How to manage PPI

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Only RF

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This is a really good video. Simple to understand for someone who does not print a lot. People like me. However the interesting part that I've known for a long time is PPI does not matter for screen viewing. It only matters for printing.


I've posted an article about 72 PPI below. I've been several conversations about PPI on several sites and sometimes people aren't convinced. Why is this important? It saves you time and easier file storage. If you normally print at 240 PPI then just leave it there for web display. No need to export one file @240 and another @72.

I've used this example before. One file was exported at 1 PPI and the other at 1000 PPI. Can you tell the difference?

1res.jpg
  • Join to view EXIF data.


1000res.jpg
  • Join to view EXIF data.


The origin of the 72 ppi screen resolution dates all the way back to the mid 1980's when Apple released its first Macintosh computers. These computers included a built-in 9 inch display with a screen resolution of 72 pixels per inch. Why 72 pixels per inch? It's because the Macintosh screens were specifically designed to work in perfect harmony with Apple's ImageWriter printers, which had a print resolution of 144 dots per inch - exactly twice the resolution of the screen.

Source

 
Ya, agreed. For screen and for printing, it's the pixel dimensions that matter. DPI (Irfanview calls it DPI) allows you to calculate print size if you want, for whatever DPI you feel you need.
 
Ya, agreed. For screen and for printing, it's the pixel dimensions that matter. DPI (Irfanview calls it DPI) allows you to calculate print size if you want, for whatever DPI you feel you need.
So does Canon. I’ve always assumed they mean PPI.
 
And Adobe PDF also uses DPI for sizing the pages.
 
DPI is Dots Per Inch and is used for printing. It is the dots of ink per inch laid down by the printer. PPI is Pixels Per Inch and is used for digital displays.

If you wish to know the PPI of your monitor, divide your screens resolution by the diagonal size of the monitor. My 24 inch 4k monitor has a resolution of 3840x2160. 3840 divided by 24 is about 163ppi.
 

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