right. k. i didn’t mean crank it up to 1440… π besides, a "1440 dpi" printer is misleading. the term refers to the combined output of all heads. for example if it’s a 4 head printer rated by the manufacturer as producing output at 1440dpi, the effective resolution for each head is 360dpi. If it’s a 3 head printer it’s 480dpi. THAT’s the number I was referring to when I said set to maximum printer resolution. Take the printers maximum rated resolution and devide by the # of print heads to get the printer’s maximum.
But… (or Milbut if you prefer <g>): dot pitch is a monitor term:
"dot pitch <
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/d/dot_pitch.html>" Also called phosphor pitch, a measurement that indicates the diagonal distance between like-colored phosphor dots on a display screen. Measured in millimeters, the dot pitch is one of the principal characteristics that determines the quality of display monitors. The lower the number, the crisper the image. The dot pitch of color monitors for personal computers ranges from about 0.15 mm to 0.30 mm
printers do have a dpi. dots per inch, but mine doesn’t, it’s continuous tone. it’s SCREENS that don’t have DPI, they have PPI. scanners are also "rated" in dpi, but might be more accurately described in spi (samples per inch) <
http://www.computer-2tr.com/Tips/03/20030321.html>
my printer has a rated (equivilant) dpi of 306. that IS the stat. it’s not a "dot pitch". it’s continuous tone dye sub (olympus p330n <
http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_section/cpg_product.asp?mo re_info_lobby=1&p=19&bc=23&product=227>)
True photographic output with continuous-tone, 306 dpi dye-sublimation printing in 24-bit color
PPI (webopedia)
Short for pixels per inch, a measurement of how a monitor displays an image. The resolution of an image displayed on a monitor is determined by its ppi, or the number of pixels contained within one square inch of monitor space.
DPI (webopedia)
Abbreviation of dots per inch, which indicates the resolution of images. The more dots per inch, the higher the resolution. A common resolution for laser printers is 600 dots per inch. This means 600 dots across and 600 dots down, so there are 360,000 dots per square inch.
and again (from computer2tr.com):
SPI (samples per inch) is scanner and digital image resolution. To scan an image the scanner takes a sampling of portions of the image. The more samples it takes per inch, the closer the scan is to the original image. The higher the resolution, the higher the SPI will be.
PPI (pixels per inch) is the number of pixels displayed in an image. A digital image is composed of samples that your screen displays in pixels. (Pixels, or picture elements, are the dots on the screen.) The PPI is the display resolution not the image resolution. (Adobe Photoshop uses PPI and Corel Photo-Paint uses DPI for image resolution so it’s no wonder everyone is confused.)
DPI (dots per inch) is a measure of the resolution of a printer. It properly refers to the dots of ink or toner used by an image setter, laser printer, or other printing device to print your text and graphics. In general, the more dots, the better and sharper the image. DPI is printer resolution.
LPI (lines per inch) refers to the way printers reproduce images, simulating continuous tone images by printing lines of halftone spots. The number of lines per inch is the LPI, sometimes also called line frequency. You can think of LPI as the halftone resolution.
<
http://www.computer-2tr.com/Tips/03/20030321.html>
<
http://www.webopedia.com>
(from computer-2tr.com):
In practice, SPI and PPI are often used interchangeably. DPI is frequently used in place of one or both terms. However, even if you call it DPI, remember that each dot or "unit of measure" behaves differently depending on whether it is a scanner (or scanned image), a monitor (or on-screen image), or a printer (or printed image).
(emphesis, mine)
dave