Printing confusion

Question

I hope anyone with printing experience can help with this.

I've read a ton of material about DPI and resolution. To be honest, I still don't get it 100%. I get the idea of it, but can't really apply it in practice. So I'm hoping someone can chime in on my predicament. I'm making a magazine - it's a personal project (that may turn commercial), so I want it to look professional. I have the perfect photo for the cover. Unfortunately it's only 72 DPI and 1200x1200 pixels (it wasn't intended for this purpose originally, it's just a photo that I really would like to use if possible). In your opinion, is this a no-go, a maybe - or is it ok to use as the cover for a standard a4 size magazine that will be in print? Or do you need more information to evaluate?

In photoshop the image looks extremely crisp and I can even zoom in very far before there is any pixelation - not sure if that matters.

Thanks in advance!

c.pfaffenbichler · Accepted Answer

Yes, I did mean Indesign - I'm still a beginner, but learn quickly - except some things like this particular issue .

So based on what you just said with the 33% and an effective resolution of 220ppi can we draw any conclusion whether it might work for the a4 print? Or is it in your opinion a grey area and I will just have to try and see how it turns out?

Indesign can display the effective resolution in the Info and the Links Panel.

220ppi is certainly not great but for me it usually is »good enough«.

With below 210ppi I would be loathe to use the image as is, but even then you might try whether upsampling (Image > Image Size) with »Preserve Details« and possibly some light sharpening (Unsharp Mask or High Pass) might be sufficient. It depends on how »good« the image is to begin with, I guess. (edited)

Below 150ppi would seem flat out »bad«.

In any case you should have the cover (ideally the whole magazine naturally) proofed before the actual printing to be able to assess the image quality »on paper«.

Semaphoric · Answer

How large do you want the image to be? 1200 pixels could probably give you decent results at 5 inches (240 ppi).

This is from https://www.prepressure.com/library/paper-size/din-a4 :

Resolution needed to print an A4 size picture

To output an image properly it needs to have a certain minimum resolution. The number of pixels depend on the required output quality.

At 300 ppi (pixels per inch) the image needs to be 2480 x 3508 pixels. This is the required resolution for quality offset printing that will be viewed from a short distance (such as books, brochures, magazines, calenders,…). For photo books it is also the optimum resolution but a somewhat lower pixel count (250 dpi) is acceptable for great looking photographs.
At 150 ppi the image needs to be 1240 x 1754 pixels. This is the minimum resolution for newspapers or posters viewed from a fairly short distance.

Resolution needed to print an A4 size picture

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