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EmmaBonJovi
Known Participant
March 22, 2024
Question

Stager and Print = 300dpi or Higher... Web/Digital = 72dpi : What's the Deal Adobe?

  • March 22, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 2637 views

This seems to be a pretty straightforward and very important discussion! -- maybe Adobe team can just respond for everyone's benefit? 🙂

Rendering at a higher resolution (300dpi+) - for print
Rendering at whatever resolution (72min, looks good) - for web/digital

 

Unlike Dimension, there is no "resolution" selection(s). You can select Full/1-2/1-4 under "Resolution".
A standard magazine full-page ad at 8.5x11.

Stager Resolution (setup)- Full and let's go with High/Ultra Presets.

In a different post, somone said - Oh, yeah it comes out at 72dpi. "Just open it in Photoshop" change the Image size settings to 300dpi."  It's fine.   Huh?

Anytime you blow up an image at 72dpi to 300dpi (example), you will always lose quality, starting from 72dpi...

Can Adobe explain?  Does DPI no longer matter? Is Stager rendering at a massive DPI and when you open it and change it to 300, the 72dpi doesn't matter, it's actually not 72dpi? Maybe someone can explain a potentially entirely new approach to web vs. print resolutions?

Thanks Everyone!

-Em-

    2 replies

    S
    Sergej DAGDA
    Participating Frequently
    February 20, 2025

    And now Dimension also dont have Resolution settings anymore. Sad.

    AlanGilbertson
    Community Expert
    AlanGilbertsonCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    February 22, 2025

    @Sergej DAGDA  "Resolution," in the sense you're using it, is essentially meaningless. Read @DavidLloydImageworks post above carefully to get some understanding. The only meaningful numbers from a render are the pixel dimensions (W x H), and you can make those anything you want in Dimension or Stager by changing the W and H values of each camera.

      S
      Sergej DAGDA
      Participating Frequently
      February 23, 2025

      I am a car wrap designer with six years of experience, so I have "some understanding", thank you. And no, resolution in the context I’m referring to is very important. At the very least, to get a file suitable for printing, I would have to inflate the file size by at least 2.5 times, increasing rendering time.

      Considering that I need files of at least 5000 pixels on the long side with a resolution of no less than 240 dpi, using dimension can be completely ruled out. Essentially, this change kills the interest of professionals in the printing industry and limits usage to those who create images for the web—something that any MidJourney-like tool can easily handle. A very unnecessary change, given that this function was already available.

      DavidLloydImageworks
      DavidLloydImageworks
      Inspiring
      March 22, 2024

      Hi Emma,

       

      I understand your confusion with the suggestion to change the image size in photoshop. I think that most of us that have had the 72ppi for screen and 300ppi for print drilled into us and miss that resolution is a little abstract in the sense that what we are really looking at is ppi or pixels per inch.

       

      What is at issue is that the image that Stager creates is 72ppi, but that is arbitrary in the sense that what you are really doing in Stager is creating a pixel dimension. For example in the properties you might set the pixel dimensions to 4,096px x 2,736px. And yes, this render will come out at those dimensions at 72ppi.

       

       

      What this means is that when you open it up in photoshop what you have is an image that measures 56.889in x 38in at 72ppi. Clearly this is not what any of us want for a print piece.

       

      When you change the resolution to 300ppi in photoshop, you do not want to "blow it up". Meaning DO NOT select the option to Resample. If you "Resample", then you change the actual pixel dimensions and not the resolution.

       

      As you can see here, changing the resolution from 72 to 300ppi really changes the document dimensions from 56.889in x 38in at 72ppi to 13.653in x 9.12in at 300ppi WITHOUT changing the actual pixel dimensions of  4,096 px x 2,736px, therefor no loss in quality because you are not actually changing the pixels at all. Just the reference information on the resolution of the file.

      All that said, I do agree that this is a common misunderstanding of how resolution works and that Adobe could easily provide a resolution setting so that it is easier to accurately create pixel dimensions for print files than memorizing that an 8.5 x 11 at 300dpi is a pixel dimension of 2550px x 3300px. Becasue I am nuerodivergent and math impared, what I do is take the dimensions that I want to print my render at and create a blank document in Photoshop at those inches at 300dpi. Then I take the pixel dimensions and use that for defining my output size in px in teh properties in Stager.

        

       

       

        DavidLloydImageworks
        DavidLloydImageworks
        Inspiring
        March 22, 2024

        BTW. I added the feature request for a resolution setting. Please go here and upvote this so that Adobe sees it 🙂

         

        https://community.adobe.com/t5/substance-3d-stager-ideas/please-add-the-resolution-settings-from-adobe-dimensions/idi-p/14507865#M165

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