Even with document raster effects set to 300ppi, my rulers indicate that ppi is 72

Question

Illustrator 28.1, Mac OS Sonoma 14.0

What I mean by my subject line is this:

I have my document raster effects set to 300ppi, and I have an artboard that is 6.25x6.25:

Therefore, I would assume that when I switch my units from inches to pixels, my artboard would be 18,750px X 18,750 (6.25" x 300ppi)

...but it's not, it's 450px X 450px. ... which is 6.25x72. So it would seem to show that the document is set to 72ppi (or that raster images in the document are, anyway)

When I place a raster image that's 2560x2560 into the document, its about 35.55" wide, which also reflects 72 ppi

So what's going on here? Is there some other place where I set the actual ppi of the document? I wondered if document raster effects just affects the ppi of the actual effects themselves (given that it's in the effects menu), and maybe there's some other place? Or is this a bug?

Can someone at least validate the logic of what I'm saying? Am I right that this doesn't add up?

Ton Frederiks · Answer

Illustrator is a vector application, is resolution independent and a document has no ppi.

A pixel does not have a fixed size but in order to work with pixels as unit, Illustrator has to give it one.

Internally Points are used as unit. There are 72 points in an inch and that's what Illustrator uses for the size of a pixel.

The Raster Effects setting is just that, the resolution used to calculate pixels for raster effects.

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