3:1 is the way to go. Just add a retarder next time.

so wait when you say the PPI is basically a tag telling the printer how big the image should be, does that mean i could set a high PPI on a low-res image and it would just print like pixelated garbage? like the printer would try to cram too few pixels into a small space? i always thought PPI was just some nerdy setting nobody actually understands lol. i see people arguing about 72 vs 300 all the time in photography groups but nobody ever explains the math behind it like this. makes me wonder if half the people selling prints online even know what theyre doing.

Ugh right?? The homemade stuff is just way better honestly.

Remember when GPS first came out and everyone threw away their paper maps, but then you'd watch some old timer navigate a back road by following the sun and the moss on trees. That same digital tunnel vision happens in wiring, in cooking with recipe apps, in building furniture with IKEA instructions instead of just looking at the wood grain and figuring it out. We get so wrapped up in the perfect plan on paper that we forget the real world has lumps and bends and lived-in solutions. Jim's sharpie trick is just a reminder that the best tool is often the one that's been in your hand for twenty years, not the one with the most features.

Did you at least have a beer over it to mourn the wasted effort before you started over?