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I am an artist and I have a number of photos of my paintings or other subjects that I'd like to be able to make prints of and sell. Obviously what I print has to be the best quality print I can get for the photo that has been taken. I need help to understand the relationship between, the resolution, pixels and the largest size print I can make without losing any quality. I do not want a blurry or fuzzy print. I want to be able to see the detail that I can clearly see on screen to be clear on paper. Is this possible?

So, as an example I have a photo (jpeg)that according to the photo properties is 72 ppi and 2448 x 3264 pixels. From what I have read so far you need a minimum of 125ppi , but preferably 300ppi to make a print. Can I increase this photo which is currently 72ppi to 300ppi and if so what would be the largest size print I could get that is of good quality? How do I do this? As I mentioned earlier I am struggling to understand the difference and relationship between PPI and number of pixels and what this means when it comes to enlarging or printing photos.

I'd appreciate any advice or knowledge you have to help me understand this.

Thanks ;-)

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  • There's no need to change the ppi/dpi. Your image is already good enough quality to print a 10" x 8" at around 300 dpi. 10*300dpi= 3000px, and 8*300dpi=2400px. If you are struggling to understand, you need to read this: The Myth of DPI
    – Billy Kerr
    Feb 12, 2020 at 17:42
  • This topic crops up a lot on the photography.se too - so let me throw this QA into the mix, but also read the links in the right-hand side bar. photo.stackexchange.com/questions/456/…
    – Tetsujin
    Feb 12, 2020 at 18:00
  • DPI is not a measure of quality. But number of pixels sort of is. Anyway your only really concerned with dpi when you start planning your artwork. Once you have pixels fixed its too late
    – joojaa
    Feb 12, 2020 at 18:10
  • Thank you to everyone who has replied, your answers have helped me tremendously!
    – jensuniquedesigns
    Feb 12, 2020 at 19:03

1 Answer 1

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You can not increase an image's PPI while maintaining it's width and height and maintain quality at the same time.

To determine the physical size of an image at print resolution,
divide the image's current pixel width and pixel height by the output DPI.

  • Pixel width / Print DPI = print width
  • Pixel height / Print DPI = print height

So, for a 2448x3264px image...

  • at 300dpi, the physical size is 8.1x10.8" (2448 / 300 = 8.16, 3264 / 300 = 10.88)
  • at 150dpi, the physical size is 16.3x21.7" (2448 / 150 = 16.32, 3264 / 300 = 21.76)

These are the same image, merely a restructuring of how pixels are output. There's no loss of quality overall. These are native dimensions of the image. If you want prints at a larger size than these, then some adjustments would need to be made, and those adjustments might cause some quality loss depending upon the amount of any adjustment and the image itself.

150ppi is typically fine for most end-user, home inkjet printers as well as many digital printers. 300ppi is generally required for any commercial press.

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  • Thanks, hopefully I get it now. Correct me if I'm wrong, so all I have to do is divide my pixels by 300ppi and that will give me the largest print I can make without losing any photo quality. So when I go to the photo printing shop (for this particular photo), I simply save this photo to my usb, I dont need to change anything in the file and they will be able to make a good quality print for any size I request up to a 8 x 10 photo.
    – jensuniquedesigns
    Feb 12, 2020 at 18:23
  • @jensuniquedesigns Yes. In theory... there's no telling what someone will do to any image. I can't guarantee the proficiency of any employee anywhere :) . But there's nothing you should need to do for an 8x10 or smaller print of a 2448x3264px image.
    – Scott
    Feb 12, 2020 at 18:35
  • Thank you to everyone who has replied, your answers have helped me tremendously!
    – jensuniquedesigns
    Feb 12, 2020 at 19:00

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