What Is DPI Definition
Marketing by PrintPlace

What is DPI? Understanding Printing Resolutions

 

Part of the design process is learning important terms for their designs and printing. And one unavoidable question you’ll often get is “what is DPI”?

Professional designers will tell you that DPI stands for “dots per inch”, but what does that exactly mean? How can learning it help in my designs? Well, if your goal is to print hiqh-quality products like postcards and flyers, understanding DPI and applying it to your design gets half of the job done.

Let PrintPlace guide you in understanding DPI and how it can impact your print projects before sending them to the printers.

What Is DPI?: The Technical Definition

DPI stands for “dots per inch”. It refers to the number of ink or pigment dots per given linear inch of the printed image. DPI is a worldwide standard for measuring print density and a general rule of thumb, is that the higher DPI in an image, the higher quality the print will turn out visually.

Although often confused with it, DPI is not a direct measure of print resolution, which is the actual or approximate number of “ink dots” in the entirety of a given image.

Example:
A 1080p image at 72 dpi will be physically larger on paper but less sharp per inch. Meanwhile, an image at 720p, 300 dpi will print smaller but with much tighter dot placement, making it look sharper up close.

DPI vs. PPI

Now, if you’ve come across DPI in your design process, you’ll also learn about PPI or “pixels per inch”. DPI and PPI are related concepts and are often interchangeable when in practice. Strictly speaking, they are not the same thing, but they’re so connected that learning how one affects the other is vital for printing high-quality materials.

PPI measures the pixel density per inch, as used on computer monitors and other digital screens. Simply put, the DPI denotes the image quality of a print, while PPI does the same for image files.

So, why are the two often interchanged? This may be because most graphic artists try to match the image’s DPI settings with its PPI, so that the image looks excellent both as a file and as a print.

Now, some other key points to take note:

  • Pixels are not converted to dots on a one-to-one basis, meaning a high DPI image will still look blurry if the PPI is low.
  • Images with larger PPI often come with a larger file size, which could be a concern for uploading with file size limits.
  • Like DPI, PPI doesn’t equate to screen resolution. 1080p Full-HD image files with lower PPI will result in a blurry image.

These key points show why balancing DPI and PPI is vital.

Why DPI Matters for Print Quality

DPI matters because it determines the density of printed ink dots. Higher DPI means more dots per inch, resulting in sharper details and smoother color transitions.

Check out the dots of CMYK when we look at this business card from the British Library under a microscope.

See how many dots are aligned and organized in one inch of the image. The more dots there are, the sharper the image is and the more pronounced the colors are in print.

Speaking of colors, the DPI settings on your image editing program also closely follow the CMYK format. This makes color accuracy better and optimized with high DPI images.

Why 300 dpi?

300 dpi is often the standard when it comes to print materials. While higher DPI often equates to higher image quality, 300 dpi offers the sweet spot for color accuracy, image density, and overall quality of a printed product.

There are also some cases where the lower DPI could be used for your images, specifically for larger prints like banners. Here’s a chart for appropriate DPI for our print materials:

Print Item Recommended DPI
●  Small format (close up) Postcards, brochures, flyers ●   300 dpi
●   Business cards ●   300 – 600 dpi
●   Posters (8.5” x 11”) ●   200 – 300 dpi
●   Wall-mounted posters ●   150 – 200 dpi
●   Wall decals, wall labels (large-scale) ●   100 – 300 dpi
●   Vinyl banners (large-scale, billboards) ●   72 – 150 dpi
●   Vinyl banners (24” x 36”) ●   300 dpi

How to Format DPI Correctly With Popular Design Software.

Before sending your custom design to professional printers like PrintPlace, it’s essential to format your image with the correct DPI. Below are some ways to format DPI correctly using popular design software and applications, so your high-quality artworks turn into high-quality prints.

Adobe Photoshop

  • Click “File” and then “New.”
  • Select “300” for the Resolution.
  • Choose “Pixels/Inch” for the Units.
  • Click “OK.”

Microsoft Publisher

  • Click “File” and choose “Save As.”
  • Select either “PDF” or “TIF” from the file-type menu.
  • For PDF, click “Options” and select “Commercial Press” from the options; click “OK.
  • For TIF, click “Change” and click “High Quality Printing or Commercial Press,” then click “OK.”

Quark Xpress

  • Click “File” and then choose “Export.”
  • Under “Save as Type” select “PDF.”
  • Under “PDF Style”, choose a high-quality PDF.
  • Click “Save.”

(This will set the graphics to 300 dpi and the color to CMYK.)

Corel Draw

  • Click “File” and then “Export.”
  • Select “PDF” as the file type and then select “PDF for Prepress” as the PDF Style.
  • You can also click “Settings” to specifically change the export settings.
  • Use recommended settings. In our case, it’s 300 dpi and CMYK color.

Getting your design print-ready involves several technical steps and some fine-tuning using your design programs. From tiny details to bold, oversized statements, the correct setup and image editing bring everything into focus.

Take the time to prepare your files with detail and attention, and trust PrintPlace to turn your promotional designs into stunning, high-quality marketing materials.