** DPI and YOU ** -A POTN informational service-

Lani wrote:
Thank you Bob. Say I wanted to print a 11x14 or 16x20 photos that looks really really good, something I could frame and sell. I have an 8MP Rebel XT...what DPI would give me the best print quality...say I would be printing more 11x14s, what would you say the best DPI that would give me a quality print? I know 8x10 would be grand from what I have read, but what about 11x14? I have had labs print great looking 8x10s with my Fuji s5000 3MP camera! Thank you again

I guess you don't have a definition.

If you were trying to get to 300 DPI, the image straight from the camera will fall short for 11x14. For one thing, the crop aspect will be off. But, you will get most of 300 DPI at that size. Note that 300 DPI is a very high standard for that size, as I mentioned before. If you feel that you absolutely must get to 300 DPI, then you can first do interpolation (resampling). For some, that works. For others, it doesn't really buy you anything. Also note that for some printers, trying to boost the DPI up to a certain point is futile. The printer can't resolve it.

---Bob Gross---

---Bob Gross---

Gotya, thank you again Bob!

Gentlemen. I create posters all the time from my digital and analog pictures. Here are some helpful tips. The majority of pictures that are to be printed are usually requested to be at 300 dpi. (Dots per Inch) However if you do a little homework you will find that most printers can't print above 200dpi, some even 150dpi. This includes some of the big poster printers. If you attempt to add information to a picture by resampling (upsampling) you are always going to see a decline in quality, you are adding false info to the picture. I have found there is no comparison between digital and analog pictures when it comes to printing, especially large format printing, analog wins every time. It is so much easier to scan an analog photograph to a high resolution thanit is to enlarge a digital photo. Pixels per Inch go out the window when you are talking printing. Dots per Inch are everything. Don't forget, most of the time if you are printing on a picture anything above 200dpi is usually a waste of storage space,the extra info of let's say a 1200 dpi picture is simply disguarded by the printer. Not to mention the extra time you will spend waiting for your printer to process the oversized file. The new cameras that put out 72dpi as a standard really erks me as they assunmed that most pictures will just be used on the internet or viewed on a computer screen or tv. Instead it would be nice if they would assume that you are going to want to make posters out of you photos and by default, the cameras should be capable of high resolution photos that can later be lowered if needed, which is the best way to do any picture. Taking away info to achieve a lower pixel count for web display is easy. To have to add info to a picture to falsely raise the pixel count is a bad idea. Have fun.

Kinda confused here I have a S3 IS and it seems all my shots are at 180dpi, if I wanted to print 5x7 or 8x10 what would these need to be set to (send in pics to costco, or walgreens). Also as far as cropping what would the crop size need to be? Could I just crop to my liking, or does it have to be a certain crop size to get the prints I want?

Thanks in advance

I just noticed how old this thread is Hope someone can still answer though

Franko515 wrote:
Kinda confused here I have a S3 IS and it seems all my shots are at 180dpi, if I wanted to print 5x7 or 8x10 what would these need to be set to (send in pics to costco, or walgreens). Also as far as cropping what would the crop size need to be? Could I just crop to my liking, or does it have to be a certain crop size to get the prints I want?

Thanks in advance

Go read the thread again. ppi is irrelevant for most situations.

Franko515 wrote:
Kinda confused here I have a S3 IS and it seems all my shots are at 180dpi, if I wanted to print 5x7 or 8x10 what would these need to be set to (send in pics to costco, or walgreens). Also as far as cropping what would the crop size need to be? Could I just crop to my liking, or does it have to be a certain crop size to get the prints I want?

Thanks in advance

180ppi means nothing. How many pixels do you have?

