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jjonez642
jjonez642
Known Participant
July 20, 2017
Question

Quick question about: Pixel Dimensions - Document Size - Resolution

  • July 20, 2017
  • 3 replies
  • 1652 views

Hello,

I have an image I designed that I want to print and under Image > Image Size on Photoshop I get:

2400x3000 pixels | 8x10 inches | 300 ppi

Does that mean that when printed it's going to to be 8x10 inches, regardless of the printer (the machine) or the printing shop (the person) that I hire to print it for me, or if it's going to be printed on paper or a plain t-shirt etc.?

As long as the pixels dimensions, the document size and the resolution do not change, the image when printed will always be 8x10 inches? Is that correct?

Thank you.

    3 replies

    jjonez642
    jjonez642Author
    Known Participant
    July 20, 2017

    Thank you all for your responses. I think I did get an idea.

    Stephen Marsh
    Community Expert
    Stephen MarshCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 20, 2017

    As has been stated, image print sizes are somewhat “flexible” and there is no foolproof method when blind exchanging data (never discount a print shop using inappropriate settings, it happens more than you would think). Some file formats and saving methods retain PPI metadata and others don’t, or the end user may ignore etc.

    Even saving your image as a “document” using Photoshop PDF format would have no guarantee of final reproduction size, however it would be less ambiguous.

    Mylenium
    Mylenium
    Legend
    July 20, 2017

    Pixels themselves have no dimension and DPI/ PPI info is merely an abstract meta-information used as a basis for calculations. Outside specific programs that honor DPI flags therefore this stuff becomes meaningless with regards to how it translates to physical dimensions for reproduction. So no, it will not always print at the intended correct size. You have to give that information to whoever is going to print it and/ or advise him to use a program that makes use of the metadata stored in formats like JPEG, TIFF and a few others. You could save it as a GIF and use an odd image viewer for printing and the nyour whole procedure would break down - GIFs have no DPI and such a viewer may not care for it, anyway.

    Mylenium

    jjonez642
    jjonez642Author
    Known Participant
    July 20, 2017

    I see. Well, most printing places I've been to, for some reason, suggest a PNG file with a minimum dpi of 300. So, given that dpi is "locked" at 300, and given that I want my picture to be 8x10 inches when printed, all we (the printer and I) have to do, is experiment with pixel dimensions on several test prints, just until we reach the desired print size of 8x10?

    Thank you for your response by the way.

    JJMack
    Community Expert
    JJMackCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    July 20, 2017

    Why is it locked.  It is not locked any print service can easily change the document DPI Resolution setting it a setting it not locked. To change the size the image will print. Also if you send them an image  with an 8:10 aspect ration 4:5 and want  4x6 prints a 2:3 aspect ratio not only will the print service change the Image DIP resolution they will crop your 4:5 aspect ratio image to a 2:3 aspect ration and print the cropped image.

    In Photoshop   Image resize resample NOT checked.  Change the DPI setting you will see the print size change the file size and number of pixels will not change.

    JJMack
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