Greetings,

I've been searching the forums and reading 'A Quick Guide to Inkscape', 'Inkscape:
Guide to a Vector Drawing Program' and 'About Inkscape'. I read the discussion regarding resolution/size versus DPI.

I have a 35mm color negative from which I'd like to make a poster (with text) as big as 23" X 35". My original plan was to buy Adobe Photoshop Elements (to clean up the photo and add text) and then run it through a add-on program called 'Blow Up 2': http://www.alienskin.com/blowup/index.aspx

I've discovered GIMP and then learned I'd need a vector program for enlargement (GIMP being Raster). So then I discovered Inkscape.

I'm looking for step by step instructions (or pointers) to run the negative to something from which I can print a poster. Here's my current plan:

1) for best quality, a photo shop is restoring the photo and will put it on disk as JPEG.
2) starting with an image GIMP shows as: resolution 300 X 300 ppi, 1798 X 1264 pixels, print size 152.23 X 107.02 millimeters and RGB color
3) I'll run the image through GIMP to add text and check/fix any flaws
4) I'll save it as PNG
5) I'll open it in Inkscape
6) here's where I get lost...is it better to add text here or at GIMP?
7) I guess I need to run it through the bitmap program to enlarge it
8) I read somewehere I should NOT enlarge a photo by dragging corners, instead I should use a dialogue box. By the way, I have a template to use so I need to put the image against that for sizing. How should I get the image to the proper size?
9) when done, I need to have a PNG file for the printer.

Thank you for your help.

First off, don't forget JPG is a lossy format. Everytime you save a JPG as a JPG the quality of the image will get worse and worse. You might have known that, but I wasn't sure.

Resize your photos to the desired size in a bitmap/raster application (GIMP, Photoshop... Blow Up sounds clever)--Inkscape doesn't resample a bitmap when resizing it (I don't think).

You'll find that GIMPs resize function is fairly intuitive for specifying exactly what size you want it.

Fix flaws on the resized version. If you fix them in the first step you might find that the resize process has amplified some flaws that you'll need to fix again.

Now, you can add your text. But the reality is that it makes no difference if you choose to use GIMP or Inkscape. Yes, Inkscape is vector, but your photo isn't so there isn't a lot of reason to go the vector path now. You should have already decided how big the picture is so as long as you don't change your mind then a bitmap/raster application will produce identical results. I would follow the path you are most comfortable with.