 dpi is plenty sharp compared to a 150 ppi (although RGB) display. Individual pixels "melt away" in a print, they are not square.

My 32 inch 8K Dell UltraSharp PremierColor UP3218K is about 280 ppi and when I display non-resized non-interpolated 33 mpix or smaller images on it the sharpness and noise are starting to approach that of a good glossy print. Not quite there, but approaching.

Next step is 16K displays.