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darleneseale
darleneseale
Inspiring
April 20, 2025
Answered

Pixels vs inches problen

  • April 20, 2025
  • 5 replies
  • 540 views

I've read all the info on this by the community and still after trying everything, I cannot get this fixed: On the top menu bar, the document properties refuse to display any other measurement except pixels! I've set and reset everything in the preference to inches. It's all there. The document itself tells me it's in inches, but the top width and height display always converts to pixels. This seems like a bug. I've just updated to PSD 24.6 and this remains a problem. It's very irritating because the rulers are all in inches, I set everything to inches but no, it has a mind of its own in that top bar display of width and height. Can anyone please help me switch this? In previous versions of PSD this was easy to take care of and inches on the top bar were always displayed. Sorry world, some of us still use inches even though that may seem Neanderthal to the rest of the world. Help? Thanks very much. 

    Correct answer D Fosse

    Just to sum all this up for the OP:

     

    An image file is only made of pixels; so many pixels wide by so many pixels high. The image has no physical size. There are no inches or cm in the file. There are only pixels.

     

    The size is determined by assigning a pixels per inch number (ppi). You can see how that works: how many inches are the image pixels spread over. That defines a physical size. The ppi number is not a property of the file! It's just metadata; an external instruction.

     

    In other words, the ppi number translates from pixels to a physical measurement, when it's needed.

     

    So what you have is a standard formula: resolution = pixels / inches. Or if you will, inches = pixels / resolution (ppi).

     

    Bottom line: the ppi number decides the size.

    5 replies

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    April 21, 2025

    Just to sum all this up for the OP:

     

    An image file is only made of pixels; so many pixels wide by so many pixels high. The image has no physical size. There are no inches or cm in the file. There are only pixels.

     

    The size is determined by assigning a pixels per inch number (ppi). You can see how that works: how many inches are the image pixels spread over. That defines a physical size. The ppi number is not a property of the file! It's just metadata; an external instruction.

     

    In other words, the ppi number translates from pixels to a physical measurement, when it's needed.

     

    So what you have is a standard formula: resolution = pixels / inches. Or if you will, inches = pixels / resolution (ppi).

     

    Bottom line: the ppi number decides the size.

    Chuck Uebele
    Community Expert
    Chuck UebeleCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 21, 2025

    Can you do a screen shot and show us what you're seeing?

      Trevor.Dennis
      Community Expert
      Trevor.DennisCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      April 21, 2025

      You'll have found how to set the Rulers units in Preferences, but thge easiest way is to right click one of thge rulers.

      Changing it this way will also change it in Preferences.

       

      To change the leniar/physical size of an image (the size it will print) is changed with the Image Size panel.

      It will remember this setting untill the next time you change it. Note: Pixels will be greyed out unless Resample is checked

       

      Image size and pixel density seem to cause more confusion than almost anything else.  Pixel density (PPI) is meaninless for a digital image, but I have seen it as a requirement in more competition rules than I can count.  Pixel density is relevant if you are going to print an image, and you need to develop an understanding of what works.  300DPI is a good rule of thumb for up to A3 (11.7" x 16.5") but you can reduce this with larger prints.

       

      So the question is what is your end goal?   Why do you need to change these settings?

      I'm sure you understand that changing the image size will not affect the image is Resample is unchecked?

      If you explain some more about what you are doing, then I think you'll get more a focused response.

      Glenn 8675309
      Glenn 8675309
      Legend
      April 20, 2025

      1. Document properties are not the same as canvas properties.
      2. You should use inches for printing, and pixels for online use.
      3.  Image size typically match canvas size (I prefer canvases bigger than images)

      "the top width and height display always converts to pixels. "  There could be a few things you are talking about.  Without a screenshot or two (of the entire program) makes help a bit difficult to provide:  Users sometimes call something onething, but they meant something else.



      I rarely use inches, or see the rulers- I just set those up for you to see. 

       

      kglad
      Community Expert
      kgladCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      April 20, 2025

      in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

      p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.



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