Transcript
DIGITAL PHOTO GUIDE Understanding DPI and how it affects your photos and the outcome of printed products 549 Main Street, Islip, NY 631.277.2333 www.OnlyYouGifts.com
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ONLY YOU DIGITALPHOTO GUIDE
WHAT QUALIFIES AS A GOOD PHOTO FOR “PRINTING” PURPOSES?
Ideally...when you order a holiday photo card or photo gift that needs to be printed OFF SITE on a printing press, the BEST RESULT for your order will come from you supplying your photo at the BEST DPI, which is 300dpi or more.
WHAT IS DPI? When a computer displays a digital image, it takes the data in the file and displays thousands of tiny dots on your screen. Each of these dots is called a "pixel". The more pixels an image has, the more detailed the picture can be. Image quality is measured by pixels per inch, also called dots per inch, or "dpi".
TRY THIS Right-click your mouse on your photo --> then scroll down to “properties” --> then click “details”, that will give you the dimensions of that photo and the pixels are under that. It is important to realize that an image that looks good on your screen may appear "grainy" when we print it on your product. (More details to follow.)
Why is it grainy? 75 dpi is usually acceptable when an image is viewed on a computer screen (for websites). However, unless you have a very expensive, high-quality monitor, there’s a good chance that your screen doesn’t display much more than 75 pixels in an inch. WWW.ONLYYOUGIFTS.COM
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ONLY YOU DIGITALPHOTO GUIDE
Professional photography quality is usually around 300 dpi or higher. It’s up to you to make sure the setting on your digital camera is set to give you high quality photos. (more to come)
HERE’S AN EXAMPLE OF TWO IMAGES THAT LOOK SIMILAR WHEN VIEWED ON A SCREEN, BUT LOOK VERY DIFFERENT WHEN SEEN AT PRINTED IMAGE SIZE:
1000x800
640x480
WHEN PRINTED AS AN 8X10, HERE’S WHAT THEY’LL LOOK LIKE (ONLY PART OF THE IMAGE IS SHOWN)
Clear
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Grainy
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As you can
see in the illustration below, when you use the same image to make
two different sized prints, the prints will not necessarily look the same. The print on the left (the small print) looks sharp and clear, while the print on the right (the large print) looks fuzzy and pixilated (meaning you can see the individual pixels).
There are fewer Dots Per Inch in the larger print, which is why you can see them (the image looks pixilated). Even though we used the same digital file to make both prints, each print has a different DPI. That is because we used the same digital file (a certain number of dots) to fill a small space (4x6 inches) and a large space (20x30 inches). When you fill a large space with a limited number of dots, you’ve got to blow up the dots (make them bigger) to fill up the space.
That is why a photographic print made from a low-resolution digital file appears grainy or pixilated: the dots are so big that you can see them.
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Overview IF YOU ALREADY HAVE AN IMAGE: 1.
Open My Computer.
2.
Find the image you want to use.
3.
Set your mouse pointer on the image, click the RIGHT mouse button once, and release. A small menu will appear.
4.
Set your mouse pointer at the bottom of the menu on "Properties" (It will highlight), click the LEFT mouse button once, and release. A new screen will pop up.
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You should see several tabs across the top of the page. One of them will say "Summary." Click it.
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You should see a list of image properties. "Width" is the image width in pixels, and "Height" is the image height in pixels.
When taking a picture with a digital camera: 1.
Make sure you have a camera that takes 2 megapixel images or larger.
2.
Make sure your camera is set to the highest setting before taking a picture.
3.
Refer to your camera’s manual for more details. Can’t find the manual? Most manuals are online.
4.
Once you find the setting you think is correct, take a few shots, take out the smart disk and view them on your computer.
If you are scanning a 4x6 (regular photo size) image: 1.
Set the scanner resolution to 300 dpi or higher.
2.
If your scanner does not have a dpi setting, use the highest available setting.
3.
Refer to your scanner’s manual for more details.
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