Quick Printing Question

ceemac · Oct 31, 2018

When I order a print based on 300dpi is that printed at 100% zoom? I want to see how big I can go.

john.margetts · Oct 31, 2018

Usually, when ordering a print, you tell the printer the inch dimensions of the print you want, not the PPI.

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vintagesnaps · Oct 31, 2018

I didn't think so... I print my own and set it for whatever size print I want. I do use the higher res setting on my printer.

photo1x1.com · Oct 31, 2018

Those dpi and ppi are one of the most misunderstood terms in graphics.
In short, dpi are dots per inch (on the printer), and ppi are pixel per inch on the monitor. But both have "inch" in them, so they are really similar.
The problem is: even most graphic designers or magazine editors answer, when you ask how big they need the image: "300dpi". But that doesn´t tell you anything. It´s like going to the butcher and ask for "oz" meat.
Only with an additional information about the size, those 300dpi get a meaning.

So a 1" x 1" image can be 300ppi, and a 1000" x 1000" can also be 300ppi. Both are 300ppi, but the size is veeeeery different.

For example:
An image in 10" x 5" at 300ppi has a size of 3000px x 1500px
If you print that image in 300dpi, it will be 10" x 5".
If you print it in 150dpi, you can go twice as big (20" x 10").
If you print it in 600dpi, it will be half as big (5" x 2.5").

If you want to calculate the other way:
you have a camera that shoots images with 6000px x 4000px.
At a resolution of 300ppi, it will have a size of 20" x 13.33".
If you print it in 300dpi, it will have exactly that size.

I hope that doesn´t confuse more than it helps

ceemac · Oct 31, 2018

I guess I don't really know how to ask the question. If my file size is 3400 x 5200 and I print at 11 x 17, is it going to look the same as viewing the picture in my editor at 100% zoom?

ceemac · Oct 31, 2018

photo1x1.com said:
I hope that doesn´t confuse more than it helps

Actually that doesn't confuse me at all.

john.margetts · Oct 31, 2018

ceemac said:
I guess I don't really know how to ask the question. If my file size is 3400 x 5200 and I print at 11 x 17, is it going to look the same as viewing the picture in my editor at 100% zoom?

No! Paper pictures always look different to monitor pictures. With those picture dimensions and available pixels, you will not be able to see the pixels with your naked eye which is good as you can get with resolution.

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photo1x1.com · Oct 31, 2018

ceemac said:
I guess I don't really know how to ask the question. If my file size is 3400 x 5200 and I print at 11 x 17, is it going to look the same as viewing the picture in my editor at 100% zoom?

Depending on your monitor, it could, but it is highly likely it doesn´t.
See it that way:

a 21" monitor can have a resolution of 1920px x 1080px,
but there are also some monitors with the same physical size of 21" and 4096px x 2304px.
Your image viewed at 100% zoom would look extremely different on both of these, and be different in size too.

WayneF · Oct 31, 2018

ceemac said:
If my file size is 3400 x 5200 and I print at 11 x 17, is it going to look the same as viewing the picture in my editor at 100% zoom?

No, not same size. The 100% crop image on the screen will likely appear to be very much larger, perhaps 3x larger than the 300 dpi uncropped print.
And not quite the same look, because the screen is viewed with transmitted RGB light, each tone with 256 possible values, but the print is viewed with CMYK reflected color, and if from ink jet printers, then possibly dithered from only 4 colors of ink (less contrast, less range than the screen).

Video screens have no concept of inches. Video does not use inches. We buy some screen that is of course some size in inches, but they are dimensioned in pixels, and the viewing software uses only pixels. Screens simply show images pixel for pixel (one image pixel on one screen pixel, unless resized to some other size). If the image is too large for the screen, the viewer typically resamples them smaller so that they do fit in the viewing window (and then shows that smaller copy pixel for pixel). Unless you specify like 100% zoom, then it is shown pixel for pixel, but likely way too large to fit on the screen.

Let's say perhaps your screen is 1920x1080 pixels (common today, HDTV size). Let's say if you measure its lighted screen width, it is actually 20 inches wide. Then we can compute 1920 pixels / 20 inches = 96 pixels per inch. That is the apparent resolution showing that screen, and any images upon it. Fill in your own numbers for your screen.

If you have your Windows set to show a larger font size, like 10% larger text, this can also affect the way a web browser shows the size of that image. But not likely your photo editor.

So in this case, with these numbers, the 100% zoom image on this screen at 96 dpi will be a cropped part of about a 3x larger printed image at 300 dpi.

If you want to see it same size, and if these are appropriate numbers for your screen, then zooming to 30% or 33% would be roughly more the same size as a 300 dpi uncropped print.