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M
Mr. McGalla
Participant
February 27, 2020
Question

Export PPI does not effect print quality????

  • February 27, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 450 views

Hello so I am trying to teach my students about resolution and wanted to print a photo at 10 PPI but when I export and change the PPI to 10 nothing changes.  When I right click>properties on the image from my desktop (on a PC obviously) it shows that the PPI is 10, but when I printed it is not.  So what is happening here?  No matter what PPI I pick the photo never looks different on the screen or in print.  What am I missing?

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1 reply

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
February 27, 2020

If your settings in the Export dialog box have the "resize to fit" box unchecked, then the PPI does not affect anything.

 

If your settings in the Export dialog box have "resize to fit" checked, and you choose a resizing method that does not use inches or centimeters, you choose a resizing method that involves pixels, then the PPI does not affect anything.

 

Why? Because digital images cannot be measured in inches, they can only be measured in pixels.

 

So, what you are seeing sounds perfectly normal.

M
Mr. McGallaAuthor
Participant
February 27, 2020

Thanks that makes sense, but what is the point of being able to change the PPI?  With resize checked or unchecked it does change the way it looks.  When I change to 10 PPI and then print the photo it looks normal.  How can I print from LR so that the printed image is actually 10 PPI?

dj_paige
dj_paige
Legend
February 27, 2020

You have to check "Resize to Fit" and then select a resizing method that is in inches. Then PPI makes a difference. If you ask to export a photo that has a dimension of 6 inches x 4 inches, and you ask for 300 PPI, then the exported photo is 1800x1200 pixels. If you ask for 10 PPI, then the exported photos is 60x40 pixels. 

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