What dpi?

Glaucus · 20 Jan 2007 at 20:45

I want to print some pictures out, However what DPI do you need on a printer to print high quality colour pictures?

Is there anything else to consider?

AdamEW · 20 Jan 2007 at 21:29

I believe the usual "print quality" standard is 300dpi but you can drop below this and still get satisfying prints

Gungnir · 20 Jan 2007 at 21:36

http://www.digicamguides.com/print/ppi-print-size.html

Glaucus · 21 Jan 2007 at 09:21

So if I have a picture say

2000px
1200px
Then at very good qaulity It could be

2000/300=7"
1200/300=4"

And at screen resolution 72DPI
2000/72 = 28"
1200/72 = 17"

So if I want Something roughly 12" x 24" it would be
3600 x 7200px

Wow. You really do need really high res pictures to print at a decent size at high quality.

rpstewart · 21 Jan 2007 at 11:06

AcidHell2 said:
Wow. You really do need really high res pictures to print at a decent size at high quality.

Not really, I've had a couple of 20"x30" posters printed from 4Mp (2300x1800px or so) and they're great. The thing to remember is that as the print size goes up so does the viewing distance usually so while 300dpi is a good rule of thumb it's not rigid.

Joe T · 21 Jan 2007 at 11:35

300 dpi is what magazines use, and is deemed to be very high quality. If you drop to 180 dpi and unless you are looking at the prints from a few inches you shouldnt notice the difference. You could even go down to 120 dpi I think and not have too many problems. It really depends on viewing distance.

Glaucus · 21 Jan 2007 at 11:44

Joe T said:
300 dpi is what magazines use, and is deemed to be very high quality. If you drop to 180 dpi and unless you are looking at the prints from a few inches you shouldnt notice the difference. You could even go down to 120 dpi I think and not have too many problems. It really depends on viewing distance.

Viewing distance will be about 2ft. Ordered some paper so I'll have to have a play about and see what works. Just want to make some posters for the lounge.