Designing for Print - A basic introduction:
Part 2: Resolution - pixels, dpi...what does it all mean?
Resolution and Dpi are terms that are thrown around often as in "this image is high resolution" or "that photo is 300dpi". But what does that mean? Not much.
"High Resolution" is a subjective term, and "dpi" has little meaning without a measurement in size (usually inches or centimeters) attached to it.
The term Pixels is pretty easy to grasp, since webmasters and graphic designers often work in pixels. Although, how pixels relate to print design can be a bit confusing.
The relationship between resolution, dpi, and pixels can be displayed in a chart:
(Don't get scared off because there is math involved below...its really simple, I promise.)
1600 divided by 300 = 5.5
1200 divided by 300 = 4
An image that is 1600 x 1200 pixels on your monitor will print 5.5 x 4 inches at 300 dpi. Which means that image of 1600 x 1200 printed at 150 dpi would be 11 x 8 inches.
So, what is the resolution of that image? Well, its 5.5 x 4 inches at 300 dpi.
Now (hopefully) you understand resolution a bit better than you did before reading this article.
How do you know what resolution to supply that business card, brochure, T-shirt design in? Ask you client. ;)
Here is a general guideline of what resolution different mediums use...(again, this really depends on the printer/client.)
300dpi - Magazines, high-quality brochures, business cards, photos and other spiffy glossy material.
100-200dpi - Newsprint, tabloids, and media that is coarser or absorbs a lot of ink.
Always remember to start out designing big: High-resolution,
large size. You can always make something smaller...but you can't turn a
small/low-rez image into something bigger without loosing a lot of quality.