I have read the thread, and many others. There seems to be a difference of opinion (examples below) thus my confusion

stov wrote:
Ok, first post by me, and hopefully I will not get things messed up and be misleading. I agree with the whole computer side is all pixels based, you change your DPI setting in PS and you will see your pixel size shoot up and the document size remain the same. I have a 350D myself, and I did get a bit caught up in the whole 75DPI thats lousy, but look at the ducument size, its about 48 cm (I think) in its longest dimension, so here is what I do if I want to change the DPI for printing, select and copy the one of the pixel dimensions, alter the DPI, then paste back the pixel dimension, you will see that the document size shrinks, all depending on how large you make the DPI. Now for my turn to get my head on the chopping block, if you alter the DPI and leave the pixel information the same, surely PS is creating pixels now, this will make your image loose quality due to its manufacturing information that was previously not there, keep the pixel sizes the same if you alter the DPI would be my advice. Its the old rule of never if you can increase the size of a graphic image, as you will lose quality if you are using pixels (this does not apply for vectors, but as this is not a graphic forum I will stick with what the digitial photographs are using).
As for Danavery, the large setting on the 350D spits out a 75DPI image.. if you switch to RAW, this comes out as a 240 DPI image, with no need for rescaling your DPI through PS, another thing you can do in PS is set up some actions, so you record the action happening once, then you can apply the same action to other images with just a click of the mouse (might want to check out some Photoshop forum/tips (how to) site for the how to do that side if you need it more indepth).

Hope thats helped.. rather than clouded up issues and made me open for a good flaming

Pixel Dimension X: 2629 Y: 2087 is this what you mean by how many pixels or do you mean the camera itself (sorry if this sounds crazy but this is all foreign to me) If you do mean camera it is a 6mp.

As for the cropping part of my question. Can I just crop to my liking and print say a 5x7, or does the image need to be a certain size (i.e. 800x600)

Also Tim, did you mean dpi? or is it true ppi and dpi area the same?

Thanks in advance

You can ignore dpi. You can also ignore ppi. What matters is how many pixels you have. ppi is only required when you use some pro labs who insist you set up your files exactly as you want them printed. You can send an 1800x1200 file at 10ppi (ie 180 inches wide) to most print labs and say "print it as 6x4", it'll come back looking perfect, as they ignore the 10ppi.

If you want to print 5x7 you need a 5:7 ratio in the number of pixels in your image, else it'll be cropped. If you labs wants 300ppi that means you need 1500 x 2100 pixels in your image. You can set the ppi to 300 if you like, but like I said most labs won't look at this figure.

Hope that helps.

Thanks so in review, I will forget about dpi and ppi and only worry about the crop (for a 5x7 the pixel dimension which I have listed needs to be divisable by 5 and 7, i.e. 2500 x 2100) In the event I need to change the dpi (if requested by printer) these number needs to be multiplied by 3 (if i wanted 300dpi) to get 1500 x 2100.

One more thing I crop my pic to taste, so after that should I put it in a program to change the pixel dimension. If so, what program could I use to convert them as a batch to say 5 x 7?

do I have this at least half right? Again sorry if these questions seem crazy, but this is all very new to me and I would like to have a clear understanding so I can help others if need be.

Thanks for all your help

I get a kick out of these tech threads where no one knows what they are talking about... even funnier are the ones with suggestions and advice on things they don't know what they are talking about.

amonline wrote:
I get a kick out of these tech threads where no one knows what they are talking about... even funnier are the ones with suggestions and advice on things they don't know what they are talking about.

If you know the correct info sir would you plz share, as I am looking for clarification on this issue.

Thanks in advance for any help you may provide
Franko

It's wayyy to late and wayyy to long to go into tonight... I'll check in again soon... sorry. I'm just tired of seeing 'photographers' trying to talk like graphic artists... and most of these are am-photogs. They really should keep out of these discussions. Yea, I'm being an ass...

amonline wrote:
It's wayyy to late and wayyy to long to go into tonight... I'll check in again soon... sorry. I'm just tired of seeing 'photographers' trying to talk like graphic artists... and most of these are am-photogs. They really should keep out of these discussions. Yea, I'm being an ass...

Not a problem, however you need to get your point across sir I look forward to your post.

Again thanks for any help you may provide
Franko

I threw this together real fast; but it's the ins and outs of resolution, photography, dpp and photoshop in layman's terms. There is deeper information on the subject, but I wanted to keep this tackle simple.

Resolution for Dummies

Hope it helps...