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Ive creating an email footer in Photoshop. The footer is 650px W x 300 px H. I want to set the resolution of the footer to 300dpi so that the text is readable at a smaller size, but when i do so the size of the canvas area doubles.

I will be exporting this as a .png, is there any way to get a 300dpi 650x300px footer without it becoming 1300x600px ?

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  • Uncheck resampling. I agree that the question really does not make sense in general though. If you specify pixel dimensions your better of thinking how wide you want your image instead of the density.
    – joojaa
    Oct 24, 2015 at 21:01

3 Answers 3

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First, you don't need 300ppi for a email footer. Already at 150ppi it should be much clearer than 72ppi for example.

Second, you're mixing the units. When you speak of pixels, it includes already the ppi information in itself. What I mean is it's not the right unit when speaking of resolution. You should use imperial or metric units for size when speaking of resolution + size (eg. inches, millimeters, etc.)

For example, a 650x300 pixels at 72 ppi = 9.029" x 4.167"... and at 300ppi the size will be the same (9.029" x 4.167") but the number of pixels will be increased to 2709 x 1250 pixels because there's more information in your image. That's why you kind of need to ignore the pixels as dimension when you need resolution, unless you shrink inline your image 2-3x in your code.

Third thing is... you can save with a higher resolution but you can't "save for web" it and optimize it as much as a normal web image. You can use the "save as..." instead if you need to keep that resolution information. By default the "save for web..." will remove that resolution information and convert it to the pixel size. That's why your image is bigger. Unfortunately your PNG saved with a "save as..." will be heavier than "save for web".

Finally, don't forget that some clients might not interpret your resolution either and will show the image using the pixels information only, eg. bigger. You'll need to make tests with this or make sure you specify a size for the image.

I think for an email footer, it's safer to simply find another way to increase your text size instead and adjust your layout. Maybe have a look at the anti-aliasing of your text to put them to sharp for example. This way your footer banner will look the same for everybody. Some people have their email client set to "text-only".

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  • And of course many monitors are still only capable of displaying less than 100ppi, so regardless of what level of pixel density you cram into your image and whether the client actually respects it, the person looking at the screen is still fairly likely to see something that’s only around 72ppi. Oct 25, 2015 at 13:23
  • Phisical units in this case has no meaning.
    – Rafael
    Oct 25, 2015 at 13:39
  • @Rafael It has some meaning if you need a reference point. Otherwise it's just guessing the final size.
    – go-junta
    Oct 25, 2015 at 19:04
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Change the resolution setting to 300.

Leave the measurement at pixels/inch. Notice that the size of the image goes from 8" × 10" to 4" × 5", as shown below. That’s because you’re only changing the distance between pixels as you modify the resolution of the file. You have fixed overall pixel dimensions of 1200 × 1500. When you set your resolution to 300 ppi, the math dictates that the image is 4" × 5" (4" × 300 ppi = 1200 pixels, and 5" × 300 ppi = 1500 pixels). When the resolution is set to 150 ppi, the image must be 8" × 10" in size (8" × 150 ppi = 1200 pixels, and 10" × 150 ppi = 1500 pixels).

Check this out:

Doing the Simple Math Heading.

http://www.graphics.com/article-old/photoshop-fundamentals-changing-image%E2%80%99s-resolution-and-size

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    Hello Asim Raze Khan, could you expand your answer with quotes from the article or other instructions? Link only answers are not well recieved on Stack Exchange websites as the linked page may not exist in the future.
    – Hanna
    Oct 25, 2015 at 0:02
  • Sure!!, Why not. Oct 25, 2015 at 12:17
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In general, ppi has NO meaning on footers or emailing.

The footer is 650px W x 300 px H

That is the end of the story. for email thoose are the only measures you need. You do not need ppi settings, or physical units.

If the text do not show well, the only 2 options you have are changing the size of your font or choosing another one.


A special case

I am adding an extra explanation but this is for a diferent case.

When you are doing some web images for retina displays (not email ones) you can set an aditional image with increased resolution.

Theese images are in fact 2x or 3x the original size.

You need a 1300x600px image,that with the correct html code will display at 650x300 with "increased" sharpeness compared with the same 650x300px image. But this is only for "esthetic purposes", not for important text information inside an image.

But that is not the case for an email footer with text.

(And again, you do not need ppi or physical units)

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  • I don't know if standard email footers do allow the @2x, I don't think so. You're asking questions in your answer. You're wrong with no need for "physical" units; leave the resolution then if you want to stick to pixels, and speak in term of size ratio instead (eg. resizing the image inline or with css if possible at half the size for example.) I don't understand the "not for important information on a text", do you mean html text? Caring about Retina displays is especially useful for graphic texts and logos, a bit less for pictures!
    – go-junta
    Oct 25, 2015 at 19:15
  • You can not ask everyone on the planet to read your information on a retina display. You need to read it well regardless the retina option.
    – Rafael
    Oct 25, 2015 at 21:10
  • I edited the answer correcting some isues. The question was a quote that i was going to use. Dumb me, sorry.
    – Rafael
    Oct 25, 2015 at 21:25

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