What Is DPI?
Dots per inch: measurement of the scanning resolution of an image or the quality of an output device. DPI expresses the number of dots a printer can print per inch, or that a monitor can display, both horizontally and vertically. For instance a lot of images you see on your monitor are 72 DPI. While they look great on your computer screen, they are not satisfactory for printing your job.
DPI (dots per inch) is a measurement of printer resolution, though it is commonly applied, somewhat inappropriately, to monitors, scanners and even digital cameras. For printers, the DPI specification indicates the number of dots per inch that the printer is capable of achieving to form text or graphics on the printed page. The higher the DPI, the more refined the text or image will appear. To save ink, a low DPI is often used for draft copies or routine paperwork. This setting might be 300 or even 150 DPI. High resolution starts at 600 DPI for standard printers, and can far exceed that for color printers designed for turning out digital photography or other high-resolution images. In the case of monitors, DPI refers to the number of pixels present per inch of display screen. The technically correct term is “PPI” or pixels per inch, but DPI is commonly used instead. A display setting of 1280 x 1024 has 1.3 million DPI, while a setting of 800 x 600 has 480,000, or less than half the res
DPI is an abbreviation for Dots Per Inch, and specifies the number of dots in a square inch that make up an image on a printed page. More dots in a square inch mean a smoother image, whereas an image with a low DPI, the dots may be visible to the naked eye. Since deviantART Prints automatically scales the source file to fit the entire print, we ignore the DPI information saved in print source files. The number that matters the most is the DPI (or PPI = pixels per inch) of your image when it is printed on the largest sized print that you want. You can find out the DPI of your image when it is on a print by dividing the largest dimension of the image by the largest dimension of the print. For example, if your image is 3000×4500 and you wanted to make a 20×30 print available, your DPI is 150 because 4500 divided by 30 = 150. The minimum acceptable DPI for a deviantART Prints is 100 DPI, although images at this resolution are heavily scrutinzed for any defects or pixelization, and will be
DPI literally means dots per inch, and PPI means pixels per inch (they are synonymous). These dots or pixels correspond with the way images are displayed on monitors, TVs, and anything printed (which includes digital photo prints). In the context of scanning photos, slides, or negatives, the DPI dictates the level of quality of the scan. The greater the DPI, the larger you can expand the image without pixelation and distortion. To get an idea of what is right for you, keep reading.
Dots Per Inch. The measurement of resolution for page printers, photo type setting machines and graphics screens. Images and photos that you view on your computer screen and on the Internet are usually reproduced at 60 to 72 dpi (low resolution). Images or photos that you wish to print should be at least 300 dpi (higher resolution) at the size you are printing.
