DPI 4800~300?

NH
Posted By
Nicolas Hoch
May 9, 2005
Views
392
Replies
7
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Closed
Hi,

I bought a printer which has a max resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi. Now, in Photoshop you can only enter one value for the "pixel per inch", e.g. 300 is best for things you want to print out if I remember correctly.

Is the printer able to print a 300dpi picture on 4800 x 1200 dpi in full quality? Or should I reduce the quality in PS, since the printer cannot handle that anyway? Why is there one / two value(s)? How can I find out the maximum quality (one value in PS) which my printer can handle?

Thank you!
Nico

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T
Tacit
May 9, 2005
In article ,
"Nicolas Tade" wrote:

I bought a printer which has a max resolution of 4800 x 1200 dpi. Now, in Photoshop you can only enter one value for the "pixel per inch", e.g. 300 is best for things you want to print out if I remember correctly.

"DPI" and "pixels per inch" do not mean the same thing in this context.

Your printer prints tiny dots of solid color; 4800 of them across and 1200 of them down. However, one pixel in an image is made of many, many dots.

The maximum effective resolution of a printer varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, and manufacturers don’t often give out that information; they prefer to tell you only the printer’s "dpi" because it’s great advertising copy–naive consumers often assume that "higher dpi" means "better quality."

In real-world terms, the effective resolution of most consumer inkjet printers is usually somewhere between 240 and 300 pixels per inch; your image should print fine.


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H
Hecate
May 9, 2005
On Mon, 9 May 2005 23:31:51 +0100, "Nicolas Tade" wrote:

"DPI" and "pixels per inch" do not mean the same thing in this context.

So what does the 300dpi in PS mean? Why is this only one value? It means 300 pixel in a line which is one inch wide? But how many pixel are in a vertical row then?

Read it again. It doesn’t say *d* pi . It’s *p* ppi (pixels per inch.
I.e. 300 pixels per inch means 300 pixels for every inch. *d* pi is
*dots* per inch. You can print a 300 *ppi* image at 1200 *dpi* for example.

I understand the pixel information on printers " 4800 x 1200 ", although this is dots and not picture pixels. But I am confused by the fact that 300dpi in PS is only ONE value? Is this horizontal per inch, vertical or what?
That’s because it’s P FOR PIXELS NOT D FOR DOTS.



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NH
Nicolas Hoch
May 9, 2005
"DPI" and "pixels per inch" do not mean the same thing in this context.

So what does the 300dpi in PS mean? Why is this only one value? It means 300 pixel in a line which is one inch wide? But how many pixel are in a vertical row then?
I understand the pixel information on printers " 4800 x 1200 ", although this is dots and not picture pixels. But I am confused by the fact that 300dpi in PS is only ONE value? Is this horizontal per inch, vertical or what?

Thank you very much!
Nico
T
Tacit
May 9, 2005
In article ,
"Nicolas Tade" wrote:

So what does the 300dpi in PS mean? Why is this only one value? It means 300 pixel in a line which is one inch wide? But how many pixel are in a vertical row then?

It means each pixel is a square; there are 300 pixels per inch vertically and 300 pixels per inch horizontally.

You can create images with pixels that are not square; this is what the "pixel aspect ratio" in Photoshop CS does. But the times when you’d ever need to do so are quite limited.


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NH
Nicolas Hoch
May 10, 2005
It means each pixel is a square; there are 300 pixels per inch vertically and 300 pixels per inch horizontally.

Ahh, there you go. That’s what I mean. 300 is only one value, because it is the same value in horizontal and vertical direction. Makes sense!

Thank you.
NH
Nicolas Hoch
May 10, 2005
Read it again. It doesn’t say *d* pi . It’s *p* ppi (pixels per inch.
I.e. 300 pixels per inch means 300 pixels for every inch. *d* pi is
*dots* per inch. You can print a 300 *ppi* image at 1200 *dpi* for example.

Thank you. So if I use a HP Inkjet with 2400*1200 resolution and print a picture from PS which has 300 PPI, then each horizontal pixel is represented by 8 dots and each vertical pixel is represented by 4 dots on my printout? Is that correct?
If the resolution of the printer is 2400*1200, does it always use the maximum?

Thanks again!
Nico
T
Tacit
May 11, 2005
In article ,
"Nicolas Tade" wrote:

Thank you. So if I use a HP Inkjet with 2400*1200 resolution and print a picture from PS which has 300 PPI, then each horizontal pixel is represented by 8 dots and each vertical pixel is represented by 4 dots on my printout? Is that correct?

In a manner of speaking, yes. It’s the right ida; anyway; in reality, it may not be exactly that, because the dots from an inkjet printer overlap. But essentially, yes.

If the resolution of the printer is 2400*1200, does it always use the maximum?

As long as that’s what you have set in the printer settings, yes. (Some printer drivers allow you to speed up printing by reducing the printer’s resolution.)


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