DPI help

[Cutter]

I want to print one of my photographs and have been told to us 300dpi but when I look at the properties of my photo it says 102 dpi . How do I get it to 300. Is it the way i am saving it or do I have to do something to make it 300dpi?

Thanks in advance

[jprippin]

Cutter,
Good question , and I didn't know , so this is what I found , hope it helps

DPI vs PPI
Technically DPI means paper printer Dots Per Inch while PPI means digital Pixels Per Inch. But in many instances the term DPI is used when in fact PPI is what is really meant. Even in these articles there is crossover of terms, since many software programs continue to use the legacy term DPI to mean PPI. So, best to read the terms in context. When DPI is mentioned are they really talking about printer dots per inch or are they in fact talking about how many pixels per inch a digital photo is going to print out at? This too is where many print shops, graphic artists and magazines have it wrong when they are talking about required digital photo resolution, they mistakenly think the DPI setting in a photo has something to do with this, when in fact what they want is a certain PPI (see What Print Shops Really Want).

Some programs such as Adobe Photoshop are now calling the setting of what used to be shown as DPI as pixels/inch or pixels/cm. It's a bit of one step forward, two steps back since they still have it sitting in a section called "Resolution" leading people to mistakenly think that it has something to do with the digital resolution of the photo. Some camera manufacturers such as Canon have it right, they properly refer to digital resolution as the pixel dimensions of the photo.

To be clear, neither the DPI or PPI setting in a digital photo changes the digital quality of that photo. The resolution of a digital photo is its pixel dimensions

If that hasn't answered the question here is the page from whence it came
http://www.rideau-info.com/photos/mythdpi.html

[cosmicma]

what size will your final print be and what size is the image you want to print ?

the reality is the resolution of your image determines the size of print at a given DPI
an example would be if i had an image with a resolution of 3168 x 4752 and i wanted to print at 300dpi the print size would be 16" x 11" ( approx )
if i wanted to print an image with the same resolution at 10" x 8" the dpi would be closer to 500 DPI

the only way i can think of to get the desired DPI ( 300 ) is to increase the size of your image through interpolation ( pixel doubling )

another thing to keep in mind the larger the print the further away the viewing DPI resolution becomes less of an issue and depending on print size a lower DPI resolution is quite acceptable

[Stormsong]

It depends on what the photo will be used for. In traditional print, such as newspapers, magazines, brochures, leaflets, catalogues, advertising leaflets, business cards and flyers etc 300dpi is the minimum requirement. In other words, your image needs to be at least 300dpi if it is being printed in one of these types of publications.
If the image is to be used thus, anything lower than 300dpi will appear distorted; the pixels will appear with ragged edges, thus the image will be blurred and the colours appear different to what they should be.

If however you are printing out an image for personal use, then the dpi is not such an issue, but one thing to remember is the higher the ppi/dpi, the better quality printed photograph you will get. I use Photoshop Elements and you can change the image size by going to image> resize> image size and increasing the ppi to 300 (under document size).

Regards
Denise

[Cutter]

Originally Posted by Stormsong

It depends on what the photo will be used for. In traditional print, such as newspapers, magazines, brochures, leaflets, catalogues, advertising leaflets, business cards and flyers etc 300dpi is the minimum requirement. In other words, your image needs to be at least 300dpi if it is being printed in one of these types of publications.
If the image is to be used thus, anything lower than 300dpi will appear distorted; the pixels will appear with ragged edges, thus the image will be blurred and the colours appear different to what they should be.

If however you are printing out an image for personal use, then the dpi is not such an issue, but one thing to remember is the higher the ppi/dpi, the better quality printed photograph you will get. I use Photoshop Elements and you can change the image size by going to image> resize> image size and increasing the ppi to 300 (under document size).

Regards
Denise

Thanks Denise, I have done as you have said and resized the photo to 300dpi from 102 dpi, could you tell me what that has done to the photo ? has it degraded it or improved it ? the picture i want to print is 48inch x 24inch

[Cutter]

Originally Posted by cosmicma

what size will your final print be and what size is the image you want to print ?

the reality is the resolution of your image determines the size of print at a given DPI
an example would be if i had an image with a resolution of 3168 x 4752 and i wanted to print at 300dpi the print size would be 16" x 11" ( approx )
if i wanted to print an image with the same resolution at 10" x 8" the dpi would be closer to 500 DPI

the only way i can think of to get the desired DPI ( 300 ) is to increase the size of your image through interpolation ( pixel doubling )

another thing to keep in mind the larger the print the further away the viewing DPI resolution becomes less of an issue and depending on print size a lower DPI resolution is quite acceptable

Thanks cosmicma not sure about resolution and dpi but the image size I wanted was 48in x 24 and it was showing 102dpi. I have now increased the dpi to 300 so does that mean i have interpolationed it ?

[Cutter]

Originally Posted by jprippin

Cutter,
Good question , and I didn't know , so this is what I found , hope it helps

DPI vs PPI
Technically DPI means paper printer Dots Per Inch while PPI means digital Pixels Per Inch. But in many instances the term DPI is used when in fact PPI is what is really meant. Even in these articles there is crossover of terms, since many software programs continue to use the legacy term DPI to mean PPI. So, best to read the terms in context. When DPI is mentioned are they really talking about printer dots per inch or are they in fact talking about how many pixels per inch a digital photo is going to print out at? This too is where many print shops, graphic artists and magazines have it wrong when they are talking about required digital photo resolution, they mistakenly think the DPI setting in a photo has something to do with this, when in fact what they want is a certain PPI (see What Print Shops Really Want).

Some programs such as Adobe Photoshop are now calling the setting of what used to be shown as DPI as pixels/inch or pixels/cm. It's a bit of one step forward, two steps back since they still have it sitting in a section called "Resolution" leading people to mistakenly think that it has something to do with the digital resolution of the photo. Some camera manufacturers such as Canon have it right, they properly refer to digital resolution as the pixel dimensions of the photo.

To be clear, neither the DPI or PPI setting in a digital photo changes the digital quality of that photo. The resolution of a digital photo is its pixel dimensions

If that hasn't answered the question here is the page from whence it came
http://www.rideau-info.com/photos/mythdpi.html

thanks Jp its all a bit of a mystery to me cos I never seem to print my photos out, its about time i learned

[Stormsong]

Hi Mark, increasing the dpi/ppi will not degrade the photo, unless your original image is of low resolution to start with. It's a bit complicated, but let me try and put it like this - what dpi/ppi does in essence is to increase the size of the area that an image can be printed on, not the quality or resolution of the original image; if your original image is below 1MB for example, you are going to struggle to get a good print regardless of the dpi/ppi setting, if you want to print at 48 inches by 24 inches.

In traditional printing terms, the closer the dots/pixels per inch, the better - ie the higher the number, the bigger the area you can print an image out on. For most print applications, 300dpi is adequate. However, bear in mind that if your original image is not of a high enough resolution, you can't simply up the dpi/ppi in the hope that it will improve the quality of the image when you print it.

I hope this helps and has not confused you more!

Regards,
Denise

PS: I worked in the print industry for 10 years and the bane of any publishing house's life in the digital age is to get images at the correct dpi - in the old days of 35mm film and printed photographs, it wasn't a problem, but digital has changed all that.

[Cutter]

Originally Posted by Stormsong

Hi Mark, increasing the dpi/ppi will not degrade the photo, unless your original image is of low resolution to start with. It's a bit complicated, but let me try and put it like this - what dpi/ppi does in essence is to increase the size of the area that an image can be printed on, not the quality or resolution of the original image; if your original image is below 1MB for example, you are going to struggle to get a good print regardless of the dpi/ppi setting, if you want to print at 48 inches by 24 inches.

In traditional printing terms, the closer the dots/pixels per inch, the better - ie the higher the number, the bigger the area you can print an image out on. For most print applications, 300dpi is adequate. However, bear in mind that if your original image is not of a high enough resolution, you can't simply up the dpi/ppi in the hope that it will improve the quality of the image when you print it.

I hope this helps and has not confused you more!

Regards,
Denise

PS: I worked in the print industry for 10 years and the bane of any publishing house's life in the digital age is to get images at the correct dpi - in the old days of 35mm film and printed photographs, it wasn't a problem, but digital has changed all that.

Thanks Denise, my original image showed it to be 4.5 mb now since changing the dpi to 300 it is 23mb . so do you think thats enough for the size of the print?

[Stormsong]

Yes, that certainly sounds big enough in terms of what you want! I hope it all works out okay for you.

Regards,
Denise